a little smoke..

Remember the days when dad used to tell the tailoring shop to leave extra cloth at the waist of the trouser so when you put on a few kilos you could expand it..
remember the days when footwear shops stocked replacement rubber slings for your Hawaii chappals..
days when waiters always brought three glasses to the table with a finger shoved into each holding them together..
a time when footwear was still not a necessity.. when people would walk on the streets barefoot..
i m living this dream in madurai.. a scary dream.. of a world turned back a decade

a city with the contrast turned on high.. the sky is harsh bright and people dark as night.. old men in robin blue ka white, old women topless

perhaps the only city where travel sites rate restaurants by noise levels.. extremely noisy, very noisy and noisy. silence is not an option here

A hundred ways of sayin "Sir"

people in Madurai have discovered and over time mastered the art of expressing miriad emotions through the word sir!

for instance..
the word 'yes' has been nearly forgotten... why with this much btter word... sir. for instance if i ask do you have idli sambar.. the answer is 'saar'
have you finished your sales beat?.. answer is 'saar'

then.. if you were pulling my leg and i was tryin to say hey c'mon right you kid etc.. why say all this wen one word.. 'saaaar'conveys it so beautifully! note the emphasis on the 'a's

if someone was showing you the way and wanted to say "come this way" why try so much.. just geticulate and articulate 'sir'

i cant stand sir anymoore.. people of madurai the next person who says the word sir will get punched in the face by me!

Losing track

Pune to bombay to gurgaon to Bangalore to Chennai to Madurai.. in a week and a half. now 2 months in madurai n the other southern districts for me with this launch project.

waking up in a new place is distracting.. a different bed, different noises.. like this place i stay now in madurai has blocked ventillation and even by 7 in the morning the morning the room is dark.. the first morning it took two mobile phones and a watch to convince me it was actually 7 in the morning. still i wake up every day hoping it is some 2 or 3 in the morning and the alarm just rang early!

and again people are different in all these places.. for instance in gurgaon or delhi the hotel
guys are so nice to start with and slowly but surely sour within a couple of days.. in pune or mumbai they dont give a damn, in madurai they look real nasty to start with but in a few days become so sweet you think something is wrong.

living out of the suitcase has literally become a habit, the last 6-7 years has all been tough on my VIP's and i have run thru 2 of them really big ones.. now i am on my third vip.. this time a strolley heavy enuf that no porter has gone without cursing me.

in 2002 it must have been some wierd time i left my home, i have been literally lugging my bags around ever after..chennai>Kerala>AbuDhabi>Dubai>Oman>AbuDhabi>Kerala>chennai>Kerala>Pune>
Gurgaon>Kurkumb> Pune>Mumbai>Gurgaon>Bangalore>Chennai>madurai..and now god knows where else.

in the last week in Madurai the only words of English i spoke were into the phone.. t is so difficult to speak constantly in this language that i cant think in.. It is difficult to be in a place so devoid of style, romance or sophistication.

people are simple to a fault.. brands, modern clothes and accessories look ridiculous here, a girl in a jeans looks obscene even to me here! there is absolutely no cultural connect with the people here..

was the MBA and the FMCG career a right decision, was the fight for the few FMCG jobs worth it? even a short stint in Madurai makes me think all this!.. i dont want to be in Kerala or Tamil Nadu.. two places that look likely to be my final place of posting..
how can i live in a place that is not inspiring, that does not have a bit of romance in it, that does not imbibe some energy..