Appreciating the small things in Life-What Chennai has taught me!!

Living in Chennai has been a great experience for me n my family…why you ask?? Well never have we got a better chance to appreciate simple things in life…despite of having made our abode in lot many places in India. The simple act of chatting with your neighbor every morning is a rare thing for us. Not because they are too arrogant but because the poor souls have no clue what we are saying. My stay here though short has made me realize that people here have believed their entire life that Tamil is the only language in world, everyone around them knows it (proved by the simple fact that even though you let them know that u don know Tamil, they continue their chatter in the same language), and if they don’t they should!! My heart really goes out to the people who actually try to acknowledge that there can be another language in world other than Tamil and make any attempt though futile of understanding what we trying to say.

I have started dreading going out of my home for the simple fact that a plain act of hiring a rickshaw is made the most irritating, sometimes entertaining and all the time a brave task!! It’s really hard not to loose patience when trying to hire a rickshaw here. First of all rickshaw vala will always tell a price double of what it is supposed to be. So all those people who think bargaining is LS or don’t know how to do it, get your own vehicle and a Chennai map when coming here. Secondly until you haggle and leave at least 3 rickshaws you won’t get the best deal. Let me also declare here and now that the best deal is still rickshaw vala’s profit and your loss!! Thirdly and most importantly if you don’t know Tamil…..God bless you!! It’s a fact that these rickshaw vala’s do understand what you are trying to say but still pretend not to and continue to babble on in Tamil until you get frustrated and give up! So don’t give up! And that’s why I said that it is indeed a brave task to hire a rickshaw here. Why it can be irritating is very obvious and entertaining because after a while you start enjoying the challenge. J

Hence a key to survival here is you should have a positive outlook and appreciate the way your communication skills are improving here. Another thing to be warned about Chennai is that if you are a traveler and hope to shop here….well I hope you like everything to be on the bigger side! No I don’t mean they don’t keep small size in garments or anything. What I do mean is every design is BIG…yes and in weirdest of color combinations (I suspect sometimes Govinda got his inspiration of clothes right here in Chennai or was it the other way round??!!). So with all due respect to all the malls in Chennai which are really impressive on virtue of their size but not on the stuff they keep, I have never found a decent T-shirt here until I have searched the entire section twice. But you know what they are doing just well as they are after all for the people here!

Hey that does not mean Chennai is worthless or life is no good here. If you have a taste for good South Indian food, congratulations you are in the right place! And if you like an adventurous life I must say you are missing out a lot if you are not here….cos every day here is a new adventure!!