Chennai is a city of character. Definitely South Indian, Chennai is a
metropolitan city that boasts of an international airport, infotech
institutions, grand hotels, a beautiful beach that attracts tourists and
a mixed populace. But still it retains a lot of its traditional
attributes. For one thing, Tamilians are pretty proud of their native
toungue and they refused to have the national language Hindi and the
international language English as their own. Wherever Tamil can be used,
they still do that. And Tamil being a musical language, very easy on the
years and expressive to boot,Chennai always seems romantic, in spite of
the heat, dust and flies. What has changed from the past is the great
increase in traffic as a lot of I.T.firms sprang up in the suburbs and
people going to and fro creates havoc in the mornings and evenings. Also
alot of apartment buildings, shopping malls,hotels and hangouts for
youngsters have sprung up changing the landscape drastically. All in all
Chennai is now globalised but retains an ethnic charm that is
transmitted by the darkskinned simple people who love their land and
toil in the hot sun quite content with their lot. Chennai is also a
place that inspires creativity. Tamilians love cinema and adore film
heros and heroines. I too was inspired by frequent Chennai trips to pen
a few lines of poetry on the city which I copy below: Hot sunlight
glitters on metropolitan daydreams/ A centuries old culture lies
glamorised/ on huge hoardings, alive with the permanant smiles of
evergreen film stars/jasmine smell wafts on the humid air/ as dark
skinned women sit patiently/ plaiting them into lengthy garlands/ of
pure white fragrance,/their beaming faces mirroring the calm confidence
of their own Puraichi Thalaivi./The rustle of pure silks/ the clamor of
silver vessels/the brilliant shine of diamond nose rings/ deflect off
Chennai noons/celebrating dowried womanhood/ decked in orange marigolds/
the land of Kannaki is now totally globalised/ but still tradition walks
the pavement/ in six yard chelais/Chennai afternoons/ flow into soft
salty even times/ the sea breeze carrying/ remnants of old tamil
melodies.