Chennai Waves: Part One

This is a real timeline of events that took place in the life of the writer. The writer wishes to take readers back in time and tell the story of his first visit to Chennai. He chose to write on Chennai specifically because the writer’s father comes from here. Let’s begin.

Chennai, the city, for years, I knew only as ‘my father came from’. I was born and brought up in Indore and so I shared least interaction with my Chennai based family following the great language barrier. As a child, I always wanted to visit Chennai. Like most of us, sitting at the beach, watching the waves and munching some x,y,z thing attracted me a lot.

It was in the year 2001 when we visited Chennai for the first time. It was an altogether a new experience. As yet, I only spoke with my family members over phone calls and never saw them in person or image. It was the time when we had to book a trunk call, wait for the telephone exchange to connect the lines, wait for the exchange people to call us back and connect the two destinations. Tedious right? What else could we do, it was the time when Whatsapp did not exist. Haha.

It was my mother’s first time she was visiting her in-laws and my first time I was seeing my father’s family. Though all my life, I was treated well by my mother side family, the warmth that my father’s family showed was priceless. My grandparents had passed away years ago but my father’s older brothers and their families were living in our familial house.

Everyone was happy to see Mumma and Me. My Periappa hugged Daddy after years. Both the brothers shared an emotional moment before we could enter the house. We were excited to meet everyone. From within, I was on cloud nine as I was an important person all of a sudden. Hehe.

Moving on, I being a millennial kid had the least interest in the drama surrounding me. I was hoping to see the city and around and I couldn’t control my excitement. My Periappa could see what was I willing for and had planned for a beach visit for the evening.

Excited as I could be, got ready at my fastest pace ever. Left my shoes in the car, it was my first step on the beach-sand, ever. I was awestruck at first. Soon as I returned to my senses, we all ran towards the ocean. Spent good time at the beach with waves and sand and had some interesting munching items before returning home for some amazing mouth-watering and for a change real authentic south Indian food.