Praveen’s Magic Quill

For quite sometime, Harish had been inviting me to visit his newly constructed house way outside Chennai. I have been quite busy over the past month, so couldn’t make it. A couple of days back, he messaged me that many have committed to visit his house and stay for a couply of days, including Ashwin (OC), Anand (Aati from MNM), Keerthi, Anand (SA from Crescent), Swaminathan (Chaama) and Sudhardhan (Sushu). So, I accepted his invite and planned to join everyone that very evening.

We were supposed to go all the way to Guduvanchery (which is situated 35 km from Chennai between Tambaram and Chengalpattu) in Harish’s eight seater Maruti Omni. Keerthi picked me from my house and went to SA’s house where we all met up and embarked on the journey. It was quite tough to squeeze ourselves into the omni mainly because 7 out of the 9 guys were fatties! While 8 were seated comfortable, I (being quite thin) had to be the poor chap to have to squeeze and sit at the tiniest available space. We had our Dinner (Part One) at Noodle King somewhere before Tambaram and on the way, bought some Parottas, Eggs and Vegetables for Dinner Part Two to be had later that night.

The journey was least comfortable (especially for me) and I kinda heaved a sigh of relief when I saw the “Welcome to Guduvanchery” board half covered by Arasaangam movie posters. That’s when Harish turned a left and headed deep into the place. The road was rough and rickety and at parts the path did not show any sign that a road existed any time in the past. Finally, after heading nearly 6km inside, we reached his house.

It had been built on the edge of the forest, with absolutely no houses and no other signs of life in vicinity – except for a dog and her four puppies near the gate. Though the EB had politely given electricity connection to his house, BSNL had the added advantage of wireless connectivity and they had given a wireless “landline” and had promised that they will give a proper cable connection within the next few years. As for Cable TV, he has installed Tata Sky. Harish claims that in the next few years, his parents are planning to construct a new school out there as well.

After we checked into his house, we found that rooms looked quite spacious and nice. Up the stairs and onto the terrace, one can view the breathtaking view of thick forest on one side and vast acres of empty land on the other. We quickly washed up and started playing a customized version of cricket within the compound. We played on till around 1:30 AM (Yes AM, that is early in the morning under about six 60 watt bulbs). Then, we had our Dinner (Part Two) consisting of Omelets and Parottas. Soon after, I had dozed off, though some others watched some Naruto cartoon series and some played around and fed the dog and her puppies and slept later.

Early next day, Harish (who was actually the last person to sleep) woke us up at around 7:30 AM and asked us to join up directly for a game of proper cricket outside the villa. We did try to play, but then, we couldn’t just believe how damn hot the surrounding was, even though it was only 8 AM! So, eventually there was a change of plans and spent the rest of the morning on the laptop and TV. Since I had to attend a Magic Show by Jadugar Anand (will post about this experience in my next post) that afternoon with my family members, I decided to take leave of them soon after breakfast (around 11 AM, that is). I bid good-bye to them and came back home by bus.

On the whole, the trip was nice and fun-filled, made a couple of new friends and even though the location of the house was too away from the rest of the population, it was a new experience to spend a day in a truly silent and calm atmosphere!