To Chennai and Back

My recent trip to Chennai started off by being rather harrowing. The Meru cab driver who came to pick me up at 8.30 pm understood only Kannada, which I could not speak, so after a failed communication attempt on the phone, he decided to abandon me. I panicked and rushed to get an auto. He reluctantly agreed to drop me when I told him my train was going to leave. Actually, I was well ahead of schedule, but which driver would understand the importance and urgency of my request, if the truth wasn’t bent a little. I reached the station by 9.30 pm.

The train left Bangalore station at 10.40 pm, rather late to be out alone. I reached Chennai station at 4.40 am! It was pitch dark outside and the counter for pre-paid taxis was closed. I was heading to my parents’ house and they live 40 kms from the city. I actually took an auto all the way to my parents’ house and the ride was ridiculously long and scary.

I reached the zoo and my dad was there to pick me up and take me the rest of the way. Once I reached home, after greeting my mom, I took a nice, cosy nap on my comfortable bed.

We went to three different temples during my 2-day stay. The first was to Lakshmi Kuber temple, which is not too far from home. It was a strange sight to see idols of Lakshmi and statues of the laughing Buddha under the same roof. When I questioned my dad about this, he said they were just getting together all that is considered lucky by different religions under the same roof.

The second temple we went to was the Vinayaka temple round the street corner.

We also went to Singa Perumal Koil, not too far from home. I lit 9 lamps to signify the removal of some ‘dosha’ and to propitiate the Gods. We then had a darshan and did the ‘archana’ after which we climbed up burning hot steps to get a view of the temple from above. I felt like I was walking on fire; the stone steps were that hot! We had a ‘prasadam’ at the temple and left for home.

The two days fled by and it was time for me to get back to Bangalore. Luckily, it was an afternoon train that reached Bangalore city by 8.30 pm. So nothing scary about that! The trip was enjoyable but too short and the thing I enjoyed the most was spending time with my parents.