That was my first trip to Chennai. Raman received me at the station. Raman, my classmate at Jadavpur, Raman who even learnt to read Bangla in his first year itself. Raman, my good friend.
In the auto, I asked him "So, where do you stay in Chennai?"
"Heart of the city man, the place is called Mylapore."
I could not resist my laughter. "Did you say Mylapore? What a name!" A Bengali like me would pronounce it as Moylapur...the city of Garbage as one translates.
Raman understood the jibe. Strangely he did not react. He slowly turned his face towards me and gave a wicked smiled. Then he said "Your dad built a home in Kachrapara I suppose, the garbage locality as they would call it in Hindi?".
No comments:
Post a Comment