Tell-Tale-Travel: Chennai

The most fascinating thing about a superficially simple three day trip to Chennai is the people I met en-route! Like author Amish Tripathi puts it, the world functions on transactions, like threads that weave into becoming a society’s culture. My transactions gave me the strength to realize the innate Indian goodness around-the silver lining.
No seat and a full train is a rainy day, but a little bit of hope and a persuasive smile equals some solution-and its India yaar, anything is possible! I had two null tickets before climbing on the train and three more while on it, all thanks to the plump man on the first counter seat at Dadar station. And then he began to converse in Tamil! I nodded in the negative, to his disappointment. His ‘90% it will get confirmed’ sure was an encouraging assurance to curb panic; though the fact that it did not, is a different tale altogether.
Akeli-ladki(A lone girl) travelling is a cause for concern for most Indian parents and my father sought respite after some small talk with co-carriage people. Among them was a sari-clad female feeding a month old infant and promising to take care of me in pure Hindi. People from south India can be rarely expected to speak even broken Hindi! It was only after twenty-one hours, multiple co-passenger shifts and long talks about here and there, did I comprehend that she was actually a north Indian three years younger to me, married to a Southerner ten years elder to her, with two little screaming kids, and still in the best of spirits! Her strikingly pretty smile is inspiring and I hope it stays etched in my memory.
Yes, there was a ticket yet the seat was taken away at four in the morning and I felt homeless for the first time in my life. There are times when there’s no shelter but the presence of family or close friends never give a chance to such a feeling. But this was different, like being guilty by law. Then showed up the vertically empty half-seat on which an old aunty beckoned me to catch a wink alongside. Parents to three girls settled in big cities, this non English speaking couple was returning home after a pan India tour and the previous night, we had tried to speak with signs. Later, they disembarked in silence, their empathy unthanked for, as I slept on.
Interactions with my Tamilian hosts, a Delhiite course conductor and a Bengali friend also add colour to my memories now.
And that was the first time I realized that a beauty of a place is in its poignant personal connections.