Me, Cognizant and Chennai

Since this has come about in part due to the lazily laidback passage of time during our Autumns, lets start with that. Our sojourn began on 10th Sept, when me and Sudhanshu landed at Chennai’s Kaamraj airport. We made our way to the CTS guest house in a prepaid cab, confidence personified, with a route map in our hands. Only to realize to our horror that we took a wrong turn somewhere, and were headed in the opposite direction, since the arrows in the map mailed to us wre from the direction of the railway stn and NOT the airport!

When we reached the GH (it stands for Guest House….stop thinking of it as the more popular SPJ Girls Hostel!), everything was calm and eerily quiet. Manchoo was snoring away to glory in his room, having arrived via a nocturnal train journey from Lucknow. But only in the evening did we realize the extent of the sleepiness of the place. It was Thoraipakkam, a suburb on the outskirts of Chennai. We went out on a stroll, and realized much to our consternation that there was practically nothing around. No malls/big shops/cafes/restaurants to hang out in. Compared to fast and happening Mumbai, this seemed an abandoned 16th century abode!

Worse, we had our first tryst with the unforgiving dragon called “The Chennai autowalla”. It took us by surprise that none of the autos seemed to ply on meters. And to top it, they demanded exhorbitant fares, as much as 50 bucks for a meager distance of 2-3 kms! Fortunately, we’d been forewarned in Mumbai itself that autos would quote at least double the actual fare. Language was a major barrier. Hindi’s a strict no-no, and English is greeted by scowls and rude stares. So the 3 of us used our sign language and negotiation skills in combination to lethal effect, and brought down the quoted fare by a reasonable amount . The secret was to break up the English language into small syllables to communicate with the autowalla, and use hands vociferously, in conjunction with your thoughts!

But we had a lovely time at the guest house. The keeper (an ever-smiling man called Sudamani) used to cook delicious stuff. And we used to do all sorts of TP alongwith the other people there.

By now, we've adjusted to the culture shock here. All 3 of us are in different CTS offices in the city. We stay in a rented accommodation (like a serviced apartment, luckily a fully furnished luxurious one, with AC/North Indian food/TT etc), and have very good people for company (all B-school grads, working in IT cos, so lots of fun).

Chennai city is a good place to live in, from whatever we've got to see... the beaches, the food, the incredibly hardworking people.... Only the transport still never ceases to amaze you (especially in the parts we stay and commute in - which don't even come under the map of Chennai). It drives one absolutely CRAZY…..Municipal buses are out of the question..so crowded and unstable that you cant even think of climbing in. Its amazing that they always seem to travel at an incline of 30 degrees, either due to the crowd standing on one side, or irregular construction of the bus itself! That leaves u with a shared auto or maxicab…bigger vehicles designed for seating 8-10 people, but where they end up shoving at least 15-20 people like animals in a slaughter-house. U end up doing the journey in all sorts of comic/dangerous poses, either standing/bending/sitting awkwardly with people falling over you.

It’s been a great leveling experience so far. If we’ve struggled with the transport, language and culture, we’ve also had amazing trips and memorable times. Since there’s not much to do in Chennai, we’ve been out of the city almost all weekends-- so far to Bangalore/Mysore, Mahabalipuram, Yercaud etc. Pondicherry’s lined up for the coming weekend. What’s more, we also took a 5-day Diwali break to Mumbai, which was worth every penny we spent on air travel.