More From Chennai
Things are Heating Up
I check the temperature everyday on that weather underground website. I don’t know why— its not really worth it, the forecast is the same, hot and humid. It’s almost like checking the weather in Seattle and asking, “will it rain today” or, “should I bring a sweater?” But, those Chennai weather reports though they report 100F with 50% humidity, how hot you feel has everything to do with how much access you have to the sea breeze. In my case, we live close to the Indian Ocean, about 2-3km, so though it’s hot, it can be really nice in the morning and evening. Being in a place where it doesn’t really cool down in the evenings is quite strange, even NYC cools down during the summer evenings. All you can do is hope for the breeze, turn on a fan or find some place that has an AC. The locals tell me that it’s just going to get hotter and hotter.
The Pregnancy
From what I can tell, the pregnancy is going well I feel fine. I think the baby is having a growth spurt though. These seem to be the days, where I have cramping (my amazing uterus is getting bigger), feel overheated, want to sleep all the time and actually want to eat, a new concept after finishing the first trimester. I wouldn't even know that I was pregnant except that I was in bed and asleep by 8pm, hence I woke up at 4:15 this morning: about an hour before the morning sea breeze. Now, at 5:15am on the 3rd floor balcony, amongst the drying clothes Rahul painstakingly scrubbed as I slept last night, the sun is raising over the ocean and the weather isn’t so bad; its actually really nice—or will be for another 2 hours. Oh, and there they are, I can hear them, the animal kingdom. At least this time, we are back on the 3rd floor, where there are fewer insect and reptilian visitors, but more birds. I like the birds better anyway.
What I don’t like, however is everyone telling me what to do simply because I’m pregnant. My least favorite no-nos are coffee and tea, two beverages that are near impossible to avoid in India, and taste so, so good. I still have a cup of tea in the morning, as it’s too good to pass up. I justify all this by saying that I am in the 2nd tri, and I hide the fact from the co-workers. They are not the only ones who tell me what to do, but everyone else does too. What is this shit? Am I suddenly too stupid to make my own decisions? All this time, I thought that being pregnant and married would give me all kinds of street cred- when really it just makes more people get into your shit. I have a lot to learn here about privacy, family and paternalistic attitudes that come from this annoying place of concern. I can’t win. I am sure my social worker friends understand what I mean here.
“Midnight Coffee” Anyone?
The thing to do among “cool” 20-somethings in Chennai is to go out dancing at the Park Hotel or Havana until they close at 12pm, and then hit the Coffee Day with your friends for a cup and a pastry. Coffee Day is similar to a hipper (by Chennai standards) Starbucks frequented by college students and young professionals—you rarely see Auntie and Uncle hanging at these places. The “clubs,” are generally located in the restaurant/bars of top end hotels. This makes sense. The hotels have the proper infrastructure; licensing and can serve alcohol in a place that caters to the foreigners. It’s an intriguing space, in that in order to go dancing and drink, one has to go to a location that no Resident Indian would ever really go. For example, how often do you go to a hotel in your hometown? —its just when you have to go.
I had this grand plan last night to check this out, but I the baby decided that we were sleeping instead. I am so curious about this—we are just going to have to go next weekend. However, we did get to have another experience—we went to what was described as a “brilliant food court.” This food court is called, Planet Yumm and offers multi-ethic fare and some American favorites that are arriving soon. There is an idli-sambar-vada counter, a Frankie counter (a Frankie is a Indian burrito, where rotis replace the tortillas and various subjis replace the beans, rice and meat), a salad bar, two coffee and pastry counters and a weird beverage counter in the center of it all, called Quenches. Quenches offers a chocolate fondue fountain and other colored drinks and smoothies. They have a bar where you can sit and check people out. There is also this open format, full service “Thai” restaurant that is off to the back and side of the food court. There were about 7 waiters to serve Rahul and myself. I don’t even pick up my own fork or napkin, pour my mineral water, or even serve myself. So weird.
