Chennai Days -1

I was back in Chennai for five days since I decided to take over the wedding planning for B myself. The wedding planner was left in the loop after she quoted some horrific amount. Seriously a business to start up for later days is wedding planning. They really charge hell of a lot.
For the first time this was a trip where I did not want to come back. There was loads of shopping for some 75 relatives and moi. (Yes the traditional south Indian wedding means all the relatives get new dresses, who said weddings come cheap)
I watched two movies Ravanan and Toy Story 3 in 3D at PVR the new cinema in Chennai. The cinema is just wow, we really need one of those here. With the nachos before i forget that.
Ate too much of good food, and down goes the diet with that. Brought sarees for the loads of function. Frankly only the wedding saree is nice.
Mum turned into a mumzilla and troubled me endlessly. First she insisted to pick a Saree for me and i looked like a lit chandelier gone wrong. Mum insisted it was modern and blah blah but looking at the mirror i looked like a dork. Thankfully common sense prevailed and the situation was quickly aborted with me saying no to the lovely salesman who was trying to palm it off. I did manage to buy a nice Saree which will suit me later on in the trip.
She was also behaving weird like randomly she would make her own plans in the middle of really busy work and waste like four hours.
In all of this we forgot to buy clothes for B the groom. Start of mayhem and madness..

Chennai Circus 1 !

So with the backpain and slipdisc prolapse all the works we took off early saturday morning. Anyone with the above pain can take a risk cause flying srilankan in and out will slip the disc right back to where it was. Take off was like on a roller coaster (gone wrong) landing was rain clouds (like this bumpy car ride).

I was in so much pain when we landed and was the last to walk out. B was wondering why i was walking like an aachi but was worried by the time we went to collect our luggage.

Yes i forgot the bit in the morning where my dad freaked out when he saw the size of my suitcase for two nights. it was big just in case u know there is an emergency or whatever...

Just after i landed the kids were missing me and crying for me and demanding me back (thats also part of my dream). They did call me that was only to insist that whatever happens they need a gift back each and were more well behaved than i am around. It was kind of wierd being without the bag and baggage (kids and DH). Just being with my brother B was painful for him since i was being difficult.

Chennai was hot dusty and gave this feeling of being back home but not really there. I always get that feeling when i land there. Went to temple and was accosted by the beggars and B was busy giving money and I ran off cause they can get violent and can grab your hands off. B called me wicked and bad. The beggars were chasing him all the way to the car even after giving them money...

Flying Sri Lankan!

Went to chennai with the kids over the long weekend and added holidays cutting school and work. Was at airport and get approached by dodgy looking indian guy who wanted us to carry liquor to chennai for him. Just ignored and kept walking. ( i must be giving out the wrong signal with two kids in tow like a baggage carrier)

Get into the flight and sri lankan with its crappy service and attitude kept on announcing about their black label deal.

Six year old wanted to know what black label was and D wanted to know if we can get the deal and buy whatever is thrown free (she is picking up the tendency of hitting sales or an early interest towards liquor).

I was a bit put off with the non stop announcement in flight, then they push the cart across the aisle and are like do u want to buy the deal buy the deal (just like travelling in train in india where all the people come to sell their stuff).

The food is inedible to say the least i think they should just not bother giving out that crappy snack.

Night Out In Chennai!

After a long tedious day of visiting relatives get back to the hotel with DH. I had absolutely done no shopping and was slightly worried about the state of my suitcase which was empty. Going up to the room we met some Wierdly dressed adults in the lift. oh right they were going clubbing to the night club at the hotel. We were staying at a fairly normal hotel.

Dh said lets go check out the club. Hemm after seeing the wierd people in the lift i was a bit skeptic, so told him to go check if it looks ok. He comes back looking quite excited, is it the chennai weather thats hitting his head, or being alone with me. He is like u have to see this!

Right i have seen a fair share of seedy nightclubs in chennai in my college days. well decided to go for it. Thank god i had packed one set of clothes appropriate for a night out with friends (which i never got around to doing anyways)

So we walk into the club there were like a huge number of bouncers outside. they looked thrilled to see us. Found out soon enough why. The guys out numbered the girls by one is to twenty at least. I am not kidding here. I could count less than ten girls ! The night club itself was impressive like in tamil movie style.

So we are quickly shown to this safe are (since thats where the girls with the guys are) to sit. Right in front of the dance floor. Dance floor is inhabited by a single guy dancing chennai moves to a hindi song.

Right so we just sat there and watched this lone dancer do his moves. After a good ten mins he leaves the floor and five girls start dancing. Immediately the dance floor is protected by eight bouncers and the guys are not let in. Right! by this time i was laughing at the whole situation. after the girls have done their only sole dancing for about three songs. Their boyfriends join them all to the song of "Singh is KING" after permission by the bouncers.

