The diary of a single woman in her 30s!

(oh damn!)

Early morning flights make me nervous. I leave the lights on. I have three alarms buzzing periodically and the taxi driver is hopefully someone who calls frequently for directions to my house. I have over slept through one journey and another time reached the airport only to see the very aircraft I was to be on takeoff. Oh! The sinking feeling of being left behind and the necessary catalog of emotions: an experience that initially changed me in a small way, that eventually evolved into a substantive life change in how I think and perceive the world around me, and my relationship to it.

It occurred to me that life should be like an airport, everybody knows where they are heading, what they are doing, strangers are too close in our space and yet how peaceful everyone is.

My neighbor roared peacefully through takeoff (and landing), while I read "The Tao Of Physics". It has opened a window or two for me, and the inertia in which I had formed my opinions and prejudice, learned to see and feel and judge the world

around me, seemed embarrassingly narrow, lacking and unwise…

I arrive at Chennai and the first thing that hits me is the heat. It’s sweltering hot. My car has not arrived and like a regular metro user in Delhi, I promptly decide to hop on to the metro. A young boy accosts me and very politely says”ma’am, that’s

not a metro like Delhi, it’s the local train and best avoided” I am all the more curious while the boy guides me to the

local taxi stand. Just then a harried driver

approaches me and takes my hand bag and apologies profusely. I reach the office and am delivered the mandatory smile and lead into conference room loaded with refreshments and informed that meeting is delayed for an hour – perhaps it’s a good sign, I still need to take off more warm clothing to look reasonably respectable. I sip my tea and observe; people look tranquil in this office - surely they have timelines to meet too? Or is it the sunny weather that makes people temperamentally so peaceful?

It’s not yet one and tables are cleared and tiffin boxes are out, dishes shared liberally, I’m sure office gossips spreads adequately and I am the main topic for today. My client arrives and the warmth with which he greeted me made me forget the wait – I am ushered into a car and we arrive at a hotel for lunch – the longest lunch in my working life - it stretches through to three pm and yet there is no talk of the business to discuss. My client is accompanied by his architect and I find myself taking to them like I have known them forever. We talk of religion, music, art – all topics that steer clear of anxiety. Is this a strategy or is this the mankind Chennai nurtures I wonder? I am totally charmed by this serene pace of life. I seriously

contemplate relocating to Chennai, life will be so much easier, and the weather mandates just one style of clothing…

I go to the washroom and cross the parlour, which has several corpulent males being attended to by a bevy of beauticians, manicuring fingers and toes, sawing furiously away at horny feet and massaging spiced oils into tired scalps. The sight was infinitely disturbing. However, how I long to be pampered like that, and how I long to have the time for that in Delhi; the thought of returning to live in cold grey Delhi leaves me under a pall of depression!

We are back in the office now and I am wondering if business has escaped my client’s attention, but

no! We are seated at his desk and for the next half hour business is transacted in the most efficient and professional manner. The deal is signed and tea is served and once again we are back to a comforting pace where conversation is smooth and unruffled and attention is undivided – Why don’t I seriously move to Chennai?!! Rushing around is an embarrassing Delhi way to live.

It’s time for my flight now and I put on my layers of clothing and with it my layers of individualities and attitudes and prepare for the onslaught of Delhi’s chill and impersonal surroundings.

My driver fortunately is more concerned about having me board the flight and his driving equals

agent vinod at his best. It occurred to me that I have not spoken to anybody except my client throughout the day – in Delhi I would have made small talk for there would have been issues and by the end of the day I would have felt overburdened…not with life Chennai style. I’m back in Delhi and with minimum interaction with the taxi driver, except for the terrible weather and soaring prices of lentil, arrive at my home, ready to start the next morning with a magnificent production of life the Delhi way.