☕️ My emotions toward Chennai

Sharing my inevitable emotions toward Chennai and is this city really worth it or is it just underrated?

HOT, SWEATY, BORING, NON-PARTY, ORTHODOX, CONSERVATIVE - These are some tags that non-chennaities associate with Chennai and to all these people - this blog is for you :)

Chennai is my favourite city in the whole of India not only because I'm from here but also because of the people who live here. I have spent the whole of my 24.5 years here. I did my schooling, went to college and started working here. Although I haven't travelled to many of the cities but from what people say I can make out what other cities are like. Mumbai is bay but heavily populated and super expensive. Bangalore has great drinks and great weather but it is getting heavily saturated. Delhi has amazing food but my lungs are already coughing as I say Delhi.

And what is Chennai like? Chennai is home to the greatest IPL franchise (CSK), the biggest Asian superstar (Thalaivar Rajinikanth), the world's second-longest beach and it is also home to millions of people hustling every day to make this city so much more than all of this. Chennai is most the misinterpreted, misunderstood and underrated city to live in India.

Let's see what makes Chennai super great!

Affordable stuff

I remember my friends in Bangalore crying to book a ticket for a Batman movie at an IMAX screen for 600 INR bucks and this ticket might sometimes even reach 1000 to 1200 bucks depending upon the demand. This is the case in most of the metros in India where a ticket might go from 140 INR on a weekday to 1000 INR on weekends. But in Chennai, you will never ever experience this problem because the same Batman movie is somewhere between 250 to 400 INR and this won't even fluctuate.

Not just movie tickets, everything is just so hyped in most of the metros other than Chennai. I remember one time when I had to pay 200 INR for just a small pack of curd rice when I used to work in Hyderabad.

Beaches

To me, any city that has a beach is a few notches above any other. Okay accepted that Goa has the best beaches but Chennai has other stuff to host. Marina, the 2nd longest beach in the world, is like a city in itself with hundreds of food stalls, a lighthouse and home to the largest fishing community. Elliots aka the Bessy beach is the kinda more posh area with young athletes training and in the evening you will find college students and couples just chilling on the promenade. Thiruvanmiyur Beach is home to the legendary 'Moor Thaatha' who is Chennai's nighttime icon and sells the most unique Buttermilk. To get away from the chaos of the city, there are a lot of little beaches along ECR (the Juhu Beach) where you get a lot more privacy and you will be promised of some amazing sunrises on all of the beaches.

- Shot at Juhu Beach, ECR

Recreational activities

If you are still believing that Chennai is not home to many recreational activities, I think you haven't explored Chennai much. There is surfing at Kovalam where you can rent a surfboard for a fun dive or learn surfing at affordable rates and every year there is an international surfing festival called 'Covelong Point' where surfers from all around the world come down to participate in surfing.

And there is one thing that I had always wanted to try which is Turtle hatching where you can actually go on turtle walks to see the turtle hatching of olive ridley on the seashore.

Image Courtesy: Chennai Times, Times of India

Apart from these you too have dedicated cycling tracks in areas like Adyar and Besant Nagar. Then there is Scuba Diving by the PADI group, you can do Go-karting at ECR, there is soap football, and no wonder 'Chennai is called the new Bangalore' cause of the cute and cosy bars that Chennai hosts.

The Food

To all my North Indian friends, we are definitely more than Idly, Vada, Dosa and Filter coffee. Whether you are a vegetarian or a hard-core non-vegetarian, Chennai gives you a wholesome experience. There is a dedicated area for Chat - Sowcarpet, a dedicated area for tiffing and coffee - Mylapore, and a dedicated area for Momos - Choolaimedu. I would suggest following Irfan's View to understand the sheer range the city has in terms of food.

Ease of Transport

To all the Mumbaikars' who travel in local trains, 2 mins silence cause I have seen how difficult it is to board a local train in Mumbai that too in non-peak hours. But guess what, Chennai has the 3rd largest metro network and when it comes to public transport Chennai has got you covered. Even the airport is in the heart of the city (sorry Bangalore).

Diversity

One of the major complaints about the city is no one speaks Hindi and my defence to this is - if you go to a guest's house, you need to play by their rules i.e. if you go to France, you need to learn French and you can't expect the French to learn English. Similarly, Tamil is the native language here and if you are still believing Hindi is the national language - again sorry dude. But Chennai is one of the most inclusive cities in India, especially in religion, harmony and culture.

That's not all Chennai is about. Chennai is more than this. Chennai is both extremes. You have the North Madras which still hold the old reminisces of Chennai and there are a lot of Posh areas such as the Adyar, Bessy, and Anna Nagar. And personally, I have heard from many other states praising Chennai and I started loving this city even more when I moved out here and realised how beautiful this city is been.

And if you have read all this way, then I am pretty sure you can highly relate to this song 😻