D 63 Rajaji Road Block 25 Neyveli

I don't realize how fast time runs by until I see the date of the previous blog post in here. Its been 3 months since my last post, and so much has changed since then.

And the mother of all changes is my parents moving out of Neyveli. After a lot of deliberations and my father's untiring attempts at getting a transfer to Neyveli for my mother, which have only become futile, he finally gave in the letter for surrendering the house where he had spent the best part of his life for almost 25 years.

I never believed that changing houses would affect you mentally and emotionally until now. It is really difficult to accept the fact that I would no longer be running into Platform No. 1 in CMBT to board a rickety bus to rush home. I would forever miss breathing in the familiar cool air which would welcome me every time as the bust enters the town premises after the 5-hour long journey.

That house sure holds a million memories of all the years that were spent there. A few little things from my childhood times -

• We moved here when I was about 2-3 years old. I still remember how my grandfather and I would sit in the swing early in the mornings as my mother left for work. These were the days when I was normal and well behaved. On days when I woke up cranky, I wouldn't let my mother leave to work and would have to be literally dragged into the house by my aunt.
• During the rainy days, my grandpa and me would each sit on a chair and watch water flowing across the road, sipping our morning coffee and milk respectively. These are probably the only times I remember being close to my grandpa. As the years went by, age caught up with him and he was confined to his room for most part of the day, barring the morning newspaper and lunch time.
• Unlike the houses here in Chennai, where every house has a terrace, houses out in Neyveli did not have terrace. In fact, I never knew house would have terrace until I was in Class 5. All we had was a roof with Tar and Little gravels poured over. As the world moved from corporation tap waters to storing waters in tanks, we had a couple tanks installed at our home on these roofs. A ladder was laid from the ground to the roof to check on the water level in the tanks frequently. I fondly the summer holidays when me and my brother would climb on the roofs during the afternoons and pick the mangoes that fall off from the trees or simply just lie on the roof staring at the sky and the birds flying around. How I wish time had just stopped by then and there?!
• The house was always bustling with activity and there would be someone or the other visiting all the time. Panguni Uthiram is my all time favorite. It would literally be "house-full" during that festival as all the relatives would throng our house. 

The two best-est (if such a word exists) things about this house was -

1. The Thottam (Garden) - From tamarinds to coconuts to mangoes to Jackfruits to Musambis, the house had it all. Every summer, when anybody from Chennai came down to visit us, my father makes it a point to send along as many jackfruits as the vehicle could bear for all the numerous relatives in Chennai. 
2. The Oonjal (Swing) - Every single person who visited the house, would surely take a two minute time out to sit on this swing. It was pure bliss. Though I am not much of a swing person, I sure do enjoy spending sometime on it on a lazy weekend. 

This post can never do justice to all the memories that were created in that house, but it is just a small attempt to document a few things that will be forever be cherished.

Finally, a picture of the house! It used to be very shady, until a few years ago when we had cyclones destroy a lot trees in the whole town. From then on, the house kind of started looking a little barren.

And the Oonjal! This also had a asbestos roofing which again got damaged in the cyclone, nevertheless it was a pleasure swinging in it during the dusk.

Until next time,

G