Suddenly, i have a social life in chennai. It is not the 'meeting a girl and wooing her' kind of social life. It is more of a 'bunch of badly dressed 30 year olds meeting up' kind. Folks who had flown away to far away lands have come back. Guys who had gotten married have been married long enough now for their wives to not miss them on a Friday evening. We meet at bars* that don't care about the colour of our underwears or whether we're wearing shoes, and discuss life, Vadivel comedies and our respective pasts and shaky futures, and whether a couple of us (last men standing) should ideally be 'meeting a girl(each) and wooing her' instead.
Visa approval has come at a time when i had reconciled to the idea of not leaving the country, and was even toying with the idea of moving to Bangalore sometime. To give fate a fair chance, i have blocked my interview date for Sep-11. White men at the US Consulate are likely to hate 'bloody immigrants' more passionately on that day. But it is likely that i'd be leaving Chennai in less than a month.
In other news, Saturdays are being spent wearing whites and playing leather ball cricket at Sindhi College grounds in some corporate tournament. It is a lot of fun. Even made a 50 a couple of weeks ago. Was mighty thrilled. The last time i made a 50 in a leather ball game was in final year college in a Hostel day match.
Life's been good. All i need now is a genie who'd do all my work...
* Most bars/pubs in chennai require the drinkers to be 'properly' dressed. The ones that don't have a dress code will typically be all-men's bars. I don't know how this works. Women don't go to bars where men don't wear shoes :). Also, at Benz Park (a place in T-Nagar), i saw two restrooms next to each other, and both had a 'Men's' sign board. Very amusing it was...
ps: The interview being on 9/11, and me reading a book titled 'The two towers' (LOTR -2) while awaiting my turn at the consulate notwithstanding, the consular officer thought i was neither 'potential immigrant' material nor 'terrorist' material, and granted me the visa. I could still try to smuggle Marijuana and get deported at the port of entry. Let's see...
This one, all grown up!
8 years ago
14 comments:
man chennai is the best trust me..all da best for ur interview. never been to a bar in chennai ..I think chennai is the only city where you can find so many groups playing some game or the other esp early mornings.. waitin to get bak home.
I hate pubs/clubs where there is a formal dress code.
if I am out to chill, I'd want to be comfortably dressed, right??
I envy you for your chance to play cricket. On the other hand, lap it up while you can.
>> i saw two restrooms next to each other, and both had a 'Men's' sign board. Very amusing it was...
maybe they dint see any women enter the place in more than year and decided to make better use of the space :)) or maybe its a cunning game of chance. ;)
first of all...congratulations on the visa approval and on the half century :)i think the 2nd feat is an even bigger one :P
and its not like women only go to bars where there is a formal dress code..its more of keeping the lungi yielding men out who prefer lickin oorga with their drinks (though...personally i think oorga goes fab with drinks) and as for the colour of ur underwear..i think u must have just gone to a gay pub by mistake :P
dei all the best. peruketha oorukku variyaa, illa vera engayavadhu vara poriya..
tifossi - oh i am a chennai lover and i intend to die here by the beach...just need to get away for a bit...
chandni - you bet!...but i guess, that's a way of weeding here...a kindof profiling according to which bad men wear shorts or lungis and don't wear shoes!...
parth - oh yea, am totally lapping it up...not missing a single weekend's match (even treks are on hold!)...
tak - don't know man...but this one time i saw a girl in the bar for over 2 hours...wonder what she did...next time i shall ask :)...
pf - thanks and thanks...and yeah the 50 is a bigger deal for me as well...and i've actually gone to a gay pub once (that calls for a separate post!), and i am positive they din't check anything...
swami - perukkaetha oor only...stamping done...will be working in san jose...will let you know once i know the dates...nee anga thaana irukka?
sooper, sj thaan..
Did you break into Sreesanth style dance to celebrate the 50?!
Thanks for stopping by my blog... have a good time wherever you're headed out to!
Cheers,
Shantaram
kc - well, no...am not the exulting kind :)...but yea did lift my bat cos team mates asked me to...
shantaram - thanks...
where's the much awaited post on the visit to the gay pub?? :)
pf - hmm...that night my blood had a mixture of pot fumes, tobacco fumes, old monk and beer (this was in amsterdam)...so my recollection of that evening is pretty hazy...my friend's friend (our host) was gay and he took us to a couple of regular pubs in exchange of our accompanying him to a gay bar :)...i remember suddenly getting up and dancing to a punjabi song..rest of the evening is a blur!...
ha ha ha ha... dude... when are you getting here... ???
oops... just saw the date... :D my bad
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