The Grand Auld Lady, a wicked smile dancing on her 360-something-year-old face, watches your approach.

“Chennai is... everything from Kumbakonam Degree Coffee to Cafe Latte?”

YOU (tentatively): A recent study says…

GAL: Will the ‘real’ ME please stand up?

YOU: Er…something like that.

GAL: And that V-shaped sign of confusion between your eyebrows?

YOU: Well, they say you are a “city of balance and moderation”. That’s a good thing, right?

GAL (grinning): None too sure, eh? You’d have preferred more colourful, in-your-face adjectives, perhaps? Sorry, you’re in the wrong frame, then.

YOU: No, no….but it’s true. You are hard to define.

GAL: Isn’t that a good thing?

YOU: But so many contrasts in one “frame”, as you say?

GAL: Why not? Isn’t it fun to be the tortoise? What a good laugh it must have had!

YOU (slightly fogged): The tortoise…?

Her eyes narrow impatiently.

YOU (hastily): Oh, that tortoise. Yes, I understand, but…

GAL: You like being obvious? Now me – I like being this way… a little of everything …like a cloak of many colours…

YOU: You like confusing people?

GAL (smiling): No. But I like being an enigma.

You start replying…

Too late.

She’s vanished into the sabha-s/gaana paatu; movie masala/ English theatre; item numbers/book readings; malli poo/designer hair; mojitos/idli-dosai; madisar/haute-couture…

And you hear her laughter.

Ranjitha Ashok