The Journey Begins!!
25th December 2007.
Aha, a good day to land up in a foreign land, isn't it? Definitely!! This being my second trip to US, the excitement had lil' bit waned. Hey but I was coming on a Christmas eve and that was exciting. The trip was from Mum - JFK (NYC) - Atlanta - Phoenix. Mumbai to JFK was little bit boring. I mean if you have to sit in a cramped space for more than 12 hours, it does get boring, doesn't it? So I was looking forward to landing in Atlanta and there I was. Boy the airport there is huge. And you know what? They have smokin lounges there which are really really spacious and cool! These lounges are good way of observing people. So there I was having a fag and one guy started a casual conversation. He too was working on holidays which is very boring and he had all sympathies with me!! We have a prejudice that it is difficult to start a conversation with strangers in foreign land. But I think the otherwise. Yes, Americans are bit private people and like to keep to themselves, but then one does bump into people with whom you really can have a good casual conversation. Phoenix where are thou??
Ahoy Phoenix!!
I landed at 7pm in Phoenix. The stewards in the plane were in a Christmas mood and were dressed accordingly.I came out of the airport and was looking for a cab and there I was greeted by a airport guy, Steve. He helped me book a cab. Well, he stressed, its always good to have a map, which he had! This being a holiday season, there were not many cabs in service so I had to pass some time with Steve. He was one jolly person, a little bit disenchanted with the commercialization of Christmas these days. He had a very valid point that Christmas, it seems, is losing its spiritual meaning. Some time later we were joined by an elderly couple. Now Steve was really into talking mood. He was talking on all topics he could think of: the elections, Iraq War, Bush, Hillary, China, raising kids, how the country is not as free as it seems ..whew. In those 20 minutes I could peek into the psyche of an average American. The conversation was nice and then my cab arrived. So I bid them good-bye and then started the journey with all the memories of the travel and in anticipation of more!
January 1, 2008
December 7, 2006
Memoirs of Chennai!
Ahoy Captain here I come! Recently I visited Chennai (
The Beginning
I boarded SpiceJet Plane on 28th July 2006 and landed in the evening. The flight was uneventful. Once I came out of the airport I was greeted with a soothing drizzle. It does not rain much in Chennai in July but mind you if it does rain it rains quite a lot and for couple of hours. I headed for
Getting Around in Chennai
The first thing that hit me was the public transport system. Well coming from Thane which is a suburb of Mumbai (
The taxis here are white in color as against yellow+black in Mumbai. There was a conspicuous dearth of high-rises here. Chromepet is a growing suburb, mostly residential with Naidu hall as its main shopping mall. More on shopping later!
Chennai has a decent suburban rail network. Well nothing in comparison to what we have in Mumbai but heck, it serves the purpose of mass transit system. The worst part of travelling here is Auto-Rickshaw. The funny thing is there are no fixed meter-wise rates here. New visitors need to be aware as they can be easily conned by the wily drivers.
The public bus system is also decent with conductors blowing whistle instead of the regular bell that we have in Mumbai. The conductors have a really amusing way of putting currency notes between their fingers. Their dexterity of handling the notes is really amusing.
The Food
Oh well, Chennai is really not the place to be if you are the connoisseur type and can tell the different nuances between wines! People here relish on humble sambar rice, idli dosas and good old
If you really want to catch the pulse of Chennai you have to go to a small restaurant/eatery. The food is served in a traditional fashion: banana leaf and all the food stuff on it eaten with hands slurrrrp.
Sadly for the boozers Chennai has nothing to offer. NOTHING. It is a big disappointment. Heck but you can kick your gears and head straight to Pondi!! The booze there is tax free!! Enjoy to your heart’s extent and then return back.
The special dish/must have here? Mysore-paak (मैसूर पाक). Don’t even think of coming out of Chennai before relishing this sweet delicacy.
The People
Chennai faces a lot of criticism for being very traditional, so much to the point that it seems to be unwelcome to the strangers/people coming from other cultures. To be fair enough, tradition is what Chennai has made its preserve its timelessness. Getting to converse is a little difficult as Tamil is the de-facto language her. Forget about Hindi. Hindi won’t get you anywhere. However English is widely understood and I found that I could easily get along with people with English and sometimes even with some broken Hindi.
But I believe things are changing. With IT emerging in a big way in Chennai, people have opened their doors to outsiders. They surprisingly are more than willing to converse if you just say “Tamil Teriyaad” or I cannot speak Tamil. It just goes to show that you are genuinely trying to be part of the culture and they understand that it does take time to do that.
I have made many friends in Chennai and I think I am really lucky to have had an opportunity to visit the place.
More on my experiences in the next blog!!
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