Living it up in Chennai - Part 1

(Note: The following was meant to be one blog, but due to it's size, I will be putting it up in parts)

At exactly 13.04° N and 80.17° E along the Coromandel Coast of India within the tropic of Cancer lies a little beach town, the town as old as history itself gained popularity about 400 years ago. A little fishing village back in the day, when life was harder and time was slower, then it all happened, slowly but surely, this town had its great moments of change, for example, one of the disciples of Jesus Christ lived here for a while, then we killed him. The first British fortress in India was and is here, and the list goes on.

Today the district of Chennai houses one of the largest industrial and IT exporting units in the country, if you want to set up a plant to build cars and bikes or any other transportation device, look no further. From railway coaches to military tanks, from trucks to the tyres they use, from Hyundai’s to Enfield’s, it’s all here, we house over 30 percent of the country’s automobile industry, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about, I’m here to talk about the life and the lifestyle in Chennai.

Anybody that has had their fun in Madras (from now on I’ll refer to Chennai as Madras [which is it’s old name] for my convenience) will swear by it, “This, is the place to live”, I know people from all parts of the world who have come and settled down here and they love it, but why? We are not as important as Delhi or as financially successful as Bombay or even a party town like Bangalore, so why do people like this place? That’s what we are here to find out.

The biggest contributing factor to the brilliance of this city is its little quirks. Madras is one of the most idiosyncratic towns on this side of the world. The people, I must say, I have yet to see a more fun loving, peaceful and friendly bunch who are equally crazy and corrupt. Yes, like any society anywhere we have our antisocial elements but even they have a great sense of humour, which makes the process of even getting stabbed in the back that much more fun, for example a bribe paid would be followed by a sarcastic joke (Nakkal) and an assault would be followed by a “punch dialogue”, these are some of the rare phenomena that entertain this city.

The people here have an extreme sense of humour about things, especially the present generation with its Radio Mirchi lifestyle and comic relief. We are equally curious, an accident, a movie shooting, a famous personality is all it takes; we immediately form a perfect circle around it/ them and watch in awe, we stop dead on our tracks if theres a crowd gathering.

The biggest and most distinctive quirk that we have that you may not find anywhere else, is the way we mourn for the dead. We carry them in a procession of flowers up to the graveyard or the crematorium, celebrating their demise with fireworks, extreme levels of alcohol, a dance that will make Michael Jackson look like a chump and with beats so fast and rhythmic even a cheetah wouldn’t be able to keep up to it. We call it the Dead Body Dance; I am not making this up. Nowhere else on this planet or even in this universe is this ritual practiced or even considered sane. And even if it is, that means there is some Madras dude around the corner, it’s in our blood.

To be Continued.....