I have recently developed the habit of roaming around the city after the stroke midnight or just before it. We take our scooters and coast through places, when at day time would be hellish traffic infested roads. The joy you will get from doing that is quite unbelievable. I’ve marked down a ride at Ranganathan street as a “thing I should do before I die” You can hardly walk there at day time. But then there are too many cops at night which makes it tough.
On contrary to many peoples belief, Chennai does have a night life, a night life of a different kind. Chennai’s night is made up of those tea vendors, ice cream vendors, cops and more cops.
This was first time we did the whole “roam at night” thing. We were filing petrol at a bunk at kodambakkam. These are first characters of the night “Danger guys” Four guys with a funk and two Yamaha bikes were standing at the bunk. They were seemingly hiding the booze to save that from the policemen and were having an argument over something which seemed important from far away. I eavesdropped into their conversation. One of the “danger guys” was saying “Machaan ara(half) paacket chips vechikinu enna da panna mudiyum” and the other guy said “porum machaan, nalla sarakku dhane smell varakkoodadhu”. That’s all I was inspired from that on liner “The Ara paacket chips” What a title would it make! I couldn’t help but laugh. They then drove off with the usual boom zoom sound that they make with the Yamaha.
We were then heading towards the Kodambakkam bridge. , Policemen were standing fifty meters before the bridge. They asked us the papers of the vehicle, frisked us and then let us off. Dude! It’s written in our face! We are agmark Pazhams. A few kilometers later we were frisked again near Semmozhi poonga. Let me give you an example of good policeman. We were coming back from the R.T.O beach in thiruvamyur this Wednesday and a Cop stopped us, saw our face and said “Go”. Now that is good judgment, isn’t it?
We went off to Greams road, had some tea, then to marina, viewed the beach from the road and drove back home via West Mambalam. We dropped by to have something. There was a guy selling ice cream. I absolutely wondered who other than ourselves would have bought it at that time. He must have had high hopes or must be in a desperate situation to sell stuff at such a time. This was how my first night ride panned out. If you notice carefully you can notice a lot of subtle things. These nights tell you lots of stories.
I was talking to one of my friends that I wanted to write something about “Night life” in Chennai. Immediately he asked “hey! Are you going to write about pubs, booze and stuff like that?” That is the highlight. The very mention of the word night life and voila! Such things ring up peoples minds. It is absolutely normal.
The Other day we stopped at Ashok Pillar to have some tea and groundnuts. The person who sold that tea seemed 60-70 years old. It was 1am, mind you. The groundnut vendor looked old too. He puts up shop at 11th avenue Ashok Nagar at evenings and moves over to Ashok pillar at late nights. He doesn’t leave for home until he sells off all that he had that day. Imagine the plight of these two people. When people their age are in deep slumber they are wake to ensure their family sleeps well.
R.T.O beach at Thiruvamyur is quite unique. People stay there till 12 during weekdays and even much late than that during Saturdays, unlike other prominent beaches like Marina and Elliot’s. You can sit there and watch the waves hit the shore, let the feeling sink in and have warm talks with friends. Policemen are lodged there to guard that area. There is this picture in our mind that cops take bribes and often are unscrupulous, that is not true. People guarding that place surely must be in their 20’s fresh from the vigorous training they have undergone at camps. Most of the cops at night are the young guys. They stay up all night! All these vendors and cops work their soul out and hardly are well paid.
At the national conference organized by ICAI, dinner was provided. A person of North-East origin was taking the plates the students ate of, dumped the left over and washed the plates. He was sadly assigned of this dirty job, poor soul. So many food were wasted. Why do people take food in their plate if they cant eat them? Those were from high class HSB made stuff, I tell you. They were chasing away poor kids who were trying to sneak in during lunch. This is classic “dog in the manger’ stuff. We would waste the food and dump it in the bin yet we wont give even a little piece of our meal to a person who is starving. I will save that for another day.
Someone at the end of the day has to do the dirty job and yet we fail to recognize whatever contribution they make. I found these things very disturbing! This is the ugly part of the night life which most fail to recognize. If you can, take that scooter/bike of yours, call up some friends and roam your city. See the people who work behind the scenes. A little “Tea nalla irukku anna” compliment would give them that much more pleasure. All they need is a pat on the back. Try it.
