A Lot Like Love

You know you're a true-blue Chennaiite when you can actually tell the difference between the city's seasons.

I love this city - you know, where people have this constant need to race against the sunrise (Amitabh tried pulling this stunt in Mohabbatein and failed miserably - by 8am, Chennai city has invariably finished lunch while our AB uncle's still exchanging eye-glares with the sun).

I love our lack of hypocrisy  - we down ghee and rice in huge amounts, and, unlike the North, are content seeing movies full of people who've done the same. No size zero's for us. We'd eat them for breakfast. I get enormous kicks seeing places called 'Chubby Chicks' and 'Face Hair Care' represented by beaming pictures of Rajinikant and Tom Hanks. Only in Chennai is a man without hair or a face considered an appropriate model for both.

I love how signs for 'aunty' and 'anti' read the same when written in Tamil - and how we constantly pronounce them interchangeably. As for people's obstinate refusal to speak in any language except Tamil, despite having a perfectly great grasp over English or even Hindi, it kills me every time. Louwe it ya.

And, of course, I love the city for other, more personal reasons. Such as my insane friends and the amount of noise we make wherever we go. The beach. Free text messaging!! Cheap food. Cheap clothes. Mock-worthy entertainment. Welcome back, my life.