Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Friendly City


Chennai stands on its own. Not being a highlitght I had no expectations. The best way to find a city. The Indian pace of this place immediately captured my attention. It was love at first sight, without quite knowing why. I looked around and there was nothing attractive. A lot of garbage and the smell that follows it. Degraded buildings, potholed streets, and a symphony of horns. But that was it. I fell in love with all this mix. Chennai was real. Not trying to be more than a city. I like it when it happens. When people live in their own place. For some unexplained reason, some cities are more real than others.

Maybe because it does not have any great attraction. But it is still beautiful. With sites that would fit in a beautiful postcard. The government museum complex is an example. Situated in a great avenue - indeed it passes over the old road - this is a beautiful redish place. The building is beautiful, and the surrounding area lets you relax a from the indian hustle-hustle. The exhibits are worth the money you pay. Nothing that makes you jaw drop, but you like the statues, the stories you learn, the bones, stuffed animals, postcards and paintings you see. If the museum is not enough, in a second you're on the beach. A quasi-contrast to the hustle and bustle of Chennai. You are in a city beach. But still you can have the tranquility that only the sea can give you.

Although they may be good for pictures and emotions, they aren't the biggest highlight of Chennai. That is walking around the city - something that I was trying to explain to rickshaw drivers while refusing their generous offers. In Triplicane – area of my hotel – I had the chance to choose from wide avenues, busy streets or narrow alleys. I decided the busy streets.

The buildings range from construction colonial, tamilian homes or modern buildings. But it is near the sidewalks that the movement attracts my attention. Little used to walk, it is used to drink a tea, place the goods, or sit to do their work. After these are the street stalls - with fruit, clothing, footwear, etc ... - To compete with the parking of numerous motorbikes and rickshaws. Only after we, the pedestrians appear. Fighting for space with the traffic flowing in the street. It is this confusion of details and stimuli, colors and habits, that makes me happy. More than a great monument, I appreciate the mother who picks his daughter or the multicolored woman who draws water from a fountain. Everything competes for your attention in a rhythm of a large Indian city.

This would be the biggest highlight, if I hadn't known the people. Ultimately, these are the ones that make the place. Transform it into something beautiful. On the first day they smiled at me. And continued to do so in the following days. Impossible to finish better than with a coffee with two people from this city. And amid smiles and conversation, shone a huge sympathy that I would call Chennainian.

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