Chennai! Here I am!

I landed in Chennai about eight pm. By the time I went through the immigration and reached the arrival hall, it was about nine pm. I saw so many people standing at every inch of the fence, that I almost cried. How was I going to identify the person who was going to pick me up? Knowing that my observation skills were virtually absent, I wondered how on earth was I going to look for the person who held the placard. Besides, I had the habit of only seeing what I wanted to see. If I didn't know who or what to see, I would certainly miss it. After about ten minutes, I still couldn't spot the person.

 

"Oh no!" My left brain suggests "I should probably have asked for the picture of that person who was going to pick me up."

 

"Oh.. " My right brain replies, "Nobody does that! It'd be embarassing!"

 

Ok.. fine... don't start quarrelling at this time of the day. So, I grab my phone from my pocket and start dialing the numbers given in the mail. Oops... it didn't go through. Oh wow... what am I going to do next? Just wait, I guess.

 

Sure enough, ten minutes later, I spot a young lady frantically waving at me. Then we ran and bumped into each other and embracing each other with the friendly, welcome hug and hand shakes, like long - lost friends, even though it's the first time we're meeting each other.

 

Then she hurries me into a car and we speed off into the night. The very friendly lady eagerly asks me a series of questions, all of which I reply with equal speed. Hmm... doing quite good for the first night in Chennai!

 

Along the way, there were so many tolls and speed breakers, that I think it would have taken forever. "Wow.. the hotel does seem far from the airport, even though it seemed near on Google map." Then again, distance is a concept of relativity. So, I just enjoyed the ride and the streets, with people bustling around every corner of the dimly lit shops, eating, drinking, talking, laughing... wow! This is something I'd never see in Dubai.

 

Nope... in Dubai, from the roads, you'd only see tall buildings and cars. No little shops like these with people in them. If you want to see people, you got to step into those tall, fancy buildings. And every time you step into a restaurant, if you snoop around the dining tables, most people seem to be meeting each other for the first time, asking questions like, "How long have you been here?", "What do you do during your free time?", explaining about themselves and their countries. After a while, it gets a little un-nerving and sometimes I wish I could conduct a normal conversation without going through the same, old questions.

An hour later, we finally arrived at the hotel! Yes! As soon as I had the room to myself, I could hear lizards clicking their tongues, frogs croaking, mosquitoes buzzing, air-cond rumbling away. Back to nature! Ahhh.. just like Tanzania! Sixty minutes later, electricity supply stops and the generator starts up. Ooooh... yes! the power supply is back. And so it went on for a few times, on, off, on, off... After a few cycles, I was sound asleep.