Orange glow and eerie shadows...

The 45 kilos which I now am thanks to the undaunted efforts of my mother to fatten me( I feel like a chicken when I write this!) have to be retained. Strict instructions from her- before she sends her daughter out into the world. Knapsack in hand (to be read as 4 suitcases and a couple of bags!), I ventured out from the confines of my home and city; 8 months back…

A dilapidated building, with peeling paint … a small two bedroom apartment in one corner of that huge city called Chennai.

The first night I slept, rather tried sleeping, I was rudely woken… “Whhrrrrrr……”. Oh, don’t you be scared- its nothing but our garbage van on a collection spree! Peering myopically at my cell phone, I read the time, “1.15”!!

But I learnt to sleep… amidst honks from the numerous vehicles that so adorn the roads of Chennai, amidst the whirring and grinding noise-my vocabulary has been searched thoroughly for a word to describe that particular noise, but I fail! Amidst the thumping noises while the kids in the apartment on top of mine play- oh yes, at 11 in the night and later… Amidst the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam songs that blare out of television that my flat mates watch- not one of them is from Andhra or Kerala- late into the night…

Amidst the lights from the neon street lamps that fall into the bedroom… I cant escape those lights… I have repositioned my bed in all angles…One night I slept looking at Tidel Park through the walls… another night I faced Pondicherry…One night I even slept diagonally…But still the neon light watches me sleep…throwing an ornage glow on my face... throwing eerie shadows on walls with peeling paint...



Photo: Arun