a world out of time

Chennai is full of small epiphanies. Small, but they do sneak up on you, and destroy your impression, of not just the stereotype of the city, but also the stereotype that you have become. To all those who claim that Chennai is in fact a boring place, I present to you Velkom farms (Yes! that is it's, actual spelling), a rather German looking name but a rather English farm, set off along the sceninc, beautiful and flat ECR, 35 kilometers from nowhere, and a whole 50 years before 2000-fuck you man, I have places to go, no time to relax, buisness to meet, things to do, kids to raise, pressure to bear-4.

We set off to visit that place, imposing ourselves upon the pair who own and live on Velkom farms, the charming duo of Raj and his wife Sumi. Errr... till now I have managed to figure out that Raj's name is errr.. krishnaraj, but sumi remains one of those people who are hard to place. Kaustubh and Inder have been going there for riding lessons, and raj and sumi invited them, but in the true spirit of friendship we just imposed on k&i who imposed themselves (ourselves) on r&s, and cometh the hour saw some 15 of us, set off down ECR on our bikes to a destination seriously unknown, but in rather high spirits.

Side note: what's happened to Chennai. This is supposed to be the peak summer. The time of scissoring heat, and deaths galore. Well... well... well.. sunday's temperature was 25 degrees celsius, it rained like mad, soaking addy so much that when I went to the room, he was engaged in the rather dubious pursuit of ironing out his money, which was soaking wet, and compressed into a tight wad (rather reminiscent of what we used to pull out of janvi's mouth) .

So there we were resplendent in our different attire, addy crinkling bills, and flashy new socks, amit, me, dilip, and ravi and ravi, all astride our mounts, as we proposed to get 'there'. we were starting out at 6.00 and the weather was marvellous. it must have been some 25 degrees. humidity was practically nonexistent and there was a chill wind blowing. We started the drive down the ECR ( beautifull most days, today was exceptional). After about half an hour, it turned dark and the stars came out, and I could see Orion chasing Pleaideas and all the other characters, twinkling and chiming as though they were sharing their own personal jokes and asides, about our mortal existence here. After twenty minutes, we left behind the ponderous buses, and were onto the highway proper, road before and behind, and causarina trees to our left and backwaters to our
right, sky all above, and wind all around. Soon enough it became impossible to hear dilip talking and there reigned silence and just the whizzzz... of the chill wind, as I silently contemplated life inside my helmet, and sang any a number of good hindi songs to myself.

After about half an hour of zooming through the bends in the road, we reached a rather large hoarding proclaiming to all those with the ability to read, the facts of life. That :
to our right, and at a distance of four kilometers, lay the great villages of kelambakam.
to our left, for those despeartely suicidal, or desperately looking for some solitude, lay the long beaches of the bay of bengal, dotted at regular intervals, with other couples looking for solitude, or suicide.
before us, after a kilometer, lay the sandy beches of kovalam.

At this point we slowed down the bikes, and hunted for a signboard, with a prancing pony. We did find it, but raj, if you are reading this, it's because I am superman, and have magnifyo-vision. If in the interests of weeding out the hoi-polloi, you have such a small board, I don't mind, but can you kindly make it a little bigger.

We took a right turn at this board, and went down a small dirt track, lined on either side with thorny bushes. ravi the junior, took many a hit on this trail. after going down this path, in complete darkness, we turned a corner and there before us, were the wooden gates of velkom farms. Bing! just like that. Since all our eyes were on the road ( believe me a puncture here, is not recommended), we had failed to get a proper perspective of this place. Which we got, once we stepped down.

Space! Lots of space. How else can I describe it. For a city dweller like me, given just a 6 foot box to breathe in, all week, the prospect of so much space, was unbelievable. I mean, I had seen such stud farms in rather far away movies, like horse whisperer and all that. But here before me was such a beautiful stud farm. And here I was, walking around. Good Lord! After we parked our bikes, Kaustubh took us around the place, and showed us the different rinks. The jumping one, riding one, and all that. This is a huge place. BY this time, there was lightning all around, and we were illuminated, from time to time by these flashes, which made us feel like the subjects of a nervous photographer, who in all his haste kept pressing the flash button every now and then. And then far away, over horizon kaustubh pointed out to a few trees.
-See them.
-yup.
-that is the end of his property.
That covered perhaps more than a hectare of ground. At this point we were velkomed into the property by a few gentle raindrops.
k at this point of time, played gracious host, and told us about where they would go long distance riding (which was beside a few salt quarries, that stretched all the way to pondicherry). whew!
and so there we were, 15 of us, staggering around, and muttering to ourselves, "beautiful, Beautiful!". I can honestly say all of us were jealous.

