The street that made sense

Boarded the intra-city train and got off at mambalam station. Immediately the smell of fresh mangoes told me that I had reached a marketplace. But this was nothing like some ordinary marketplace... in fact you can call it 'Sarojini Nagar' & 'Janpath' put together. All that crowd, all that rush, all that hustle right on monday itself. Plus due course with the day, the temperature hike and then adding to it is the humidity is quite a friend to the business men around there selling cold-drinks, milk-shakes, the legendary 'baadam paal' (almond flavoured milk) and ofcourse the swirl serve cone softies......!!!!

But then if you have been in Delhi Metro Rail Blue line Rajiv Chowk station at peak hours you would be able to relate to what I am going to talk about the crowd rushing in and out from both from Usman Road, T. Nagar and the intracity train station T. Nagar, Chennai. This crowd has the capability to take you into the street and bring you out of it too..... all you need to do is simply stand still at the entrance if you wish to go in or stand still at any point in between the street if you wish to go out and the crowd will ensure that you are taken in or out respectively and that too efoortlessly, as long as you can keep your balance.

Most importantly, here I would like to mention the key highlights, the street should be actually renamed to Sarvana Jeyachandran street....!!! Why??? Because the entire street is covered with different divisions of Saravana Stores and then second in numbers will be Jeyachandran stores.... They were selling anything and everything from clothes to groceries, furniture to home appliances, utensils to jewellery, except for a hospital and pharmacy; the sarvana and jeyachandran stores chain sold everything. Apart from all of this hustle and bustle, there was something really special about this place, all through the market there was a sense of oneness and belonging. Not because I am a Tamilian but because I am a travel freak.... There is something about this street that when you are around, it calls out to you to come in and pay a short visit to it. There is a lovely vibe that ensures that when you are leaving the street you have definitely bought something from one of the street vendors or stores in there. What I bought was something very innovative and interesting. It is basically a stapler that has been modified into a portable sewing machine, that stitches your clothes on simple staple clicks effortlessly on the go (no batteries or electricity kind of energy source involved; all you need is thread) and hence is readily available for any and very cloth wear and tear, even denims too.

The day was sweaty with all that humidity out there, and was tiresome too but was still worth all that long walks. At the end of the market there was small lane that was full of vegetable and fruit markets, and I couldn't believe what I saw or heard. Vegetables almost any of them and all of them not costlier than 10/- rupees a kilogram. Organically ripen mangoes, 15 bucks a kilogram and that's it. Apples 30 bucks a kilogram, all fruits and vegetables were being sold at unbelievable prices. Plus discounts on sale of more than 2 kilograms, and they say that common man cannot survive in India. This place was like the farmers market, no middle-men, no agents and no dealers involved, just plain and simple farmer/shopkeeper and customer and everything at unbelievably lower prices than any place that I have ever seen in India. In about 250 bucks you can buy almost all the vegetables (a kilogram each) available there and almost all the fruits (a kilogram each) available there and still manage to buy yourself the intra-city railways ticket to your home destination....!!! The only thing that disturbed me a lot is the way the auto-drivers union charge you troubling amounts of money for short distances and on asking for meter look at you as they are dracula and are going to prey on any minute.....!!!! Otherwise Ranganathan Street, T. Nagar, Chennai is definitely a go to place according to me if you are in town in Chennai. I promise that it will be worth your while because this place is never less crowded no matter if it is a weekday or a weekend. I give it 3.9 on 5.....!!!

Cheerio....!!!!