Random incidents-2

Best people I have found in Chennai are the Muslims. They speak Hindustani (a mixture of hindi and urdu),are very polite, full of 'tehzeeb', and always ready to help. Have met quite a few of them on my bus trips from Adyar to places i find difficult to spell and also met a few during the times i got the questionnaire filled with the chemist. 

I met this particular old man at a chemist. He was just sitting there, observing things. It didnt look as if he held any stake in the shop, but he sure must have been some friend of chemist for he was sitting without a worry in the world. He observed me, all exhausted due to extreme heat and chemist's extreme lack of knowledge of any of the two languages i know. He waited for me to finish off the thing and then gestured me to come.

"Aap kaun si basti se hain?", He asked.

Basti??...Ok, must be his translation of city.

I answered Delhi to his satisfaction. Then he asked as to why am i doing what i am doing - the questionnaire thing. He advised me about taking liquids constantly, so that one can brave the heat of chennai and other stuff.

I agreed with him on most of the generic advices he gave about surviving the weather of Chennai. Then, i took his leave.

He said, "Maashallah, itni chhoti si umr mein itna tez dimaag mila hai, bahut tarakki karoge...bahut tarakki karoge."

Seriously, this was the first sign of any wamth i saw in Chennai. Nah, believe me, first signs of warmth.

Random incidents

Interaction with the Sales Rep, Selva on one of my field visits:

Selva: so, u r from m-ee-r-u-th?

Me: yeah, its 70 kms from Delhi.

Selva: so, what is m-ee-r-u-th famous for?

(Mangal Pandey just vanished from my memories, as I was quickly thinking for things one can associate with meerut.)

Me: eh....umm.....its quite famous for its 'gundas'...(Omkara-the movie, was the only thing that came to my mind then....)

Selva: he he...gundas right....he he....no, like Chennai famous for idli-dosa, like that....

Me: hmmm...(Meerut and food...now think..), meerut is famous for revari-gazzak....

Selva: gazzaaak???

Me: Oh..its made of 'gud'...

Selva: 'gud'???

Me: ummm...jaggery...

Selva: Oh, jaggery...

Me: yeah, gazzak is jaggery balls with sesame seeds on 'em....

Selva: Yeah, yeah...i kno...i kno....

Me: (Jaggery balls with sesame seeds, that even i didn't know....) :)

Chennai will make a 'Restaurant Menu Designer' out of me....if such a vocation exists!!

No cribbing about crabs!

This is not how i had planned the next few posts on this blog, but i really am dying to share something with the world, so the planned posts can take a back seat, for the time being.

This is how it goes. I went out to scourage for some dinner tonight and spotted a roadside restaurant aptly called - The Visitor's Restaurant. I went in and had a look at the menu.

I ordered, "Anna(Shilpa Shetty's Big Brother), unnei(one) egg noodles and unnei crab fry(I am picking up some tamil BTW!)".

Yeah, I ordered crab and crab is what i got served. Not one, not two, but five of them. All small and thick shelled and in their entirety. I reluctantly picked one up and dropped it in my plate. With a lot of probing, i realised that, as people at JnJ say, i have to break the barriers. I broke open the shell alright, but there was hardly anything inside. Slowly i picked and dropped and broke open all of them, but i hardly got anything to eat. And yeah, i forgot to mention about the noodles i had ordered. People would be glad to know, that i am a total convert now. Yes, i am a total southee now. I ate those noodles with my hands. :P

I simply did not feel comfortable around a fork. Its so much easier to eat with your hands.

Ok, ok....laugh on.

Che-nahi (Part 1)

You sat at the Mumbai airport at 5 in the morning, wondering what the next 6 weeks are going to be like? You had had a tough day going to Ghatkopar and Lokhandwala the last day. You did not have much clue as to what you had learnt going to these places and how would that help you in your project. But all that was last on your mind. Right now, you felt a bit sleepy, a bit tense and slightly excited. Travelling has never been your forte. Confidence has been. Although you had been a bit low on confidence and had been really lonely for the last couple of days, you had harboured a secret feeling that change of place might enthuse you for the time being.

You heard the announcement for boarding the plane and you made your move. Flying Kingfisher was any day better than flying GoAir and you had a nice flight to Chennai. You landed in Chennai and tentatively looked around for the guy your boss had promised he would send to pick you up. 

You spotted him with a placard in his hand, ADAMYA - JJMI written on it. You pointed towards him to get his attention, he nodded and put the placard away, you now wonder where?. You were still inside the airport when this had happened, and this all had taken place across a glass wall. You plodded along dragging your luggage and tried locating the driver again. There were hoards of other drivers there, and they all looked similar - dark and moustached. This guy waved at you and you made your way towards him. He asked you to wait as he brought the car.

Now you were on your way to somewhere, you say that because now you had doubts whether you were with the correct person. So to check, you started a conversation. You said, "We are going to Lotus Hotel in T. Nagar, right?". He replied, " No, Office". Your doubts had just balooned big enough to take up entire of your thinking space. 

"No, we have to go to hotel first", you said. He took out a paper, kind of a receipt and you saw your name written on it. Now you were cool, he could as well take you anywhere, you knew you were in the right car. He struggled with his english and said, "Hotel first, then office". You said, "Yes". Just to keep the conversation going, "Office is on Anna Salai?", you asked. "Aama", he said.

"Oh, Aama Salai?", you corrected yourself.

"No, anna.", he said shaking his head vigorously.

"Ok, Anna Salai".

"Aama."

This could have gone on, but you decided to stay quiet. Later in the day you realised 'aama' is 'yes' in tamil.

You always knew, Chennai would be fun.