But then raj stepped in and the charmer he is, he got us all seated around a large table right below a causarina tree, and there he opened up his chiller, and bathed us in a veritable orgy of coke and fanta. So there we all were, quietly sitting around, listening to raj and somi( a pleasure in itself), and listening to their discourse on life, love and horses (not exactly in that order though!). Ah! The feel of the cold breeze. The sight of the stars, and the sway of the causarina trees behind me. And all around was silence, except for our voices, and the occasional whinny of a horse. The farm itself consisted of raj & somi's house ( a small quaint beautiful one), and far away the tack rooms, and the stables. Small dust lanes led from one part to the other, all beautifully landscaped, and lit with those subtle yellow golden bulbs, thrust behind beautiful glasses, that makes me feel so romantic.

And there we were, and not one of us I bet, wanted it ever to end. At this point, it began to drizzle, and we went in to the house. Well.... atleast most people went in. Otoh, Tyke (who happens to be raj's dog) and an extremely dignified geezer, and me, went outside and sat down on a bench that will eventually overlook some waterbody. I sat there with Tyke's head on my lap, as he nibbled some chicken from my fingers, and watched the faraway lightning, that intermittently illuminated the land around me, the far away boundary of raj's farm, felt the feel of the zephyr on my face, the gentle taps of the raindrops against my shoulders, the windchimes that danced inside the house, the cool earthy smell of hay, horses, the pleasant subduded lighting that was a magnet for the small ladybirds that crowded around the lamps, nudging each other away as Tyke looked at them with mournful eyes, as though lamenting the fact, that he could not chase them, not at the expense of his dignity, the feel of tyke's soft fur in my hands, as I gently scratched his ears, the feel of the grass between my feet, the sound of old hindi songs, juki juk nazar wafting through the air, the smell of lillies, that were adorning sumi's table, and from far the cry of corncrakes, busily making their bed, and from afar the sound of voices, all murmuring softly to each other, breaking gently now and then into a guffaw, as raj teased one and all. ah!!!! the sheer pleasure of it all.... Tyke and I shared the quiet moment, and in order that I understand that he understood, Tyke lulled by my constant scratching of his ears, put his head on my lap and gently dozed of, one wary eye always on his mistress. Peace. Zen. A sense of calm.

But if you thought that, that was it, well you were mistaken. The night was but young, and somi with the aid of an excellent chef had made tons and tons of food for us to eat, there was garlic chicken, and chicken 65 and noodles, and rice, and well well well... there we were hogging away, trying to politely stuff ourselves, and incapable as ever of thanking our gracious hosts wonderful hospitality. I have this deja vu feeling about raj. I had this feeling I had seen him before and was not mistaken. He was this Don Bosco alumni and when I told him that I had tangled with his school in basketball, he became quiet happy. Plus we share the same taste in music. Rolling stones. I sang out of tears, and he was really happy. And well after we had hogged, we went in to Raj's place and sat there on the ground as raj kept us entertained with the story of his misdemanours as a youth and we listened to something soothing on worldspace. O.K. Now this is an extreme contraction of what happened. But you just had to be there.

And then it was time to go....

We pulled out on our bikes, which we couldn't find (so heavy was the rain), and rode back through the heavily falling sheets of rain, drenched. slick empty roads, shivering and leaving behind our one source of warmth. Two motorcycles in tandem. Splotched glasses, fogged out. Grim bursts of lightning. dark pink colours. Wet underwear, wet everything. Two cycles, gunning to each other. Ratratratrat. Medians passed. Silence, just rain. Swishhhhh... One ambasdor pulls past. A man on a bike standing. K leaning in saying. Now how does that help. A wet flat. Dilip. saviour. tea. clothes warm. messages on my cell. cherapunji ya chennai from ravi. then clothes, a blanket, and bed.

and in those dreams, I saw from far, velkom farms, and thought.

"DAMN! WHY THE HELL WASN'T I A HORSE."