My first home in the city was Madras Christian College. On the day I was taken into Heber Hall, I was the only one who appeared, much to the embarrassment of my classmates, with a grandparent. One look at Room No. 206 and I fell in love with it. Life in MCC can be bohemian. My room had one chair, one table, one bed and one shelf. Sparse but neat. I tore up the posters someone had stuck on the windows and began my life away from home.

I spend a year in MCC experiencing its ways, its joys and its deceptions. The camaraderie between boys in a hostel is rare enough to treasure for a lifetime and perhaps because of this, my affair with the city began in true style. At the end of that year though, I found myself without a job. I managed an internship and began house hunting.

Renting a bachelor’s pad can be tough. I learned it the hard way. My friend and I spend an entire afternoon hunting for mansions in Triplicane, where we were both got disgusted with the single rooms. We found them cramped and unhygienic. I think we were dumb enough to land up in the all the wrong places. I say that now with confidence because I discovered later that Triplicane is really what they call it: Bachelor’s Paradise.

We then found a room in Ashok Nagar. We didn’t have water supply and my friend and I nudged each other in the morning to draw water from a tank. It was hard work and I remember cursing myself and my dumb luck all throughout. Early every morning, I caught two buses to reach Amjikarai to work, where I wasn’t paid because I was just interning. Those two months I spend in the mansion taught me just one thing: There is no water in this city and the buses never come on time. Valuable lessons, both, and really are defining characteristics of the city.

My next haunt in Chennai was in one of the very mansions in Triplicane I had so hated at first sight. My friend, all of them journalism students from other cities, cursed the mansion, and whenever we could, we would hunt for houses where some 20 of us planned to stay together. It was a mad plan and luckily was never fruitful. In the end, all of us liked the mansion and found it quite pleasant and convenient. The water was salty and I gradually grew bald. That’s the gift Chennai bequeaths to its citizens.

When I took my degree, I found a job and for the first time some money that I could call my own. This time, a friend rented a house in Saidapet. It was run down and tap water was muddy. But I loved the place. I had no furniture and slept on a bed on the floor. That summer was hot, so hot it sunk into my brain forever that Chennai is hot, sweaty and humid. Another characteristic that these days is fast becoming a myth. It rained all year long this year.

Soon enough, my friend moved to New Delhi. I moved to West Mambalam. Have you been to Srinivasa Theatre? You should. All the souls of the bugs that I killed while watching the movies there will surely remember me! That theatre where people pissed on a field nearby during the interval could start an epidemic all on its own. But luckily I never caught more than a common cold during my various trips to the theatre.

My love affair with the city was not continuous. I had a year’s break from the city’s clutches in Hyderabad and when I returned my life was much more luxurious. I still slept on the floor because I had taken to it, but this time I had a box of lights to keep me company. Valmiki Nagar is a lovely piece of real estate. I lived close-by visiting the beach every so often, especially in the night. If the cops didn’t chase you away, smoking on the beach can be a spiritual experience.

In the morning, you could see couples in outsized clothes going for their morning walk. Some of them were called DINCs – Double Income No Child. They had an expression that said: “If I don’t walk here today, the earth will come crashing down. It’s for your benefit that I am walking.” Some came with their dogs. The dogs trotted by effortlessly as their owners huffed and puffed along.

These last two years of my life…I am back to living in Triplicane. I don’t want to write about stuff that is so recent. But let me assure you I still love the city. Very much so.

Three weeks back, I started house hunting again. Do you know of a place I can live in?