Chennai has its way of keeping you nagging about rains..Eleven months of the year you nag "Bloody Hell!There are no rains"...And in October/November there is this cyclone which makes you say "Nasa Nasa nu mazhai peyudhu" Chennai people don't settle for things easily :P. It is not filmy when it rains in Chennai, no girl goes out in november and dances like shreya or there is no guy who wants to show off riding his bike during rains, no one finds it romantic because when it rains it rains like cats and dogs and people would be surprised by such mental acts. Sometimes the entire city blacks out for a day or two continuously.
I have few memories during school days from these cyclone days in Chennai/Madras (I believe most people like the city being called as Madras :P ). The days in the second term, or the term between quarterly exam and half yearly exam, are the best days in a school student life in Chennai, at least one day in the week will be a holiday. When I was 9 years (4th Std) , morning with one huge determination I used to step out to go to school because I know for sure the school bus guy would say its a holiday. I used to go with my grandfather to bus stop, and my grand father used to ask "Have you finished your homework? have you taken all your books, do you have anju ruba (5 rupees) atleast for emergency, eat everything, don't waste food!" This used to be the daily chant and for everything I used to involuntarily nod my head without even listening. And during these rain days when he asks I used to tell him "Thatha anyway Samuel anna (Bus driver) will tell no school, so don't worry, I'll come back with you ". There would be few more guys in my bus stop, we used to keep bet on whether there is school or not, whoever wins will get a boomer and a tattoo (trust me they were in trend at that time!!). Like expected, the school bus will come and Samuel anna will say "inniki nallaiki 5th std varaikkum school illa, ellarum vituku poi padinga!!(Today and tomorrow no school till 5th standard, all of you go home and study!!)", and the excitement would be 10 fold...all of us would go "Yay!!!!!!!!!". These 2 days, mostly the city would black out so your parents can't ask you to study, all you end up doing is read tinkle, fake a fever or a cold, listen to radio (No suryan or Mirchi, only AIR 102.3).And by the end of 2 days we will switch on the TV for sun TV news at 8, there were no sun news,K TV,A TV and all , only one channel - Sun TV which was the only source of information. We will wait for Ramanan to come and tell "vanga kadalil katraeditha thalvu mayam erpatuladhu (There is a depression in Bay of Bengal)" I never understood what it meant but I knew it meant another day of holiday and he would continue "naalai chennai mattrum cuddalore mavattangalil ulla ella pazhi galukum vidumarai" (Tomorrow holiday for all schools in chennai and cuddalore!!), and that's all we would want to hear. But Ramanan would come only on very few days, but there will be a slight depression for all of us when he comes because whenever he comments about rains, from the next minute there will be no rains, like immediately after the weather report. Sometimes people would start cursing "vaya vechan , rain stopped!!".
Feeling the rain today brings back these memories afresh. Morning when I woke up at 6:15 after a mere 3 hours of sleep, I really wanted an angel in the form of samuel anna to come and tell "No Class,No Studies, No Tension, Read Tinkle and Listen to Radio!!" Damn it, good old days, its painful to think that you never get to be that 9 year old who stuck boomer tattoos all over you and your books!!
