Life in Chennai

Chennai Central Railway Station

I got selected for Amazon and my way to Chennai became very clear.10th July 2011 is the day when I came to Chennai. Like others I was also afraid about climate of Chennai. But Chennai is not so hot in this time of the year nor it was in july.

Night life in Chennai is not as wild as in other Metro’s. They have a valid reason for it. Chennaites don't want to make Chennai a  place where people will drink eat and enjoy in night and sleep in day.

Google Search is required to find good pub/bars in Chennai ( if you really enjoy in these places ). But to find huge peaceful temples are very easy. In-fact you can find at-least one temple in every one km radius. Truly a holy place it is.

I forget to take my key one day. Called my roomy and he told he will come around 10pm. I sat on stairs started my laptop. Suddenly from second floor a man with white hair came and asked me why you are sitting on stairs. If you forget key come to our house. I told its ok uncle. No-no come , and he opened his door for me (This was my first meet with him). I can bet you in Delhi or Bangalore no one will invite strangers to their house. Chennai is so cultured and homely place. People will welcome you with full of their heart The only things which you need  is to understand and accept their culture.

Tamil still has its importance in Chennai as in rest of Tamilnadu but if you learn at least few common words like saptingla (had food ) , theriyam ( know ), theriyad ( don't know ), you will feel comfortable here. Even  cab drivers are fluent in English here. We can find here many Hindi speaking people also.

When you say "Vanakkam" (Greetings in Tamil ) they will become so happy and glad,. I realized it when I used this vanakkam magic wand with elders I met in the garden. Chennai is not a garden city like Bangalore. You can hardly find any garden in Chennai. But I had one near my home ( I am lucky :-p )

Jeans , t shirts are common dress for youngsters in Chennai as in other parts of India these days but still lungi/dhoti and other traditional dress has its own importance here. :-p.

Murgan idly amazed me. What a traditional way of serving food with 4 types of different tasty coconut chuttnies. They served everything on banana leaf. No spoons. But the taste is so good that I forget all so called eating etiquette and started with the most hygienic tool of eating (of-course hand)

Public transport in Chennai is much better than other metro's. Can you believe bus charged me Rs 4.50 for 9km distance.Yes 50paise per km. I am sure you cannot find cheaper transport in any metro. Although road jams are common in chennai also but in comparison to other metros it is surely less here. Electricity is  also very cheap here and not much power cuts.

I have shown draft version of this blog to my roomie ( Dheeraj ) and his reaction is -" your blog is looking one sided everything is good about chennai ". It should show the other side also.

I was thinking if my experience is not bad in chennai why should I write the other side. But the God fullfill everyone wishes. Same happened with Dheeraj wish. I got the chance. 4/9/11 wednesday was the rainy day in Chennai. I have already opted out my pickup cab option. I started from my home in Besant Nagar towards Tiruvanmiyur Depo to catch an auto for my office. All roads were full of waters. Its like Ganga , Yamuna all together flowing into Chennai Roads. Even main roads like OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) were full  of water. Then i realized that opting out from office pickup was a big mistake



Yes one thing I found bad in Chennai is climatic conditions with worst drainage system.

I am going to complete my 4th month in chennai on 10th Nov and I can say Chennai is not a bad place to live.
I still want to go to bangalore, but now not because I don't like Chennai , my some close/dear friends are in bangalore with whom I want to spent lot of time.

Dedicating this post to them. Come to Chennai at-least to visit if don't want to settle here.. Its a nice cultural place.