Vanthorai vaazha vaikkum Chennai - Sendrorayum!!!

It's been four years since I came to "vanthorai vaazhavaikkum Chennai" (loosely translated as sustains or lets live anyone who comes to this city, Chennai - the city of survival).

Through the scorching pressure cooker like conditions of summer and the swimming pool of a city during monsoons Chennai has now officially become home. I just cant think of moving away from here anymore.

I remember the time when one day during the monsoon (I forget the month) me getting back home in Kandanchavady (pronounced cannes - thon-cha-va-dy) to find it flooded. I could see fish inside my house without me even having a fish tank. What had happened was that the buckhingham canal (I kid you not - that's the name of the canal - now a large sized gutter) had filled to the brim and a tank bund somewhere close by had broken. We packed, moved to a really cheap hotel, drank really cheap liquor and had a rich sleep!!

Something that I love about Chennai is that a lot of streets retain the name that the British had given during their rule. So you have  Pycrofts road, Armenian Street, Georgetown, Sterling road, Haddows road and so on.  It's fun to hear local people pronounce some of these names - the names have been Chennaised - Haddows road became "adouse road" and so on.

The long drives on the ECR are unbeatable. The beautiful golden beaches and the blue waters (remains so only from a distance).

I had written all the above stuff a few months ago when I was back home in Chennai. Today I sit in a foreign land in a totally different situation and this is what I really miss about Singara Chennai!!!

1. The Biryani - my very soul aches for the tasted of spicy biryani, I get nightmares of dying without getting to taste my favorite Rainbow hotel biryani.

2. Tamil and Malayalam movies - Oh I miss them so much, to see the coulourful dance sequences and the fiery dialogues and stomach aching jokes - if only I had an unlimited internet connection, sigh!!

3. The shy girls of Chennai -  Nothing can beat this. The population of women in this country is greater than men ( source - my cab driver, so any mistake finders will have to take it up with him), and they are the symbol of liberated women, well mannered and beautiful and charming - but nothing can beat the sly looks the Chennai girls give and the kick you get form it!!!

4. The beach - I took the beach for granted but after coming here I understand the value of it - I don't get raw mangoes or cotton candy or peanut vendors here..

5. My darling girl friend - I miss her so much. We were inseparable from Feb 2012. The minute I laid eyes on her I was madly in love. I had to entrust her in a friends hand before leaving her. I dream of riding her on the wide open African roads - ok stop your perverted thinking, I'm referring to my sexy Royal Enfield classic 350!! Sigh I miss you darling..

6. Chai dum on Pondy bazaar - Me and my buddies always found time every night to go grab a cup of chai in the Pondy bazaar junction with a cigarette. This signaled the end of a day on a nice comfortable note.

7. Week end booze sessions - I gotta hand it to Chennais spurious liqour, humid weather and a set of awesome buddies - our drinking sessions on the terrace - oh god were they fun!! The discussions ranging from gossip about this guy with that girl to world economic crisis. I miss the entire experience - the spurious Old monk, humid weather and awesome pals. On a simiar not I miss Old monk - the plastic smell, the un-openable bottle, the elephant trampling kick - all of it. And on yet another similar note - I miss going from tasmac to tasmac (average of 5 TASMACS every time) to find Old monk. In fact we had even made a best possible route that touched all TASMACS in the least possible time and fuel expense.

8. Mama machis - The British have left behind a culture if extreme good manners here and I miss the back slapping, gaali giving maamas and machis of Chennai.

9. Chennai rains - I miss the torrential rains that made Chennai such a fun place and yes I miss the feeling of yuckiness of riding while the bike tyres in front throwing muck on my face!!

10. ECR and OMR - I miss the ECR and OMR rides. Simply because of so many memories from there - the view of the Velachery marshes and Tidel from the elevated train ride, the highly skilled snaky rides through the vegicle jungle of Tidel signal, the beautiful women from Tidel waiting for the bus.

11. Andhra meals - Eating Andhra meals through teary eyes - unable to stop due to the yumminess but endangering the stomach in the process!

12. Shopping - A pair of trousers cost Rs 5000 here - heck I miss shopping, one thing though. The next time I'm in India I would find nothing at all expensive!!!

13. Morning hindi blasts - I used to hate hindi beats in the morning and used to curse my roomies under my breath. Strangely I miss them and yearn to hear them first thing in the morning these days - on TV with video I mean!!

