It’s not everyday I gallivant around my city…it’s not everyday (even during winter) that it rains heavily in Chennai…and it is a very rare day indeed when I see absolutely verdant localities with deers roaming right next to the road.
And when all the three happen on the same day in the city we all know so well (all right, make it all Tamilians), it is indeed a day to celebrate.
I had to visit my alma mater yesterday. Oh well, that happens to be IIT Madras (there are many who wonder how someone with my kind of brains could enter such a sacred institution. I put such scandalous insinuations to jealousy). Anyway, there it was, myself and one of my colleagues took an autorikshaw from my office to IIT in order to meet about 20 B Tech interns we had selected to work with us during their winter holidays.
Right from the start, it was a different feel. The day was wet, but while we were travelling, it was a great weather with no rains. Things were normal until I reached Kotturpuram which I was passing by after a while. I saw a large, lovely poonga (park) out there where earlier there had been I-am-not-sure-what-but-certainly-nothing-green (if that’s the longest hypenathed word ever used in English, that would be another of my dubious firsts). Large, clean, well designed and at a great place where a lot many people and children could use it every day. I am looking forward to the day when I could hang around at that place for an hour or two.
Our specialty focus areas include 
Why can't we have more such parks in Chennai?
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The nice, green park at Kotturpuram
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Who wouldn't like to spend a few minutes everyday over here?
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After taking a few pictures of the place, we moved on.
We took an IIT bus to move from the gate until the academic area. Funny, it was free, I mean the bus ride was. When I used to study there, they used to charge a royal 50 paise. I immediately decided sometime soon, I will just spend a few hours going back on forth on the bus until the driver decided to forcibly chuck me out.
As soon as I got down at the Gajendra Circle (this is the center of IIT Madras), both myself and my colleague could sense the amazing feeling that had immediately sunk into us. The blooming place was looking at least twice as green as it always is (for those of you who have not been to any IIT, these are some of the greenest places in their respective cities). The rains had made the greenery stand out in absolute freshness that, unless you were blind, you were left looking at it in wonder for a few moments at the very least.
The woods indeed were lovely, dark and deep, but we had some promises to keep with over a dozen IIT students waiting for us, so we made a move on, stirring out of the reverie. And just when we thought we would get down to the business of business, what should we see right next to us but a white deer. Yep folks, I am not making it up (I will do it that when I try my hand at becoming India’s JK Rowling) – a fresh, newly souped up white deer. Thankfully, I had my wits around me and I took a snap of the beauty. Which made a couple of other folks do the same – sometimes admiration of nature can be infectious. The deer, funnily, was least bothered even after knowing that there were a few voyeurs around.
White buck next to a black buck. What luck! (you tend to wax poetic under such intoxicating circumstances)
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Unconcerned about voyeurs
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Natural infections...you can see the couple on the other side taking a snap of the buck after seeing us doing the same...
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I must have stood watching for a while the idyllic surroundings with the cute deer in the middle, when a pat on my back reminded me that every good thing had to come to an end. Down we went to the library to meet the folks waiting for us and getting back to doing the dry, boring, arduous stuff called….WORK. If I had sounded so humdrum about work, it’s what I term the “relativity effect”. This effect has nothing to do with Einstein or any of those Nobel blokes; this was a term invented by me right after my experience at IIT yesterday, and I am sure you can comprehend what it is; if not, go figure!
When I kind of tried to recollect the happenings of the day at night, I realized how much each city in India (and even more so for many other cities outside India) had to offer in terms of nature’s bounty. My humble prescription to those of you who are as desk-bound, with tons of work neck-round – stir out of your cubicles, go way out of the normal movie theaters, pubs and other stinking hang outs, and see the green that’s there right next to us – if only we wish to see.
If I sounded like one of those philosophers lecturing you on the importance of being virtuous, it’s a small price to pay for the opportunity to share my exhilarating experience.
