The Cinderella outing

I cant believe I have lived with this hemmed in feeling for 3 years. Unlike some places which pulsate with the promise of discovery, the area we have chosen to live our retired life has everything defined in black and white. A perpetually potholed narrow road branching off the main highway, 5 blocks of apartments, exactly one departmental store, a few pharmacies, fruit shops and doctors’ clinics. Then the road winds inside with no sign of even a flour mill or a cloth shop. Forget parks. The highway is menace, plain and simple. You cannot walk in peace in that forbidding stream of traffic and anyways besides the newly sprung up IT park, there is nothing to see anew. For a nature lover like me, the Adyar river flowing nearby comes to life exactly once a year when it flows like a real river, during the rains. That’s all. I resign myself to a fate of perpetual dust and noise. Green is no more for me.
Then one day the adventurer in me awakens. I have seen a city bus going past our building, into the desolation beyond. It is usually overcrowded with students hanging on to its footboards and windows, tilting precariously to its side. One morning at 10.30 when I am walking, the bus comes in my direction. It is occupying almost the whole narrow road. Surprisingly it has a straight back with no clingers. In fact it looks invitingly empty. On an impulse, I just wave. The bus actually stops even though I do not know where the bus stop is. I get in. I have no idea of my destination. I hear ‘Porur’; that sounds familiar. With a ticket for Porur in my hand, I am free of tensions. Phew, no need to look to my left or right for two wheelers hurtling my way, no need to watch out for water tankers, those notorious road killers of Chennai. Sitting snugly in a near empty bus, with time on hand, in virgin territory, that’s the ultimate luxury in a metro!
The bus winds it way deeper and deeper inside. In some ten minutes, I actually sight greenery. And within the next ten it is a change so complete from the Chennai I have known so long! An ancient temple, trees, and then, paddy fields to the left. A parrot green I have last seen only from a long distance train window. A small banana plantation! Cool air flows in as if by magic. I look to the right. A sight to literally take my breath away! A real pond with bright pink lotuses blooming! No, not a Japanese garden but pristine nature. As the bus proceeds forward, stopping for the odd passenger to get in, it is a rural feast for my eyes. I can even detect a faint bovine fragrance in the bus. How romantic! Quaint little houses, with traditional kolams outside and more temples. A rooster sashaying atop a thatched roof! A place which has stayed back in time, at least briefly. Even the bus driver has a relaxed look for this route is totally free of traffic. A disabled passenger asks to be dropped near a school. The driver obliges.

Seven minutes and more windings later, Porur is here, grimy and crowded. Its famed traffic breathing toxic fumes, jolts me out of my reverie. Cinderella’s outing is over. But even as I join the multitude waiting to cross the road, there is excitement in my mind. I know I am no longer hemmed in. the hourly throaty call of the 54B beneath my flat reminds me that I only have to catch a window seat and let my imagination soar!