Boo hooo ....

23rd January 2007. 7:15 A.M and where am I? In a god forsaken place called Chennai and my abode is the office. Phew. In case you are wondering what am I doing in the office at this hour, just for your information I'm working with Reliance Retail and we are rolling stores at a breakneck speed.
Welcome to Chennai: The moment I landed in Chennai yesterday it brought back the memories of my previous visits to this city (3 Months in 2002 and 2 Days of hell in May 2003). Come out of the aircraft and hits you like an inferno. Hot, hotter and hottest is what they say are the seasons of Chennai, while you can add a few more additives like humidity. And then the eternal sunshine of a baseless mind of the Autowallahs here. No matter what one says, the crown of most notorious autowallahs would surely go to Chennai, followed by Delhi maybe? I mean you just can't get through them. You can only be saved if you have a Tamil shouting (not speaking alone) friend with you. Else, the latest I hear is that they have even become the costliest affair officially. Though a drive would be started on 26th to make them follow the meter, I wonder how much success authorities will achieve. Anyways, in some cases, like this one, life's like that. Take it or leave it. So much for being a metro, this city is facing a crisis in terms of availability of rooms in hotels. Apparently 3-4 major events happening simultaneously has put the infrastructure to test.

Memoirs of Chennai: Despite all that it is, some memories of Chennai are indeed sweet. As a total stranger I landed up at my friend's place here in 2002 to join a firm. And from there on the moments were like beads of pearls coming together in the string of life like a necklace. From the first experience of bathing with hot water (unwillingly coz apparently all people in Chennai prefer bathing with hot water and my friend's mom had made similar arrangement for me) to the marriage that I attended in May 2003 which made me realise how powerful can the sun be in company of humidity while the agony is compounded in absence of power and water. To avoid going into loops I'd like to highlight a few points about this city (esp if you are a North Indian)
1) It will be tough for you to find a house here. You will be bombarded with questions like
a) Are you a Brahmin?
b) Are you a non-vegetarian?
c) Do you smoke/drink? etc etc
2) Then if you pass the test you may be unlucky enough to land up in a house where the landlord will be so psyched about his daughter and her "security" from North Indian bachelors (read : "rascals") that he'll come up to you with stubs of Wills while all this while your friends may just have been having Gold Flake
3) At places you may find the Naan to be cheaper then rotis (which may be as big as a disk if not larger)
4) Very few places will have eating joints open after 10:30 so you may be well advised to eat in time, sleep in time and be ready to be woken up early in time by the music of some or the other temple (there would surely be at least 5 in each square km here). So whether you wish or not early to rise will happen ensuring that you have no option of late to bed also
5) Autowallahs
a) Whatever the auto-wallah quotes as the amount, jus half it to start the negotiation
b) Be precise about the location else if you differ even by a few degrees the amount charged would be much higher despite the fact that you may have travelled less distance
c) Their gesture of Yes would be right-left-right movement of neck while that of no would be up-down-up
6) If you want to have some respite from the heat, Beasant Nagar beach is the place to be. Awesome place to have the company of sea. Don't try Marina, its the largest open-air toilet in the world

Having come to Chennai I realised how some of my friends were and you also realise the value of the local attire. Else you may just end up scratching all over.

Just like everything else even this city has a lot to offer. A lot of good as well. If you know the people here and they get to trust you, they are so warm that you will be overwhelmed. They are so hard working that you would be inspired. Sincerity and the thrust on education is visible. And its more of an education here than just literacy. So it gave a lot to me as well. Some of the warmest moments with my friend's family. Will always be indebted to them. God only knows how i'd have survived here without them. The awesome rasam and dosas at aunty's place are yet to be dethroned as the best one's that i've had.
The Landmark book store, more so the Nungambakkam one. The ownership has passed to Emami I heard. Spencer's where you could just while away in AC to avoid heat. Some great rock scene and the passion of quizzing. How can I not mention good old "The Hindu" that still remains a newspaper amidst the transformations to tabloid culture. That reminds me of the culture. Though it may look like orthodoxy, but religion is a part of the culture here. Its a way of life and brings peace. Whatever you may call it but it does impact this city, and for the good perhaps.
For all the goodness in this city, i found some of my very good friends here. Thanks to i-flex, I had some great colleagues and friends who are still very much a part of my life. And just as I value any place which gives me such wealth, Chennai also ranks high (though I do wonder how much of it is got to do with the city itself).

So this is the story of Chennai in my life. Lets see how the next few days pass by.