I have been privileged enough to see lot of place in India and outside India. After finishing my college i got a job and was told to join in Bangalore. After reaching in Bangalore I felt like being part of the city already. I explored each and every happening place around. No matter what was the pressure during training but I already had imagined how I would be spending my time. I had chosen my favorite places. Became privilege card holder in different places.
I had found amazing set of friends in blore as well. I was very happy the way karnaticans accepted people from other part of the country. I had a sexed out house. My roomies were my college frnds. I was having gala of a time. Three months was over and i didnt even realize. My training period was over. It suddenly hit me thatmy location will be decided again. I thought i would settle for blore or Delhi. Delhi is Delhi. No comparison there. But i was quiet happy in Bangalore. I wanted to explore this city completely.
And the day finally arrived, my Regional manager informed me that i am being posted to “Chennai”. After discussing it with my relatives and frnds. i got two kind of expression.
First one was pretty straight.. “teri toh lagi!”
Second was sympathising one.. “ohh.. how bad! wat will u do now”.
I had heard ppl talking bout chennai before. and i had an image bout chennai. and ppl close to me explained that it is after all a metro city. how bad can it be. so i set myself for new journey. to experience something new in life. Whenever someone shifts from one place to another there is a mixture of feeling of sorrow and anxiety. I was going through the same. To be honest i was not looking forward for anything but i thought of taking life as it comes.
Company gave me a guesthouse and fortunately the cook was north indian. Looking at the conveyance and judging people for first few days i knew its gonna be difficult in chennai. After getting allocated to a project and meeting up with few seniors of the company i realised that managers in chennai has just one job.. holding the employees and threatning them to continue working in chennai with full dedication. After arranging housing and roompartners i had just one feeling…
There comes a time in a man’s life when all his plans get screwed. Paradise turns to a shit pot.
The place where we were staying in chennai can be comfortably described as shit hole. First reason for staying in such a place was it was near to ofice. and travelling in chennai heat is just unexplainable. ohh there was no second and i didnt get much say in deciding the place. so there we go! I thought weekends will be fun atleast. So we thought of catching a movie. ohh it was adventurous. Before any of u gets confused. i am not talking bout movie. I am talking bout reaching a decent Cineplex. I took a shared auto and then a local train and then another local train. wait it’s not over. walked for another 15 minutes. After two hours i reached decent cineplex which runs non tamil movies. How do in earth people manage in chennai. For ppl who think.. what a fool why didnt he take an auto straight to the Cineplex i would like to inform you that once u ask a autowala in hindi or non tamilian language they charge you 3-4 times more. Meter is just for display. Meters should be put in museums.
I was never a big fan of malls. i have seen enough in Delhi. But the crowd of malls in chennai was also highly disappointing. I had one question in repeat in my mind how does non tamilians manage in chennai. Then some ppl told me that visit beaches in chennai.
We went to famous Marina Beach. Ohh my god. there were so many people at a single place. People were pushing each other. And the air around me just had two smells. one of fried fish and second of gajras. Wats with wearing gajra everyday!! With passing time people get used to stuff but i grew more irriatted with smell of gajra. sometimes its difficult to stay in lift with all gajras around. Another question popped up in my head how do these gajras manage to keep spreading the pathetic smell in this heat. doesnt heat dries up the flowers. Its such kind of heat in chennai that ppl dont need to go for waxing, just stand in the sun for 2 minutes and automatically the hair will burn.
When i am out in the afternoon i just have one agenda find shadow place to walk on the streets. Coming back to gajras i finally got the answer to my question. they keep extra gajras in their bags. one dries up then they put another one. I am not exaggerating it.. i have been lucky enough to catch it with my eyes. Ohh and about food. I have learned the art of staying hungry. I am a big foodie. Thats explains my obvious love for delhi. i like trying different cuisine and dishes. My mom used to go mad at me for asking to make biryani every other day. But now she will be really happy to know that i can stay hungry for 48 hours straight. This is my latest record. I am guessing i will beat it soon.
I have seen some ads in television which says the best thing is when ur only competition is u. these things inspire me now. The only cuisine available in chennai is sambhar rassam and idli. I was such a big fan of maggi. But now m bored of it as well. Thats been my dinner for months now. There were few restaurants around my place which looked decent. So one fine day me and my roomi decided to try it out. I was surprise to see the menu card. It had a lot of north indian and chinese dishes. With great excitement i ordered keema paratha. No matter how bad a cook is its pretty easy to cook keeema paratha. One just have to put keema inside the paratha and fry it or something like that. I was bout to eat some good food again so thinkig bout it made me more hungry. Finally the waiter arrived he put a bowl in front of me. I looked inside the bowl with great amuse. It was nothing like paratha. it was crushed. I looked at waiter and said to him that i ordered keema paratha. and with great confidence i told him u have put the wrong order on wrong table. But the waiter said the weird-looking thing in the bowl is keema paratha only. First time in my life i ate paratha in a bowl with spoon.
If others are not as stubborn as me then for them Hunger takes priority over taste. Tamil is the only language in chennai. Even the team meetings are done in tamil.the work assigned to few of us are told in english and thats all. People here look down to you if u speak hindi. Even though speaking Hindi is an offense in Chennai, some of the Hindi Television serials like Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 etc is beamed in Tamil. Some TV Channels were also beaming some English movies with Tamil voice overs. What an Irony!
I have got a new name in my frnd circle “Anna”.. i hate it.. i get irritated with it. But then talking to those wonderfull ppl is the only thing which puts me out of this dismay.
But still one shouldnt give up hope. there are lots of other things apart from eating good food, having some fun, interacting with people, good weather, liking wat u are doing. But then again my stupid mind asks me a question.. What are those fucking things???????