A blog a day (#2)

BACK TO CHENNAI

24-Feb-2020

As we prepare ourselves to shift bag and baggage to our own flat in Chennai tomorrow, I look forward to the stay in Chennai again after a gap of little more than 24 years. I left Chennai for Bangalore in the winter of 1995 after getting a job there. My family joined me in the summer of 1996. Two of my three sons have left the shores of India for studies/work and aren't likely to return to India to settle down. Elder son doesn't want to leave Bangalore and has refused to come to Chennai with us, instead preferring to live alone in Bangalore. My first stint in Bangalore was in 1977 when I was just 20 and came to this city to do my undergraduate studies in IISc. Twenty years later when I came to Bangalore to take up an employment, there were significant changes in the city. Traffic was insane even then, more due to the absence of any peripheral roads, and the lack of any proper and punctual city transport infrastructure. Mekhri circle would be a huge choke point back in the mid 90's and the construction and opening of the grade separator there eased the traffic significantly. The city grew and with it grew the number of relatives from my side as well as my wife's. So we had a few families to visit often, though the distance and traffic made us reduce those visits over the years.

I will be carrying a lot of memories with me and it will take some time to adjust to the new surroundings and neighbours as we settle in. 

UPDATED ON 24-Nov-2020

An update after 9 months (to the date). I wrote that down and after coming over to Chennai forgot all about it. Forgot that I blog, forgot that discipline to do a meaningful task is important, forgot having a schedule and sticking to it!

Within a month of moving in and just as we thought we would start moving around Chennai to visit our relatives and friends, the government imposed a lockdown due to the Covid 19. Getting out of the house was a no-no for the first three to four months and the slowly I started going for my morning walks nearby. Travelling more than a few kilometers has been absent and being stuck within the four walls has been rather a different experience for me and my wife. As I remarked to a few friends of mine, this is probably the longest duration that we (my wife and I) have been stuck in each other's presence!

What are my learnings from the lockdown and "staying-in" will be in a future blog.

But we are in the midst of a cyclonic storm ⛆ that is likely to cross the coast of TN (close to Chennai) within a day as per forecast. Hope the 2015 rainfall is not repeated. 🙏