lighting up a celebratory beedi at tarams gate, you have to wonder if this is what you’ve been yearning for, when you signed up for the Pan-IIT Alumi Conference at IIT Madras. the 9-pm air is cool, the random tamil street music is familiar, the lighting is dim-yet-sufficient and the tea shop fellow has the same indifference to his customers.
YouTube DirektOutside Tarams Gate
just the night before, the security guard sternly yet politely refused to open the gate for us at 1:30 in the morning. i thought, this would never have passed in the old days. the ever-energizing bun-omlette with a ‘cappu tea’, that has saved many butts from a ‘cuppax’ in exams, has brutally been robbed from the boys.
the 2-3 fellows loitering around inside the gate, eating from their bag of bingo chips while bouncing their basketball, resting their butts on a hero honda karizma, are equally indifferent to the sanctity of the place. summoning up the unnatural courage to accost them, i inquire what hostel they are from. “we don’t study here. we aren’t that good” was the crisp reply. that’s when i realized, it’s worse! tarams isn’t even ours anymore.
YouTube DirektThe Old Telephone Booth at Tarams
back then in the 90s, 1.30 or 2.30 the gate was always open. I remember seeing a bunch of girls coming back from their tarams tea (all girls, not girls accompanying some guys) at 2.00 or so one night. Then again, chennai was always a pretty safe city for women (or anyone for that matter). Hope it is so even now.
looks like tarams has poshed up a bit. is that Nair’s tea shop?
despite all the filth, stench and god knows what on the street, these things still evoke a wave of nostalgia.
when i went there couple of weeks ago, it was no place for women to hangout.
and yeah it appears to be the same shop. they removed the thatch-huts and built a normal ‘strip’ of one-room shops. the cast of characters seem to be the same.