Chennai visit

After the 5-day visit to Auroville, we moved back to Chennai to be amongst a few relatives of Rekha. We were to spend 3 full days before we move to Hyderabad, where Anu (Rekha’s sister) now stays. From Hyderabad, we were to proceed to Amchi Mumbai. I was looking forward, apprehensively and curiously, to spending the next month in the world of my past life.

We were hosted by Rekha’s Chitti (Mausi) in Chennai. It’s truly touching to feel the love and affection, unaffected by passage of years (rather decades).

At an anniversary celebration of one of the cousins, we had the opportunity to meet with 6 of Rekha’s cousins – all younger by 3 – 10 yrs. The cons of an urban lifestyle are so apparent, but there is no action to fight them. Inaction is either due to ignorance, indifference, denial of the consequences or simple hopelessness in their own ability to fight. When I meet them, this strikes me immediately. Any talk about it seems meaningless, but there is still the concern. This concern for all the friends, cousins, siblings in my generation or those younger is weighing heavily in my heart, but I also know that no amount of talk can induce any action. I can only hope that our actions will play some part in inducing some action – some day!

3 days in Chennai breezed quite swiftly and we were ready to say bye. The experience of getting to the railway station revealed something interesting. Chennai Central is almost 30 km from where we were. A taxi would have charged over Rs. 800. We had a large suitcase, two airbags and some more bulky luggage. With 2 children and this luggage, it was quite natural that call for a taxi. But 800 bucks is some money and if I were not to be able to afford it, what would I have done? Fortunately for me, Rekha shares such thinking. We decided to take a local train. An auto rikshaw to the nearest station cost us Rs. 80 and the train tickets cost Rs. 25. From the local train station (Park), we had to walk to Chennai Central for about 10 min. We did it and reached our train at least 30 min earlier than what a taxi would have taken. It required reasonable physical strength to be able to carry the luggage, needless to say that it was inconvenient. Since we (not just me) had the required physical strength and more importantly the temperament, we could afford to take this decision and execute it without a frown (on the contrary we were very happy about it). Urban life is undoubtedly draining this physical strength and temperament at a very fast pace. What’s more, it is supplementing with decent income. But where is this leading us? What will it make of our children? In a sense, those who cannot afford it seem to be better placed.