Mikka Nandri Coimbatore !

The hiatus in penning down something here was quite unexpected. The last year and half was way too dynamic and my laziness contributed its part. I am someone who gets homesick for every place I visit & ironically not when I miss home. There is this incredible nostalgia after a trip and I have an urge to go back again at that moment, if I could. This feeling got aggravated when I had to leave the place I called home, for more than 3 years. I had never been there before & I didn’t have any family or friends there. The only reason I landed there was for work.  I never imagined I’d get so attached to the place that it hurt me every time I had to change the default address on food delivery/e-commerce apps from Coimbatore to Hyderabad.

It was in early 2017 when I had to give preferences for my location after having been allocated to Chennai Zone. Just like everyone, I preferred Chennai first followed by Coimbatore & Trichy. A close friend of my dad suggested me to prefer Coimbatore to Chennai and I concurred without any reason. I had been to Chennai quite a few times as a kid and later for college counselling and knew some 10-15 words in Tamil. There was a bit of apprehension as I heard quite a few things like how one is treated as an outsider in Tamil Nadu & comparison of the work culture in government jobs to malignant tumours. Just before the financial year ended, I started off for Coimbatore to embark on my professional journey.

The same uncle who advised me to prefer Coimbatore put me up at his penthouse in the heart of the city. It reminded me of my hostel with a multipurpose room with all requisite furnishing & an attached washroom. I couldn’t have asked for more. I reported at the office and very soon realised that the work culture thing was a stereotype meant to be broken. I crossed path with some phenomenal people who made me feel awestruck & comfortable.

Three months down and I was transferred to a field posting on the outskirts of the city. My quest for exploration began there. It was exciting to interact with people from the trade and get an insight into taxation and its practical aspects and also to exercise power & achieve the target. The way to office offered beautiful view of the hills nearby and the watching sunset while riding back, from the bank of a lake was therapeutic. I decided to learn Tamil and with the help of my office staff and boss, I managed it easily. Learning Tamil helped me go a long way and never was I treated as an outsider. Listening to the Tamil dialect I spoke in Chennai, a person asked if I hailed from Coimbatore. That was probably one of the best compliments I had ever received. If there is one thing that everyone who has lived in Coimbatore completely agrees to, it is the people. Or atleast the majority of them I had interacted with, are polite & down to earth. My boss was no exception to this. Infact there was no single instance where I even said to myself that my boss was at fault.

Given the geographical advantage of the location & being a travel enthusiast, I decided to start travelling. There are umpteen number of places one can visit within a 200 km radius. With the God’s own country just 30 minutes away, this is an ideal base for nature lovers. I wanted to pursue a myriad of hobbies and tried my hand at calligraphy, doodling, photography and baking. With my work place being isolated from other colleagues, my interaction with them was way too limited. I however relished staying alone and doing the household chores. Seeing my room spick and span gave me a feeling of delight. There were a couple of weekends where the door I closed on a Friday evening was opened only on Monday morning. Within a year (or may be a little lesser), I was quite sure that settling down in Coimbatore would not be a bad idea.

Once I got transferred back to the head office, there was no dearth of people. It all started with playing table tennis during lunch and slowly transcended the office boundaries. I feel blessed to have had a few amazing officers who were supportive and encouraging. It’s priceless to have such people who even after leaving the place call at times to just check on how I am doing & ask to let them know if I plan a trip back. I’m sure I would visit the place time & again just for them.

Meanwhile I took the exam again and landed in the same job. But this time, I was sure of getting posted to my home state, Telangana. Moreover, my wedding was fixed once it was sure that I would be relocating. After my wedding and honeymoon, it was just a matter of few months before I bid an adieu. My wife accompanied me to Coimbatore to spend 3 weeks before she resumed work. But as fate would have it, lockdown was imposed due to COVID-19. My wife had no option but to stay back for 10 weeks. No wonder, it was a blessing in disguise as it gave us ample time to understand & get used to each other on all possible fronts. Spending the evenings spotting birds, going grocery shopping and trying our hand at cooking whatever possible made the vacation a truly memorable one. That was probably the best time of my life there. It was only a matter of few weeks after my wife had left and I started preparing mentally to leave this place I called home. Just like all good things come to an end, my stay for 3 and half years in Coimbatore ended with my posting order to Hyderabad. I remember waiting for my return flight at the airport reminiscing all the memories with a lump in my throat while fighting back tears that rolled. Coimbatore is one place I’d love to stay again but I don’t think there would be any possibility of the same.

To the friends I had made, the numerous trips I did, the hobbies I picked up, the local beverages we chugged, the variety of cakes baked, the cooking sessions, the gossips, debates and discussions, the languages I learned, the lemon tea breaks, the plans that never materialized, the love for nature that kept growing, the house I stayed & in short, the life I lived, all I can say is மிக்க நன்றி கோவை ! or Thank you so much Coimbatore. You’ll always have a piece of my heart.