Everyone knew her as Nancy – Part 2

Chennai, still Madras to those who live there, and the state of Tamil Nadu have a relatively long history. Madras has its colonial history dating back to the 1640’s when the East India Trading Company established its administrative offices there at Fort St. George. For nearly 200 years, the British administered their operations from Madras. In Tamil Nadu, cotton was and is king. In Tamil Nadu, Tamil is the regional language (duh), but Hindi, being a “northern” language is reluctantly spoken along with more-recognizable English than in Hyderabad. We collected our luggage after Deb had the initial less-than-Kingfisher experience with a Chennai airport washroom. Cue Martha Reeves’ “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide”. By the time she staggered out, the luggage was on the carousel and we organized and ran for the exit.
Our local Chennai contact, Kamesh, met us along with our driver Rajkumar, and much to our delight, the “car” turned out to be a Toyota AUV (Asian utility vehicle), a legitimately eight-passenger vehicle. It was large, comfortable, and had a great A/C! Deb was delighted.
She had visions of our Hyderabad City Cab city cab experience. Our trip into the city center was during rush hour and it as a challenge. Like Hyderabad, an eight-lane boulevard is really 15 lanes. Points for Chennai – their roads are in better condition than Hyderabad, point against – the roads are more congested. Points for Chennai – their rickshaws are in much better shape than those in Hyderabad (a function of the road conditions). Our hotel, the Residency is in city center.
The growth of the city has all but blotted out the Raj. The old Fort is an active city and state government complex with the scattered remnants of colonial India being slowly consumed by the march of time. Just as St. Mary's church is obscured by the trees, Madras' colonial past is represented by a few artifacts scattered among the new vibrance of modern India. Another reason that the expunging of colonial history might, just might, be deliberate is that the British installed a Muslim Nawab during the Raj to rule over Tamil Nadu, a majority Hindi state. Seems the Sepoy elements of army came from Tamil Nadu and what the British call “mutiny”, Indians call the first steps toward independence. OK, enough history.
The marketplace for Chennai is like that in Hyderabad, the old markets still remain but high-end shopping can be found in city center. Our hotel is in the heart of the “posh” area not too far from the port of Chennai and the beaches on the Bay of Bengal. Deb and I are keenly aware that the temperature and humidity in Chennai is much higher than Hyderabad. I sweat, therefore, I am!

We’ll start the tours in the next posting. Get spiritual, it’ll help.