Travelling in rainy India

K S Sivakumaran

Yours truly was out of the country for nearly five weeks seeking profitable adventure in neighbouring subcontinent. But the time chosen was not really conducive and events happened rather unexpectedly. Yes, it was raining cats and dogs with the highways, streets, roads and alleys were all full of water up to one’s waist level both in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram. So it was more agony than pleasure.

Egmore station in olden days

On the top of it eating the Indian ‘masala’ curries (even though one confines to a vegetarian diet) in the eateries brings you an upset stomach. And out of fear of getting soaked in the rain and avoiding uneasy bowel movements I was compelled to be holed up in my hotel room. Everything is expensive in almost all parts of India

Our purpose of the visit was to attend the International Film Festival held in Panaji, Goa (Nov 22-Dec 02) and the International Film Festival held in Thiruvananthapuramj, Kerala (Dec 10-Dec 17). Although we (actually it was me alone) did attend and enjoyed most of the films seen, the latter part of my stay in the Kerala capital prevented me in seeing some films as I fell sick due to sickening food consumed that wouldn’t agree with my stomach. Well, that’s not the point.

I arrived in Chennai Kamaraj Airport on Nov 12, 2010, hired a pre-paid cab (354 Indian rupees) and booked in a lodge called ‘Masa’ (its restaurant is called Ceylon Hotel). Surprisingly this lodge was full of Lankan Buddhist pilgrims who were waiting to go to the north of India. They all spoke in Sinhala and I was happy to speak with some of them. I had to even translate into Tamil their needs to the hotel management. Most of the pilgrims, men, women and children, were from remote rural areas in Lanka. Only a few of them could speak in English. Tamil is out of the question. Imagine a person who could speak only in Sinhala in a land where many Indian languages are spoken and especially in Chennai which is the capital of the Tamil Nadu State! However they all managed to find their way with the assistance of an agent.

This particular location is down Kent Lane just opposite the railway station at Elumpoor (Egmore). The British changed the original Tamil name to suit their convenience and called the place ‘Egmore’.

You know something? There is a Buddhist temple there with Lankan Buddhist priests. The lane is identified with Lankan connection. I was surprised to find a little store with the name board ‘Fernando Bros’.

Again a Lanka born theatreman in the 1960s, V K T Balan, runs a big establishment called ‘Madura Travels’ for so many decades. So in a sense Egmore seemed a second home for me.

Following day was raining heavily and the roads were flooding with thick dirty water. It was a mess all around.

But I had an appointment to meet a former student of mine (I taught her in 1998 at the Sri Lankan school in Muscat, Oman) Thushiyanthi Amirthalingam who is a Lankan young person living with her mother till she finished her degree in dentistry. She is now a full fletched dentist. She lived near her University in a far off place called Rampuram, an outskirt from Chennai proper.

The three-wheeler (they call auto-rickshaw, ‘auto’ in short) was courteous and whisked me through the strong winds and flooding rainy water in less than two hours to dear Thushiyanthi’s flat. She was all agog to see her tutor after nearly 12 years after. We couldn’t resist the comforting hospitality she and her mother gave us with a sumptuous meal.

Wondering what next to do I decided to spend a few hours at the one of the oldest and a storehouse of thousands and thousands of books in Tamil, English and other Indian languages – the Connimaara (Kannimaara) Library. I did and finished reading a short novel by the Indian Tamil writer Indira Paarthasaarathy It was an engrossing novel. I also scanned the pages of a book on post-structuralism which baffled me.

Having spent a few days like that with purpose and without, it was time for me to take a flight to Goa.

Goa in 1509

One could go to Goa either by train or by flight. Earlier I used to go to Goa by train. There is only one weekly (Fridays) train service from Chennai to Magadon (in Goa). This time I opted to travel by air because it shortened the time of travel. By train it takes more than 24 hours. One could also travel from Chennai to Bangalooru (Bangalore) and travel a few kilometres from the capital of the Karnataka State to a railway junction called Yeshwantpur and then reach Magadon in any train that goes that way- maybe one from Mangalore.

Flying by Kingfisher airline from Chennai, you break journey at Bangalooru and then take a connecting plane on the same airlines to Mumbai and again on the same lines to Panjam (Panaji-the capital of Goa). It was a tiresome journey covering more than six hours that included waiting at the airport. The funniest thing was that while the southern airports functioned almost near professionally, the officials at the Mumbai airport seemed clueless perhaps on account of too many planes touching the airport every few minutes.

One other thing: Most of them knew only Hindi and perhaps a little Marati. (the language spoken in Maharashtra whose capital is Mumbai. Even if they spoke a little English, their pronunciation was atrocious and I couldn’t understand a word.

As Colombo is a cosmopolitan city, most big cities in the world are cosmopolitan where a babble of toungues can be heard.

From the Panjam airport I took a prepaid cab to the Mirrimar area in Panaji paying 550 Indian rupees. If you multiply three times that amount you get the equivalent in Lankan currency.

Hotel charges all over India are very high ranging from 3000 Indian rupees to 15,000 IR for a day with twin beds. Food you have to pay extra, except at the YMCA where a mild breakfast is given free.

I couldn’t afford to spend so much money in a foreign country. I took a chance to find abed for the night in a dormitory run by the Goa Government’s Youth Hostel. With so many taking it ease on their beds caring less for the convenience of the others, I found it uneasy to stay there long, although it cost 200 IR for a night. I cannot claim to have toured peaceful and charming Goa, its capital Panaji, but the quaint little city was irresistible for a Lankan like me. The reasons were obvious: Friendly people who stop and answers in a polite manner.

They speak in fairly good English Relatively the atmosphere is calm and quiet even when the traffic moves in a hurried speed. The food is reasonably good even though the charges higher than in my country

I find Goa the ideal venue because I can relax here. This time I have not been running off seeing all the films screened but have limited myself to the number of films I wanted to see. I had time to chat with fellow delegates and high profile media people, enjoy the simple things provided by Goa.