A Kashmir in the hot tropical Chennai

Hmm.. You would be a bit perplexed by the title. I know. That’s right. But this is what my 20^th birthday had presented me. It had been a great surprise and a wonderful exposure to the world of snow and ice.

I hope that at least a few of my friends would have understood what exactly this place is. Well! For them, “Yeah guys.. You are awesome. I’m proud of having geniuses like you as my friends!”

Yeah. About the ‘Kashmir’!

This is not the real Kashmir which you would have heard of. This is not the place for which India and Pak had been fighting for so long. This is a chill cold place enclosed by walls and doors. The temperature here is -6°C. You will reach here if you take a 7F or 7M bus from the Broadway stand in Chennai.

From my 1^st year at the college, I had heard of this place. But I had not gone to this mall because I had heard from many people that if we have to enter this mall, we need movie tickets. I was not interested in watching a movie in the multiplexes in Chennai because I don’t wanna spend too much, like 200 bugs for a priceless movie which I could otherwise watch in my lappy for free in another 15 days. (Even the new movies are shown at the hostel. So don’t say that it’s illegal.)

Anyhow, I was much inspired by my friends on that day about a visit to this place and I thought of trying my luck by entering this mall just to go to the Snow world. May be because we were lucky that day, we weren’t asked the movie tickets.

You may know about a mall. It’s a place with too many shops to attract people and to snatch money out of their pockets. It’s a place where pick pocketing is done legally and publicly. Yeah. I had five friends – 2 boys and 3girls – who had persuaded me to come to this place. You know about girls! They will be easily taken by the fantasies of the offer boards kept at the shops. One pair of chapels for Rs.199. Isn’t that a wow? They are rushing for that shop at the next frantic second. OMG! It’s very difficult to persuade these people to change their decision. Because the shops there were very deceptive and they were all meant for girls who can be easily targeted by their attractive colors, snaps and all those craps.

Well! I had to really work hard in order to bring them out of the shops. When one wanted bathroom chapel, the other one wanted party wear chapel, formal chapel for the other. OMG! How many variations do we have even in the things that we use just to cover the feet? Yeah! After boasting them for their superb skills in selecting the ones that suited them the best, they came out.(Actually it didn’t suit them at all. But I had to say that. Otherwise they will stay in there for the whole day until I say that they are beauty damsels wearing that.)

Hmm! I thought that it was over. But it was just about to begin. My fellow beings had told that their stomachs are burning for their hunger for food. Would the stomachs burn? Then we could eat uncooked food. Isn’t it? Because it will get cooked by itself if it’s getting burned in the stomach! Still, if they had said it means that’s it. No other go. We had to ascend a fleet of long stairs in order to reach the international food court there. They call it international. But I doubt whether it’s the same chicken that people all over the world take? Yeah! We – a group of 6 people – ate for Rs.400. It isn’t a high price in a city like Chennai. Before getting stuck with their next demand, I just pulled them to the Snow world. Each ticket costs Rs.150 and when we were told that we will be getting just 20 minutes to spend in the snow world, we felt very sad. Anyhow, no other go. We have to go and we just went in to collect the shoes, gloves etc. For most of us, it fitted best. But one of my friends who had got a very slim body (‘a slim beauty’ would be a deceptive word if I use that to refer to her) found it difficult to roam around wearing that. Still, she too managed to walk even though it was very difficult for her to stand on two feet.

When a crew who had gone inside before us had come out, we had got our turn to go in. Yeah! It was fun. There were 50 tones of ice maintained at a temperature of -6°C. We had not felt that shivering cold since we were wearing the jackets that we were provided with.

But when we started throwing snow on each other and when were made to fall on snow, it was very marvelous. We had seen a few buckets inside there. We filled in them with the snow and used them to bathe our friends in snow. Wow! It was really nice to see people with snow on their heads. Wow!

We posed for the photos in various angles inside there. We had slid down the ice peak in a life buoy. Wow! All was fun! We just enjoyed it. In the midst someone had made me sit on an ice trolley and had pulled me around. We sat on ice blocks. We threw ice and enjoyed the fun.

At the expiry of the 19^th minute, the lights started to flash and we could hardly see what was happening. And in another minute, we were told that the time was out and we had to come out.

