this thought was triggered by an article about chennai being a rude city. the summary said "the frenetic pace of city life" and it spoke of chennai. i couldn't read any further. i had to sit up and take notice of the "frenetic pace."
it wasnt about the etiquette of the city. i fully accept and expect the average tam in chennai to be rude. fortunately all my tam friends here are above-average :-) (devil, i can see your horns grow) :-) for someone coming here from mumbai, i've been groping on chennai's arm to feel its pulse. from the walk on the roads to the service in restaurants/stores. the whole place seems to be moving at 6fps.
one ought to be more considerate though. you do find pace here. but one also needs guts to look for it. try the roads for a change. its a dragrace against the lights. and doesnt matter if you are on the left side of the road. on-coming traffic is legal. after all, its the frenetic pace one has in this city... who has the time to go around and take a 'U' turn? and yeah, it wasnt a cycle coming my way, it was a rick :-)
Saturday, July 22, 2006
rude? frenetic?
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loL!! 'groping on it's arm to feel it's pulse' captures it perfectly!!!
ReplyDeleteWas so tickled by that :)
One thing - what makes you return to Chennai, apart from friends? I've been there a few times, and I swear each time I'll never return :P
hello, be grateful that we've tolerated u so long :p
ReplyDelete@ tg: paapi pet ka sawaal hai... :p
ReplyDelete@ vakil: thats the point :) its a fortune that my ilk is being tolerated... not accepted. mumbai sure has spoilt me :)
atleast u should have taken the hint n gone back to mumbai when we gave u the farewell party :p
ReplyDeleteAh yes..i am from madras and now in mumbai.Every time i visit madras,i find it different.I dont see any rudeness.It is laidback in many ways and the frenetic pace can be seen on the mad mad roads and the crazy traffic sense!Liked reading this.Write more :)
ReplyDeletecant agree more with u, wooster! the people out here at large, seem to have a great disrespect for other people's time, feelings, everything! the way a waiter at a restaurant behaves with u, if it had been any other place, even a 4-yr-old kid would have slapped him! i'm not joking! and the police seem to enjoy the whole show! and i'm not even mentioning the infamous auto-walllahs! i was in bombay, and whenever i narrate one of my experiences there, all my chennai-bred friends look like i'm talking of a utopic fantasyland! i got onto a taxi, and had to get off very soon, and the min. fare was Rs.13 on the meter. i gave R.15, only to be returned Rs.2 in change! now can a chennai-ite even dream about such a thing? its not about the Rs.2 at all; the people there are very curteous, try asking directions in bombay, and u'll be told in way that u can never miss the place! nobody ever has to argue about night-time extra fare with b'bay's auto-wallahs! everyone knows when it is applicable and how much! its like even the educated-professionals out here seem to have this kinda rude attitude towards outsiders. though i have never experienced, my friends tell me about how cold colleagues are to people from other cultures. chennai surely sports a rude cultute - on its sleeve!
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