Journey in a Tamil Nadu Bus

A lot of people have an identity crisis. and their efforts to get an identity is always hilarious, amusing or entertaining.

This is something that happened during my travel that i wanted to write it here since then.
Me and my mom were travelling to pudukottai from kumbakonam by bus. That was a nice time we got to actually talk to each other about funny things and have some nice conversation. It was a perfect example as to how a mother- daughter combo can be envious. (*Disclaimer: its not that we are always so good towards each other to be an idol of perfection. There is not a single day that goes by without terrible fights, teasing, annoying, etc. there are somethings in it that i really like and those my mom dislikes and vice versa. well.. the age difference which is huge makes up for the obvious generation gap. but never the less, we are good friends at times you would least expect. And we love each other so much)

This was an ideal time to share things that i wanted to, and for her to do the same. We had that conversation with our own personal opinions, comments etc, which made us laugh and keep it going on. Then there was a muslim lady who sat beside my mother. she was nice and started talking to my mother. Amma had a nice time talking to her. then i joined them in the conversation and it was good. so now its 3 people in a really nice conversation having a good time together.

Typical of such people with id crisis, there was a guy sitting behind us, making calls to people talking about himself of everything that a stranger would perhaps want to know to a person he "knows" for long over the phone. He was quite loud- as loud as the horn perhaps that everyone in the bus could hear him. And obviously we were not interested to talk to him all the more. But never the less, it was quite amusing about the way he carried it off.
heres some info about him that he wanted the entire bus to know:
that he is from malaysia. Now in love with india wanting to settle down here, and earns quite a good money to survive luxuriously in india. and that he designs swimming pools as profession.
He managed to start a conversation with the both of us, and i found the view outside the window better than talking to him. Neither was my mom interested talking to him. So he gave her some more personal details of his to her so loud that the whole bus could hear and asked her some things about her. She was careful talking about herself. When she told him that tanjore is our native, he tried out an expression in tamil that sounded so artificial and annoying. he payed for it with a nose breaking reply from my mom. Then when he went on describing about his swimming pool designs, my mother got so bored that she asked him "oh.bathroom accessories also you mean?". that one line was just enough for him to totally shut up.(mom i love u. u re still the same that u were in taunting those silly jerks in the past) but his talks over the phones on STD and ISD calls did not end till he got down.
He was talking as though he is the only one who has been out of india. Me, my mom, and infact that simple looking muslim woman who was clad in a burkha were people who have been to more countries than he would have. Real travellers never crib about any place. they only take it as anew experience and another adventure to face.

Then he got down. The bus driver then peacefully put on a movie for the passengers, and the two of us were exhausted laughing at the stupidity of that guy, and so many conversations that we were dead silent. so was the bus. at frequent intervals, we had hearty laughs at the way the bus conductor would taunt at people who carelessly had their head out of the window, or were foot boarding etc.

Buses in tamil nadu never cease to entertain anyone.

Chennai

For a long time i thought that the word cooum in tamil literally meant a stinky drainage. i realized that it is actually a proper water body that has been fully polluted that nobody can even stand near it. recently when i went to chennai, i heard that people there are planning to clean up the cooum for nostalgic reasons that once upon a time it was a nice place for people to go on boat rides. And more so after the movie "Madrasapattinam". i rather think the guys are doing it for amy jackson (obvious reasons associated with nostalgia that i neednt specify here :P ) [jeez, we need angrez now again for us to realize some tehzeeb or cleanliness,etc]
Well that was something important i wanted to mention here besides a few more things about my trip down south.

I was so bored on the very first day when i went. thankfully i was staying at my cousin's place as i landed there. although my cousin doesnt stay there now, paati, uncle and aunty make nice company. that was a perfect moment for me to declare to my mom that i am not attending the wedding reception. And i dint. i went out with all of them and had a good outing. i felt chennai was no worse than hyderabad. Well according to my own theory/ statement of chennai, i should be torturing myself for not disliking chennai now or should label myself as eccentric. i liked some parts of the city, sans the central station(or egmore for the matter of fact) which i eternally detest for its humidity and stink. Then about the transport facility there, one of the most amazing transport facilities i ve seen. in hyderabad, i d wait for a bus not less than half an hour unless i have a really lucky day.
I had one of the most hectic plans for my travel this time. and all over down south, i loved the travel be it in the auto, or taxi or in the bus.
then i returned back to chennai. attended the other wedding also. and before that i went for some shopping and i was overwhelmed. all those things gave me a really good zeal to work really hard to be able to afford all those things in life. well, not that i cannot afford them but want to have all that with my own money.
Then last but not the least- pirated cds. Well, i dont want to tell where exactly i found them. but bought 2 movies. i dont quite support piracy anymore after watching those movies. they were not worth my effort.
i know i m ending it quite blunt here. but thats a brief description about my vacation.