When I first stepped into this city, the very feeling of loneliness engulfed me. This was a part of India that I had only seen in movies till then. People were dark complexioned here and spoke a language totally alien to me. Words like 'Anna', 'illa', 'irika' n many more were all there to hear. Even the auto driver or any common vendor would speak English here. "Tanglish" is what some people call their language here. In the movie posters by the roadside you can't make out whether the man is posing as a hero or a villain here, so fierce was their look in the poster. Outside any marriage halls, its very common to have a board displaying the couple with CM Jayalalitha's flowery blessings on them. Every word on the board seems like a 'jalebi' (No offense).
Apart from pressure of beginning an entirely new professional life in a new environment, there were also other things to give attention to. There was food n lodging problem, adjusting with the new lifestyle.
It was my first visit to a metropolitan city as a grown up. At about 6 or 7, I had been to Mumbai, the memories of which are very dim now.
Now this city has got to be my home for next 2-3 years, my mind had made up this. Made new friends, some of which would last life long, some will remain here only. Office colleagues were friendly. A common notion at office was to call people by their first names no matter what post they hold. Infoscions believed that this follows the belief of 'World is Flat!' and all the people are at same level under this. Also, this creates a friendliness environment when u address people by their first names.
One of the biggest challenge after coming to Chennai was to adjust with the food habitats here. People here ate entirely different kind of food as compared to northern region. Rice, being in abundance here, is the main ingredient of every other dish. 'Thalipakkattu', 'Chettinad', 'Appam' were some of the majorly used terms when it came to any of the eating out places. At first, I didnt like the food here, the northern dishes which the mess chef tried to cook got horrible day by day. Then as the saying goes, "jaisa des waisa bhes', I started having south Indian dishes and as people here mastered in them, the taste buds seem to satisfy themselves to a bit now. Appam, Rasam, Sadam became my likes here, though, not to an extent that I still liked north Indian dishes.
I miss home a lot. This city also taught me how to live when you are thousand miles away from home. When mom-dad are only in the evening calls, when everything you got to do on your own. It also brings in the sense of responsibility within you. 'You are all on your own now', mind keeps reminding this.
But I would say, its good to be here. Like it or not, this would be the place that I would once recall back later in life that made a man out of me, that made me self dependent n decide things in life on my own.
Today, I have spent 10 full months in this city when at first, I hated it like anything. But now its like my second home.
To my friends out there and all those reading this,
Vadakkam Chennai!!! :) :) :)
more to come...
Apart from pressure of beginning an entirely new professional life in a new environment, there were also other things to give attention to. There was food n lodging problem, adjusting with the new lifestyle.
It was my first visit to a metropolitan city as a grown up. At about 6 or 7, I had been to Mumbai, the memories of which are very dim now.
Now this city has got to be my home for next 2-3 years, my mind had made up this. Made new friends, some of which would last life long, some will remain here only. Office colleagues were friendly. A common notion at office was to call people by their first names no matter what post they hold. Infoscions believed that this follows the belief of 'World is Flat!' and all the people are at same level under this. Also, this creates a friendliness environment when u address people by their first names.
One of the biggest challenge after coming to Chennai was to adjust with the food habitats here. People here ate entirely different kind of food as compared to northern region. Rice, being in abundance here, is the main ingredient of every other dish. 'Thalipakkattu', 'Chettinad', 'Appam' were some of the majorly used terms when it came to any of the eating out places. At first, I didnt like the food here, the northern dishes which the mess chef tried to cook got horrible day by day. Then as the saying goes, "jaisa des waisa bhes', I started having south Indian dishes and as people here mastered in them, the taste buds seem to satisfy themselves to a bit now. Appam, Rasam, Sadam became my likes here, though, not to an extent that I still liked north Indian dishes.
I miss home a lot. This city also taught me how to live when you are thousand miles away from home. When mom-dad are only in the evening calls, when everything you got to do on your own. It also brings in the sense of responsibility within you. 'You are all on your own now', mind keeps reminding this.
But I would say, its good to be here. Like it or not, this would be the place that I would once recall back later in life that made a man out of me, that made me self dependent n decide things in life on my own.
Today, I have spent 10 full months in this city when at first, I hated it like anything. But now its like my second home.
To my friends out there and all those reading this,
Vadakkam Chennai!!! :) :) :)
more to come...
