Chennai Week #1

For the past week, the entire city of Chennai was talking about the conclusion of a Tele-serial Meti oli. While shopping in land-mark or walking in the Natesan park T.Nagar, I heard many people discussing about this drag. It has not been my cup of “Chaya”, hence I really don’t care. Been to land-mark yesterday to buy Audio CDs. Price for Audio CDs range from Rs.65 to Rs.250 [old songs from HMV with UPC [Ultra poor recording]. Sa re ga ma is the only company that dumps something from a spool tape directly on to a CD without any kind of CD digital re-mastering. The quality sucks right royally, however the song are worth to be in any collection. Had to buy it.

Yesterday went to a Food joint in Besent Nagar called Eden. [yeh! I made sure I got the name this time]. A small place but filled with people. By 8.00pm it was full and I saw people waiting for their turn. The menu apart from regular tandoor types included various Irish, Italian cuisine like Pasta, Lasagna etc. I had the Chef ‘s baked bowl, which was something similar to the Shepherds pie in Irish Restaurants. A baked bowl of Mushrooms and Vegetables dipped in white Pasta sauces and herbs. Cost was around Rs.90 but the cholesterol in it was kind of alarming. However after 12 hours, My stomach seems to be in its home base, hence the food can be certified as “good“.

Where there is a will there is a way – for autos in Chennai, where there is little room for the front wheel, there is a runway. These guys ply anywhere in any direction at will. Thank god - autos don’t have wings. For local commute Rs.20 is the minimum auto fare. Most accept it with a smile. Best was, standing in my street corner, I waved at an auto, he was travelling at a good speed but screeched and stopped for me, never cared about other vehicles behind him. I jumped in and to my surprise he asked me “when did I come from US”. I was surprised, it seems last time when I was here he drove me couple of times to Rajive menon studios. He is from the local auto stand in the street corner and knew my house quite well. These days there are no big arguments for the fare because there are more number of autos than mosquitoes in Chennai. Both parties accept terms and conditions ahead of time, an agreement is signed at the origin. The auto meter is just a showpiece has no real purpose. I am planning to get one for the Smithsonian in DC.

One more things I noted - I have not seen any stray animals on main roads. The roads are always kept clean. The only bad factor in Chennai is the “driver’s discipline”. None seem to have any. The excellent reflexes of the drivers and some luck are the two main factors that keep the traffic up and running in the safe mode.

Finally, Ganguly scored a century for his county team Glamorgan. He took time to settle down however he never looked pathetic anywhere in the innings. Few more innings like this will get back his lost form.

Good Day.