Chennai revisited

Chennai, India's 4th largest Metro. Home to over 6 million. Including my good friends Keval and Bhatta. A city I have avoided for long. A City which I brought back memories of unscrupulous rickshaw-fellows, hot humid weather and xenophobic ppl.
This weekend I visited Chennai for the second time after a gap of two and a half years. The occasion being Bhatta's engagement to Suma. To my surprise, I found Chennai amazingly pleasant. The roads were broader and well maintained. The traffic congestion has decreased. The weather was great as if someone turned on the A/C somewhere to control the heat and humidity. There were a lot many places to hang out. And yes, thankfully I didn't have to travel on an auto-rickshaw. :)
I guess a lot of that had to do with my experience in Bangalore which has become quite unfit for living in the last couple of years; with roads all over the place been dug up; unplanned colonies mushrooming all over the place; crazy population explosion and an overload of traffic and pollution. But that doesn't sidelined Chennai development in the last couple of years.
Anyway, left for Chennai on Sat night and landed at Rat's house in the morning. After the ritual ablutions, we (me and Rat) walked up to Keval's home and woke him up. Keval played a perfect host as he took us around in his car and explained what is currently hot in Chennai. After much deliberation, we decided to watch a movie at Mayajaal - a new entertainment complex opened just outside Chennai. But first we visited Keval's office in Adyar and saw the Kewl Keval in his corporate avatar as he scanned and replied to his mails and did other stuff Project Managers are supposed to do.
Keval's colleague - Sridharan also joined us. Since Sridharan's 6'5" frame couldn't fit in the puny little Maruti 800, we had to join him in his Bolero. Picked up some beer on the way to Mayajal which is on East Coast Road (ECR). Now this ECR is the hottest thing in and around Chennai, a beautiful drive along the beach to Pondicherry punctuated by Toll booths - which do a good job of regulating the traffic.
Reached Mayajal and show "The day after tomorrow" by Roland Emmerich starring Dennis Quaid - a SFX extravaganza with a formula script. Met a MIT junior - Ashwin by name - during the break.
After the movie, we drove down to MGM - a watersports complex with a good restaurant by the sea side. Had our dose of booze for the day and light tandoori lunch, eying the beautiful, tidy beach next to us. That is one thing abt Chennai - the beaches (at least at the outskirts) are clean - something other big coastal Indian cities cannot boast of. After lunch we decided to walk down the beach and were surrounded by catamaran pilots who were offering a ride into the sea for 100 bucks each. Me, Keval and Rat bargained a little but jumped to the offer. Sridharan, whose horoscope that morning had advised him to stay away from water decided to stay back and watch our belongings.
The catamaran was exactly like the one they show in the "Anjaana...Anjaani" song in Yuva, only the song was shot in Fisherman's Cove and we were near the MGM beach in Chennai. The difference : we didn't have to wear life jackets :)
In case you have ever wondered how come the catamaran in the song moves so fast, here's the secret : they tie small engines - not unlike lawn mover engines - to the boats. And boy, is it thrilling! The pilots took us a few hundred meters from the shore where the sea was deep and placid and stopped the boat and asked if we wished to dive. Since all of us were almost totally drenched - we jumped into the sea! First time that we had attempted to dive into something so deep. Wish we had a video cam with us!
The water was too salty and it was quite tough to swim there, being outta touch for over a year. We finished our ride fast and had to sit down in the grass to dry ourselves, lest Sridharan refused to let us in his jeep. That is when Keval started with the Andaman plans - its untapped beauty and virgin beaches and total desolation. Sounds great! And plans were made to visit that place. Mid-July is proposed - let's see how things work out.
By the time we reached back home, we were already late by an hour for Bhatta's engagement ceremony. Poor Bhatta, knowing us wayward fellows, called to check if we are coming at all or not. Reached the place just in time for dinner and was glad to see Bhatta with his fiance - all geared to start a new chapter in his life. After meeting everyone we knew and eating a hearty lunch, good-byes were exchanged and came out of the venue. Realized that we still have a hour to kill before my bus starts - so decided to stop by at Jeffrey's. We were joined by Subodh (Keval's old school chump) and Anant (Keval and Bhatta's colleague and the latter's roommate). Anant is, according to Keval, a big fan of mine and Damu's, thanks to our poor parodies on the mob. Why, Anant even recognized me instantly and said he saw my ugly mug on the web. LOL! Thanks for the adoration, pal. Hope my future wacky ventures keep your entertained :)
Now this pub has a strange rule - to ward off guests who come in without shoes - what the fcuk! So we had to convince the manager there that what we are wearing was fine for a formal reception, so it should be fine for their 2 pence pub. To this he offered us shoes for loan which we wore and entered the pub. Crap!
They were serving Kalyani Black draught - something I have not had for years and hence have lost the taste. Barely managed to sip a mug when it was time for the bus.
So the day came to an end and I bid Keval and Rat goodbye and promised to visit the place more often...and this time I meant it! Viva Chennai!