Chennai

Have you lived in or visited Chennai? Tell us about it!

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA (Asia) – January 2018 — I was born and brought up in a metropolitan city. Chennai is its name and it is located in the southern Indian. It is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. The city was well known by the name Madras before it got its name changed few years back. It as a city located on the eastern coast of India. I was born in the early eighties when the population in the city was quite low when compared to the current status. It is a city of various cultures and people from all major religions like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam live here peacefully. It is one of the major cities of India and it has a large airport and harbors to travel abroad. The city is known for its ancient traditions and cultures.

The best thing is that i like about my city is that it is one of the safest cities in India for women and children with as much as low crime rates. Due to the rapid development in the state the city has increased in population in a few decades. I remember that roads barely had the vehicles moving around when i was a kid. The situation had totally changed right now due to the urbanization and as a result there are lot of people arriving to live in my city. The best thing about my city is that it has many tourist locations very nearby. It would be a fun to visit them at most of the week ends. The noise pollution and the air pollution are the two main things that i don’t like regarding my city. Even though Tamil is the most spoken language the foreigners and the people from the nearby state don’t face much difficulty in communicating with the locals as most of them are quiet fluent in English. I am living in the city for more than 30 years and i love it. There are so much memories regarding my city. My school days are the best of them.

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA (Asia) — July 2017 — I would love to share an incident that changed my view about Chennai, my home town. Before 2015, whenever some one asked me what you love about your city? I always blabbered something nasty. I never felt anything special about being a Chennaiate. Though Chennai named the safest city and one of the most visited tourist spot in India, I always thought like why the heck this foreigner’s always preferring Chennai than any other tourist spot in India?. I really don’t know why I acted like this all my years. I think my ancestors would be the major reason. They always preferred people in their very own religion as kit and kin and treated every other as aliens which reflected in most of our parent’s behaviors too, which I never liked.

 Chennai always starved for rain. People here always included the line “Please God give us rain!” in all their prayers. We never imagined, that all our wishes would come true like that. That’s the reason why we were unprepared for such an event. It all changed suddenly. El Nino, a cyclone which caused continuous rainfall and turned Chennai upside down. Within a couple of days, my city was islanded from outside world completely. No electricity, no food, no communication, no proper shelter and nothing. All we had is some hope that someone would help us from outside. Most of the people were stucked inside the buildings.
But what happened later is like a miracle. “YOUNGSTERS”, the super heroes during Chennai flood came forward. I don’t know who ever started it, but I would love to thank them especially for initializing such a brave act. When I heard from one of the refugees that youngsters like me helping the Indian Army and Navy to rescue the people of Chennai, the patriotism I had for my own city which I never felt before, bursted out. I joined the small crew near my resident to help people in and around my neighborhood.
We rescued hundreds of people from affected areas. Gathered foods around the city for people starving for food. I even heard, a woman gave birth to a baby girl by the help of one of the volunteers and named her after that Volunteer. I’m literally crying while writing this article. You know what, when no one helped us Abraham Lincoln did. Yes! a piece of his quote stated “By the people, For the people” did. The truth is we haven’t felt anything hard because whoever heard about us came forward to help us by providing us whatever they have. Later, it was stated as one of the biggest disasters India had ever tasted.
When all this catastrophe ended, for the first time in my life, I felt the smell and aroma of my city “The Great Chennai”. For the first time in my life, I loved being called a Chennaiate. I can’t explain the happiness, I don’t even know whether someone could really feel it, but it’s my duty to share my experience with others. After this historic event, I loved to explore the places around my city. From Filter Kaapi (Coffee, but Chennaites love to call it that way), Marina Beach(One of the Biggest beach in Asia), Cinema Theatres, Hotels, Malls, Freaking Ghost Sighting areas everything gave me a new form of joy.
Now if someone asks me what you love about my city?. My answer would be simply “the people of Chennai”. And I also would love to ask the tourists to come over here to just simply feel the love and aroma of Chennai.