Le Monde - A Poetic Travail » Chennai

Malli to Nalli

Nisha — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:30:23 +0000

My tryst with Chennai (formerly Madras) includes Sarvana stores, Kumaran silks, Nallis, Pothys and GRT….. Dhal powders, (different types of podis such as paruppu podis etc), maanga inji pickle. The list goes on…
Forget about anything else, my visits to Chennai are combination of smaller excursions to acquire these much sought after possessions.

As much as I dislike Chennai for its anti Hindi propaganda, irritating auto rickshaws, the hot & humid weather and the city’s laid back attitude, my sole aim to enjoy this city is by shopping there. A few short visits that I’ve made to Chennai, as it appears to me, is a big shopping hub for north Indian people.

Kumaran silks, Lalitha jewelery & Sarvana stores. What else do you want?

Was I always so keen to go there?
No.
In my childhood a south Indian always meant a ‘Madrasi’ to all us kids. Not that we were weak in geography but that’s how a north Indian perceived him. ‘Madrasis’ were different… speaking a language that was nearly impossible to understand. Their names ending with a ‘th’ or ‘dh’ instead of simple t or d, leading me to wonder about the flavour of English they used.

Since travel was mostly visiting one’s grandparents or some other relatives, south India was never really on the map and hence, I guess, such a perception.

As kids we knew nothing about Chennai as a place & we never felt the curiosity as well.
Contrary to North Indians, bright silk sarees and flowers are a part of a woman’s normal daily wear. We make Rangoli’s in front of our houses only on some festivals but these ladies were effortlessly decorating their houses everyday ! I used to think, do they have some festivals every day?

It is difficult to quantify by how much my perspective has changed since then! All childhood notions were proved wrong; some realities surfaced.
I am trying to call it by its new name Chennai but I am a slow learner.

I am always excited to go there. I am always excited to go there. After all, one of things to do in Chennai is to draw water from wells; this being a metro city with houses where wells are still in use!
I believe in ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’. I do not have any inhibitions in flaunting malli pu in my hair. I do not touch north Indian food while I am there.

We have enough of big malls in our city, so they are a strict no-no while in Chennai. Auspicious occasion? Buying precious metals from GRT (I can not even pronounce its full name correctly!) is a must. Go to Marina beach and you can not ignore the mouth-watering raw mangoes nicely sliced & sprinkled with chatpata masala.

Burma bazaar is something we try our hands on once in a while, to do some window shopping of imported electronic items and sometimes to get duped. A strange phenomena that often happens here is when haggling, once we say our price for an item, it spreads in the market before we even move to next shop !

Shopping street.

T Nagar has its own attraction. Apart from the fake Burma Bazaar, this is one big shopping area. You need to be resilient and nimble footed to negotiate the sea of people in Ranganathan street.

My shopping spree never stops till the end; Shri Krishna sweets at the airport or dinner packed in banana leaves at Madras railway station mark the end. Oh yeah, how can I forget boxes of Aavin “Paal Gova” ?

If you want to travel with me on my journeys, I suggest you to join me on my Facebook travel page and check out my Twitter account.

Posts related to this entry which might interest you :-

Year 2010 in travel

Nisha — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 06:28:48 +0000

Warning: This is a colorful post.
Before I start writing about my recent trip of Philippines and Malaysia, I thought it better to recollect how was the year 2010 for me in terms of travel.
I think I will skip some of domestic travels since a few of them happened in a jiffy and I do not remember the details now. Also, I am not counting the local exploration of lesser known places of my town such as watching Flamingos at Sewri fort.

Flamingos enjoying their meals.

The year started with a trip to city of gardens, Bangalore in January.

Lal Baugh, Bangalore.

Next came Mauritius. V happened to go there several times and I accompanied him once. I have written very little about this beautiful country.

Who would not want to live here?

Then came my 48 days solo backpacking trip to Malaysia and Thailand which started in late February and ended sometime in April. Physically I was not at my best. It was tough and sometimes daunting being a woman and travelling alone in a new alien country. Wandering on roads with a backpack with no fixed destination or agenda was both fun and challenging.
Those readers who were following my posts at that time would definitely agree with me.

Majestic Petronas. You can’t visit it if you don’t plan a day ahead.

Everything about Thailand is amazing.

Month of May saw me in Delhi for a short trip and I could visit the Red fort. I had a great time there. I have noticed, when you are alone, your observation skills shoot up.

Majestic Red fort at Delhi.

Come June and July and I was in Bangalore and after that again a solo trip to interiors of Tamilnadu. Started from Chennai in sleeper class I travelled in local buses, rickshaws and on foot. The most common question I was asked by the locals (whenever they could speak English) was which country I belonged to. People even requested me to have a photo with them !!
Surprising enough, I do not look like a foreigner from any angle. Perhaps my cargoes, cap with a Kangaroo on it, a camera hanging from my neck and my solo status spoke otherwise.
BTW, this happened in Thailand as well.

Entrance of Bragatheeswara or Big temple, Thanjavur.

Towards the end of this trip, mosquito bites in Kumbakonam gifted me Dengue which I thought was a normal fever and kept suppressing it with Paracetamol pills.
Sriperambadur was my last stop before I flew back home from Chennai. Once home, tests revealed it was indeed Dengue and I was advised immediate hospitalization because of my condition. It took more than a month to recover with V taking full care of me.

