Chennai!!!!!

Well finally my stay at the apparently hip- hop city of Bangalore has come to and end. I have moved to my new posting in the south. I have reached CHENNAI!!!!!

Okie, now people might think that it is not a big deal but lemme tell you there are a lot of things that make it special here.

Firstly since the time we joined MBA, the lure of the corporate management job is the only thing on the guy/gal’s mind. Generally one gets postings in the metros like Mumbai ( where you would find more than half of your classmates), Bangalore and gurgaon ( the IT hubs and India’s answer to silicon valley). The least preffered destinations in Chennai (not for the natives of tamil nadu of course, who jump with joy at the thought of saving the house rent by staying at home)

You generally are looked at sympathetically if you say that you are placed in Chennai. The conversation would go somewhat like,

“Where are you placed dude?”

“XYZ company”

“Wow!!! Dude that is a great place..amazing work environment and great salaries as well. Which city would you be posted in?”

“Chennai”

“Ohh Chennai ehh…its okie dude…don’t worry I am sure you will have so much work that you will hardly have time for anything else. And I am sure it is for a short duration only, and the company will be open for you to move to other locations soon. Also heard that it is am amazing learning opportunity”.

(this is their way of saying ..dude!! you are gone…screwed man..good company but bad location…god help you..i might not be in as good a company but atleast I am in a nice place. Not the exact words but something to this effect is something what they mean)

So now the question, why this discrimination against the metropolitan city of Chennai?? The answer to this is

Firstly, the people there donot exactly welcome outsiders

Secondly it is not really a metro

No great hangouts

No nightlife

No good discos and pubs…..and many other reasons

The weather there is very hot and humid.not at all pleasant

You might ask yourself, “are these the only things that one has to look at to call a place a metro ..pubs,discs, how cool the ppl are , or which hangouts exist in the city?”

But yeah this is what generally exists in the mind of the starry eyed MBAs (I can already hear the vocal protests of my classmates when they read this, excuse me fellow MBAs, but yes it is true!!).

But since I too belong to south India, I always used to defend that it is not that bad a place.I had never been to Chennai before but somehow found the complaints of the other northies who had visited the place to be a little too much. And another factor that got me to defend the city of Chennai was almost every south Indian is classified as a Madrasi. And that is not considered to be kool (try calling a guy/gal from Bangalore a madrasi and then you will see how vehemently they defend themselves.they are like.we are bangloreans not madrasis.,and please we are nothing like them…harsh but again true!!)

So finally last weekend I took a flight to Chennai and got to experience the city first hand.

I landed in Chennai at 2145hrs. The temp outside was 32 degrees (the air hostess had announced that when we landed). It was okie.Not that hot.Then began the trouble. I got out of the airport; I was told that my hotel was not more than 6 km from the airport. I looked for an auto. The auto guys started talking in tamil, and I couldn’t make head or tail out of it.

Then with great difficulty I somehow managed to explain to them the palce that I wanted to go to. And in broken English I asked, “How much?” “300 rupees” came the reply. 300 rupees for 6 km. Wow..This definitely was unlike any other place in India.. Inflation seems to have hit this place really hard. They say the charges were airport charges.

Now either the Airport Authority of India is run by a bunch of idiots or the auto guys are crooks, as I finally managed to book a prepaid taxi to the place at 160 rupees. This too seemed high but then who can argue with the traffic police guy who was sitting at the counter of the prepaid taxi.

The driver on reaching the place started asking for half return fare as it was night time. After about arguing for 15 min he finally left with me not having to pay a single extra rupee (luckily). Another thing that is noticed was , when I was at the airport haggling with the auto guys, they would not respond to anything that I would say in hindi or English. Also the taxi guy during the course of arguing with me never spoke a single word in any other language. But later I found out that guy spoke decent English as he was talking on the phone and getting directions to the next pick up point.

Not a great start to the stay at Chennai. I for a second thought that I had made a mistake, when I defended Chennai. But imagine I was having such a bad time, when I can understand a little bit of tamil. I really pity the north indian people who live in the city who cannot understand a single word of the language. And it seems that a same route in the city can be traversed for 20-100 rupees. Depends on how much the auto guy wants to fleece you during the trip.

Overall the interaction with the locals was not very pleasant. But one thing I did like is the levels of literacy. I contacted people in the city looking for a house to stay for the next 6 months. People actually were very rational and spoke good English. The general education levels I felt were much higher, or maybe my sample is sckewed.

But then came my first day at office and I was suddenly realizing how good this place can be on someone’s pocket. I was hunting for houses, posting querries on the intranet in office. I found 2bedroom apartments at 7000 rupees a month. Which is dirt cheap and in any other city you would be lucky to get a single room at that rate. Also the commute to office is a very nice AC bus. Traffic jams are missing. Books are available at much cheaper prices. (picked up 5 novels the first day itself). The city has a lower cost of living than any other metro. It is relatively less crowded. Also many new places are opening up and the city is developing into a Retail hub for all big chains. The most interesting thing is I get morning breakfast+ lunch+ evening snacks at a mere 180 rupees per month. That is cheap compared to any city in the country.

Other than that have visited the beach here. Ok.. fine. Let us not discuss that. But now slowly getting to know people here and the friends circle is expanding. So let us see how much I can add to the pros and cons list of this city. Am waiting and getting ready for my stay and other experiences. Just thinking , if I would continue defending the place in the same way as I used to before coming here

Lets just wait and watch .