Chennai A critique

You will perspire. No end.

Otherwise, I kinda liked the roads and the buses. But there was one problem, like any south Indian cities, a few seats are reserved for woman, but which ones, I kept struggling to find out.First I got into a bus and sat on the left side, somebody asked me to get up, as the entire left side was reserved for woman. Then in another bus, I sat on the right side in front, in company of an elderly gentleman and the conductor asked me to get up and sit somewhere at the back of the bus. It was quiet irritating, the non standardization of woman empowerment across buses in Chennai. Kandhe se kandha mila kar chalna hai.

One of my major problems was how to I pronounce Thiruvanmiyur, the place where my friend was put up. The people in Bangalore and Chennai, though not Hyderabad, are a trifle rude when one asks them for directions or generally which bus goes where. When I attempt to pronounce thiruvanmiyur, I get struck at thiru , after thiru I start mumbling and the people who are obligated to answer my call for directions have long stopped listening to me and snubbed me. So, I took the next best thing, I asked my friend to send me an SMS of that name. But ,by the time I flash out the cell and struggle to the inbox section, alas I have been snubbed again.

Somehow I reached his place and spent half an hour practicing the pronunciation. Then it occurred to me, my problem was my confidence, I did not believe in my abilities to say it. I then took the bull by its horn. Another mistake was that I was stopping after thiru, the trick in pronouncing it is to go in one breathe thiruvan , get a breather and then call out for your friend mayur. Ok Miyur, happy ?

This just goes on to prove that when puts one’s mind, soul and time in achieving the grandest of frivolous  goals, one cannot but give up until the cliff is conquered and yes, patience and a self critical look at how one does things, helps.

I went to anna nagar in a bus from Thiruvan-miyur and sat on the window seat on the left side, soon a lady shooed me away to the left side, and I meekly obliged. Then a lady sat beside me for some time who was heading for a Loyola college. 20 minutes into the journey, I asked her, so how long before I reach Anna Nagar, my friend had said that I would take barely half an hour. She smiled and said, 10 minutes. Then I tried to show the map of where I was to reach, and without looking at the map, she smiled again and said, no idea where the place is. After 20 minutes, Loyala College came and she happily told me another 10 minutes from here. And I said, yeah, sure, 10 minutes. I just wanted to ask her, was she even new to Chennai, but then I thought she might get offended so I just stopped there. It took me a cool one hour and my friend got the blasting due to him, later on.

Finally, is Chennai as bad as everybody whose mother tongue is not tamil, makes out? No, not for me. I miss the easy going demeanor of people from Hyderabad, but a beach more than makes up for all the shortcomings. Any day, one can pick up a book towards the twilight and sit on the beach and just read a book. Just remembered Anita Desai and games at twilight the other day, was feeling like the protagonist who sits for a couple of hours, in hide-n-seek. I don’t recall why that came to my mind though.

One of the most beautiful road was the one, the bus took from Paris to Thiruvan-miyur , Sea on the left side for more than 5 KMs. Oh yeah, there is also a Paris in Chennai, but the good thing about Chennai, is that the number boards in buses are inscribed in English also, unlike Bangalore.

I soon realized that Paris was actually Parrys. On the Volvo I took to come back to Bangalore, they played 2 telgu comedies. I guess it is a common practice for buses travelling between TN and Karnataka, that they will play movies in a neutral pitch, sorry language. Are they still fighting over Kaveri, I don’t know. Yeah, the movies were decent enough.