Visa Experience Part 2

This post is dedicated mainly to Yuvi-Macha and Prabha-Kutty who tried their best over the last 4 years to convince us of the beauty of Chennai: Ya right! Anyway…

As the train ceased its motion finally, I realised why they say you can tell Chennai is not far off from the smell! But to be fair the stench emanating from most central stations is not that of Aphrodite in her hall of flowers. I got down:

and without questioning why, just followed the masses to the main entrance hall: It was my first impression of Chennai proper in over 10 years and to say it was chaotic would be an understatement. The human scent was everywhere and sounds of “Thambi!” and “Macha!” showed the brotherhood of the common Madraasi.

Getting off the station, I crossed the road and a heat wave hit me full on! Mind you that I had just spent over 18 hours at 20⁰ C but it was 3 PM and the temperature must have been atleast 40⁰ C. Alas that it was much later I learnt the secret of survival here: You need to keep moving- If you stick in one place then you will melt, but the relatively less humidity (wrt Mangalore) keeps away the heat upon constant movement.

The rickshaw guys didn’t help make things better for this poor visitor as they asked for anything between Rs 150 to Rs 400 (No, I am not joking!) for a 7 Km journey. About 30 mins (and over 500 buses later), I got the proper bus and it charged me Rs 3.50 (Lol) for the very journey!

The roads in Chennai are bifurcated, and each bifurcation is then bifurcated too in the sense that it’s a 2 lane road made into 2 mini lanes each for up-down movement. The city par-se is actually clean but then the open drains next to nearly every bus stop doesn’t help raise the city’s prestige in the alien’s eyes.

My destination was a cool little lodge with air-conditioning (The only thing I cared about!) and settled down soon in front of the TV to watch the women’s ICC T20 world cup finale.

In the late evening my dad decided to go out “for a walk” or so he told me and asked me to join him. Too late I realised it was just an excuse to visit Saravana Selvarathnam: The Shopping Mall FROM HELL!!! Over 6 stories of garments and nothing else stood in front of me and everywhere there seemed to be a picture of a ridiculously happy (and ugly) man who probably owned the whole thing… Did I ever mention I hate shopping for ordinary stuff like clothes? Take me to Chor Bazaar and you will find it near impossible to drag me out but this can go to the Birds!!

Things were looking routine until I developed a case of loose motion - That Chicken Biriyani was a little bit too funny I guess! Now this is probably the worst thing that could have happened to me given that the consulate people look for any sign of weakness you present there, but luckily I healed in time with the help of medication. The next day saw me in formals and carrying a file looking like an IT coolie, took an auto and got down in front of the VFS centre because the auto driver thought it was the US Consulate. Luckily the consulate was only a minute of walking away and I turned the corner, only to see a mass of humanity- trying their best to be part of the Indian exodus into the US of A. This place is a white fortress and there seemed to be people everywhere…