Road to Chennai - (20th-22nnd Dec 2009)

Travelling is what I like but not driving, with 3 kids and especially when 2 of them are brats who usually give me a hard time even for short distances. I somehow gathered few ounces of courage to drive on NH7 and cranked my Scorpio’s engine at around 8:30AM on Sunday from Bangalore, I was kind of sluggishly driving through the dusty Hosur road… The only mysteries of Bangalore in my mind is ‘by when the construction on the roads will cease’ and ‘by when the pedestrians of Bangalore stop liking to walk on the oozing sewage water and stop feeling fresh with toxic carbon monoxide. Well… slowly started crawling along the lanes in between the long streams of trucks and earth movers…. I was sloping down the NH7 towards the other end and I begin to twirl around my head to see the directions…. But what… I see less of English and more of curvy and bosomy Tamil script….
That gave me a confident feeling that we have entered into Tamilnadu after a 30 minutes drive.
After realizing Kamat on my left was just missed, I made up mind not to lose any breakfast junction I see next. Aha… finally I see ‘Sri Krishna’, this name was telling me that I would get some Udipi style breakfast…. But in vain… it lacked the touch of either of the state’s taste… after that insipid tea, I gulped up all my anger, because I had to keep my cool for forthcoming distance that I had to be behind the wheel.
Calmingly, I have readjusted my driver’s seat and dumped my children in the back seat and my wife was seated next to me with a broad smile hinting me to cool down. So then…. ‘Chakke pe Chakka, Chakke pe Gaadi, Nikali Savari’ was the tune I was humming…. The astonishment that I had was that I haven’t switched my 5th gear to any other gear for last 90 minutes from the breakfast halt…. I wasn’t driving, I was actually sailing down on NH7 and then NH46- A 4 lane high ways- An startling driving experience…. Where there are good things, there ought to be bad things attached…. Any driver on this buttery road-way tend to fall asleep and could be fatal, but in my case the ‘Insipid Tea’ that I was cursing about was surprisingly working for me inside me.
The best part of this highway is, I was still on my 5th gear while me and my wife were musingly registering the highway’s road-safety slogans… ‘Drive safely- Your Family is waiting’, ‘Life is shorter, don’t make it shorter’, ‘ Please Drive, Don’t Fly’ and many more such meaningful captions throughout the drive, I should appreciate the way the TN govt has taken real intuitive thoughts about putting these small aid-boards across the highway…. I am sure, reading these lines the driver who is intending to fly or really flying would get more cautious about his family…
It was about 2.30PM of the day when we touched Porur junction, this village has an orthodoxy look wherein people were costumed with traditional wears. It not only imprints the glimpse of purity of a village but also you will start feeling healthy with air you take in. I was always fond of countryside living than being crammed into the concrete jungle that has only intoxicated surroundings and many good reasons to live shorter.
Chennai is like a city you would like to be in, if you want a rosy feeling every morning ray that hit your bedroom window and keep you astoundingly healthy mentally and physically…. I am like half ‘me’ in Bangalore with my migraine, this problem conveniently makes me half potential, but in Chennai I was kind of relishing my good health.
People of Chennai are actually asset of that region who made our stay of 3 days so comfortable and relived. I have heard ‘not’ very friendly comments about Chennai and people of Chennai… I would suggest that one should visit this place of rich heritage and values. I was feeling home with strangers around me… if you have this feeling of being gratified…. You are to be in “Chennai” at all cost!