Argh, just stop it! Enough of all those anti-chennai comments. I ve grown tired of hearing them. There is only a limit to which one can listen to all these sadistic comments about the place you grew up in.
A person speaks bad about chennai, scolds it with words that would put the indian cricketer playing against pakistan to shame. A chennaite defends his city as usual. And the price he has to pay – being accused of regionalism of the highest order. The argument goes that we are the ones who create a north-south divide! To quote my classmate Abhishek Kumar Singh- “Of course you people are a different country altogether right? when was tamil nadu a part of India!” When such comments fall on your ears such accusations of us being responsible for the north-south divide sounds so goddamn hypocritic.
To give a background of myself, i wasnt a chennai lover or anything to start with. During the last two years of my college and two years at infy, i sooo wanted to travel across india (and by extension, the world). Had got fed up of chennai’s heat. Agreed the heat here is legendary, a cult-myth perpetuated all over india, next only to Rajnikant jokes.
Allow me to digress, all these “intelligent” creators of rajnikant jokes are nothing but blatant plagiarists who have read a certain www.chucknorrisfacts.com. Coming back to chennai’s heat – i couldnt hide my joy when i found that i will be going to Mumbai. Oh, how i dreamt of getting wet in the monsoon rains with a dreamy looking mumbai chic. Reality struck the moment i came here. Rains were there alright, but i got more wet from my sweat than due to rains thanks to the humidity. whether its hot or humid, the moment you start sweating, you know it gets irritating. And weather is the biggest drawback of Chennai, mind you.
No one speaks about the extremes of Delhi (i really wonder how people love such heat storms and freezing nights and actually find it good). Kolkata, i hear is equally as good as Chennai or Mumbai when it comes to the weather. Hyderabad, again is a more moderate Delhi. Bangalore and Mysore steal the cake here. Any frustrated soul will find the climate soothing his nerves. But the rest of North India and central india have no right to blame Chennai’s weather – pot calling kettle black?
Second is the famed language divide. Those who complain about this cant speak fluent english just like these chennaites(and the rest of tamil nadu) cant speak fluent hindi. Chennai aint as cosmopolitan as delhi or mumbai or bangalore is! So its not my fault if you expect everyone to speak in your mother tongue. We have our mother tongue of which we are as proud as you are of yours. Now, am not a Tamilian by birth. I have a mother tongue which sounds like greek to Tamil speaking folks and Latin to hindi speaking folks. It was a necessity for me to learn Tamil as the ppl around me spoke in that tongue. Its becoming a necessity for me to learn Hindi cos the ppl who surround me converse majorly in hindi. Am i complaining? then why should you complain when u come down to chennai?
And please, the beaches in Mumbai are equally as horrible as the Cooum of chennai. Cant even take a dip in the sea – something i never fail to do if i go to bessie beach.
Coming to corruption. A Raja was not a chennaite! so stop generalizing thinking that all big scammers were from tamil nadu. we are not responsible for the lack of freebies your government doesnt give. nor are we proud of it either. so stop showing your jealousy regarding the freebies we receive. Jaya wins a well deserved victory and citizens of tamil nadu give a resounding verdict against corruption, but the newspaper heading here in mumbai reads “with a longer list of freebies, AIADMK wins” . Similar to callin Sachin “a world cup winner in his sixth attempt”(Dawn carried this description).
And the way you laugh when a tamilian tries to learn hindi.. oh please..
We are like that only. live with it and stop belittling chennai. i rarely see anyone from chennai speak bad about delhi or mumbai or kolkata or just any other city in india. So please stop it, you frustrated souls.
P.S : not to forget those “north” indians who had been very good to me and other friends from my city. no this post wasnt for you, but the rest of the junta who regard their lives in Chennai were nothing but hell (a hell of their own making)
P.P.S like all posts which defends chennai, this blog post will again carry numerous dislikes by a certain section of the society and a few likes by another section 
Saket said,
May 16, 2011 at 2:04 pm
From my experiences of interacting with Chennaites, I can safely say that there is a divide in outlook between educated and non-educated people there. Digest this- I enter a grand looking pub with prices on the higher end. And here’s the irony, a very old tamil movie is playing in the background with a story about kings and all such crap. I am told something coldly in tamil when I ask to change the channel to something lively.
However, that’s only one perspective. My manager, my friends in BITS (from Chennai), and a tamilian friend settled in Bangalore, are very nice people. They are educated and well versed, in fact, they seem a bit unaware about the issues that a Northie faces in Chennai.
I love my tamilian friends, I like tamil food (it’s cheap too) and transport is very cheap. Summarily there are two worlds for a Northi in Chennai. I make my attempt to stick to the good one and ignore the other one
Sundaresa Bharadwaj G said,
May 16, 2011 at 3:02 pm
i just got one sentence to say….
Kazhudhaiku theriyum karpura vaasana… !!!
hantan said,
May 16, 2011 at 3:35 pm
well said da.. love the english version better “Donkey knows camphor smell?” but then very aptly said..
subs said,
May 16, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Fed up na. great post
hantan said,
May 17, 2011 at 4:48 am
totally.. these kinda comments are not to be heard when u are missing chennai.. i never thot i d miss chennai during its summer but home is always sweet home..
