Look at our city!

We can’t not denied that each and every place has its own set of positives and also negatives. Mumbai is an idea city for travel with Bollywood, mouth-watering chat, trains and weekend gateways but a lot of large slums exist along with the beauty. Delhi has its rich historical architecture and planned transportation but safety should be concerned. Let’s look at our Chennai and think about the “beauty and beast” it has.

Chennai is one of the safest cities in India. Look at any crime number and Chennai is way behind Mumbai or New Delhi. Crime rate per 100K people is 169 for Chennai, for Bengaluru it is 566, Delhi - 359, Mumbai - 207. Now anecdotally speaking, how often do you read of rapes in Chennai? Or how about organized gangs or Mafias? How about terrorism? How often do you find bombs bursting in Chennai? 

Richly soaked in culture. Until very recently, Chennai was the only major city to retain a lot of elements of Indian culture. We have 1000 year old temples and we are the epicentre of classic Indian arts such as Bharatanatyam or Carnatic Music. Whether it be learning Vedas or music, Chennai is the place to be. No other Indian metro comes close. 

The city of ancient cultural remaining but work opportunities in both the old and new world (IT). Its economy is more diverse than Bangalore or NCR.

Sportive people. It’s easy to see that Chennai people love cricket. I can hear the sound of supporter blowing up from the Chepauk Stadium whenever they have a match.

Throwing the bigoted glasses and look at the lovely point of Chennai’s weather. I agree that heat is uncomfortable but at least there is no weather extreme. It’s extremely predictable because it’s always hot. It’s not like Delhi that can get brutally hot in the summer and frozen in the winter.

People are friendly and kindly. I often buy fruit at a store near my house and the old woman always offers a good price (as I compare with other stores and super market) and gives more fruit than I buy. And one of my friend, she left her phone at a train station and no hoped to get it back but luckily, someone picked it up and gave to a policeman. These are small stories but make me love the city more and more.

And this is the time for a judgement, Chennai has some negatives besides.

Although it has no weather extreme, Chennai weather can be brutal if unprepared. We have beaten around this too many times.

It is hard to get good non-vegetarian food. Large parts of core Chennai (Mylapore, T.Nagar, Vadapalani, Triplicane, Adyar) have deep Brahminical roots and many high end restaurants are vegetarian.

Many places in the city are dirty, crowded, without dustbins or footpaths.

All the things above are personal feeling and experience therefore they may be right or wrong.  

 

Chennai Egmore in the sunset

A flock of crows