We badly need a light topic... :)

Over the past few days, my thoughts have been occupied by spirituality to a greater extent and the reflection was quite obvious in my posts. That means a high time for a light topic. So why not fulfill my friend's request to write about the house where I (we) stayed when I was in Chennai.

Kasthuribhai nagar, adyar is a serene place close to all the facilities of urban life but far from the clumsy atmosphere that is a by-product of urbanization. Unless you get into the nearby roads (LB road or SP road), the traffic is limited, the place is green and silence fills the air for the most part. A rich retired person can choose Kasthuribhai nagar to settle down - eyes shut! But it's not the area that I'm gonna talk about here but the chaos inside an apartment in Kasthuribhai nagar that hosted a mini-colony...

In a city where renting houses to bachelors is considered a sin, we managed to find a quite big apartment 3BHK (that's 3 Bedrooms, Hall and a Kitchen for people new to house hunting)! The opening population was 6 members, all guys working in different companies in different core areas. 5 of us were from my college and one the friend of one of my friends. It all started there and as time progressed, the population kept growing and at a point we were 12 persons staying in a 3 BHK. With the neighbor's invigilating every move in a bachelor's den (which was quite irritating); this grew up to be a real issue because the greater the number of persons the greater is the water consumption (people somehow always forgot that we paid twice as much as a normal family with 6 members paid). We always counted the number of persons in our house as if we never knew any number more than 6. Even when there were 12 persons, we'd turn on our cool and say "six!" whenever a neighbor questioned us. The best part is that 6 persons had 8 bikes and we count our bikes using the same "Upper limit 6" algorithm!! " :) Every morning, 12 different faces will walk right through their doorway and yet the algorithm remained unchanged!

Long nights at Besant nagar beach, watching movies on the day they hit the screens, weekly temple visits, pulling each other's legs, playing cards like crazy, getting all types of DVDs at dirt cheap rates and watching 3 of them in a row, glaring at Prakash raj as we crossed his office in the next street were some of our regular activities.

This post would be incomplete if I don't talk about a couple of interesting personalities here - the watchman of our apartment and our house owner. With his face buried in mustache and his eccentric character, our watchman was a real entertainer. One of my roomies had a very good combination working out with him and they used to fight like Agni Nattchathram (an old Tamizh movie where the heroes fight with each other in every possible opportunity, in case you don't know the language) Karthik and Prabhu whenever they met each other. The only thing missing was the BGM. :) The funny part about this is when other residents get involved in these clashes, they get the best one-line replies that makes them run away from the place. I still laugh recollecting the incident where the secretary of our apartment tried to do the negotiation and got his piece! :))

Our house owner was an interesting person too. He was a bank manager who loved talking and the love grew beyond limits that my roomies never opted to pay the rent. Somehow he had a special reverence to me and as a result almost always it was me and one of my roomies who pay the monthly rent. Many a times, we've got trapped in his house when the other folks are waiting for us in the movie hall and the tens of calls that came in to our mobile phones never disturbed his flow and continuity. But indeed he was good at his heart and we always had a warm welcome from him and his wife whenever we went to his house. So in a lot of ways I should thank him for being courteous.

We had some differences of course and minor clashes here and there were unavoidable but we never failed to get together the same night and play cards. Every single person was different and so were their lifestyles but somehow we put up a quite impressive show that made everyone enjoy the stay. People came and people went but the fun and the laughter remained intact as long as we stayed in the simple and spacious house at the heart of Adyar.