We, Arshad and I,were doing some work in the Beach Area and when we were done, he asked me if it was my first time in Chennai and I said, yes. He asked me if I'd been to the beach and when I said no, he asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes.
So, we got onto his yellow sports bike and went.
We sat on the shore and as invariably as always, a vendor came up to us. An old man. Only when he started to say things like, we'd have two babies, did I realize what we looked like, and worse, it was Valentine's Day. We didn't buy anything from him and so he went off cursing us, saying that evil wouldn't leave us.
The next person to come along was a lady selling peanuts, she dumped a cone of peanuts into the crook of Arshad's arm blessed us with a baby boy.
The lady after that, came and pinned/sold jasmine flowers into my hair without so much as an, If you please.
The last was a little boy. He tried and tried to sell something to Arshad who refused. While Arshad is refusing, the boy suddenly changes his voice and says in Tamil, Hello... I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the 'pati'.
Pati can either mean a) Grandmother b)Item
Arshad suggested we leave, before his family and stock of junk food expanded to disproportionate proportions, so we did. Me, thinking about life and people and Arshad the ships on the ocean.
Location: Marina Beach
1 comment:
that city and its people :)
goodwill can turn into ill will if its not paid for
i love besant nagar beach and thiruvanmiyur beach
(almost giving up commenting this highly annoying word verification code)
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