Gowtham said,
May 16, 2011 at 4:05 pm
I too am taken aback by this profound generalization and racism. Most people who comment about tamil cinema haven’t watched one and most people don’t know much about tamil nadu politics either (other than what they’s scanned in the few crappy biased news paper articles) but still manage to have a dogmatic opinion of their own. A shit head in my class once said to me, ‘welcome to India’. I don’t find the composure to edit my comment and make it into a proper literary stuff, but I guess I’ve put my feeling for others to see.
hantan said,
May 17, 2011 at 4:54 am
hehehe, that welcome to india thing- i can totally relate to it.. used to joke “when in India, do as the north indians do” sometime back
such was the levels of their i-refuse-to-adjust attitude.. none of those rajni laughers would ve seen thalapathy or basha or padaiyappa.. they cant understand how kamal is in a league of his own.. mamooty and mohan lal – i wonder if ppl above karnataka ever heard of em.. i can live with ignorance but touting it as a virtue and speaking about stuff as if they know it all, that irritates one
Kiran said,
May 16, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Thought provoking… things have changed a bit, before we all from the south were Madrasis! But some things still remain.. not just Chennaiites (yea, even if you’re from Coimbatore or Madurai, or even Kochi in some cases, you’re tagged as one
), I also feel for the people from our north-eastern parts, they’re also subjected to stereotypes which are much worser, and made to feel as if they’re from another planet.
About the language divide – there’s the accusation of Tamilians being linguistic chauvinists. Yes some people exist who disapprove people speaking in other tongues – but these kinds are found elsewhere too. And who doesn’t like their language promoted? In fact, its a good thing, keeping our language intact, at the same time knowing Hindi as the national language. But most people fail to realise that Hindi though similar to other Indian languages, is very, very different from languages like Tamil, and thus quite difficult to learn for southies. The need to learn/substantiate one’s knowledge of Hindi does not arise in most cases too if the person has not ventured out of state.
Also, the guy who exposed the 2G scam, Dr. Swamy, is a Chennaiite – there was probably no one bar the Supreme Court to aid him, unlike Raja who had the backing of many in the cabinet from all over our nation! Chennai climate is one of a kind though – among the worst I’ve had
– probably I visited at the wrong time!
hantan said,
May 17, 2011 at 4:59 am
chennai’s climate is one of the worst, i can totally accept that.. apart from december and jan, the place becomes an equatorial hell.. i hated the summers there..
regarding the language divide, gone are the days when tamilians used to be fiercely linguistic.. they ve accepted english in a really big way – explains the number of IT firms and call centers here.. hindi wasnt a necessity and hence, the lack of its pervasiveness.. because i come to mumbai, i cant expect mumbaikars to know tamil, can i ? why doesnt this argument hold the other way round?
Meenu said,
May 16, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Hmmm… good post hantan !
Well, i can surely imagine ur plight, when u talk to such ‘cranky’ fellows … they are really ones who think – chennai (or rather – Kerala & TN) to be some ‘ strange’ part of the country…. but despite me not being a chennaite, and not liking the heat of this place, i am in so much love with this place( of course – mumbai is still a sweetheart
) i guess its shame and strange ppl do carry such ‘ideas’ … 
tk care
hantan said,
May 17, 2011 at 5:01 am
its of course a shame for educated ppl to be carrying such ideas.. it just shows their ignorance and how they celebrate it..
Ameeth said,
May 18, 2011 at 7:05 am
I can totally relate to what you said. I’ve been living or rather surviving up here in north for the past 3 years and have heard similar things being said about people from south. The amount of racism is just unbelievable. While not all people from here are the same, but yes a majority are indeed very racist partly due to their ignorance. The educated lot are pretty well behaved and I do see a bit more respect being given to people from south nowadays.
I have seen this trait mostly with the Punjabi cultured guys and it has a major influence on the rest of the lot. Punjabi culture is everywhere, but the sardars are in fact very well behaved and give due respect, its the other non-sardar punjabis (not everyone) who are the trouble makers. But things are changing and the educated ones seem to be better aware than their predecessors, so lets hope it stays that way and chennai along with rest of the south get their deserved respect!
Sai Vinoth M P said,
May 19, 2011 at 4:16 pm
First of all
Hindi is not our national language . India has no national language. Hindi is just one of the official language .So please give a blow to any Northies who say otherwise .
If you have a deep insight in 2G scam , you will get to know that Raja is not the only culprit, The master mind is congress leaders. Sonia gandhi family received 60% of the loot . Raja is just a pawn struck in a awkward situation . Please follow the below link
http://indiansrgr8.blogspot.com/2011/02/sonia-gandhis-sisters-received-rs18000.html
hantan said,
May 24, 2011 at 7:27 am
no need to give these northies a blow for that misinformation they have.. the idea arose out of the word “Rashtrabhasha” so many think that it means Hindi is the national language. they are our frenz afteral..
everyone will go thro this phase.. so will u
Venky said,
May 23, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Hey I totally empathise with your feelings. Trust me, I have also been subject to these biases and prejudice when I left chennai to surat for my engineering!!! “nd the way you laugh when a tamilian tries to learn hindi.. oh please..”..touche:) i learnt hindi in my engg college:)
hantan said,
May 24, 2011 at 7:28 am
hey, am a big fan of ur blog, great to see ur comment here.
do keep reading 
Pallavi said,
June 6, 2011 at 11:52 am
Grt post!! All this noise of South Indian and North Indian will come to an end only when we believe that it’s our Indian quality that binds us and not the regional bias.
Murthy said,
July 2, 2011 at 2:28 pm
And I am still wondering how to survive these biases on linguistic, gender and caste basis. Point is we’ve been like this for centuries to be, so for centuries to come this would still continue in some form or other, maybe very open in some cases, but subtle in some cases.
So if someone wants a good debate I am ready
… rather I might be a bad debater but I put my points too blunt at times 