My Chaotic Home
Two seasons — both seeing you leave your home and come back 10 minutes later, completely drenched — either in sweat, in rain or water flooding the roads as a result of a storm that hits the city almost every year. Dusty streets, stuffy and polluted main roads, a gazillion people wherever you go, water scarcity ironically hitting every other summer six months after replicating Venice, engineering colleges all over claiming to be in the city but none closer than 25 kilometers from the heart of the city and growth so unplanned that residential blocks turn up near the IT hub with minimal drainage facilities. How does anyone live in Chennai? Well…
School bells ring around 8:00AM. The normal work day starts at 9:00–10:00AM. But the city is up and about by 5:30AM. If you are a pious believer of God, there are many temples, mosques, churches and all other abodes of God, of all sizes that open doors early in the morning. If you believe you’re God, then you have several beaches and the amazing morning sea breeze to cleanse your mind, body and soul. If you don’t believe in the existence of God, well, you’re most likely an engineering or medical student so you’ll have to be at your bus stop by then anyway. If you’re a high school student, your tuition centres would be open for a pre-school session. If by chance you are neither, there’s so much bustle to observe. If you just want to sleep, well the city has a way of waking you up early — the day gets hot pretty quickly. If it is a Thursday or a Friday, chances are that people separated by religion, caste and creed unite only to split themselves in a different way — winners who got the First Day First Show tickets to a big movie and losers.
The morning breeze hits you different. As the temperature rises and hits that awkward uncomfortable range where it is neither cool nor hot, the cool sea breeze, which is not as dusty as it would be by mid-day, gives the much needed relief. The sound of shutters going up, parents shouting at their children to get ready for school faster, the pitching yell of people pushing carts filled with vegetables, fruits and flowers fresh from either Koyambedu or Madhavaram Market, the faint sound of radio playing in some of these shops or a nearby tea kadai and the odd van passing by hurriedly picking up school children, sporadically break the silence of the morning.
As Indians, we are known for our thriftiness — but adapting a concept for the purpose of achieving maximum thriftiness is something else. And oh, how have we embraced it! The price of individual auto rides were getting higher with the increasing cost of living in the city (meter la soodu vekkuriye pa!). As a result, people (mostly those who had to rush to or from work) were forced to take the already crowded bus or electric train, at times hanging on to dear life during their journeys. How did Chennai sort this? SHARE AUTO! Get a vehicle that is slightly bigger than the regular auto but still counts as one. Now, if it takes a regular auto ₹40 to get from point A to B, get 5 people in and collect ₹10 from each person. Passengers are guaranteed a seat for the same price as a bus ticket and the auto driver makes a profit of ₹10 per ride. And since this was not technically legal at first, the Government/Traffic Police took a part of this profit as fine. Win-win-win!
This started as a thrifty, not-so-legal mode of transportation about 10–12 years ago. Now, it has become so legal that they have a city-wide association for share auto drivers to protect their interests and a website for share auto routes and tarriffs!
Have you ever met an absolute stranger and struck gold in a spontaneous conversation? All you have to do is take an auto, Ola or Uber ride that spans anything more than 20 minutes (which is not so hard given the traffic). Or enter a half-empty bus. Chances are, you’d just naturally strike a conversation that starts with both of you venting about the ridiculous traffic or heat and ends in an in-depth conversation about political inclinations, cricket, cinema, etymology of the word Chennai, history of the city or where your great great grandfather might have lived. And you don’t have to know Tamil. Quite often in this city, you can still strike a good conversation with English although we have our version of the language (which is so not what the Bollywood iskool of t-hought might have told you) so keep up! And a lot of conversations somehow spiral into cricket. It is totally fine if you’re not into cricket or Chennai Super Kings — the city once again takes care of you there.
Chennai is also a city of dreams. Like every other city, not all dreams succeed. But like failures, success stories also define the city. On one of my many auto rides over the years, the auto driver said that he wanted to make it in Tamil cinema as a writer-director. And last year, I saw him make it to Naalaya Iyakkunar, a famous televised short film contest. To be a city of dreams, it should be a city of opportunities, right?
At the end of a long day at work/college/school, you’d love to unwind somewhere and have some soul food. What’s your budget? Don’t worry, the city has your back irrespective.
