My recent Chennai visit

This would be probably my fourth visit to Chennai. I am too small to remember my first visit, the second one is however a memorable one as I did spend one and half month completing my internship in Mount Road Mahavishnu. I barely spent 5 hrs in my third visit, in which 3 hrs I am in an examination centre. The fourth and latest visit though a two-day affair is a pleasant one.

This time I am in Chennai to accompany my friend Narayana, who joined Gemini TV of SunTV group. My friendship with Narayana goes back to my student days at Andhra University and last two years he is my roommate too. This guy is honest, hardworking and well mannered. I'll quote the phrase, which our prime minister is fond off "Friends can be chosen but not neighbours". I get the feeling that I have chosen the right friend.

So, when he asked me to accompany me I couldn't deny his request. Before we started I decided to stay at Divakar's room. Divakar is another right choice I made in my friendship. So after landing in Chennai Central at around 6 a.m. We made straight to Triplicane, where Divakar stays. Once again the notoriety of Chennai autowallahs is evident, as we paid 50 bucks for what might have been a maximum 30 bucks. I guess this Autowallah clan is from the same clone. They are quick to cash on poor traveler and that too the one who can't speak the local lingua.

Finally we got down at Triplicane's Jam Bazaar, which is slowly coming to life after the night break. We stood at Sagar Hotel, waiting to see in which lane would Divakar emerge. Divakar emerged from the lane right in front of us. Divakar is a stocky, on a bit darker side with acceptable Indian height. He is more identical to his mother and his brother I call him anna who is fairer is identical to his father. There is a belief that if a boy resembles his mother he is fortunate and the vice versa. This is true with Divakar, as he done well with his studies and now in his profession too.

This time around Divakar looked dull. As we started walking towards his mansion, he revealed that he his not feeling well since yesterday night. I guessed food would be the obvious culprit, and it was true. Divakar and me are great foodies, we invariably talk about food in our conversations. It doesn't take much time to figure that out by seeing our physical appearance. Since the day before happened to be Vinayaka Chavithi (Lord Vinayaka is another foodie) Divakar had a sumptuous meal at his brother's home. The yummy but stomach spoiler - Aarathi is probably the reason for his sickness. Aarathi is made of rice flour, coconut and jaggery made especially for the occasion of Vinayaka Chavithi. Vinayaka Chavithi in our part of Andhra, i.e. Visakhapatnam is said to be incomplete without this dish.

Within no time we reached Divakar's mansion also called as Rajam Mansion. Don't ever dare to think this 'mansion' in literary sense, its probably Triplicane style of calling bachelor apartments. Divakar's room is small, unkempt and barely enough for two souls to rest. No doubt this is a cheap and best accommodation you get in costly city like Chennai and most of the inmamtes are students and software professionals like my friend Divakar. Divakar had to make a sleep sacrifice, as he generally gets up to have lunch on holidays. Soon to join the discussion on Divakar's penchant for sleeping was his friend Vislesh. It doesn't take too much time for another new friendship to bloom.

Within no time I realised that Vislesh is missing his hometown Hyderabad. Of course Hyderabad has its advantages over Chennai mainly the people, language, weather, and cost of living makes it irresistible. Many do realize that Hyderabad is closing its ranks on the flop side of Chennai.

So, it was decided to have breakfast in Triplicane's renowned Ratna Cafe. I was ordered the Chennai's quintessential Sambar Idly and filter coffee. For an average Hyderabadi the items here are bit costly but on the whole I enjoyed the Sambar idly. Meanwhile one of my friend made an interesting observation on why the Chennai girls are on stubby side. Oops the reason - Sambar Idly.

After wandering in bachelor's paradise we finally ended up at Marina Beach. The beach is empty, might be due to Tsunami warning bells or the hot and humid Chennai afternoon. One thing I like about Hyderabad is its climate. Mostly cool with less humidity. Compared to Hyderabad, I felt Chennai is hot and humid. To my dismay my friend said this is somewhat cooler. Chepauk Stadium, Fort St George and Presidency College looks abutting the beach. When it comes to beach Chennai fares well over Hyderabad, as we are left with overcrowded stinking Hussain Sagar.

Its lunchtime. I must mention about Andhra food. The weakness of Andhras for their native Kodikura, Gongura and Avakaya has resulted in number of Andhra messes throught out India. One enterprising community of Andhra has cashed on this demand by creating makeshift dining halls and serving food to the craving tongues of Andhra at reasonable prices. Some also mixes 'sunnam' with `annam' to see that less eating and more profiting. But that doesn't deter us eating in these messes.

As I said Triplicane is home to a large number of Telugu bachelors, the result - Telugu messes in every nook and corner of Triplicane. Divakar after living here for sometime doesn't want us to mess around with food in Triplicane messes. He took us to a Tenali mess in Royapetah. So we were ordered meals with chicken. The chicken pulusu here is worth mentioning.

After having sumptuous lunch, the next thing a wise person like us would do is to have a slumber. And of course watching a film is the last thing on our list, and we decided to go to Yamagola (the latest one).
As Francis Bacon once said on books, I quote, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." If I replace book to film, even tasting this film is quite a task leave alone swallowing, chewing and digesting.

The day ended with Chennai style biryani for dinner.