Chennai's summer and slang...

I dont remember being a pig. If I did, I would also remember that pigs dont sweat and I wont be saying I sweat like a pig. It's late June and still no signs of the mercury coming down. Well, I am in Chennai after all and I should not be complaining. This place is second only to beloved Calcutta in humidity. Though the evenings - aided by the coastal breeze, are better than those of Calcutta, mornings are ungodly....when you have to tackle the kitchen & laundry and get ready for a long workday.

Once I finally manage to cool off some sweat sitting under the fan for a quick breakfast, I gear up for the 9.5 kilometre ride to my workplace, putting on oversized sunglasses and tying a bandana matching my outfit, as closely as possible. Now comes the fun part of summer.

I must have done something really right in my previous janma (birth) to earn this ride - 4.5 kilometres of completely shaded avenues, with a generous helping of trees in full bloom. 200 metres of hot sun from my house, I enter this avenue and feel greatly blessed. Not a single day passes by without me wondering how people could so heartlessly cut down trees...

For the first 4.5 kilometres I do not mind the bad mad traffic, thanks to the shade of Indian lauburnum, flame of the forest, bougainville....but mostly albizia saman aka thoongu moonji or raintree...and the breeze no airconditioner in this world can simulate. But the next 5 or so kilometres...ooof...hotter than a furnace (if you had been inside one!)

But the end-of-summer-sky presents its own splendour - clouds, clouds, clouds....amazing blue and white and of course, grey. Fabulous patterns, some shining, some not too glossy. Wow ! What I would not give in return, if only I could just roll on a hillside meadow and look at the morning sky, instead of riding to work sandwiched between stupid cars with airconditioners!

And the evening sky, if only am lucky to start from work just in time to see the dusk settling down, is equally, or may be more enchanting than the cloud-filled mornings. What a riot of colours! What is that technical spec of 256 million colours you get on mobile displays and monitors. It wont be nowhere near the number of colours in Nature's palette. Once upon a time, I believed that all the fancy colours like Mauve, Fuschia, Magenta are all some chemical combinations invented experimentally or accidentally by paint factories. I got shocked out of that notion when I went snorkelling in the Andamans. Oh, what splendid colors of fish and corals!

Coming back to Chennai bike ride, how I wish I had one of my friends or my mom riding with me to enjoy the beauty of God Nature...I even look around for a friendly-looking fellow-rider if I could point a finger to the sky and say with a smile - hey look - and get a smile in return. Mmmmm...everybody's tired at the twilight and just about everybody (except a few) is so keen on breaking traffic rules to reach home early. No time for a peek at the skies and its colours.

It's just me looking at the summer skies and yearning for a meadow to roll upon. 5 summers ago, I did exactly that. Roll on a meadow, somewhere in Himachal Pradesh near the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas. So, everyday - morning and evening - I look at the skies and imagine that I am not riding to work in Chennai but rolling on a meadow in Himachal.

What will you do when you see someone looking at the skies and riding a bike, albeit looking at the road ahead now and then? Oh yes, you are right. Bang on target. That's what the auto-drivers do. Use the choicest of Chennai slang at me for my lousy riding. Thankfully, am good at selective hearing. Or you can even call me half deaf.

Being half deaf I dont know much of Madras Tamizh. Now tell me, what's the very common cuss word in Madras Tamizh? :) 'Kasmaalam'? Mind you, its a Sanskrit word, morphed though. 'Kashmalam' meaning impurity or faintheartedness or illusion or confusion. Interestingly, Lord Krishna utters this word in His very first verse to Arjuna. (Ignoring the one line of indirect speech in the First Chapter of The Holy Gita, wherein He said 'Look at the Kauravas who are lined up for battle').

Here are the first two verses of Lord Krishna (Chapter 2. Verses 2 & 3)...
श्रीभगवानुवाच
कुतस्त्वा कश्मलं इदं विषमे समुपस्थितम
अनार्य जुष्टं अस्वर्ग्यम अकीर्तिकरम अर्जुन (२.२)
क्लैब्यं मा स्म गम: पार्थ नैतत्त्वय्युपपद्यते
क्षुद्रं ह्रदयदौर्बल्यं त्याक्त्वोत्तिष्ट परन्तप (२.३)

Kutastvaa kashmalam idam vishame samupasthitam. Anaarya jushtam aswargyam akeertikaram arjuna. Lord Krishna said, O Arjuna, where has this illusion of yours appeared in this moment of crisis? This is not befitting an Aryan, nor conducive to attaining heavenly spheres and is a cause of infamy। (2.2)
Klaibyam maa smagama paartha naitatvayyupapadyate. Kshudram hrdaya daurbalyam tyaktvottishta parantapa. O Partha, do not yield to unmanliness. This is not worthy of you. O scorcher of foes, giving up this weakness of heart, rise up! (2.3)

Spoken like a true teacher! Clearly, some of the choicest words of Sanskrit which are indeed harsh, if looked at, literally. For example 'klaibyam' also means impotence. Was Lord Krishna a little too harsh on Arjuna? Just as harsh as the Chennai summer?