Chennai,Karam,Coffee

4:30 am , I was woken from sleep , by my own voice. The whole house was silent . I tip toed to the kitchen,made myself some degree coffee , picked up a couple of murukku ( believe me try this combo , will beat any Mc nugget hands down) and settled on the slab of stone on my balcony. The roads silent , with the odd morning walker, a stationary aavin van, lakshmi, mani all had just begun work on the pavement - sorting through their day's deliveries of milk and paper. Vijay the dog , stood hoping that Lakshmi would soon drop a leaking milk packet . Lakshmi's mother sat in one corner , making "Kanji"- rice porridge , to be sold to the morning walkers and there were flowers to be made into garlands. Laskhmi would handle that after the milk deliveries. There was laughter and Joy, in the small group, a harmony between the elements of the 5:00 am team. As the first rays focussed on the family, I saw them in new light. The struggles of the day ahead did not bother them. What if no one wanted to drink the kanji today, what if the flower garlands never adorned a diety or a neck? They did not seem to be bothered by what lay ahead. What they enjoyed was the moment they had together sorting through papers and milk packets. This was Chennai .. the singara chennai that welcomes me every time. Crunch went the murukku into my mouth . I savoured every moment of it.