Chennai for me

I remember when my family moved down to Chennai, I came kicking and screaming. I really didn't want to move down to Chennai, I had my friends, my favourite hang outs.....I had to leave all that behind... the very thought. But fate decided otherwise...... I threw tantrums, fought screamed (my elder sister helped), but... sigh!
Oh well we moved in to Chennai. I always thought that Chennai would be boring and dull, that I would never have any fun, or make any good friends and all I would be doing is hang around with my cousins. They were all older and me being the youngest.... Yeah, it had it's perks but....
Joined college, that's when it all started!
The places I went out with my friends and Chennai was fun all of a sudden.
It started with hanging around in a bowling arcade. Then it went out to going for long drives on EC road. Driving into narrow lanes that lead to clean beaches with no one in sight. Pure heaven.
Any time of the day... a suggestion of driving down to EC was always a great hit; let it be two in the afternoon or in the morning (my parents are pretty cool and trusting that way).
I had always wondered about Disco's in Chennai, well it was nice attending parties with dad and mom but quite different when friends go out clubbing.
So it came, the first time I visited a club in Chennai. We went to Le Flame (Le Meridien). It was okay, it wasn't a huge hit with me.
That's when a friend of mine recommended Dublin (Park Sheraton).
And after that there was no looking back. We were at Dublin every Saturday, every week.
We would come out around three or four in the morning head down to Cappuccino to have breakfast and go home and go to sleep. It didn't matter that your feet hurt dancing all night, it was fun, amazing....best times!
Chennai was good....but now its different. Chennai has a curfew now. It's like a Cinderella story, by midnight everything shuts down. Not a minute after 12:00. In order to curb drunken driving and cars zipping around at all hours the curfew was laid within city limits. That doest not mean that it does not happen; it still does.
EC road- where we used to drive is outside city limits. It leads to empty beaches and naturally beach houses which then leads to beach house parties. Unless you know a lot of people and trust them, you can't go for parties that happen there. Not exactly a safe haven.
We still go out though, but get back home after midnight.
Well in a way all of us have turned into Cinderellas, the clubs turn into pumpkins at the stroke of midnight.
Once the roads teemed with life and you could feel the energy. Cars zipping by, filled with people, happy faces and smiles.... now its empty roads and only the streetlights keeping them company.
The Chennai I knew then and the one I know now....sighh