14. Idlis and Dosas and Sambar and chutney and vada and kal dosa and etc etc etc etc.. my mouths watering already and all I have with me is an apple!! - grrrrrr

As I write this so many images of the city flashes my mind, so many incidents and so may people - I guess this is home sickness!! I cant wait to get back to Singara Chennai, the love of my life.

Mosi - ao - Tunya aka Victoria falls

How was your week end? What did you do this week end? What are your week end plans - Zambia follows a culture left behind by the British, and inquiring one about their week end was a way of polite small talk.

But it was depressing to me, every week end I was holed up at home drinking, online chatting with friends and pretty much doing sweet nothing, missing week ends back home with my awesome friends..Now why did I not go out - all my friends here in Zambia had already been to all places multiple times and were content with the laid back doing nothing week ends!! And partly I was a lazy bum!!

Anyways all that changed this past week end. A bunch of guys from office who were all on short term stay had decided to go to Victoria falls in Livingstone. 

We started early in the morning by about 6. We hired a car  - A Toyota Corolla, that cost us 200 dollars rent a day. We had a little trouble finding the way out of the city in spite of  having google maps. I confirmed my belief that nothing beats human interaction - we just asked a few people and found our way out. It was not an easy task though - Unlike in India people in Zambia seem to take road rules very seriously.So we couldn't stop just anywhere and ask, we had to find the right place and then wait for a person to come by to ask directions.

Anyway we did found the way out, and started out towards Kafue - the closest big town on the way to Linvingstone. On the way a little while outside the city we saw a huge cement factory - Lafarge, which according to a fellow passenger was Tata's - proudly gleaming in the morning sun standing tall as if to say India is everywhere!!

Once outside the city the traffic was almost nil. The roads were empty and on either side was typical African bush - brown with a blue sky line dotted with farms here and there - very few though. The picture above shows it perfectly.

The roads had a lot of long straight stretches that provided a beautiful view of the ribbon like nature of the roads with a lot of ups and downs - it was beautiful, as the pic below shows.

With the roads so free and straight and no traffic we were cruising at an average speed of 120 Km/Hr. And we managed to even touch 180 Km/Hr many a time. We stopped at a few places for natures call. I was a little worried about the norm - did people here use the bush as loos on long trips or was I supposed to hold back? Anyway my system got the better of my thoughts always.

We crossed very few settlements - all sleepy small villages with mud houses and a few buildings. Women folk sat on the road selling their wares ranging from fruits and vegetables to coal (ppl here buy a lot of coal - they barbecue every weekend!) to wooden craft souvenirs.

We were low on fuel we decided we would just stop at the next inhabited place and try to get fuel. So we stopped at a place and as in India there were black marketers selling fuel at higher prices. Bought enough to get us to the next big city Choma and went on. Here I had the chance to photograph a bullock cart as above.

One thing to note on this journey was the trucks - It was a contradicting fact, though economically speaking Zambia was not as great as India one should see the trucks - I was astonished to see such high class brands and quality of trucks. I tried to clicks photographs on the way by hanging out of the car and only one turned out good as below - and it turned out to be a nice colorful truck too. Trucks ranged from Man to Merecdes to Volvo and so on!! Though I managed to spot one Leyland truck and felt Indian an heart!!

Anyways after some real fast driving we got to Livingstone and checked into the Divine lodge. We found a restaurant that served Indian food - the Golden Leaf restaurant and had naans with yummy kadai chicken and daal tadka!! The funny thing was that the restaurant was completely run by Zambians and even the cook was  Zambian but the food was definitely Indian!

Once we had satisfied our stomachs we made our way to the famous Victoria falls named by Dr Livingstone after Queen Victoria originally called the Mosi- ao-Tnuya which means the "Cloud that thunders" in the local language. 

The time we went - August was the the dry season and so the water flow was very less - during the rainy season one apparently cannot even see anything properly due to the huge spray of water. The beauty of the place is hard to explain. As said by John Keats "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" The falls is majestic and the sheer depth and breadth of the fall is breath taking. 

Walking on a bridge that connects on side of the gorge to the other with the water spray on your face - its one hell of an experience. As you walk you can see birds flyng from the gorge walls against the backdrop of the white water from the falls - a beautiful sight to see.


