An afternoon gone totally wrong!!

Never thought the rare deserved off i take wud be spent roaming the streets of chennai. it had to do with both the  choice of my activity and partner( a" major" armyman- who is sometimes punctual).Fortunately for him he was uncharacteristically punctual that day. We chose to see a tamil movie in a theatre located between both our houses. To our horror we found tickets were not available at the counter for the film half an hour before the movie( it was being sold at the gates at double the rates-for a movie in the 6th week). So we chose to move to a theatre half a kilometre away to find it was no different there(though it had multiple screens).Hence we decided to go to a proper multiplex - satyam - only to be disappointed with the fact that tickets were available only for the night show. Other shameful reason for going there was that being a true blue chennaiite since birth , I had only heard the name of satyam cinemas- never watched a movie there(one previous attempt on a sunday afternoon had ended with nonavailability of tickets). My second attempt at correcting that anomaly was gone in the dust and severe heat today too. Never the ones to take disappointments easily, we bravely marched to inox for the same result. We felt really horrible feeling like fools on a sunday afternoon in the burning chennai heat

I immediately banished any thoughts of further trudging the city( remember we had sloggged from the west to the east within the city limits). My friend thought of giving a shot at a multiplex close to our college- butI dint have the energy and was almost averse to watching a movie that day ( a case of sour grapes)

And we decided that the best way to overcome the disappointment was to do some retail therapy; hence we moved towards the shopping hub of Chennai ( should i say its T.Nagar- am sure everyone who visited the city knows) . What did we get to see there- a sea of humanity and vehicles jostling for the smallest denominator of space. Took a few minutes to cross the road , jumping between the vehicles . Oh god! worser thing was my friend was about to get a bumper fracture ,when a parked car started moving ; but luckily he was not hurt and the driver apologised(rare nowadays as people dont own their mistake)

Finally we went to the 7  floor store(where u get almost everything u need- only if u have the patience to bear the congestion).  Even at the entrance we were sure that our day is made(for struggle). We just finished our shopping with a couple of pieces of footwear and made a hasty exit only to find that road was a lot worser

I hear anyone who comes to chennai know Ranganathan street and I no longer wonder why.

Seeing the sunday crowd at 6 in the evening, i had a feeling similar to what i hav when i see the holy crowd  thronging the mecca!! I dint dare to walk through the street initially for the fear of  being caught in a stampede/ being picked and the worst , accused of  being a frotteur. So i limped to the bus stand to see overflowing buses. And walking further I was thinking what recession are they talking about , when the shopping hub is so crowded.

 I dint hav a choice but to return to my favourite mode of transport(EMU) through a less congested road( the lesser congestion was becaause of the horrible stink emanating from the garbage on the road).Finally lady luck smiled on me that evening; got a seat on the train my way home. which seemed  heavenly after the six hour toil on the road.  On the way i picked up a original DVD( for viewing during my next off) , promising i would never go to a theatre again in the near future and that too with my lucky buddy.  I dont know if i would be able to resist my temptation to pick up a pirated disc of new movies if the theatres sell tickets outside the counters( today i resisted the thought of buying the dvd of the movie i wanted to see).

Let me see how long my resolve stays so. And  sorry to anyone who manage to complete reading  this cribbing!!