I Wander

the world as I see it…

Posts Tagged chennai

Trip report

Aug 2

Posted by kosh in usual

My road trip to Bangalore was pretty normal. I say normal because there was nothing spectacular about the city that would convince me to move there although, there was nothing that would stop me from moving, if I had to. If I had to choose to live in either Chennai or Bangalore, it would result in a deadlock. Here’s why -

* Crowd

Bangalore is way too crowded and I cannot stress that enough. My friends and I visited the city on a Saturday afternoon and grabbed lunch at a local mall (Garuda Mall). We drove around for about 30 minutes, trying to find parking in a city, where you could park on the walkway and still be fine. We eventually gave up and parked in the mall’s parking lot for about 20rs/hour. Once inside the mall, I was (we were) overwhelmed by just how many people were inside it, at any given time. The traffic was crazy as well but not Chennai-crazy where people drive wherever and however they want, but crazy because the city was not built to handle that many vehicles. There were just way too many cars. I’d call a tie between how much better or worse Bangalore is, when compared to Chennai.

* People

I like the people in Bangalore. Its probably because the average age of all the people I saw was about 25 (as opposed to 40+ in Chennai). People seemed a little bit more patient and friendly in Bangalore. I think Bangalore wins this category hands down.

* Cost of living

I’d have to give this one to Chennai. The most annoying part of my road trip was to walk around Bangalore and notice that everything cost exactly as much (or more) than what it would cost me in the states. A cup of coffee is about 150rs($3), burgers cost 350rs($7) and so on. I don’t understand how an average person in Bangalore that makes about 40,000rs/month ($800) can afford any of this. I would hate to live in such a city and see all my hard earned money go waste because some people are obsessed with being (and charging in) American (dollars).

* Pollution

Bangalore felt much less polluted and there was hardly any road dust in the city for the amount of traffic that they have. I could walk about the city all day and still not smell like vehicle exhaust at the end of it. And people hardly honk (comparatively) in Bangalore and the cars definitely help in bringing down the noise pollution. Bangalore wins this one.

* Weather

The weather was really pleasant in Bangalore, this entire weekend. Chennai has been seeing some rains lately as well but I’m sure that Bangalore is much cooler (again, in comparison) than Chennai. I should say that Bangalore wins but I don’t want to.

Given all these factors, I can’t really decide where I would want to live (if I had to make such a choice). Bangalore is a fun city to hang out with friends but nothing more. Chennai has a much more wholesome feel to it that I can’t quite put in words. I’m probably biased because I grew up in Chennai and my family lives here but there’s nothing spectacular about Bangalore that would convince me to shift my base from Chennai.

The trip took us 6 hrs from Chennai to Bangalore (10pm-4am) and it was raining for about 3 hrs from leaving Chennai. We had a minor hydroplaning incident (thanks to poorly drained roads) to wake us up but no other scares. I actually like driving in the night in India because there are no people(walking) on the roads and no bikes either.

It took us 4.5 hrs from Bangalore to Chennai(3:30pm-8pm), on the way back and on the same route as before. We saved a lot of time by avoiding city traffic and good weather+road conditions helped this time around.

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Expectations

Jul 30

Posted by kosh in rants, usual

My trip has been quite a let down so far. Now, don’t get me wrong. I still like this town (maybe..) and am having a good time but the expectations that I had built up based on other people’s accounts, are now shattered.

The city is developing but nowhere close to the point where it can still call itself a major metropolitan city. The districts that lie just outside the city, and claimed to be upcoming and developing, have roads that are about 16 feet wide which means that they are really about 10 feet wide, given the housing intrusions, etc.

Now, that makes it just wide enough for a single truck to pass through…if there are no other vehicles parked on the street. Oh and did I mention that they have no roads or sewer lines or water lines for that matter? Sure, there are a bunch of infrastructure development projects being implemented in the city, but its at least 5+ years away from being livable.

But its the people that surprise me the most here. Chaos seems to be an accepted way of life with no regard to anyone else. I’ve created many scenarios for major multiple vehicle collisions by stopping at red lights, in the 8 days that I have been driving here. Fender benders are a common sight and people don’t even bother to get down or fight or ask for a compensation anymore. A cursory glance is all you can expect and they just drive away.

People litter, drive on the wrong side of the road, run red lights and do everything else that was UNacceptable, just four years ago. My friend tells me that this is how its always been and that I’ve changed and so have my expectations. I beg to differ. Four years ago, there were people who would still try to follow the rules, who would still get angry at those that break it and there were people who still cared.

