Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Torrid Tuesdays

There is no reason or season for the auto guys to go on a strike in Chennai. This morning when I got out of the house there were no autos on the street and buses were overcrowded. I could find some empty seats on the roof of the bus, lol! I was not willing to risk my life, I would rather walk 4 kms to work. I was able to spot an auto guys who was willing to ply me for an extra 10 bucks. I have no bargaining power on such days.

Chennai is becoming a blonde capital now, lot of foreign nationals and expatriates stay here with there family and children. Thanks to the globalization and outsourcing wave. I catch atleast a dozen of them in the traffic light in the morning, dads usually driving them to school. I have never even imagined this in the wildest of dreams. At work we have a more than a dozen interns from various countries. Everybody wants a share of India on their resume. India has become the epicenter of happening.

Kids here today have an opportunity to go to school with kids from US and UK. Black and blondes together. What a mélange! Spencers mall is packed with people from all parts of the world. Chennai too has become a melting pot. Don’t be surprised if you have Jousha standing besides you in the supermarket. It is all happening here.

Thanks to this wave of outsourcing. We would have had tons of educated people waiting to be employed, if not for this outsourcing wave, our youngsters would have left the country. Brain drain! But the reverse is happening here in India. I remember doing a statistical analysis to find the correlation between employment rate, crime rate, suicides, murders, breaks-ins. Definitely without the outsourcing wave we would have had more of circumstantial criminals.

I jumped out of work in the afternoon for an hour to run some errands. I went with my cousin to pick a watch for her fiancée and then met up with the interior decorators to finalize the flower design for the reception. We picked a wafer thin watch “Edge” collection from Titan. The marriage is getting really close and keep come back to look at the pictures from a traditional south India wedding.

Yet another addition to the garden of roses in the heaven. At 3.30pm my cousin called to let me know that my father’s ailing aunt passed away. She was 85 years old and her kidneys were revolting to work anymore. I roll back my limited memories of her. She was a brave lady and stood deftly to face anything in life. I am on my way to her cremation at 7.00 pm.
A 2 minute silence…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
May the departed soul rest in peace :-(

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