Chennai Diaries

I heard a lot about Chennai before I went there. The heat would be unbearable, the roads would be narrow, the language would be a problem and that all in all it would be an unpleasant experience. Well I decided to ignore everything that everyone said and go and see for myself and basically had an amazing time. The heat was more or less the same as Bombay, in fact the area where I was staying which is in the outskirts of the city near the IIT-M campus was actually very pleasant and the view from the hotel was breathtaking. The narrow roads weren't really a problem and I quite liked them, flyovers and highways are way over rated. And well when it came to language, since the basic left, right, straight and stop are the same everywhere it was easy to manage travel and in most places and in most cases English is understood in any case. I can't say I explored much but the places I did go to were heavenly. Besant Nagar beach in the morning is absolutely beautiful, from a distance the sea actually looks blue and green not muddy brown like in most other places. With the bright sunshine and cool breeze, it is the best place to laze around on a Saturday morning especially after a delicious breakfast at Chennai's famous Murugan Idli. It's a very colourful city, that's what struck me the most about the place, the plethora of colours that are everywhere around you. I brought back some of the colours with me, beaded necklaces, earrings and bracelets which will forever remind me of Chennai. With a lot of help from my friend, I also explored the areas of Khadar Nawas Khan and Adyar and amazing choices of food places. A place called Cream and Fudge especially caught my fancy with their amazing choice of desserts. I has something called a strawberry shortcake which isn't actually a cake but a delightful combination of ice cream, pie filling and caramel and spent the rest of the day in a sugar induced high and then vowed henceforth never to go without sweets again (There is a half empty tub of Baskin Robbins ice cream in my freezer as we speak :P). Another thing I enjoyed there was the solitude I found, away from my regular life, alone at the end of the day; it gave me a lot of time to think and reflect on my life. Everybody needs that sometimes I feel and I certainly found it in Chennai and I will always treasure the time that I spent there and I do hope we meet again.

Cheers!

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