It was the beautiful summer of 2004 as I started my career
in the IT industry. And what a start it was, starting my job in the hot &
humid city of Chennai in the peak summer. Before I had embarked upon my journey,
some experienced friends had cautioned me. “Chennai has 3 seasons, hot, hotter
and hottest” was what was told to me. I was profusely sweating, standing in the
Chennai Central railway station, 7 am in the morning on a typical summer day.
The only thing which came as a relief to me was the fact it was the “hottest”
season here, and it can’t go worse than this. The other relief was the guy
standing next to me, Rahul. Rahul & I had studied engineering in the same
college, though in other departments. So we never had the chance to know each
other. However, we both got jobs in the same IT company. Thus we decided to
team up and travel together. In the long train journey we got to know each other. Rahul was clearly the romantic type. He was not shy at shouting vulgar
abuses to his buddies, but in presence of women, he was a different person all
together. Soft spoken, chivalrous and a perfect gentleman. We met another girl
in the train, Tejaswini Singh, who was also joining the same company and was
also offered trainee accommodation at the same Pallavaram guest house. So Rahul
gelled well with her and also asked her to travel with us from the station. We
had been warned that cab drivers and auto drivers at Chennai do not follow
meter or any rate chart. Everything is negotiation based which tends to end up
expensive for those who are new in the city. Sharing the ride was a good option
for us.
We gathered some facts and numbers beforehand from our college seniors
who worked in Chennai. The journey from the station to the guest house
ideally costs 120 Rupees. Considering we were new, we should have expected an initial
ask of 200 rupees and tried to negotiate. Anything around 150 or less was supposed to be
considered a big win for us. But contrary to all assumptions we found the auto
driver asking us 350 rupees. This was completely shocking, and I angrily told
him that this is not more than 100-120 rupees trip. The Auto driver told that
considering there are 3 of us with loads of luggage, and the fact it is late
night, he is asking a higher sum. I wasn’t sure which time zone the guy
followed, as it was 6:30 in the morning. But the guy explained that 8 am – 8 pm
was considered regular rate, and everything outside that time zone was
considered late night (double rate). I could see Rahul fuming inside, but the
presence of Tejaswini ensured that his romantic self surfaced. He smiled at the
driver and told him “Anna, night time. 6:30 am in the night, that too with 3
passengers. 350 is not fair for this, at least you deserve 500 rupees Anna,
please ask 500. I cant stand here and bear you asking such a small amount for
your effort”. His words seemed to have some effect on the driver, he said he
will take us there for 300. Rahul started again “ Please Anna, consider the
price of petrol going up, you should ask at least 750 rupees Anna, Please Anna,
750, you deserve that much”. The driver
softened up in this sarcastic humor, maybe it was a new experience for him. He
agreed for 250. But Rahul was in no mood to relent. This time he kneeled down
on a knee as if proposing a girl, folded his hands, and went again “Anna, do
you realize all 3 of us are new in this city? Complete new, no knowledge of
rates, no knowledge of local language. Please sir, you should at least ask 1000
Rupees, 250 doesn’t do any justice to the service you are offering sir”. This
went on for sometime. Finally the driver realized that we didn’t seem to be in
any particular hurry to reach our destination. And most of the passengers have
already started boarding other autos and cabs, and in next 5-10 minutes there
might not be any other passengers left. Finally we got the ride for 180 bucks,
and we felt satisfied with what we achieved.
Our training facilities were good, we were put up at 2 bed
room apartments (with 4 boarders in each apartment). For guys like us coming
out of small hostel rooms of colleges, this was luxury living. Speaking of
colleges, our training was at the premises of another famous engineering
college of this City. Strangely, the administration of this college was very
much against the concept of romance, and all possibilities of it. In this
college, girls and guys were not supposed to talk with each other. In every
classroom, girls sat on left side of the room, while guys sat on the right.
Even the college bus which used to transport the students had the same rules.
And the bus operator was empowered to report to the college authorities any
incident of guys and girls talking amongst themselves. The college had a big
lunch area where all students (and even trainees like us) would have lunch. As
expected, the girls sat on the rows left of the entrance, and guys on the
right. But the strangest thing was that female employees used to serve the
lunch to the girls while male employees served the lunch to the boys. I had
never seen or heard any other college with such strict protocols. In subsequent
days we came to know that even the students had no respite going home. The
college authorities ensured there is no interaction between the boys and girls
even on their way home from the hostels. guys were allowed to visit home only on
1st, 3rd and 5th weekends of the month while
girls were allowed to do so only on 2nd and 4th weekends.
Despite all these checks and controls, if anyone ever managed to interact with
another student of opposite gender, both would be suspended from attending
classes until their parents/guardians came to the college in person and were
appraised of the situation. During our initiation to the training program, our
training coordinator cautioned us not to violate any of the rules of the
campus. Since the college had been helping our employer by providing their
facilities for the training center in their campus, it was important for all
the employees to respect the rules of the campus. The welcome speech from our
training coordinator summarized it perfectly “Here in this campus, there is no
jingle mingle. Only studies and training with discipline. If you want to make
friends, you can do jingle-jingle or you can do mingle-mingle. But there is no
jingle-mingle.”
Life was thus going on steadily in contrasting waves. I was
spending my days in the romance-less training facility, and the nights in
company of the romantic Rahul. Rahul used to spend the evenings in expanding
and extending his friendship to Tejaswini. And in the nights I could hear him
having long ‘whispering’ phone calls with his girl friend. I had asked him few
times to clarify his stand on this. He assured me his girl friend on the phone,
Preeti, was his true romance. He clarified Tejaswini was ‘just a good friend’. Thus we spent our initial few months in
Chennai, completed our trainings. Soon we all got placed in different projects.
Rahul & I got placed in different offices, yet we continued to be room
mates. We both rented a small 1 bed room apartment in Adyar’s shastri nagar
area. I also learnt, by some strange “coincidence” Tejaswini and 3 other girls
had also rented a 2 Bed room apartment just 2 buildings away from ours. Rahul
had assured me that the proximity to the sea beach, bus stations and good
restaurants was the only factor which influenced his choice of this apartment,
the proximity to Tejaswini was not a factor at all. I believed him partially.
Partially – only those parts of the day when he used to whisper on the phone
with Preeti for hours. After all, this was Rahul. My Romantic buddy Rahul.
Romance is like Chennai’s heat, romance is like Chennai Auto fares, romance is
like the waves of the Chennai Sea Beach. Can’t be controlled, can’t be
estimated and doesn’t have any limits.
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