Got nothing? Well you can still chill by the beach, by Anna Nagar Tower Park, Semmozhi Poonga or join a friendly cricket match in the many open grounds in the city.
Got just ₹10? You have multiple choices! Hot day? Rasna packet (cold juice packed in a tiny plastic bag) for ₹4 each or a vanilla softy cone ice cream for ₹10. Want something to munch? Kutty samosa (mini samosa) for a buck a piece or tea kada bhajji (like fritters but better) for ₹4–8 each or some masala pori (masala puffed rice). Thirsty? One hot tea/coffee/ragimalt in the same place for ₹5–10 or one flavoured soda for the same price.
Got about ₹50? You can get flavoured sweet corn, the famous spring potato, street-side kaalan (mushroom masala), pani puri, the famous rose milk from the oddly named Kalathi Seithithaal Kadai (Kalathi Newspaper Mart) and so much more.
Got more than ₹50? This article will not suffice to describe the options. Please contact me for options, thank you.
And if you want to indulge in shopping to relieve your stress, any resident would instinctively say, “T Nagar” or “Parry’s Corner”, depending on how elastic your purse strings are. T Nagar is the shopper’s dreamland to get anything from a fashion earrings that cost barely 20 bucks to gold and diamond jewellery. Anything you want, you got it. Parry’s Corner is a goldmine of electronics (or Ritchie Street) and cheap but quality cloth material (or Jafferkhanpet).
It is always very adorable to find simple people who are local heroes for simple reasons. If you’re hanging around Thiruvanmiyur beach or Marina beach past 8PM, be sure to ask for Kulfi Nagaraj or Moru Thatha (buttermilk grandad). The kulfi and moru cost roughly ₹15 each but taste like ₹100.
We have movie theaters all over the city, and really good ones too. If it is a weekend, this would be a great time to catch a movie, with new movies hitting the screens almost every week. If you’re in one of the Sathyam theaters (oh wait, they are now PVR, sigh), the quality of the movie does not matter, especially if you are in Pallazzo in Forum Mall, Vadapalani. All that matters is the expensive yet raging crowd favourite flavoured popcorn. The catch — you get to flavour the popcorn yourself. I’ve saved up a few times to cough up that money on the counter in exchange for a medium-size Sathyam popcorn. If you feel extra fancy, try the biggest screen in India — PVR P[XL] at VR Mall, Thirumangalam, for a surreal audio-visual experience. Even if not, you have several high quality theaters — AGS, Sangam, Rohini, PVR, Inox, Abirami and so on.
The metro rail rides at night, when the crowd subsides is another amazing experience. The end-to-end rides are long and picturesque. Strolling down the raised walkway connecting the Koyambedu Metro Station and Rohini Silverscreens, or the sight of Chennai Central as you escalate from the underground station or the vastness of the one in Shenoy Nagar, there are plenty of ways to take a chill pill while traveling via metro. Most stations have restaurants attached to it — eating a frankie from Tibb’s while traveling is bliss for me personally.
If you’ve left your purse at home, go for a ride in the streets of Kasturba Nagar in Adyar, Harrington Road, across Old Mahabalipuram Road (past 9PM only though), Shanthi Colony in Anna Nagar, Thirumangalam Road, Pantheon Road in Egmore, Khader Nawaz Khan Road in Nungambakkam or Anna Arch bordering Aminjikarai. Broad well-lit roads and peaceful surroundings pave way for a peaceful drive.
Through this rather long passage, I have not attempted to create a guide for people who may visit Chennai. I am merely answering the question, “how does anyone live in Chennai?” by describing the umpteen ways I would live a day in Chennai. And trust me, this article covers only a portion of it.
The city is filled with economic, social and cultural tension. Especially at this juncture, with these tensions sky rocketing, Chennai is by no means a perfect place. There are imperfections, errors, flaws even. But for me, Chennai is home, and what you need in a home is not perfection, just a sense of belonging. And this city always has your back on that.
Photos courtesy:
Chennaiites — Instagram: proudchennaiites — https://instagram.com/proudchennaites?igshid=292wfg3rjl66
Food of Chennai — Instagram: foodofchennai — https://instagram.com/foodofchennai?igshid=tejhd5nq6cpr
