It's Madras- Not Chennai

"Welcome to Anna International Airport" . How I long to hear those musical words!Its been 2 years now- 2 years since I said left the shores of my country, 2 years since I have seen my parents, 2 years since I breathed in the salty dense air of the Elliots beach. It hit me last weekend when I went to Philadelphia after a hiatus of nearly 6 months, and it just struck me how much I missed the sights and sounds of the city that welcomed me into my adopted country! And thinking along the same lines, how much I missed my city- my Madras!

For anyone who hasnt lived there, it is just another city- hot and humid, where water is so precious that its easier to buy coke, where you find people fighting to fill bucket full of drinkable water, where auto drivers can just sense that you dont belong and take you on a tour before they drop you next door from they started!But all said, it is my home! I have spent 22 years of my life in that city, and now more than ever, I miss it!Little things like the smell of the ocean, the late summer rain, the scorching heat in the summer, the single cup of "chaiya" that I used to have at the corner tea shop- I really do crave for them. My mom yelling at me to get up in the morning, my Dad , ready to go for his walk but deciding against it as it is too hot!My sister sprawled on the bed next to me, muttering in her sleep...Biking to school, spending hours on the phone with my friends only to meet them an hour at the beach! The masala peanuts, the horrendously bad- looking roadside- romeos' - Aaahhhh memories!

I heard that the city has changed tremendously in the 2 years that I havent been there. It has changed dramatically in the last 6 years- I donot recognize that manyfaces but neither do they know me! New roads, new malls, new hotspots....but still when all has died down it is still teh city I gre up in. the early morning chants from the nearby temple, the "kaikari karan" yelling his wares out, the smell of the morning filter kaapi wafting through the air- that hasnt changed. And that is what I miss... the people , the sights, the sounds...the smell of my city!