Chennai & Change ..

I had been to Chennai in 1997 for a week long school tour and now i am back in 2006 to make my life here... And till now I have been listening to all bad/horrifying stories about Chennai... which had made me to believe that words 'Chennai' and 'Change' are deadly opposite to each other.

It was really heart breaking when I heard that I had go to Chennai as part of my work and after coming here it took me nearly 30-40 days to realize that I have to be part of this city to make my life. Until then Chennai for me was just the home where I stay, office and the bus stand/railway station to go to Mysore/Bangalore...!!. But once I realized that I have to stay here for few months or more to make my life I started exploring Chennai and found that words 'Chennai' and 'change' were quite relative to each other.

Before coming I had heard all these things about Chennai... the people are rude, they don’t care for other state people, they cheat, people are movie crazy, actors & politicians are like demi gods for them, only Tamil & Tamil everywhere, temperature is hot, hotter & hottest... so on and on. And what I have experienced so far is all these allegations are true only to a certain extent and the rest are false.

May be few years back these allegations were completely true but certainly now Chennai has changed. If you look at people they may look they are harsh... rude... but unless you poke nose into their business they won’t matter. The people who we have interacted so far like shop keepers, auto drivers, servants & others have been pretty okay. Yes auto people demand exorbitant rates but we can negotiate, there I saw the major change that is these people trying to talk in bits & pieces of English, Hindi... and trying to explain with sign languages. Of course there are few fanatics who believe in only Tamil but they can be neglected as they don’t matter in our daily affairs.

The next thing that they are movie crazy is absolutely true. We went to multiplex- Sathyam cinemas for night 10.30 show and what really amazed me is all 8 screens were almost running full house. The change I noticed was there was 2 Hindi, 2 English, a Telugu film being played with other 3 being Tamil. So it is not just Tamil. I was told that in Chennai you don’t find good looking people...hmm... but what I saw in Spencer’s shopping mall, Sathyam multiplex, beaches of Besant Nagar, Trivanmiyur, ECR is totally different which made few of us say " Chennai is not that bad...", it may not be a ocean like Bangalore but still here u find rivers & lakes often… Ha… ha...!!

The other major noticeable change is majority of Billboards, sign boards, hoardings are all in English. Well finally Chennai has woken up Globalization, which means more of diversity is seen now which is a welcome change.

Yes there few things which still suck like hot, hotter, hottest weather which is a major problem but nothing can be done about it, the transportation system with old and over crowded buses, slow moving traffic which makes traveling a night mare, though there are local trains which are not very convenient and now Metro is proposed. The major drawback is Chennai doest have a metro nightlife which usually people from other cities find hard to cope up. There are hangouts but not really a metro culture. Well people also need to change their attitude in a big way… at this point of time all I can say is “Chennai is changing” so are the people !!

INDIA 100 Days....

India has seen all big things happen in last 100 days... The biggest being that I have spent 100 days now in Chennai.. ha ha ha !!... So jokes apart lets get into actual issue.

Few years back I remember reading one of the weekly magazines where Bal Thackrey the Shiv Sena supremo had predicted that India will face civil war in few years to come and I think what I have witnessed in India for last 100 days is a build up to it. India was struck with heat wave this summer as well as protest wave across the country for various reasons.

When I was about to leave Bangalore to Chennai I saw Muslims protesting against the Danish Cartoonist for publishing cartoons of Prophet. After that was we had the great Narmada Bachao Andolan protest lead by Medha patkar and celebrity like Amir Khan became a national sensation when he raised his concerns on this issue. In Bangalore we saw two day rampage by fans on death of super star Dr.Rajkumar. Then we had the vadodara riots. We had the great reservation movement by youth with majority against it and few pro. Then it was turn Christians who came out to protest against movie Da Vinci Code and there was this conversion controversy involving pope. The latest protest being against movie fanaa by BJP yuva morcha wing of Gujarath... And finally political parties are getting ready for to protest against fuel price hike. So protest have become daily routine for people...Everybody wants to protest for nothing.

Dont think I want to become a historian by listing all these protests in order. What I am trying to say all these events have taken place in last 100 days. Everybody in this country is frustrated some with their family, some with government policies, some with some silly reason and every body wants relief so everybody is finding a way out to express their displeasure.

Today the mainstream religion is divided into castes, sub castes...So on. Again categorised into upper and lower (who the hell did it ???) castes. So there is no unity and we have other religions who are up in arms and are waiting to fight for small issues. The government run by dirty politicians for sake of vote and power are playing cheap politics and are diving the country bringing up all kind of policies. So all these thing are slowly fuelling up civil war. Now we are seeing this unrest happen in few parts , soon it will spread and will take place in a bigger way.

How can we stop civil war ?? First and foremost thing we need is Uniform Civil Code. The politicians must put the country ahead instead of their power and cheap politics. We are in 59th year of Independence and we youth are doing the same mistakes like our ancestors. We are an young country with 65% of population who are below 35 years age... Yet we elect 65 years and above old politicians to parliament & assembly. We youth should start a movement to remove caste system from our society. Caste and religion should be purely personal issue and they should no way become basis for education, jobs, business and others.

In a big country like India there will be disagreement on every issue and protest are means of expressing displeasure...But protest should not become a routine. Its a powerful weapon of democracy which should be used correctly else will lead to death of democracy in form of civil war which nobody wants.

Watch the English movie "Crash" its a movie on the post 9/11 situation in US about racial discrimination. Blacks hate whites & viceversa.. they still help each other. Every chracter in that movie is frustrated in one way or the other. Yet life goes on despite all problems. Same can be applied to current situation in India