Chennai

Well, After 2 long years I came back to Madras city aka Chennai. My last visit was to present a project at a gathering by CII. I still faintly remembered that Tidal park road. This time it happened to be my best planned train travel so far. You know how..

2:40 AM - I don't have any dress pressed. I should go to Santy's place and do it.

3:00 AM - Packing done in a paper bag :).

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8:30 PM - Calling Santy.. I forgot my camera charger bring it.

9:15 PM - Calling Santy again.. Bring my night pant also, I forgot it.

10:15 PM - Calling Santy again.. Bring me a pull over, It would be chill during the travel.

11:15 PM - Still at office, my pickup cab has not yet arrived. (Train at 11:45)

11:45 PM - Reached station..

I should accept it was a different Madras to what I had known and seen. The city has changed a lot. Significant improvement was the Hi tech Chennai Traffic police flying around in their Hyundai Accent. It was a nice sight to watch. One sight that din change is that stopping commuters for checking their License and Insurance papers. It was sorry to watch the police officer stopping vehicles for a check in one lane and the other lane was totally jammed where he should have been at the center to clear it. (Dear Traffic Police Dept: Did you know there is a survey says that enabling device identification in a mobile phone and disabling it when lost will not work out in India. Since it was predicted that around 60% of the mobile that are being used in India are either from the black market or stolen mobiles. Similar way, it applies to vehicles also. Spend your effort on better bigger problem.) In fact saw the Indian cricket team return to their hotel after end of day 3.

29c (Perambur Train Station to Besant Nagar). A travel I enjoyed after a long time. Chennai public transport buses are such a way that Men can sit in RHS of the bus and Ladies can sit on the LHS of the bus. The bus conductor is the only male who is privileged to sit on the LHS. :) It was a long journey from North Chennai to South Chennai. Enjoyed the whole ride in it, esp hanging in the foot board. Just compared to Coimbatore were buses just rally between each other and no guarantee for the person life on foot board. (s29 - Koundampalayam to PSG Tech in 35 mins is just cool, despite stopping in all the stops! Dubai shek will tell tales about this bus) The bus very slow that you can get down have a small walk and get in later. Also loved watching passengers passing money from the font of the bus to rear end asking for a ticket. Interesting travel...

Only thing that scares me of Chennai is the climate. I got to be accept it that I was `Happy` this time. Chennai treated me well this time were I hardly saw the sun and continuous breeze reminded me of my town. Adding to it was the night walk in the beach which was spectacle by the full moon and the glittering water. It was the most beautiful moon I have ever seen. (That night the moon was 30% brighter than usual full moon in 15 years :: read) But how can you go there without a camera. I was an idiot to do it. :-) Ferocious sea and Moon had contradicting nature like the roasted corn and mango we ate.

Finally meet my good old school friend. She has put on lot of weight. You know she calls me and asks, "You write more in your blog than talking to me over phone." She asks where the hell do you get time to write so much nonsense? I know I will blasted now again for writing this. :-) My first travel with no photos!