New (& single) girl in the city!!!

Lots of newspaper columns and blog posts have been filled in the past about the trials and tribulations of single (working) women in the big bad cities - well, this one is different. For me relocating to Chennai has been a pleasant and smooth transition. I had heard horror stories about how haunting the house hunting expeditions could be. My first day of Mission House Hunting henceforth referred to as MHH was hilarious to say the least.

Just walking across the road from the office guest house where I was temporarily put up, I sighted this small sticker on the wall advertising “decent furnished houses for rent” with a contact number. That’s it! No name, no information on the location of those “decent furnished houses” on the ad sticker. With all the enthusiasm of a person freshly into MHH I immediately punched the contact number.

A Tamil voice responded from the other side, very businesslike. Yes, he was a real estate guy he said and asked me how I had gotten his number. I tried to explain to him my exact coordinates (with my dubious knowledge of Chennai roads and streets) to the best of abilities and with each of my attempt he grew happier and told me that he was somewhere nearby and asked me to reach a prominent landmark of that locale within 15 minutes as he had just the perfect place for me. Now came the sticky part, how were we supposed to identify each other. He said he was wearing this orange shirt with white stripes and a black trouser. I reached the mutually agreed upon place much before him and while waiting had a panic attack. Should I get onto the bike or car of this stranger to go and see this “perfect place”? Hadn’t I been foolhardy in my rush to find a place? But thankfully “the perfect place” was just round the corner and we walked to that place.

The house was fine though the building was tellingly old. Most disappointingly the landlady had stuffed the place with all the unwanted stuff from her house and the place looked like a humongous godown. Muthu (the real estate guy) read the disappointed look on my face and started making placating noises and I decided to keep this place as a backup if the worst came to worst. The MHH ended on a happy note a week later with me finding a house in a locality near the office. The icing on the cake was I didn’t shell out a penny on the brokerage, as the house was discovered by me through an online advertisement.

Getting my own place in the city was really a big relief. It was nothing short of cathartic, what with MHH taking a toll on my nerves and trying to figure out a decent and pocket friendly eating joint everyday (remember this is was before I got my first pay cheque) was turning into a pain. With managing a household, came along the responsibility of stocking it with the minimum essentials, buying groceries etc. The first week went off in a blur. But the location of my new house I must say is really strategic, on the one side are these really big houses with well tended lawns and gardens and the adjoining road leads up to this market place with all the big shops with swanky brands and on the other side are the modest houses and they too have their own small market to serve their requirements. I like to call these the BoP (Bottom of the Pyramid) markets that serve everything from salt to sugar and tamarind to all kinds of spices in quantities customized to cater to the customers’ needs. This market has been my mainstay in the past two months. I like both of these markets. The former for its huge “window shopping” value and my occasional buying sprees and indulgences and the latter for its high utility value in my day to day routine.

Now a word on the attitude of Chennai people. I found them very forthcoming especially when it came to helping me with directions whenever I lost my way in the city. I remember one of the Reader’s Digest surveys some two years back ranking cities by their friendliness to strangers etc. Chennai surely gets my vote on this one.

But it is not all goody goody though. On the downside I can’t bear the humid weather here. Worst, it stays the same all through the year. Two minutes out of the door and you are sweating buckets! I also have a huge issue with the city public transport system – the bus stops just aren’t marked / named, how is a person supposed to know where to get off?

Still the overall Chennai report card is in the green for me and I hope it stays so for the remainder of my stay in the city. Amen!