So..Where are you from?

"So...where are you from?".

Now, this is one question that has always caught me off guard. I usually respond with " I'm from Tamilnadu" and I look forward to a change in the topic. But obviously, the questions don't end there. I am asked to zero in on a particular place - "Where in Tamilnadu?". This puts me in a spot. What the person wants to know is - "What is your hometown?"

I've seen my mother respond to this question with "We are all from Kadayanallur/Krishnapuram". This is my dad's hometown. Further probing would reveal that she hails from Mana Madurai. I have spent a summer vacation or two in these villages - thoroughly enjoyed them. But I wouldn't go as far to call them my home town.

I was born in Coimbatore. But I spent a very small duration of my childhood there, most of which I recall only vaguely (I do remember that my elder brother had a lot of friends and I used to irritate him to no end by tagging along everywhere). I met my wife and we got married there. My daughter was born there. So Coimbatore does hold some fond memories. But hometown?

I did most of my schooling in Tirunelveli. I met some of my closest friends there for the first time. I have a strong connect with this town. After I went to college, I was rechristened after a delicacy that Tirunelveli is famous for all over the world. And this name stuck. Very few of my batch mates know my real name. Tirunelveli is where I spent most of my formative years. Unfortunately, nobody lives there anymore. What good is a hometown if you don't have a home or folks to go back to?

I landed my first job in Chennai. I became financially independent here. My parents live in Chennai. I have a house in Chennai (which I don't intend to live in). But I have never had any emotional connect with this city. It has always been sort of a transit place for me.

Ever since I started working, life has taken me to various places - Cochin, Hyderabad, Mumbai and now Kolkata. But I still go blank for a few seconds when I'm asked this question, before responding with "TamilNadu". If probed further, I start with Coimbatore, proceed south towards Tirunelveli and Kadayanallur, and finally end up at Chennai. By the time I'm done, the person is either completely confused or bored. And it works all the time!