Chennai
Perfectly regular day at work today, was in the middle of writing an urgent proposal when I heard a car honk and then another.. one after the other persistently and for a flash instant my mind raced to Chennai and back!
In this city people hardly honk. I can hear cars from my flat if the balcony is open, but it is nothing but a constant buzz from the 21st level..the few honks are lost in transition I guess.
I wonder what it is we associate with a place or a memory perhaps? For me a city is its noises and smells. Just two simple things.. Of course people always talk about how a place being scenic or filled with memories is the primary association with a city... strangely for me its the sounds and smells [not taking into account people of course because then otherwise its all about who's there and *cough* at times the absence of some that make one smile in relief ;)]
If I were to take two cities I've lived in Chennai and Bangalore; and brought in one of my favorite smells - Rain for example. Same natural occurrence right?..curiously, both cities smell different in the rain.. Ahh Rain - a downpour of water mostly at a time you wish you were home cosy with a warm shawl sipping a steaming cup of coffee which leads me to think about those various coffee commercials ! Gosh I'm always amazed at the impact that advertising has on us.. but well that's a different story altogether... back to the current topic.. yes..
I lived in Chennai for exactly 4.5years as a teenager and my most powerful memory or association.. call it what you like - one which I can go back and forth to with a feeling that I am actually back there starts by taking me to a day years ago in an exam room and I hear the sound of cars and auto rickshaws honking and just running their engines.. you know that signature sound only an auto can make? Its the whole works actually.. I hear this.. mixed in with cars and "scooters"and of course the sound of steamed corn & peanut vendors..waiting for us school kids to rush out and give them business. Their competition of roasted peanut and sliced fruit vendors are not to be forgotten either, they all form an important part of the cacophony!
So I look up from my exam paper to breath in these sounds and smells that are brought up I imagine by the breeze that comes swirling up majestic Neem and Ashoka trees towering up to the second floor.. swaying in the sticky humid breeze just the way they have for years! & snap the memory ends.
Although I have spent quite a few formative years there I've never felt like Chennai was home (technically it is!).. but this strange two second flash; well, it makes me oddly nostalgic every time it happens. Perhaps this is how I will strangely be forever linked to my homeland.
Every time I hear more than one car honk that is!
In this city people hardly honk. I can hear cars from my flat if the balcony is open, but it is nothing but a constant buzz from the 21st level..the few honks are lost in transition I guess.
I wonder what it is we associate with a place or a memory perhaps? For me a city is its noises and smells. Just two simple things.. Of course people always talk about how a place being scenic or filled with memories is the primary association with a city... strangely for me its the sounds and smells [not taking into account people of course because then otherwise its all about who's there and *cough* at times the absence of some that make one smile in relief ;)]
If I were to take two cities I've lived in Chennai and Bangalore; and brought in one of my favorite smells - Rain for example. Same natural occurrence right?..curiously, both cities smell different in the rain.. Ahh Rain - a downpour of water mostly at a time you wish you were home cosy with a warm shawl sipping a steaming cup of coffee which leads me to think about those various coffee commercials ! Gosh I'm always amazed at the impact that advertising has on us.. but well that's a different story altogether... back to the current topic.. yes..
I lived in Chennai for exactly 4.5years as a teenager and my most powerful memory or association.. call it what you like - one which I can go back and forth to with a feeling that I am actually back there starts by taking me to a day years ago in an exam room and I hear the sound of cars and auto rickshaws honking and just running their engines.. you know that signature sound only an auto can make? Its the whole works actually.. I hear this.. mixed in with cars and "scooters"and of course the sound of steamed corn & peanut vendors..waiting for us school kids to rush out and give them business. Their competition of roasted peanut and sliced fruit vendors are not to be forgotten either, they all form an important part of the cacophony!
So I look up from my exam paper to breath in these sounds and smells that are brought up I imagine by the breeze that comes swirling up majestic Neem and Ashoka trees towering up to the second floor.. swaying in the sticky humid breeze just the way they have for years! & snap the memory ends.
Although I have spent quite a few formative years there I've never felt like Chennai was home (technically it is!).. but this strange two second flash; well, it makes me oddly nostalgic every time it happens. Perhaps this is how I will strangely be forever linked to my homeland.
Every time I hear more than one car honk that is!
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