Is it too much to expect people to follow basic road rules, respect other people, not litter and generally act civilized? People here, suck at self-governance and I think it is the result of a over-controlling school system and a creatively oppressed childhood filled with tuition classes and overly ambitious parents. I’m going to wait until I visit Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi before I write this country off for good.

I do however know that I will never ever consider living in Chennai again. The city I knew, the city I grew up in, is as good as dead. The one that exists in its place is one of chaos, confusion and inhabited by a species that has forgotten what it is that makes them human.

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Security

Jul 27

Posted by kosh in usual

It was my good friend’s (Kannan or es-jay as we call him) birthday a couple of days ago and we decided to head down to the local Marriott to grab some dinner. The security at the hotel was at an all time high, thanks to the teams that had arrivedin the city to participate in the international squash championships. I used to take pride in the fact that Chennai was probably the safest city to be in and that you could just go about and not worry about anything other than getting run over by a bus on the road.

Some 2 years later, you can still get run over by a bus and vehicles of all sizes but the numerous check points around the city and hotels and getting constantly pulled over for a check reminds you of how much the world has changed. My hometown is now on the radar for a terrorist attack. Sucks.

PS. I still think that buses and trucks are much much more deadly than any terrorist. Now, I would be genuinely scared for my life if the terrorists were trained to operate trucks on the city roads :)

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Party report

Jul 24

Posted by kosh in usual

Last night was my first official night out in the Chennai. I met up with a few friends and headed over to ‘Dublin’ at the Park Sheraton in Chennai. Now, before we headed down to Dublin, we stopped at this TOI ‘party’ at a different hotel which was free and had a male-to-female ratio of 1000:1

We bolted out of there as soon as we could and eventually met a few other people to go to Dublin for their 7th anniversary celebrations. Looks like all the hotels are on a high state of alert these days. My car was checked for explosives at the entrance and everyone had to go through a metal detector before entering the hotel. There was a 1500rs cover to get in that night but we got in for free since my friend’s got all the connections.

The club was pretty nice and the music was pumping until the celebrity DJ Akhtar from Mumbai started playing. His music was predictable – every third song was great, his transitions sucked and he was talking pictures with his friends at the DJ booth the whole night. I felt that my Zune could have been a better DJ that night. The resident DJ Rudy was awesome and had some great dance songs and reminded me of my favorite radio station c89.5. Drinks cost a fortune at the bar here but feels like people have way too much money these days. I saw quite a few celebrities last night including Mathew Hayden, film actors Dhanush, Shaam, Namitha, Shruti Hassan among other people.

It was a fun night but people are still socially awkward and conservative here. Need to check out the night life in Bangalore and Bombay before I write this one off. I drove back at around 2AM and was stopped and had my car searched glanced (at) at a police checkpoint inside the city.

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Weather report

Jul 24

Posted by kosh in usual

Unlike Seattle, the weather in Chennai (aka. Madras) is very stable.

32C(90F) at night

37C (99F) during the day

32C(90F) room temperature

Clear skies with 0% chance of rain.

I miss Seattle.

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Traffic report

Jul 24

Posted by kosh in usual

Let me start by saying that Chennai is really hot. 93F at 3AM is not pleasant weather, contrary to what people here think is pleasant weather. Now that we have the obvious out of the way, my next report is on traffic on the city roads.

Last night was quite eventful. My dad’s car had a dead battery from not being used for 3 months and the petrol tank in his scooter dried up. So, my resourceful dad charges the battery with a home made circuit and I decided to take his car to meet a friend and buy some petrol for the scooter. The car battery died again as the gas station and a few people helped me do a jumpstart push start by pushing the car down a slope and slipping it into gear.

So I drive back home with the friend, dump half a liter of petrol into the scooter and..well, the scooter refused to start. We ditched the plans, took an ‘auto’ back to my friend’s place and took her scooter instead.

** Part 2 **

The car and the scooter have been fixed. I’m yet to take the scooter out for a spin but I’m enjoying driving around in the car. There is no such thing as doing the right thing or a right of way or any other sane road rules. Looks like everything is a go now. As long as you have your eyes 10 feet 2 feetahead of you all the time and don’t crash into anyone in front of you, you are good. I confused the living hell out of the pedestrians and other drivers on the road today by slowing down to letting them pass or stopping at the stop line. The only rule that people follow here is that the bigger vehicles get the right of way, no matter what.