And then we went to the bridge that connects Zambia to Zimbabwe, got a ticket from the immigration office to see the bridge and walked a few metres to where the bungee jumping was taking place - boy was it exciting!! We watched a lady jumping (read being pushed) and she was flying down to the depths of the gorge screaming until her voice slowly disappeared and then in a few seconds was back up again a few feet with her screams. 

My friends asked if I wanted to go and I lied I didn't have the funds - I was just shit scared!! Decided to do it another time. Just as I was leaving I saw a man of 50 to 60 years old getting strapped for the next jump - against my mind saying coward, I said to myself - better a live coward than dead courageous man!! ha ha


Before we went on this bridge to see the bungee jump we had parked at a place that was infested with baboons. A young chap came up to us and said he needs 10,000 Kwacha (Rs 100) to take care of the car from the baboons - they scratch the car up etc was his claim.

 I negotiated and paid 2000 kwacha (Indians have shown their bargaining skills in Zambia and it's ok to bargain as long as you don't sound too rude).We got back and saw there were no baboons at all. I had earlier thought I was smart by bargaining and then now felt like a baboon myself at having paid for nothing!! 

With that we got back to our room, again had yummy tandoori chicken, rotis and kadai vegetables.
The next morning after breakfast of donuts and rolls at a supermarket we headed towards the falls again as we heard all the safaris and stuff were there. We inquired with some local people and they directed us to a camp site called Big five which had lion and cheetah walks.

I had decided to go on the cheetah walk

Once in we were introduced to Lily, Susan and Magaise ( I have noticed all women in Zambia have christian names while men have local names - looks like it was the case for cheetahs too).The guide asked me to kneel beside Lily and touch her forehead and stroke her like one would a dog or a cat. I was scared but nevertheless did and she started purring like a cat!! I was terrified but the guide said the purring was sign of contentment which meant Lily liked her belly rubs and head ruffling!

All three of these cheetahs were brought from a national park in South Africa as cubs and were reared by men always. They therefore didn't think of men as a threat but as one of their own!They were taken for runs every morning and guess the time they complete 200 meters in - 12 seconds!!

We then took the cats on walks, on the way Lily started pulling me towards a dry stump - she was interested by a small lizard and moved away after the poor lizard found refuge in a small hole in the ground.As a matter of norm it seems Lily always lead the walks - I noticed it and the giudes confirmed this too.Even if she stopped and lagged she would cover up and lead again and drag me along with her - she may have been tame but she was really really strong!


At the end of the walk we got to pet all three of them. And the guides said they loved to lick hands. I offered them my hands and they licked away happily. Their tongues were very rough, it was used to lick away meat off bones of prey apparently. The hairier ones hands was the more they licked - they felt they were grooming one of their own!!\

It was a wonderful experience interacting with such ferocious animals in such a docile mood. As I got up to leave, Lily got up to follow me and a guard restrained her - I guess I charmed Lily, as much as she had charmed me. 

Me and Lily.. :)

With that we got back home. And the next day I couldn't wait to go ask colleagues at office how their weekend was!!

Africa is dangerous - in your dreams I say!!!

Its been over a week since I left my beloved Singara Chennai to settle temporarily in Lusaka, Zambia, an African country.

I always took life back home for granted. Its only when you wake up wanting to have filter coffee and having no way of getting it, do you realize how much it actually meant to you.

A lot of my friends wanted a peak into life here and this post is this beautiful place through my eyes. 

I landed in Lusaka airport at 10 AM on a Friday. My colleague was to pick me up. I went to the exit and found no Indian. I didn't panic. When I was leaving from India I had done enough research on the place to write  book and was a little assured it was a safe place. 

And while on the flight a very nice Zambian citizen took the pain to help me with all my queries. 

Anyway on seeing that my colleague wasn't there I decided to call him. My Indian connection was not working anymore. And I couldn't find any pay phones at all. I think this is where panic began to set in. As I stood waiting a lot of local cab drivers came up asking if I wanted a cab and I felt like a kid in a new school - scared of everything and everyone.

As I stood I saw an Indian coming up (call it a gut feeling, I seem to recognize an Indian anywhere, even among similar ethnic people like Bangaldeshis or Pakistanis and Srilankans). I was relieved. As I went up and uttered his name a hand quickly took my hand baggage from behind! For a second I was on an adrenalin high. As I looked I saw the person taking my bag smiling at someone behind me. Turning I saw my colleague grinning.

