Home Is Where The Heart Is

For the first time in three months, Iam haggling over the fare with an auto-driver, I can feel the shirt sticking to my back half-an-hour into a drive in the city and Iam forced to remember what a mosquito bite feels like. Yes, Iam back in good ol' Madras!

Strange, but it feels like I never left the place to begin with. Travelling home from the station in the dead of night the other day, I had this surreal feeling of having seen all the sights just yesterday. I wonder why? True, three months ain't that long a time, but did it really slip by so quickly? Or am I not really that attached to this city I call home?

The last three months have been....an experience, for want of a better word. A new environment, new friends, new challenges, it's been a rollercoaster ride. I've found myself in situations I never thought I'd find myself in, I've disappointed myself in ways I never thought I could, I've exceeded my expectations on unexpected occasions, I've hit some real highs, I've sunk to some deep lows....but as long as Iam learning something, I know Iam on the right track. So yes, it's been fun and it's been 'full'! Maybe that's why Madras always felt so close, never absent. And at the moment, I know I don't have enough time to 'reconnect' to the experiences back here. That's the problem with short holidays. You're just begun with them before the countdown starts!

But even as I do my regular rounds of family, friends, movies, theatre and hangouts in the city, I begin to realise that a few things will always remain unique to my experiences in Madras and which I'll miss anywhere else.

The pleasure of revving down the ECR on my favourite Yam.

The strong aroma of Mylapore filter coffee.

The familiar morning dose of The Hindu.

Watching the sun set at Bessie Beach.

The amazing set of folks I call my parents.

May some things never change!.....hmm.....and I have another week left to add to that list.