Chennai is the warrast?

There is something that I have to ask you. One of my friends says, “Chennai is the warrast (worst) city in India”. Do you agree? My friend has not made that statement without reasons. There are a few reasons he has listed out and he is more than willing to give “hundreds… no thousands of reasons” to prove his point. He was also curious to know what the others are feeling and in fact, insisted that I write about it on my blog. Please do go through the reasons he had mentioned (and pardon my language, support projects do make your communication so formal that you end up talking like the E! news guys who talk about celebrities’ hook-ups and break-ups like it is the most important news)

Reason #1: Chennai climate – it is the warrast climate. It is so damn hot.

My thought: I have got to agree with him on this one. Chennai is hot; but I liked the heat and he didn’t.

Reason #2: Chennai people don’t know how to behave. They are harsh and rude.

My thought: Ada paavi makka, Chennai makkal are the warmest (well, not as respectful as Coimbatore makkal) and very friendly. They are a little conservative, but that is the best part about it. It is a modern city with traditional values.

Reason #3: Chennai’s dirtiness and ugliness.

My thought: Well, I am still contemplating what he meant by ‘ugliness’; and if he expects any city to be ‘clean’ by his standards, he would have to travel to Singapore, I guess)

Reason #4: Chennai’s drainage system – big open drainage lines running all over the city (in front of major IT parks too)

My thought: The other Indian cities are no better, Krishna! Chennai is a city with one of the best infrastructures in the country.

Reason #5: Chennai people can’t speak any other language – not even Hindi/English.

My thought: Babu, when YOU visit a city, YOU should learn the local language and NOT crib about the people there. And do NOT expect the locals to learn a new tongue in their own city. Also, Tamil is a simple and beautiful language, try learning that! When God gives you an opportunity to learn a new language, grab it. If you get an onsite opportunity and go to France or Netherlands to Spain wouldn’t you learn French or Dutch or Spanish? Or will you forgo the opportunity and demand that your client learns Hindi/English? If you can adjust in a phoren country, why not do it in your OWN country?

Reason #6: Non-Tamil movies (by this he means Hindi movies) don’t release in Chennai. If they do they are released in very few theatres and they don’t last for more than a week’s time.

My thought: Really? This point proves how little you know about Chennai. During my stay there, I watched almost all the Hindi movies that were released. From Hit to Flop, I saw everything there.

Reason #7: Auto-walahs are very rude. There is no meter system.

My thought: I agree there is no meter system. But not all auto-walahs are rude. They respond depending on the tone and attitude with which you ask them. Give respect, take respect! :-D

Reason #8: I went to Ponnusamy hotel. I had chicken, mutton, and everything and I ended up vomiting. Chennai’s food is bad.

My thought: I couldn’t stop laughing at this one. Nadakaradhu, odaradhu, parakaradhu, neendharadhu ellathayum ore time-la vettina, vomit varama? Sinna pulla thanamala irukku? Team lunch-na ippidiya kattradhu? Oru limit venaam? Oru self-control venaam? But anyways, it is just not acceptable that Chennai is the warrast city because Ponnuswamy hotel provides bad food.

Reason #9: Chennai (Marina) beach is the warrast beach (compared to RK beach in Vizag)

My thought: Payapulla, compare panradha vuda maatiya? May be Marina is not as clean, but I am sure the life in Marina is something incomparable. The kids, the kites, the sundal, the wind, the under-the-boat-lovers – it is just out of the world. Instead of enjoying all that, if you choose to concentrate on the cleanliness aspect of it, you are the loser.

Indha maadhiri palappala reasons sonnar avar! I think that you should enjoy whichever city you visit as long as you are there. Try learning the local language, use public transportation to explore the city and I am sure you will have a nice time. What say people?

A February Saturday in 1998

Feb 14, 1998

Thank God, it was a Saturday. That meant my mom had to work only half-a-day and therefore left office before 3pm on that fateful day. It was 12 years back – 1998. It was when people came to know Coimbatore as the ‘Bomb Blast’ city than as an industrial city. At first, when we heard the news of a bomb blast within the city, I was scared – Amma hadn’t returned home after office and there she did not carry a cell phone in those days and she was practically not reachable. After what seemed an eternity, she reached home. After that, we were kept updated by friends and colleagues (of my parents’) about the various bomb blasts and the riots. It all sounded so unreal – there was no way so many people could have died, there was no way anyone could have planted bombs in the Govt. Hospital (no one was THAT insensitive), there was no way people could set fire to shops in Town Hall and loot stuff from burning shops, and there was absolutely no way there was a 3kg RDX bomb right in Amma’s office building (that was diffused later). I was 12 years old. I thought the world was full of nice people. And villains who murdered people existed only in movies (this was when I was ‘innocent’ as I claimed in my previous post). All the same, I was excited too, because schools declared holiday until a car bomb was diffused and that took around 4days.

The fact was that over a hundred people died (although the official figures claim that it was only one-third of it), and so many were injured and the incident changed the image of the city in a flash – suddenly, people were more unwilling to come and work in Coimbatore (even though it is a beautiful city with a great climate and awesome water), Real Estate prices hit rock bottom (of course, I didn’t realize it then), and business slumped and it took half a decade for it to come back to normal. And for the first time in my life, I felt unsafe. I felt afraid to go out; little did I know that such attacks would become a way of life in the years to come!

I think that is enough and more reason why, as a Coimbatorean, I won’t celebrate Valentines’ day – the day that made my city weep and bleed. To me it is a day of mourning. Celebrating is the last thing that I would do on February 14^th.

Nothing in particluar

Well well, the only thing I took seriously after I wrote my previous post was to learn Spanish (in hopes of meeting Rafael Nadal someday and him falling hopelessly in love with me ). Sigh… And I am being taught Spanish by Google as well as a few native speakers. And I must say it is a very nice language to learn. By now, it is no secret that I am a huge chatter-box and can’t stop talking and I also love learning new languages. So the next language on my hit-list was Spanish (maamiyaar, maamanaar-ah impress panna vendam? Not just that – Rafa is also Peter-la weak) and I am so excited by the opportunity I am being given to learn a new language which sounds great. But bad news is that Rafa is injured (yet again) in his right knee (yet again) and has pulled out of the Australian Open – I was hoping to see him defend his title and reclaim his #1 spot. Oh my God, I am really in love with him!!!

Ippolaam ennavo theriyala, I am beginning to enjoy Kuthu Songs – from Nakka Mukka to En peru Meenakumari to Aathichoodi – full time I am singing these songs and this irritates everyone around me. Obviously, I have come a long way from my Bhajan and Bhagwad Geeta Chanting to this and it really makes my family angry. They still expect me to be that little girl who was innocent (hey, nejamma… believe me, I used to be innocent – once upon a time) and the problem is I have grown up and they haven’t! Indha ammakkale ippididhaan pola…

My sister has gone to Mumbai with her friends – Industrial Visit-am. Engalukku theriyaadhu, indha I.V.-la enna pannuvaanganu? All ore kuttai-la oorina mattais dhaane? With her around it is easier to handle maamis who want to marry me off like it is the purpose of their birth – at least I had someone to laugh it off with. It will be really nice if gets married first and no one seems to agree with me on that. Enna vaazhkayada!