They had played a prank. Colleague decided to use the misinformation loaded in my head to scare me!! The baggage grabber was our cab driver Joseph, my first local contact in Zambia. 

And thus started my life here. The place, if I were to describe  in as concentrated form as possible is laid back, very polite and very friendly. The road from the airport to the city is a very good one - wide and without any pot holes (first impressions are the best impressions) and the sides of the roads are filled with a browny colored vegetation of shrub and tree - the typical types you see in Nat Geo Africa shows and "The gods must be crazy" movie. The best thing, as we were coming I saw a huge blue board welcoming people on behalf of the Tamil literature and language community and boy was I happy!!! Incidentally I am now acquainted with the head of the Tamil association head here - am I resourceful or what!!!

One thing that amazed me immediately was the assortment of cars - ranging from our humble Maruti zen to the large number of BMW's and the 100's of models in between. People here seem to have a love for four wheel drives. In fact I would say with confidence that almost 30% - 40% of cars on the roads are big 4 wheel drive trucks!!!

Anyways moving on, the weather is cold. The sun comes out during the day, but the winds are chilly and mornings and nights a very cold. Apparently its winter here now - I never heard of a concept of winter in any other month other the December - Feb. I should have paid attention in geography classes!! Summers are said to be warm without much humidity and nights are pleasant.

The people here - absolutely friendly, very courteous. In fact when you meet a stranger and if you ever make eye contact, they always smile and say one of the following - hi, good morning/afternoon etc, how are you etc. At first I really didn't know how to respond, but I've now learnt, you smile, say hi, good thanks, how are you and move on. In India I usually stared, ogled if it was a good looking woman or at best just ignored. I was a liquor store one day and there were a lot of intoxicated people ( see the difference, if in India I would call these people drunk - because they behave that way). I was a little scared, but I saw white men buying booze, women coolly asking for their choice and the best thing - the intoxicated guys gave me the same response of smiling, saying good evening and asking how are you. I say this to make a point clear. All the stuff about Africa as a whole being unsafe etc are just baseless stories and rumors. 

In fact I personally feel Lusaka is a safer place that many Indian cities - case in point, pubs in Bangalore, Gurgaon and recently Assam!!!

When people are at an ATM the person behind would stand at-least a good 5 feet away. I once went closer and someone politely told me with a smile that the queue was behind - I thought the person behind was waiting for something or someone else, he was standing so far away. So basically people here have huge respect for privacy and follow the British way of things - politeness, manners etc.

Everybody speaks English here. When I mean everyone, I mean EVERYONE across social, financial and employment categories and so for an Indian who knows English language is not a problem at all. The local languages spoken are Ngyanja and Bembo. The currency is Kwacha and 1 Indian rupee amounts to roughly 100 kwacha. 

The local cuisine here is filled with meat, poultry and fish. Veggies may find it a little difficult here though thare a multiple Indian restaurants. The staple food is something called shima, made of boiled corn flour. It looks like our local Indian upma and is a very nutritious food. So people have this for all three meals and with it they have beef stew, fish or chicken curry or steak or grilled meat etc.

The Music in Zambia is so bloody awesome. Would make anyone want to dance. The beats are afro and the  base is actual african stuff. No dilution with other music. My cab guy Joseph on the other hand loves Hindi music and plays ot in his car all the time. His fav song is from the movie Pa called "Ittefaq se" and I must say he has choice!!! Now that's the song that plays on my laptop all the time!

The night life is amazing. The clubs come alive by 11 PM or 12 AM and go on till 5 AM. The best beer brands are Mosi, black label and Heinikein. Only pints are avilable. Liquor is pretty cheap. A captain morgan rum costs 700 bucks and a J and B whiskey costs 850 - almost 50% less! 

The fun things here are the Victoria falls, multiple wild life resorts and fishing resorts. Outdoor beer and barbecues are a weekly thing here.

And yes cost of everything is higher than in India by at -least 20 to 30% as everything is imported here. Zambia is a small land locked country and so this issue.

But on the whole - if this is what Africa is about I would love a life here. Its safe, stable, and has very good people. And that is my first week of Zambia for you!!!