No Title! I am tired of Titling!

I was driving back to work after lunch at Zorbas...they definitely have one of the best tasting food ever and the time they take to serve is even better...sometimes I go to a restaurant right next door to work and they delay me so much that I do not make it in till half past one...but here, I go in, I eat, pay and I am back at work all within 60 minutes...and this in spite of driving to Plano...but I digressed...

When I was driving back I was thinking of good old days, as I always do...my mind starts wandering to my life back in India, which I think I subconsciously miss but I am also aware that will not be the same if I ever decide to go back...which is another debatable topic that G and I keep going back and forth...again I wandered away...do you see how my mind works? I think of way too many things at a given time and for me to remember and pen them down is a task of its own...only 1% of the many things I think I should write about actually get written down...

So coming back to where I wanted this post to actually head let me introduce you to electric trains...In Mumbai they are called local, in London they are the Tube, and in New York they go by the name, Subway...and so on...but in Chennai we call them "electric trains." Simple name, because that's what they are, they use electricity to run and if there is a power outage somewhere then you are stuck in the middle of nowhere in a train...it has happened to me exactly once in the three years I have used it to ferry between my college and home.


For almost 8 years out of the 11 I stayed in Chennai, I rarely used the train. I had my bro drive me around for the first few years and then it was me on my two-wheeler and when I got a little older I had my Maruti 800 to take me wherever I wanted to go...I was very independent when it came to transportation...Thanks to my parents.

During the first two years of college, I used the college bus to take me to college because my house was so far away from the nearest station...until dad decided to move, since both my brother's were now living away from home we could actually move into a smaller house which might reduce the burden on mom. So we moved into a two bedroom apartment closer to the station...I made sure that this apartment was fun...I was going to live in an apartment for the first time ever and I did not want to live in any simple place...Dad paid a huge price but I had fun :)

But the point is, I finally had to take train to college instead of college bus because it worked out a lot cheaper and the station was just a ten minute walk from home...but who walked? My college guys who had motorbikes on their way to the station eventually gave me a ride, so everything worked out fine...

I thought about this whole train thing today because I miss the feeling of standing at the door of the train...(our trains' doors remain open 24 hours) and letting the wind touch your face and brush the hair off...sitting at the doors on the offside (the side the platform will not come when the train arrived at a station) and chatting for the entire hour with friends, writing homework on the way to college, reading GRE vocabulary on the way up and my friend testing me on them on the way back, missing a train so I could join my friend, eating at the station, making friendship bands on the train, my friend reading my palm after quackingly reading it from a book on the side, meaningless singing, yelling, getting ragged by seniors, ragging juniors, eating hot freshly roasted peanuts, making friends, last minute cramming sessions, bunking classes and going for movies (happened rarely...but it did happen), missing the train and cussing out aloud after running half a mile...and many more...

As the popular Tamil song from Khaka Khaka (modified) goes..."ondra renda varthaigal...ellam sollave...oru blog podhuma..."

I took those three years for granted and today almost 8+ years afterward I am reveling in the memories knowing very well that I can only go back in time in my mind...as bad as it may sound, I am glad that at least I had the opportunity to make some really fun memories that I carry with me...not just the trains but so many other things...they keep me grounded...