Hariprasad Annamalai
10:00 Composition
Ms. Young
Explode the Moment
I stepped onto the street ridden with banana peels smeared by those unfortunate tourists who failed to spot out the yellow safety hazard, crumpled newspapers and disposable aluminum trays that once held white idlis with steaming sambar. The smell of rotting vegetables from the nearby market invaded my nose, taking the place of the aroma of the mint rice that was being cooked in the open kitchen of the hotel. I looked down towards my feet and quickly diverted my step in mid-air, after seeing a pile of cow dung. I directed my eyes away from the fresh excrement and began walking across the crumbling street. Large pieces of deteriorating gravel and asphalt lined the side of the road and dust, kicked up from vehicles, hung in the air like a cloud of flies around a pile of trash. The town of Tirunelveli seemed to have awakened at the sound, blasting through the air like the roar of a lion, of the horn of the Nellai Express, arriving at the railway junction, from the city of Chennai.
My grandfather led the way through h...