It was around this time of the year in 2004, I moved to chennai. I always thought I was a north indian and would never fit among chennai people. But things changed as soon as I joined high school, all my fears evaporated. People here are very accommodating. Initially, I had to overcome the pressure due to my average performance in my 10th board exams, and coming to chennai was like blessing in disguise....Chennai helped me to adapt, helped me to perform better academically and ya taught me more the most important lesson in life - " the significance of hard-work" !!
The people of this city give lot of importance to traditions and its values. Almost all my classmates in school would visit the temple daily. It does not mean that they are less fashionable, neither are they averse to modern technology.
Chennai today has got a lot many new hotels with varying cuisine. But people still love to eat idlis in murugan idli shop, panipuri in gangothri, sweets in anandhabhavan and ya ofcourse gheeroast in saravana bhavan! :)
The people of this city are aware of whats happening around them. For example, If you talk to anyone who is supporting anna hazare and his campaign against the corruption, you would realize that Chennai people know what they are protesting against. They are aware of the weak points in the government's version of lokpal and why anna hazare's janlokpal thou being "draconian" is better off.
Many of my northi friends say chennai lacks a night life. And therefore does not qualify as a modern city. They go the extent of saying that chennai is modern village!
But chennai begs to differ. People here do not enjoy night life. Nights are meant for sleeping and chennai people beg to differ from the rest! And this is the beauty of chennai.
People here love what they get. A very hot day does not deter people from going to beach, and come rain people enjoy that too:)
Another important aspect of chennai is "affordable housing". Chennai can today claim to be among the most developed cities in India. But still you can find houses at reasonable rent. You can earn 20K/month, live a good life and still save up half the salary. the same is not possible in bangalore or mumbai!
The temples, the silsarees, the beaches, the shopping malls, the hotels, mahabalipuram, the flower sellers, Tnagar, pongal, diwali....all make chennai what it is!!!And now chennai people have adopted themself to start loving the automobile and IT companies too....
Happy birthday Chennai! May the spirit of Chennai live forever!
No comments:
Post a Comment