Driving around the city in my dad’s car, in rush hour traffic, gives me an adrenaline boost. Although it could get tiring very easily once my amusement phase expires. I almost caused a multiple vehicle collision by following the rules trying to do the right thing.

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My journey to the other side

Jul 21

Posted by kosh in usual

Some 30+ hours ago, I embarked on a long journey from Seattle to Chennai, a place where I spent the first 19 years of my life. (yes, I added the 19 years to sound dramatic). I’m a little disappointed that I don’t quite feel like I’m home. Seattle feels like home, not Chennai :( More on that later and its probably because I’ve only been here a few hours and am a little tired.

Let me break up my journey into different stages so that it helps me express myself better.

Pre-departure (Sunday)

I spent all of Sunday (well, since I woke up at noon) packing (not really) and watching Transformers 2 at the IMAX theater. It was definitely a treat to watch all the action on the big screen. This was followed by a graduation photo-session at the Seattle Center and Kerry Park. Some Thai food after that and I was all ready to pull an all-nighter and finish up packing and crash during the flight. I did manage to pull one and finish up everything that I wanted to do that night.

Departure (Monday)

My brother and I leave for the airport at 530 in the morning for a 7AM flight. Worked out pretty well since I got to the gate some 20 minutes before boarding. Just when I was about to board..err walk to the plane (it was tiny) I heard a PA that they were overbooked and looking for volunteers to take the next flight out. This was my third such offer within a week and I figured that I might as well make some money instead of wasting time in LA. The coupon was gold – I get free round-trip tickets anywhere within Umm-erica and no price cap. GOLD!

LAX (aka WTF airport)

I’ve been to LA before, on a road trip, and never quite found it as charming as some people say it is. Its hot, dusty and so on. The LAX airport is probably the worst airport in the United States. The domestic airport felt like a dingy rat hole and there were absolutely no directions on how to get to the international terminal (not rocket science but what the hell). The international terminal was pure chaos to say the least. Everything seemed so haphazard and it was filled way beyond its capacity. It felt like a bad prototype. I check-in and find out that I have the middle seat in the 3-4-3 seat configuration on a 16hr non-stop flight to Dubai. I curse and get myself a ceasar salad from McDees (yea, dont ask…) and board the flight. Oh and I also managed to see a ginormous Airbus A380 from down under, in the wild.

16 hours too long

I’ve never really been a fan of flying for too long. 4-5 hours is all I can take, but the Boeing 777-200 operated by Emirates is definitely one of a kind. The seat reclines really well, with a natural flow, every seat has a power outlet, USB outlet and an ethernet outlet. The in-flight entertainment system had a million movies in a million languages and some really new movies too. The food was great, the service was excellent and the 16 hours just went flying by (of course, Iwatched some 5 movies to help me through it). The plane flew up north from LA, through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, north pole, and then down to Dubai. In other words, it just flew straight up the globe and then down the other side, which was a first for me and definitely cool.

DBX aka. Dubai

My layover in Dubai was really short, about 90 mins. I had just enough time to walked from my arrival gate to the departure gate and board the flight. The airport was big, just like their obsession to build the biggest of everything in the middle of a freaking desert. I was not impressed at all. I’ve seen better and it was definitely not anywhere close to the ‘connection to the world’ that they claim to be. Also, 99.5% of the staff, passengers, etc were Indian. 95% of which were south indian. I think that we should just invade Dubai and take over…I mean officially.

DBX to MAA (aka. Dubai to Madras/Chennai)

The flight was terrible, the food was worse and my co-passengers were much much worse (and rude and everything in between). I’m not going to say anything more on that part of my trip. I just wish that I could have ‘teleported’ from Dubai.

MAA (aka. Chennai aka. hometown)

I thought 90F in Dubai at 9PM was bad. It was 33C (or ~92F for my metric-challenged friends) when I flew in this morning at 3AM!! The pilot called it a pleasant weather. I beg to differ. Security/health screens and Customs were a breeze and I was out of the airport in about 30 minutes. My good friend from high school (Kannan aka. SJ) picked me up from the airport and drove me home. I crashed for an hour or so while waiting for my parents to get home. Had some good Saravana Bhavan idlis and vadas, chatted with my friends for a while until a power failure abruptly end it all.

That completes my trip report. Stay tuned for my daily and city reports coming up soon. No jet lag so far.

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