When I landed up in the erstwhile Madras, now called as Chennai in the year 1981, I stood in the Madras Central Railway platform all alone looking for support and protective feeling that anyone would want when he is thrown into a place totally alien and unexplored?
It was the in-built Culture of Delhi that helped me to pick up friends who multiplied into squares within months!! I felt blessed with my natural talent of singing which brought me closer to many and won good friends across the city. The Made for each other contest sponsored and organised by ITC tobacco company in the year 1985 brought acclaims and laurels to me and my wife as winners from the South Zone. This put me further on an elevated pedestal where I came into contact with bigwigs of Chennai. I could get School admission for both my sons in the reputed D A V Higher Secondary School, considered the most difficult objective to achieve, through the contacts that I had developed which could be possible only with the background of Delhi upbringing! I must admit and accept the ocean of difference between a South Indian Lad brought up in Chennai and Delhi.
When I used to fly out of Chennai, I used to see at least 20 known faces in the airport talking various flights to various destinations on duty. The airport, sometimes, was more a social forum where I used to meet many of my friends and catch up on personal and official terms. The morning flight meant having the morning cup of coffee with friends and sometimes had food on flight sitting next to each other!! The same thing happened when landing at the destination where I could easily spot a friend and invariably shared a taxi to our respective destinations!!
Two weeks back, I travelled to Delhi on a personal visit to attend a marriage. I reached the new terminal of Kamaraj International Airport at Chennai that has been given a complete face lift and make-up to compete with airports of repute globally. The airport is huge and spacious and makes you feel like a tiny object. I looked around 360 degrees to find if there are any known face in the crowd? To my utter disappointment, I could find none! I tried hard even looking at remote places just to give a moment of solace to my desperate mind that refuses to acknowledge the fact that I now belong to the older generation that is being phased out or pushed out of circuit. Even finding a single person known to me would give that required stimulus to the mind? I was desperate and started screening the waiting hall. My happiness knew no bounds when I spotted a nice looking gentleman, cleanly combed sitting bang opposite to my chair. My eyes refused to believe as he smiled at me and acknowledged my stare! I went up to him and shook hands... yes, he was Arvind Swamy, the hero of Roja and Bombay who created a huge fanfare through his films directed by Mani Ratnam.
It seemed he had done quite an extravagant expenditure on his bald head! Now, his head was full of neatly grown and combed hair pushing him back to his younger days of charm and attraction?? When I spelt my name to him, he smiled and said that he knew me as we met several times in Madras Club!! My inner personality rose a couple of inches and my shoulders broadened with pride as I won over my mind in finding a person known to me and with whom I shook hands!!
Nevertheless, I reconcile to the fact that I will not be able to find even that single known face in a matter of few years from now? Acceptance of reality is sure to bring peace within??
It was the in-built Culture of Delhi that helped me to pick up friends who multiplied into squares within months!! I felt blessed with my natural talent of singing which brought me closer to many and won good friends across the city. The Made for each other contest sponsored and organised by ITC tobacco company in the year 1985 brought acclaims and laurels to me and my wife as winners from the South Zone. This put me further on an elevated pedestal where I came into contact with bigwigs of Chennai. I could get School admission for both my sons in the reputed D A V Higher Secondary School, considered the most difficult objective to achieve, through the contacts that I had developed which could be possible only with the background of Delhi upbringing! I must admit and accept the ocean of difference between a South Indian Lad brought up in Chennai and Delhi.
When I used to fly out of Chennai, I used to see at least 20 known faces in the airport talking various flights to various destinations on duty. The airport, sometimes, was more a social forum where I used to meet many of my friends and catch up on personal and official terms. The morning flight meant having the morning cup of coffee with friends and sometimes had food on flight sitting next to each other!! The same thing happened when landing at the destination where I could easily spot a friend and invariably shared a taxi to our respective destinations!!
Two weeks back, I travelled to Delhi on a personal visit to attend a marriage. I reached the new terminal of Kamaraj International Airport at Chennai that has been given a complete face lift and make-up to compete with airports of repute globally. The airport is huge and spacious and makes you feel like a tiny object. I looked around 360 degrees to find if there are any known face in the crowd? To my utter disappointment, I could find none! I tried hard even looking at remote places just to give a moment of solace to my desperate mind that refuses to acknowledge the fact that I now belong to the older generation that is being phased out or pushed out of circuit. Even finding a single person known to me would give that required stimulus to the mind? I was desperate and started screening the waiting hall. My happiness knew no bounds when I spotted a nice looking gentleman, cleanly combed sitting bang opposite to my chair. My eyes refused to believe as he smiled at me and acknowledged my stare! I went up to him and shook hands... yes, he was Arvind Swamy, the hero of Roja and Bombay who created a huge fanfare through his films directed by Mani Ratnam.
It seemed he had done quite an extravagant expenditure on his bald head! Now, his head was full of neatly grown and combed hair pushing him back to his younger days of charm and attraction?? When I spelt my name to him, he smiled and said that he knew me as we met several times in Madras Club!! My inner personality rose a couple of inches and my shoulders broadened with pride as I won over my mind in finding a person known to me and with whom I shook hands!!
Nevertheless, I reconcile to the fact that I will not be able to find even that single known face in a matter of few years from now? Acceptance of reality is sure to bring peace within??
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