The day I fell out of love with Madras*

25th November

I used to be a hardcore Chennaiite. How else could I be? After all, I’d spent the first quarter century of my life in the city. When the winds of fate intervened, I was swept away to a different part of the country. But that’s another story altogether. Anyway, wherever I went I would defend Chennai against slander and ridicule and would fight to save her name from being muddied by vicious rumours (really, I was once asked if we had cable TV in Madras! Duh!!).
Once when someone commented how dull Chennai was, I was livid with rage. I told them that for someone who spent half his life being chutney-fied in the sardine cans of local trains, Chennai’s relative calm would seem dull. I would act like I was the ambassador for Madras! That’s how passionate I was until things went belly up.

* Madras and Chennai have been used interchangeably

(To be continued)