But I could not restrict myself for long. August end, and I was at Aurangabad exploring the world famous caves and later at Lonar lake.

Sculptures at Ellora attract people of all ages.

Again travelled in local buses, had to stay in a dingy room in a very small place by compulsion … thanks to heavy rains which had washed away all roads of onward journey.
But at the end of it, this was what waiting for me.

The emerald green was so inviting that I couldn’t resist myself from hiking down to it.

In the month of October I flew down to Sikkim on an invitation by Club Mahindra. One of the major achievements of this trip was visiting Nathu La Pass and first meeting with eight hitherto virtual people.

Near Kyongnosla, one of the check points at around 10000 ft.

In November it was again a Delhi trip to attend some family functions spread over 8 days but I made it a point to take a day off to visit Khurja, a small but well known place for its pottery industry. Again, I met another friend in Delhi who was virtual for me till then.

Bahai’s temple, Delhi.

In Khurja it was quite difficult to convince somebody to show me a factory and how things are made from scratch to finish. Here is a small video that I captured while coming back from one such factory.

In one of the factories in Khurja.

Come December and on 20th I flew down to Kuala Lumpur on way to Philippines to celebrate Christmas and new year in a new country.

View from my window at Batad, Philippines.

Sunset at Port Dickson beach, Malaysia.

And I bade farewell to year 2010….
This year I intend to do a different kind of travel, a kind of introspection. For doing that first I need to enhance my endurance level. Just one reason is good enough…. I am a traveller and not a tourist.

Lastly,
Dear Year 2010,
Goodbye. You gave me a lot of opportunities to travel and I am quite satisfied.
May I wish for more this year.

Greedy,
Me.
———
If you like this blog, I suggest you recommend it to your friends. If you wish to stay tuned to the latest happenings on this site,
1. You can subscribe to this website by e-mail or on your reader.
2. For those small stories and tit-bits that don’t always make it to this place check out my Twitter or
3. Facebook fan page accounts.
4. For my travel related videos subscribe to Youtube.

Posts related to this entry which might interest you :-

Wedding garland

Nisha — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:08:19 +0000

These thick & heavy special wedding garlands are called Kalyana Malai ( कल्याण माला ) in Tamil and are made of mainly rose petals and chopped leaves. To keep them together in this conical shape and to prevent the petals from falling off, they are ‘wrapped’ in threads. You can watch this video how it is done.

After wrapping up with thread some decorative pieces are being inserted.

There are two such pieces of each garland. Mostly, only one piece is prepared and kept ready. When somebody likes the design, size etc and orders for the garlands, the other piece is made and joined together to form a mala (garland).

The two pieces of wedding garland, ready to be joined together to form a mala.

All these garlands are made by highly skilled people in Tamil Nadu. Each piece could weigh from a kilogram to several kilograms which can only be lifted by 2 or more persons. The heavier versions are mostly used to welcome politicians and VIPs.
I am sure some of my south Indian readers would already know about it.

Kalyana = कल्याण (Hindi), wedding
malai = माला (Hindi) garland
—
If you like this blog, I suggest you recommend it to your friends. If you need to know more on this topic, don’t hesitate to use the comment section or shoot a mail or contact me.
For regular personal updates, subscribe to this website by e-mail or on your reader. For those small stories and tit-bits that don’t always make it to this place check out my Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Posts related to this entry which might interest you :-

The year that was.. 2009

Nisha — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:04:11 +0000

The year 2009 is gone. It was satisfying as far as travel is concerned. Except for one or two, all places were new to me. Not many to count but observed and learnt a lot during the course.
And all these trips were personal trips, not work related.

It was Ratnagiri and Ganapatipule to begin with. Temples, forts and beaches greeted us with stories of their own.

Then it was Bangaluru. solo trip. Somehow I felt more uncomfortable in going around in Bangaluru than any other south Indian cities.

Glass house… next time I’ll go during flower show

Chennai happened after that. Chennai has a special place. Also, local food and shopping for silk sarees never ceases there.

With Chennai, it was Puducherry, the French town.

Then in summers it was again a solo 3 day trip to Hyderabad, my first to the city. I stayed in a hotel opposite railway station and had glorious time walking along the lake, negotiating with the autowalas and arguing with saviours of women.

In the end, last week there was a whirlwind trip to Delhi. Hopes for some more places could not materialize for various reasons.

Red Fort with tricolor at the top..

Besides these Indian places, two more countries were added. Mauritius and Malaysia.

Spending 5 days in Mauritius was awesome. If you go by time difference then it’s only 1:30 hours away from India but it took more than 18 hours to reach !

The flight was via Dubai with a long waiting period. Having already seen beautiful Dubai city, there was no charm in staying inside the airport this time.

Mauritius…..

In October it was Malaysia for a 12 day trip. I coaxed and sometimes forced V to do some unusual things, one example… staying in a dorm.
Otherwise we both like trying local cuisines and transports and exploring places on foot.

Famous Petronas

I wish our new year 2010 is filled with more travel.
So, that was my travel story. What was yours ?

P.S.- I think I am forgetting some more places. I’ll add them as & when I remember.