A cityslicker’s tryst with a new city...- Harshal Modi

My, my. What a way to enter Chennai. My first visit to the city. I don’t know a word of the local language, the local English undecipherable... and Karthick’s scooter, carrying the both of us, my two bags, a roll of banners, and a backpack decides to stop in the middle of the road. A roadside mechanic soon parts us with some of our (parents’) monies to get us back on track.

Ok... why is Madmag, about life@SIBM, being addled upon about Chennai? Well, you see, I was in Chennai the whole of last week for ‘Coffee with SIBM’, an event for MBA aspirants wanting to join SIBM. So instead of reading about the first week of the second semester, read on about my first visit to the south of India (Actually, the first visit outside this state after the age of 18, and the fourth ever... I haven’t travelled too much)

The Bay of Bengal from Besant Nagar Beach is not too different from the Arabian sea from Juhu Chowpatti. Except that, the water is purer, deeper, bluer, the beaches sandier, longer. There’s the same flotsam, the same beach food, the same couples, the same merry-go-rounds, the same balloon targets. But the scars of the tsunami 23 months ago still remain, in the broken concrete structures around the beach.

Chennai worships its leaders & film stars. You find them everywhere. On posters, walls, billboards, statues (yes!) and so on. There is a tendency to photograph every leader, (and every leader’s to get photographed). Many such photographs put up, of (male) leaders, in the pose where the chin rests on the hand. Will someone tell them that it’s a schoolgirl’s pose, way past its expiry date?

The roads are WIDE. At least for a Mumbaiite it is. And how can the Chennai police vehicles look more like out of a Hollywood film? I mean, C segment vehicles, with blue & red lights on top! Just like in the English films. How can they afford them? And we at Mumbai are stuck with Jeeps and Gypsies, and the latest additions being the Qualises... And first aid boxes on every traffic junction! How? Don’t they get pilfered daily?

Another thing I’ve noticed is that every other scooter in the city is a Scooty (Pep, Pep+, ES... whatever make, but a Scooty). Now, this is a bike I believed was for girls because it is tiny. When I drive it, forget a pillion rider, there’s no space for my backpack! It hangs behind the scooter(-ette, actually) the same way as it would had I been the pillion rider. Yet, I find men and women alike riding it with abandon. How can they fit??

Hoping to visit the city again soon…..
~Grondmaster.