Cricket by The Western Ghats, Degree Coffee and 'The Avenger Initiative'

For someone who has spent most of his life settling and resettling in several places (to such an extent that I don't have a proper answer to the question "Where are you from ??"), it feels really good to be back in my native city and childhood home. Just sharing a couple of interesting experiences from here. (Perhaps I should blog a separate post about the identity crisis. Title: 'Born Identity' !!)
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Such a happy feeling when someone asks you to join their cricket team, and the happiness doubles when you know that the wicket-keeper spot is vacant! To play in-view of the wonderfully blue Nilgiri mountains, with the evening sun pleasantly warm and a strong breeze blowing across, it is such a great feeling. Since there is a space constraint, we share our ground with 4-5 other teams. With overlapping of fielding positions and chasing after the other team's ball, some hilarious moments on the field !!
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Being a coffee lover, I was intrigued by this big 'Original Kumbakonam Degree Coffee" board at a tiny coffee shop near my house here. They have special Brass vessels to serve the coffee, which they pre-treat with hot water. It tastes very different and the flavour of metal on your lips gives an extra zing to the whole coffee-drinking experience. Definitely gonna frequent that place.
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Owing to traffic rules and "Take Deviation" signs, there is this very very narrow road that I cannot avoid while riding home from work. The road is inhabited by goldsmiths. They've been living there for generations and apparently, the air around the place is filled with gold-dust. One of my friends suggested that I should thoroughly clean the tyres of my bike (Bajaj Avenger) every week and see how much gold I could collect. I'm calling it 'The Avenger Initiative' !!

Location: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

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