This huge guy comes up and smiles in this sleazy way and stamps my foot and leans over to the girl who is sitting at the other end and says something in here ears. she looks pissed off and turns the other way. then while leaving says sorry to me with sleazy smile again. Dh is pissed and gets up to tell him off. I pull him back since my foot was still in working order. we get up to leave.

Big Commotion breaks out with this girl pushing the same sleazy guy into the dance floor and beating him up with her handbag. Wow serious action time. Highlight for the night. Dh spoils it by pulling me from jumping and cheering her and out. oops all the couples have also had the same idea. We scramble into the lift and leave.....

Chennai Days!

Thats where I was last week on a spontaneous trip to attend a wedding with DH. It was five days of non stop shopping, visiting relatives,attending a wedding, watching a tamil movie in sathyam, eating and not doing much work.

March ending the end of year sales was booming. The recession means more sales and more buying. I think seeing all the 50% Off signs were making me feel dizzy. Seeing the signs did not make me shop till i dropped. But i did my fair share to boost the sales.

Did i mention about the food. I ate so much of food which was out of this world. Including dodgy melon juice served at a house which gave my throat pain. And the road side boiled peanuts with the chennai dust which just took my appetite away after getting back. . .

Missing the Shoe Deal

In Chennai last week while window shopping, I came across this really good deal where you can buy two shoes and get the third one free. I mean is that not like the best deal and these are my favorite brand of shoes. I went a bit giddy for a moment there all these shoes beautifully displayed and I kept trying one after the other. My friend came up and joined me and inquired if I had decided if I picked a pair so I told her about the deal and said I am going to get three for the price of two. She just looked at me as if I have lost it and said hemm they are too expensive why do u want to get three shoes and also cleverly pointed out that my shoe cupboard was overflowing anyways. That sounded right at that point of moment and I left with just one pair in a bag.

Now sitting so many miles away I am totally repenting missing the shoe deal…. Feel like crying since they were really good lovely wedge heels. I mean where can u get nice wedge heels in Colombo. Well when u get it it’s so over priced. I mean if I had actually got three pairs I could have used them for a year right and never buy any more shoes for a year………. So upset. Wanted to text a friend and ask them to pick up the pairs was scared since I would have got a rude reply back ……..

Customer Care

I always have this feeling that some of the Banks in Colombo have crappy customer care. I had to eat my words when I was in Chennai since our Banks give much better response than those guys do. Call the bank up and check what time they start working and they say come at eight thirty. Just to be on the safe side I get there at nine thirty and the counter that I needed to get some work done was not operational until ten. There were a bunch of other staff around in other counters but they will not even answer or help any customers. (oh they have a fancy May I help you? Board but the guy does nothing just says ask the next counter).

Moving counter to counter asking the same repetitive question I go through about seven staffs of three who are women. The women just stared at me and were really nasty, I think they can tell when u look and dress Indian even, they know it when u are NRI ( non resident Indian). So sat down to wait patiently for half an hour while these women were looking me up and down non stop. Was staring right back at them thinking in my mind should have worn a pair of shorts what would they do then. There was all Indian glory with my new shalwar new bindi and all madrasi look. I was slowly and steadily losing my patience so ask for the manager. Guess what the answer was ask the sodding next counter. After good one hour the man who is suppose to attend to this crap comes and I tell him that I am really disappointed with the service. He just stares at me as if I have come for a loan and says nothing. They make me wait for a good another hour and when I am out of it, thoroughly drained (or so I thought but the heat further drained me) to do much else……..

Lesson I have learnt from this experience even if our local banks have crappy customer service I will bear and be nice to them cause really they are not that bad come to think of it….

Two nights in Chennai……

So all this ranting and raving about my miserable life, took matters into my hand and went to Chennai for the weekend. Of course the whole trip was on a programme and somewhat work related. But you can’t have the cake and eat it. Getting of at Chennai airport gives me a feeling of happiness and sadness all put into one. This is where I spent some of my happiest years of College life. Sadness was something petty the heat was unbearable. We keep complaining about our unpredictable Colombo weather with hot sun and splashing rains but Chennai was Hot with a capital H.

The whole weekend was filled with activities and only relaxing time was spent shopping for a couple of hours and meeting with best friend (another post for that) from college. We were trying to catch up with too much in a short while and I left with a feeling of not enough.

Shopping in Chennai is a big improvement from what it used to be. U name it you get it (I mean there is Benetton & mothercare). I was only able to make it to Spencers run around buying clothes (then regret not bought enough). Then do more shopping to buy Gifts (bribes) for the kids who were left behind at home.

Watched a last show Tamil movie, with some college students making their own comments and reviews about the movie while watching. Hemm if it was done here I would get pissed off. In Chennai I was laughing along with them.