This post
is part of the blog tag titled, The CBC Tablog where CBC stands for Chennai
Bloggers Club. About 35 bloggers from Chennai are participating in this blog
tag; everyone will write about their favourite city Chennai and what it means
to them. So here's my post for the CBC tablog titled, What Chennai Means To Me. Thanks for passing the baton to me Susan!
If I can describe Chennai in one
word, it would be home. Indeed, that’s exactly what Chennai means to me. I was
born here, I grew up here, studied here, worked here – and in fact, have even
married here.
I’ve lived almost my entire life
here. Most of my special memories have been formed in Chennai. After spending
more than 2 decades here, it is only reasonable that anyone would think that I
would know Chennai like the back of my hand. Unfortunately, that is not so. I
am not familiar with too many routes – and most definitely cannot claim to have
visited every nook and cranny of this city. I am no expert on Chennai – I am
still discovering the myriad delights it offers.
I think that one either loves
Chennai or hates it – there are no inbetweens. Actually there is lot to dislike
in Chennai – the hot and humid weather of course topping the list. When
outsiders say that they don’t prefer Chennai I can totally understand their
reasons. I don’t jump immediately to Chennai’s defense and deny any of its
shortcomings.
Sure, Chennai has many drawbacks, yes Chennai has its dark side.
But so what? I don’t claim that Chennai is perfect. Rather, we Chennaities have
simply learnt to accept its faults. We have chosen to look beyond the flaws.
Afterall what is life without a few imperfections, right?
For the past 5 years or so, I’ve
been living abroad mostly. Whenever I think of Chennai, I get this warm and fuzzy feeling inside me. Every time my flight hovers over Chennai, I look
down eagerly at the glimmering lights, winking at me from far below and try to guess which area we are flying over (even though I'm mostly clueless!). And as we
touchdown, I think, “I’m home”. Yes. Chennai is home. Home is Chennai. Yesterday,
today and always.
This post will be succeeded by Aravind Kumar, who says, "Too many blogs
kill the blogging spirit atleast it did mine! Crazy Traveller, Flour Miller,
Lover of Food Politics."
*Photo credit: nanda_uforians (Used under the Creative Commons Attribution License.)
