Visit to Chennai...Piece 2

I opened my eyes, felt grainier than ever. Back, legs, hands everything itchy. Looked towards my side found the 3 fans running at their maximum. Time was almost 6.30 am. Had woken up thrice during the sleep. Tried to register the humidity and finding out how far I am from Chennai. I agree, it was dumb. Most of my family are light sleepers, all were awake. Heard a man shouting 'Coffee, coffee...' I've always been a coffee addict. So jumped down and had one with folks. Another hour passed by as I was looking out the jammed open window of the train. I didn't see anything exciting outside, except some fields which were growing err... some cereal. Took a walk to the other end of the train. Saw the girl who had boarded the right train on a 'WRONG' day. Nah, she isn't worth describing. I came back to our bogie and the train started to slow. Didn't excite me much as it was doing the same thing since last night. Someone said, 'Here we are, Chennai Central'. When the train actually halted I flexed my nostrils, trying to smell the characteristic Chennai smell which many had told me. Yeah it was there, it was a mixture of ewwww, let's leave my imagination with me. I helped bring out all our luggages. The stench was horrible. The host uncle said 'Our bus is waiting outside, so comeon lets go'. I just carried a few bags and started walking. People had told me, as soon as you get down the train, the sickening smell would welcome you and it'll be there althrough Chennai. With that in mind, I came out of the Central station, along with the entire junta, fortunately I wasn't greeted again by the stench. It was normal, no smell, nothing. It was cloudy, nothing like the sweaty humid weather which I was warned of. Sun was shining mildly. We found the 'bus', it was a maxi cab, the vehicle which was phased out years ago in Bangalore. It was good though, had exactly 15 seats strangely, plus two next to the driver. Me and cuz loaded all the luggage, everybody got in and we were on our way to the 'service apartment'. It was in Annanagar, block AI I guess. It was around 20-25 mins from Central. That was my first glimpse of Chennai. It wasn't bad, Chennai was normally developed, like Bangalore, around Central. There was a bridge, below which there was a drain. A real filthy one at it. Don't ask me if I've seen any clean drains, chuck it. I was told by my cuz that the drain we were going over is not actually a drain. Its a river, atleast it was once a river. I thought 'Now, it feels like the Chennai I had in mind'. We came to Annanagar. It was one of those supposedly posh areas in Chennai. It had those big neat houses, with gardens in front and all. Annanagar's door numbering system was good. The blocks which we passed had the names AA-AK and so on, and there were B's and C's. One more thing was, every house and shop and whatever had a new number plus an old number. The house we were supposed to go was Old number 18, new number 66, block AI, Annanagar, Chennai. The driver, a young fellow, around my age, didn't seem to know a lot about Annanagar. Took an extra 10 mins to find the block AI and our destination. He stopped at a big house, that was the one. It was a pretty big house. Two gates, a big parking lot and a big lawn which had a swing and a see-saw! The house we rented was in first floor, the person staying on the ground floor said. He was the 'keeper' of the house(service apartment). I helped getting the luggages out of the maxi cab and passed on to other who were going inside the house. When we were done, my two cousins were asked to get breakfast for everyone as they relaxed. I would've volunteered but I already had a lot of work so I passed. I looked around, the swing was too small for me, there was nothing else to investigate so decided to go in. Climbed up the stairs, removed my footwear and entered the 'house'.