::ThoughtFarm::

Some of you may be asking why there have been no new articles on my website of late, In case, you have not asked so far, then please do

Anyways the reason for my e-absence is that after my first year Mba exams, I had been in Chennai for my Summer internship with Cognizant Technology Solutions since 8th April.

Please note that this article is born out of the cycle of initial hardship, acclimatization and then exuberance that any new guy in Chennai is subjected to after landing there, So if you are a die-hard Chennai fan, I suggest you rather skip this article.

I have been told that the schools in Chennai do not include Hindi in their curriculum, hence right from auto-drivers to hotel managers, all of them speak “Tamlish”.
Tamlish, for those who don’t know, happens to be the official language of Chennai.
For example : My hotel manager told me that if I wanted to go ‘marketing’, then T. Nagar is the best place in Madras.
Also in the local newspaper here there was an obituary which said that on the 14th of April, Mrs.Jose finally slept with Jesus.

Some days back there was an article in a leading English daily in Chennai which said that if you shut your eyes and listen to someone speaking in Tamil, you might discern the rhythm of mridangam, a south Indian percussion instrument. I have no idea whose tamil the writer was refering to , people speaking in tamil remind me of my lectures in S.I.F.L. ( Symbiosis Institute of Foreign Languages) where I learnt Chinese for a year.
In fact knowledge of Chinese was quite helpful in understanding tamil since there are lots of similarities between the two. For example, the Chinese for male is “nan”, while in Tamil its “aan”. Also words like “ma” are also used extensively in both.
The biggest similarity is that, both these languages resemble the writings of a 3-year old infant.
However there is one huge difference - Chinese have mono-syllabic names while I guess the shortest name in tamil is Palvayanteeswaran .

As with Mumbai or anyother big Indian metro, the traffic in chennai moves with the languid pace of Bengali art movies. Earlier I was under the impression that only James Bond had a license to kill, but I was wrong. After traveling from Numgambakkam to Old Mahabalipuram road for a week, I learnt that even the bus drivers have a license to kill….. No wonder then that India’s sole export to F1 circuit – N. Karthikeyan is from chennai !

But thankfully, most of the software companies here including Cognizant have their own buses and hence one is saved from the hassles of driving especially during peak-hour office traffic, which is as bad as it is in Mumbai.

However a couple of times, i missed my bus and had to catch what is called as a “Polama express”.
Polama (which sounds like a Tamil bad word) actually means “Lets go” in tamil. A polama express is an innovative hybrid between a mini-bus and a van and it is a symbol of social Darwinism. This is because it is so jam packed that the peak-hour traffic in Mumbai locals will seem like trifle in comparison. I seriously believe that this Polama express was the original inspiration behind the famous Fevicol advt. of a truck load full of people.

TV watching in Chennai is also an experience in itself. Right from Shahrukh in KBC-II, teenage Mutant ninja turtles to Oprah Winfrey Show, you can have absolutely anyone anywhere dubbed in Tamil.
Also every second channel is dedicated to tamil music with “Hot songs” countdown which are hosted by a post-college age woman trying to pass off as a teenager while talking in her “convent tamil”.

On the roads, you cannot cover more than 10 feet before coming across a huge billboard of a Tollywood actor or a politician which are actually one and the same.
There are some who act and then enter politics while some go from politics to acting and there are some who do both.

No articles about Chennai can be complete without mention of idli-Sambar – the quintessential tamil dish, of which I am an ardent lover. The sambar here is so different , but better than what we get in Mumbai’s Udipi restaurants. Also the chettinad chicken is very mouthwatering.And then there’s Sparky’s, New Yorkers and The Leather Bar on Mount road, if one is tired of South Indian food.

Chennai exemplifies the paradox of the India growth story. A city which is challenging Bangalore as India’s silicon valley but also at the same time trying hard to preserve its religious and cultural identity.

In spite of the heat, the common Indian infrastructure woes and a society caught between the dilemma of progress and preservation of cultural identity, I found the people here to be very friendly and my efforts to speak in Tamil were always encouraged.

The best thing to have happened to me during my stay of two months in Chennai were the new friends that I made in my office. The entire team at Consumer Goods Sub-vertical at Cognizant was extremely friendly and made me comfortable from day one. From being carom partners to helping me out in my summer project, they were there when needed and were in fact primarily responsible for alleviating my apprehensions about staying in Chennai.Thanks to them , now I can speak at least survival Tamil, if not more.

This summers was a very enriching experience for me on both professional front where I was exposed to a new industry as well on a personal front where I made new friends and got to know a new city, to which I am looking forward to visit again.
Pappoom, mindum sandipoom
(Goodbye, See you again)