Memoirs of Chennai!

Ahoy Captain here I come! Recently I visited Chennai (Madras) as a part of my stint with Covansys. The experience was really great and I have some fond memories to share.

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 Hotel Grand Palace at Chromepet. Chromepet is a small southern suburb of Chennai near to Tambaram. Tambaram is a bustling suburb where Covansys is located.

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 (Bombay) , I was expecting some hustle and bustle. Oh well, we get so used to it we expect it to be part of our lives don’t we? The suburb seemed to move on in its own calm, placid pace. There was a unnerving calmness to the entire state of affairs. Whoa!
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 Madras coffee! And the best part here? Unlimited Chennai Lunch!! And by god they mean unlimited when they say that. You can have as much rice and sambar as you can in 30Rs flat. Beat that.

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!!