From Fanoos to Angkor Vat... All those who have seen the wonderful French movie 'Chocolat', and have felt the wanderlust felt by Vianne Rocher, the heroine of the movie enacted by Juliette Binoche, know how I feel today.

The following quote from the movie, for me, sums up the feeling -

"Storyteller: But still the clever north wind was not satisfied. It spoke to Vianne of towns yet to be visited, friends in need yet to be discovered, battles yet to be fought"

The breeze of a slightly different orientation, the south-east one, in Chennai today is imparting similar ideas, feelings, emotions and desires to me. I knew that I've always had this wanderlust, this desire to just go out there - to explore - to travel over wind-swept plateaus and wooded hills, to meet new people whose languages I do not understand or about whom I have only read in the books. I want to, as some advertisement puts it, 'reclaim my independence'.

On normal days, this feeling is muted and drowned out by the cacophony of 'routine'. But today is different, today, a oddly-named hurricane, 'Fanoos' has brought a beautiful, slightly rainy, slightly cold breeze to usually-hot-and-humid Chennai. The breeze and the drizzle have done their historic role, of weathering the parched dust covering of daily routine and have exposed the human, with feelings and desires, within. My only desire right now is to go home from my mundane office, to grab some basic necessities, to gas up my old Hyundai and just go... anywhere, without knowing where, to follow the road just because the road is "there".

While Vianne, in 'Chocolat' manages to conquer her wanderlust and manages to settle down in the lovely French town, I have yet not managed to find an anti-dote to mine... and perhaps I do not want to...  ¶ 12:28 PM