From CA to TN

Yes, CA does stand for California but TN does not mean Tennessee. It's an abbreviation for Tamilnadu - a portion of the Indian sub-continent known for it's scorching heat, dusty roads and gruesome politics and where I'm destined to spend a few days of my youth.

It all happened so suddenly. I used to come to office unwillingly every morning and prod through the day imaging that I were a king! After ten and a half months of doing nothing at California, I decided to ask for an end to my deputation and requested to be sent back to India. My employer bargained this freedom by packing me off to a place known for it's sultry weather and choking humidity. I'm talking about Chennai.

The day I landed here, I began to experience the jitters. After almost two and a half hours of crusade through the dusty streets of Chennai, I knocked at the doors of a decent hotel. The hotel was supposed to be reserved for my stay but the bosses could not secure the place for me. Desolate, thirsty and hungry, I checked into the hotel and cursed many people - the bosses in particular (later, I came to know that my superiors were unsure whether I was flying to Chennai from California or Calcutta).

The very first problem that crossed my path apart from heat and humidity was traffic. I remember how I spent almost 15 minutes trying to cross a 20 foot wide road!

South India's staple food is rice - a diet rich in carbohydrates and fat. Not to mention that these days I'm high on carbohydrates and would return to my hometown, inflated! One gets to savor rice in many forms here, like dosa, idli, uttapam, appam etc. Whatever the form be, carbohydrate and calorie content is always on the high.

Now, let me talk about something very unhygienic, I came across at Chennai. Toilets. Once I used the restroom of an air-conditioned restaurant. As soon as I opened the door, unpleasant smell of human excreta carried by a gentle whiff of air from a nearby ventilator greeted me and spiraled right through my nostrils. For a moment my sensory organs went numb!

Ok, enough!!! Let me take liberty to stop pen. I should not forget that I belong to a 5000 years old country and am quite habituated to the living conditions here. This country has a lot to give to it's citizens like poor infrastructure, damaged roads, chaotic traffic and much more. So why not immigrate to India and check out for yourself how fantastic life here is!