Chennai welcomes you...

Well, recently I debated with my north Indian colleague. He was going on telling about how bad Chennai is compared to Bangalore, how cold people are, how people here are unfriendly, how the food here is so bad, how there are only 2 malls in such a big city, how the beaches are dirty and so on...

I couldn't help but show him that I totally disagree. I myself am NOT a native of Chennai, (I am from Coimbatore) but I think I am considered "a local" because I speak the tongue. So, I had to give out replies to each of his questions, but since I was angry because he was blaming MY city (I think I could call Chennai mine too), I was a little harsh towards him in my reply.

First, he said the people here don't even wanna learn hindi (He expects everyone in the country to learn hindi because it is our rashtra bhaasha), where as those in B'lore or Hyd speak hindi... I am a great lover of tamil and I somehow couldn't stand it when he told tamil is just another regional language. I told him that it was he who has come to Chennai and if anything. it is he who should learn the local language. Would anyone in Delhi learn tamil just because I went there?

Then he was talking about the food habits of the people here. As if Bangalore people have north Indian food all the time. In fact, as much as I know B'lore food, it was way too sweet. Even sambhar tasted sweet. I replied saying food habits are something you shouldn't expect us to change. In north India, you people put aaloo in everything possible (I wonder if they have invented aaloo juice!!!)

He then told about how unfriendly people are, specially the autowalahs of the city. They take advantage of the north Indians' lack of knowledge of the language and charge extra money and if a north Indian goes and even enquires directions to a place, they don't help. I told, Chennai people are considered the warmest of people. You would probably have sounded snobbish. When you are asking for help, you are suspposed to be humble. You approach someone with a smile and a humble tone, none of them would take advantage of you...

I don't understand what problem these people have with being here. They call their relocation to Chennai a disaster. Chennai is such a nice place... Warm people, nice beaches, decent places to hang out, good food...

Wanna save money??? Don't eat....

A friend of mine caught me completely off guard when he told me that some of his team mates skip their lunch to save money. These team mates I am talking about are well-paid IT professionals, who do not have to skip their meals to make both ends meet. I don't understand why they have to resort such thoughtless and depressing habits just for the sake of saving money. Is this whole saving thing that important? If yes, why so??? Or is it just that they want to exploit the free pantry services offered by the organization? Whatever it is, this whole saving money by skipping meals is not just ridiculous, it is disgusting, atleast to me.

I am a complete foodie... I love food. When asked to list out the top 5 things I love doing, eating tops the list. I have heard stories about a lot of people not having enough money to buy food (thanks to phenomenal inflation, the number of stories I hear everyday has increased), but those were about daily wage workers, unable to gather enough to even eat. I pity them. I try to help them whenever possible. In the same country, we have people like my friend's team mates who just don't feel like eating because they want to increase their bank balances. I don't feel pity, I feel anger and disgust for them.

Who are they saving it for if they are not going to be healthy enough to enjoy it? I know this post comes as a surprise to you, because you must have been hearing about the changes in lifestyle of the IT professionals of India, how much they have come to spend and how free they are to spend and how lavish they have become. I agree that a bunch of them actually spend a lot of money unnecessarily (they call it chilling-out, they call it fashion, they call it lifestyle), but there are people who save up money by drinking say 2-3 cups of (free) milk from the pantry!!!

I am not for spending too much (though I can't seem to stop myself when it comes to shopping), but certainly against this unhealthy habit of skipping meals to save for a not-sure-if-it-will-come future....

Rang de basanti

I saw the movie Rang de basanti on star movies last week (it was like the 14th time I was watching it) and it gave me the same feeling everytime I saw it. Only, this time, the intensity of the feeling I felt was more!!!

Guys just like you and I, having fun in a campus, always surrounded by friends, laughing, pulling each others legs, doing the stuff that normal people do, getting caught in a situation that is way out of their control... I can't imagine how I would react when I face such a situation. Well, I did give it some thought after the movie got over...

I don't think I'd have gone for killing the defence minister at the first place, because it made the killing more like a revenge than a punishment. And second thing is that I don't think the youth of today is so impulsive... I feel they would have thought more about any other way of exposing the corrupt minister than to just kill him and then go out in the open with it. Had they not killed the minister, they would not have got punished... So finally, one gets the impression that you try to do anything good, you would lose your life...

The movie states that "ज़िंदगी जीने के सिर्फ़ दो ही तरीके होते हैं । एक, जो हो रहा है होने दो, बरदाश्त करते जाओ । या फिर ज़िम्मेदारी उठाओ उसे बदलने की।" But concludes sadly saying, "You try changing it, it kills you..."

But this is one movie that would haunt me forever...