It was one of those typical
Sunday evenings, where the twilight sadly reminded you of your dying weekend
and that awkward empty feeling which makes you hate Sundays. Just like a lot of
people, I too hate Sunday evenings. The transformation of the mindset and the
feelings that it reflects from morning to evening is quite unbelievable. Though
the changeover is fairly predictable; Sunday Mornings - from a sedate morning,
trying to wither the hangover and recall the happenings of the previous night
including checking your phone for random photos and your call register, to Sunday
evenings - which often tend to carry a moment of retrospect, a tinch of sadness
and an air of expectation . For a lot people, Sunday evenings are nothing more
than, shapelessly sitting in your couch and endlessly switching channels.
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| A click from my terrace #NoFilter |
Folks of Chennai were busy doing
their own thing on a very silent and sultry Sunday evening. As the night grew
closer, more than half of Chennai didn’t really expect what was to follow. I
was getting ready to hit the bed, preparing my playlist, switched off the
lights, put my Air-con on swing and slowly snuggling under my blanket. The
first song in my hour-long playlist was ‘Poopol...Poopol’ from the movie Minnale.
Halfway through the song, you can’t help but to fall in love all over again.
(You’ll know how it feels, if you've seen the movie with same intensity every
time you watch it!) I lived ‘that’ moment again; I could hear the flute; I
could feel thunder; I could see the lightning. I thought the moment presented
itself in my dream & that I’d fallen asleep to the tranquillity of the
music. But I felt that the thunder was getting bigger; the lighting was getting
sharper; and the music was getting overpowered. I opened my eyes to reality
when a blinding flash of white light cut across my iris, and by the time I
opened my eyes fully, the sound I heard was deafening. With the constant
flickers, there was a fleeting moment when I thought someone had switched on
the tube-light. I did manage to open my eyes more confidently this time, but the
white strike was so scary and sharp that it was literally ‘electrifying.’ It
was Ironic that the ‘electrifying’ strike did take away the electricity in the
neighbourhood.
There was an immediate assembly
of sorts in our hall, with various members from my family, slipping out
inconspicuously from their rooms. In order to mask their terrified faces, they
decided not switch on their mobiles, which would eventually give away their
original reactions to the thunder and lightning which were striking in tandem.
Inspite of having nil vision, family members ambled to the hall with stretched
hands searching for something to hold or to keep them away from their path to a
safety chair. Each of them had no clue that the others were moving to the hall
silently. They were walking like the backup dancers behind Michael Jackson in
the video ‘Thriller.’ It was eerie and beyond imagination. My folks decided not
to utter a word until they found a place to sit. I could barely see them, but I
guessed something was moving towards me. The frequent flashes of lightning, gave me a glimpse of body shapes, but nothing conclusive. A bell fell from the pooja room;
bottles on the table began to clamour with each other; a cupboard began to bang
back and forth; the chairs felt the tremors from the thunder.
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| A click from my terrace #NoFilter |
I decided to
break the scary ambience by yelling out ‘Amma.’ She was absolutely clueless
about the source of voice, and she immediately tripped on the nearest chair
with much shock and tremble. By then, her mind helped her put a name to the
voice. (The trouble for a mother having 3 children is that she always messes up
the names...Always) This time she was successful in putting the correct name to
the voice, for a change). She called out my name in a very shaky voice and started
to have an ‘Out-of-sync’ conversation about waking me up in the morning. As
expected, she didn’t want to directly broach the ‘Current Electrifying topic.’ Pretty
simple - They just wanted to play it cool, until this happened. One lightning!
One thunder! I’m sure more than half of Chennai thought in unison; that it was
the beginning of the end. With such heavy weather looming large on top of our
heads, the way people generally react are “Ooohh, it’s raining cats and dogs” ,
“ Shit! This is scary man”, “Did you see THAT?”. But... But... With almost the
world coming to a close, though more than half of Chennai thought that way,
you’re bound to find a series of unbelievable reactions under a single roof. Just
when you think that all of them are going to be scared out of their wits, you
hear the following:
A mother says – Oh no, did someone take the clothes from the
terrace? They’re going to be completely wet. (Are you kidding me? Seriously?!
In this weather?!)
A brother says – Who cares! I missed the last 10 minutes of my football
game. Give me your mobile (Like his Alma matter is the combination of Alex
Ferguson & Jose Mourinho)
A sister says – Get lost! My snapchats aren’t going through. I
can’t even see my face properly! Find a charger (Find a charger while there’s a
powercut? Get a brain you snapchatter)
A grandpa says – I have a doubt. This ‘Cat-eyed’ actress is
apparently having an affair with this ‘fish-faced’ actor. Do you know who this
actress is? (You have my permission to die)
A grandma says – Ayayoo, I don’t know what happened to Kavitha? Did
she get her divorce or not? (From a TV soap – Kavitha ki Kahaani (Tamil Dubbing.
I shall say no more))
A father says – What’s the noise, haven’t you guys slept yet? (Oh! The
father arrives!)
And trust me to find a house like
this in Chennai which treats the force of nature with such disdain. Only in
Chennai will you be able to find some mind-numbing reactions! Not a storm, not
a thunder can deter their nakkal, kindal,
kalaai or whatever you want to call it. After hearing the above reactions,
one of the most ferocious nights the Chennai sky has ever seen, went into a
shameful hiding. Only Chennai possible!
