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Published: September 16th 2010
Monsoon rain
it turns out that it can rain here...Having been warned that the drive from the airport to the hotel around the outskirts of the city would pale into insigificance compared to a venture into the heart of the city itself, it was not without some degree of trepidation that I arranged to meet up with some friends in town for lunch on the Sunday. However, recharged after a night's rest (and maybe a wee dram to calm the nerves), we headed on into town.
Again, we reached our destination without incident, and having met up with our friends, Adam and Helen, we went for a short walk to the Express Mall. Apparently soon to be offically declared as the largest mall in Asia, walking through the doors was like being instantly transported from the dusty streets of India to some shiny new shopping centre in the heart of London - complete with Marks and Spencer's. I'll concede that there was one key difference though - the number of people. Even in here, there is no escape from the crowds and the rapid pace of life.
After our brief exploration of this westernised enclave, we returned to the hotel for the all you can eat/drink buffet of
Spencer's Mall
...and its latest water feature gluttony. I did my best to experience as many authentic Indian dishes as possible. Including pomfrit (which to my mild surprise wasn't a plate of chips, but a local fish).
Once sated, we ventured down to Spencer's Mall - an older, established, truly Chennai mall. The contrast was apparent, yet even here there was everything to buy from high quality linen shirts to tourist tack. Our mission was to obtain Indian sim cards... a task that took slightly longer than expected, but after 3 patient hours we were rewarded for our persistence. During this time, we experienced our first dose of the monsoon rains. It rained heavily...
...inside.
Now getting late, we headed back to the hotel in preparation for our first day of work ahead. Before retiring for the night, we arranged for a taxi to collect us each morning from the hotel, at 8.15am to take us to the IT park where we would be working.
I'll admit the next morning it was a struggle to make it to the breakfast table, but apparently less so for me than Krishna, who showed up some 15 minutes before our pre-arranged taxi was due to depart,
Stonefish
Ugly - but tasty! as yet still not dressed. While tucking into breakfast, Krishna raises the topic of when we should head off to the office. Slightly confused, I remind him (perhaps he has forgotten) that we have arranged a daily taxi at 8.15am. Krishna replies "Oh well, we just make it 8.45"). Puzzled, I question that perhaps as we have asked the driver to show at 8.15, that perhaps we should be ready to leave then, Krishna assures me that this is not the case in India. It becomes clear to me, as not only is our taxi not there at the alloted time - no taxi would show up unless we asked for it that morning. So why did we arrange a daily taxi? Krishna explains that this is all part of the routine and protocol... I accept that the culture may take some getting used to, and all I can really do is to go along with it.
Arriving at the IT park is somewhat startling - our route takes us through the suburbs of Chennai, where we pass stray dogs, cows, goats, and people living in makeshift houses, when suddenly up ahead rises the huge gleaming metal and glass
Yet another feast
...but i'm not complaining! stucture, which I could have been forgiven for mistaking for a football stadium by it's scale. Inside, it is like a self contained town - but one world's apart from the towns around it.
Most nights, due to working late, we opted to return to the hotel for dinner - the food is amazing and varied. I tried stonefish for the first time in my life, and i'm sure many other things, but to be honest there is so much new to me here I couldn't keep track of it all! This evening, however, we headed into town - I was on a mission to purchase a guitar. We had tried to find this shop on Sunday without success - our taxi driver had questioned almost anyone we could find but none could help us with the address. This time, after a few email exchanges and phone conversations - and finally by handing the phone to the taxi driver, the proprieter was able to guide us to his shop.
I realise that, somewhat naively, I had formed a picture in my head of a polished office studio, with gleaming musical instruments on display, probably solely based on the
My new toy
..and it was a mission to track down! fact that I had found the shop from its website and the fact that the owner had an email account. In reality I know that neither of these are particularly hard to setup from a laptop - which while in the shop I managed to spot half concealed underneath a stack of empty guitar boxes. On entering the shop, I really only had enough space to stand and (very carefully) turn round - the retail space was tiny and what there was was completely occupied by the wares. Where I had perhaps expected a younger salesman, into the latest guitar craze, I found an ageing shop keeper and his maybe ten year old son, surrounded by a chaotic wilderness of guitar boxes and local instruments. It took some digging through the heap but nevertheless, I found my guitar and completed my transaction.
After treating ourselves to dinner in town, we returned to the hotel. Soon it will be the weekend and we plan to head through to Bangalore... Tom's ticket on the train is still on the waiting list, but mine and Krishna's are confirmed... so this is to be my first experience of the famous Indian Railways Company!
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