Madras Mania...

Long time since I posted any of my thoughts. Didn't find time to key-in my thoughts, however, I did write some of them in my diary. Am in Chennai now. Well, last one month has been a nomadic life for me. I traveled a lot. Initially, it was a leisure trip down south which later turned out to be official. Let me tell you the whole story which may make it easier to understand. My MBA got over with the convocation ceremony on 18th March. After that I stayed there for one more week to bid farewell to my outstation friends. I knew that my joining would be sometime during the first week of May in Delhi. So, now I had a month's free time. Hence, planned a trip to the south of India to meet all my relatives (it had been 4 years since I had met them all). I left Delhi on 4th Apr with my father. The trip was really good, esp. for my father, as he was going out of station after a period of 12 years (approx.). I made a good friend during my train journey to Chennai in Rajdhani who was a defense personnel. But towards the end of our trip we got a big shock. I got a call from my company's HR department that I would have to relocate to some other place. Then began some negotiations and discussions. And I landed in Chennai again after 2 weeks to join my office! My joining was preceded by a 4-day induction program in Mumbai, which was also a good experience. I met a lot of new joinees like me from different B-schools and backgrounds. I made some really good friends, out of which, none could join the Chennai branch.
So, in a short span of two weeks, I had seen three metro cities! All the three have very different culture but all have their own charm. Mumbai is no different than what I have seen of it in Bollywood movies (the sensible ones...). I could see the typical Mumbaiya lanes, houses and apartments. Its a mechanical and fast pace of life here which cannot be seen in Delhi or Chennai. Another new thing for me was the taxi system. And I must say the taxi wallas are very helpful and honest. Also tasted the amazing vada pao here.

Chennai is not new to me or to put it differently, I am not new to Chennai. But coming to this place as a visitor and as a resident are two drastically different things. Well, this is the place I always wanted to come to if I ever thought of settling down with my family. I always missed on the family functions and other get-togethers being in Delhi as all my relatives reside in the southern part of India (except my father's brother in Mumbai). But this feeling shared by my mother and myself was insignificant to my father who never wanted to leave Delhi, where he has spent 50 years of his life. But now I don't know what he thinks about relocating when I am here in Chennai.

Talking about Madras (the olden name of Chennai), it is a safer place for girls. People are helpful (atleast for South Indians; heard they behave badly with the non-Tamil speaking janta). More than anything else, I feel at home here (the language that I lived with at home can be heard everywhere here!) Although I am saying this, at the same time there are certain qualities of south-Indians that I (and my father) don't like much. Sometimes they are too nosy, reserved, narrow-minded and selfish. Also, I feel now that I have spent more than 20 years in Delhi, I have become more of a Delhiite than a Tamilian. So, there is an identity crisis that I am suffering from. But I think I would take the positive aspects of both the cultures and say (as in case of my taste in food) "I would prefer a mix of North-indian and South-indian!".