Chennai!

After quite a bit of traveling, i decided to write about travel and places i visit.

Perhaps the longest stay in my paternal home town in a decade. 5 days in Chennai. My stay there surprised me.
Remember the days of the golden quadrilateral? Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta-Madras? Something tells me that the era is nearing it's end. Sadly so. More has changed than just the names.

The moment you step into Chennai , you can distinctly tell by it's smell. Coffee,Fish, Fruits and Flowers (dominantly Malli , i don't know what it is called in english, but that's the flower all beautiful ladies have on their hair here).Sometimes , i get a feeling someone forgot to mix some oxygen in the air.
For a city notorious for it's chain snatchers there are surprisingly many jewellery stores , and huge hoarding advertising the same all over Chennai with pretty women covered in over a kilogram of gold. Someone told me, last week all the jewellery was stolen from an advertising board! (they thought it was real :P )
Every other store seems to sell one of jewels , clothing and food. Further , irrespective of what they sell or their size , the shops are majorly named 'Saravanas'. 'Saravanas' is apparently one of Chennai's biggest show-rooms. ( i bet they would have made much more money had they patented the name ). Yes the store is large and popular. And shopkeepers all over the city very innovatively name their own. :p . With a vast majority sporting a plain dhoti and apple-cut shirts ( to be more precise blue/red checked ones ) , i fail to understand how such saravavas make business. Oh , also the inevitable mustache to go with it. I felt naked in the city with a clean shave.

Of the many other things such stores do like selling stuff , they give much respite from the heat and filth around. "They do nothing" a kid half my height exclaimed after stamping into a mixture of dung, peels and plastic looking up at another huge hoarding. Until then i thought it was another jewellery business , but it happened to be that of the chief minister holding up 2 fingers as high as she could.

... To Be Continued.