Since we were not allowed to take our cameras inside, we had to get the photos from those people who were there inside to take the snaps. They had taken around 31 photos and we had to pay a lump sum amount of Rs.400 for the snaps. It’s city life and we will lose money just as we look at things.

Hmm! It was all fun. We sat there. I had my lappy with me. We saw all of the photos which were taken while we were inside and enjoyed the fun for some more time. Finally, we took the decision about the photos which were to be uploaded into the facebook for our fellow mates to be jealous of the fun that we had. I took over the responsibility to upload them because some snaps required a photoshop touch.

When we were about to come out, one of my friends expressed her wish of visiting the beach. It was just 4:30pm and since it’s the day we are coming back from home, it’s OK even though we are bit late to reach the hostel. So we went to the Mareena beach and enjoyed fun in making castle and roaming around in the beach after the kites. As the night approached, it was felt like some envious eyes were preying the beauty damsels we had with us. So we took the bus and went to the Chennai Central station and we took our luggages which we had kept in the luggage room. But the hunger played the deceptive role this time. We had to invest another 77 bugs for having Chilli porotta from Saravana Bhavan restaurant there. Then we split up and went to the destinations we had to reach. It was all fun and it had been the best birthday I had in my life till this time because I had enjoyed it to the fullest!

Thanks to all of my friends who had made the occasion the best!!

A journey to the past!!

I can't tell you exactly what I had been till a few months ago!! If you are still very curious about my past, you may better ask some friends whom I had during that time. If I have to name a few, it would be difficult for me. The reason is that I am trying to forget those days which I had wasted for nothing. Just like a bookworm or like a computer wizard (as my friends say) I was just spending whole of my time with computer. What I knew was programming, debugging, maintenance and reengineering. I was just like pupae or more or less like a tadpole! But then that it happened!!

I have now become a butterfly. Now I enjoy the depths of the oceans and the vastness of the skies just as a free bird does!

If I have to describe that incident, I have to narrate a big story.

During my +2, I had a very adorable role model, Riji. She is like a sister to me. She had been a motivator and had inspired me a lot in gaining something in life. I had thought of being like her. Since she had joined Sathyabama University, I too took the decision of being at the same university. My first few days at the college weren’t that pleasant. I didn’t feel home sick. But I was kind of frustrated with the new environment and I had felt some difficulties to get adapted to it. The senior folk that we had during that time were a sort of tough guys. A few times they had caught me and they had interrogated a lot about me. They had also used too much of vulgar in their conversation with me. To stand in front of them was really a nightmare for many of us because of the many experiences that my friends had at the college and outside from the so called seniors. In the fear of seniors and in the fear of the exams that were fast approaching the two semesters ended up so quickly.
The 2nd year classes started after a big gap of more than a month. The third semester was the period in which we became accustomed with the mood of the college. I made friendship with many of the third years’ and I was maintaining good relationship with many of them. But still, the final years’ were kept very distant and I had a fear about many of them even though I was no more a fresher. Thus the third semester was also gone.

After Christmas and the New Year eve of 2011, came that day which changed my life. If I had to go to my college from my home I will usually take the train. This time I had the ticket booked in advance. So did my friend Riji (the role model whom I had mentioned earlier) and her friends. You should not forget that they were the final years’. The only person whom I knew in the 4th year was Riji and I was not close to anyone else. Unluckily for me, as I had thought, they had got the berths closer to that of mine. I came to know about this from Riji, but it was too late. As I had already told, I was afraid of the 4th years and I wished to avoid them at any cost. So I exchanged my ticket with a 3rd year guy, Renjith whom I knew already. He had agreed to take my luggage with him since I was thinking of going by another train in its general compartment. So I gave him my luggage and I agreed that I will collect it from him at the Chennai Central. I did that to avoid my seniors and it ended up in a different way.

The train which my seniors took had been very late and I took the train just before that. I reached Chennai 5-6 hours earlier than the seniors. I had gone to a few places. Then I came back to the station to get back my luggage from the guy called Renjith, my senior. But he had already shown gratitude to me by telling the 4th year guys that I had given him the ticket to avoid their company. So I was caught red handed at the station. Then I had got all that I feared. (They didn’t do me any physical harm. I feared to travel with the final years’ because I feared that such instances may occur. But when they met me at the station, I had got everything that I wanted to avoid. Everything was for my good. Thank you Shoma chechi. )

“I have become a human now”. This is what my friends tell me right now. I had been an animal in the past or what??