Meera

Episode 01

"Enga poitta Meera? Where have you been all these years? Enna vittu eppdi..., how could you ever imagine leaving me alone!?" exclaimed an altogether surprised Raghav, hugging tight the love of his life, after almost 18 years of separation.

Years roll back as tears roll down their eyes. A flashback begins! Now, here's my twist to the flashback, why should I take you exactly to that day they separated? Why should I not take you few more years back to tell you what stuff Raghav is made up of?

First let's know his poorveegam! Then, his love story!

Kumbakonam

A temple town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.  Just like the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, the Maha Magam fest held once in 12 years is an identity that this town proudly boasts of.

This is where Raghava Narasimhan Chakrapani, in short Raghav Chakrapani was born on 14 April 1973, an auspicious Tamil New Year Day, as the only son, infact the only child to Srimaan (the word for Mr. in Indian dialect) Chakrapani Iyengar, a sanskrit pandit and a tamil scholar, and Smt. Janaki Chakrapani. His mother was a conservative housewife, who never spoke a word against her aathukaarar, like in many other households of the tamil brahmin community those days, called with modernity as TamBrahm now.

Madras

His father getting an udyogam as a faculty at the Sanskrit College meant shifting to the capital city of Madras when he was just 1, to the beautiful agraharam of Mylapore, a village within the precincts of the coastal city and a temple paradise. And that's where life begun for this little kid. Being an aacharamana family, he was brought up in a structured way with timely upanayanam and imparting of vedhas and slokas. Schooling at P S School, Mylapore and college at Vivekananda was and still is a combination which many of Mylaporeans choose for their kids, and Chakrapani Iyengar was no different in choosing this combination for Raghav. With interest is music, he was trained in violin.

After graduation, jobs did pour in from various known sources. But Chakrapani Iyengar wasn't interested to force his son into a job. He wanted his son to traverse to great heights in his career ladder. Had it been a girl, marriage would have been the most resorted option for her given the amount of family pressure they had those days.

So, for the first time, Raghav was given the freedom to choose a course for his life. Since his interest was in commerce and accountancy, and with good marks in higher secondary as well as in college, he chose to pursue the career of Chartered Accountancy, one of the two predominant options to most of TamBrahm lads.

Having enrolled into the course, he was directly eligible for the Intermediate exams. Though he had a command over accountancy and commerce, certain law papers needed attention which landed him in the coaching facility at the Institute. Private coaching points weren't much those days and those which existed were not an affordable option to all. And with library attached, going to the institute meant a double dhamaka to studious Raghav!

Since Mylapore and Nungambakkam (where the Institute is situated) isn't that far, Raghav was given the liberty to choose how to commute. He was gifted a TVS 50 (one of the most preferred two wheeler those days, and the inspiration for today's TVS XL100) for his last teen birthday (adhaanga, 19th birthday). He was also given pocket money for fuel. But being a bus fan, Raghav mostly chose to travel in 29C to and fro, one of the oldest bus routes in the city. Tickets cost few paise those times.

Everything in Raghav's life went smooth until he accidentally met Sahana...

Here begins the first plot in his story!