This restaurant is equal to any Thai restaurant you would find in Seattle or NYC, nice décor, beautifully set tables, with matching plates and silverware—but the waiters were trained in the full-on, fine-dining way. Strange, to have so much service for a place where we in the US, one would spend $20 for a casual dinner with a girlfriend, before heading off to a movie. I of course steered clear of anything on the menu that was described as Manchurian and/or Hakkanese and all chicken items. Remember this a Thai place—I didn’t see a single item on the menu that featured, coconut milk, lemongrass, and peanut sauce—not a single thing. And, when you live in Seattle, you know your Thai food- and this wasn’t it. I kept thinking of my dear friend Jonathan a.k.a Maruit, who is Thai and a Thai food expert. He would have dirtied himself reading the menu. But, in the end, the food was decent- we ordered veggie spring rolls, veggie noodles and schezwan prawns. None of these items were particularly Thai or really even Chinese, as the names would suggest. They were just Chennai-ified interpretations of these dishes. And the surroundings, including this Thai restaurant’s décor, were again, just Chennai-ified interpretations of an American mall’s food court—but all of this set inside the new IT Business Park called Ascendas—whatever that means.
Most of my friends, would say that globalization and this desire to seek American culture was ruining India—but I have to say- that the Indians love it. They think that Planet Yumm is the place to be, and that Coffee Day is the “cat’s whiskers” as Kenneth likes to say. Alternatively, as one of our IT housemates says, “Yeah, yar, isn’t this really great. Its just like America but in India.” Yeah—it’s great, but not “just like America.” I have grown to appreciate (and admittedly have been known to mock) the Chennai IT interpretation of America and American culture.
Off to Mahabalipuram
So, its 6:30am, time to get ready and hop the AC min-van tour bus to Mahabalipuram, which is about 45 minutes from here and features amazing store sculptures, a shore temple, caves and apparently amazing seafood. Amazing seafood I am not supposed to eat. Whatever! Like Indu, one of the owners of the house says, “Just be normal. Eat whatever you want, do whatever you want. If you are normal, then the baby will be normal.” The word “normal” used by Indu to describe a state of being, in the American sense means to “be relaxed.” So, I am going to relax and eat some yummy curry leaf, dry fried shrimp. And, if I have to, I’ll go the annoying tourist restaurant and pay more. It can’t be any different from Planet Yumm.
I check the temperature everyday on that weather underground website. I don’t know why— its not really worth it, the forecast is the same, hot and humid. It’s almost like checking the weather in Seattle and asking, “will it rain today” or, “should I bring a sweater?” But, those Chennai weather reports though they report 100F with 50% humidity, how hot you feel has everything to do with how much access you have to the sea breeze. In my case, we live close to the Indian Ocean, about 2-3km, so though it’s hot, it can be really nice in the morning and evening. Being in a place where it doesn’t really cool down in the evenings is quite strange, even NYC cools down during the summer evenings. All you can do is hope for the breeze, turn on a fan or find some place that has an AC. The locals tell me that it’s just going to get hotter and hotter.
The Pregnancy
From what I can tell, the pregnancy is going well I feel fine. I think the baby is having a growth spurt though. These seem to be the days, where I have cramping (my amazing uterus is getting bigger), feel overheated, want to sleep all the time and actually want to eat, a new concept after finishing the first trimester. I wouldn't even know that I was pregnant except that I was in bed and asleep by 8pm, hence I woke up at 4:15 this morning: about an hour before the morning sea breeze. Now, at 5:15am on the 3rd floor balcony, amongst the drying clothes Rahul painstakingly scrubbed as I slept last night, the sun is raising over the ocean and the weather isn’t so bad; its actually really nice—or will be for another 2 hours. Oh, and there they are, I can hear them, the animal kingdom. At least this time, we are back on the 3rd floor, where there are fewer insect and reptilian visitors, but more birds. I like the birds better anyway.
What I don’t like, however is everyone telling me what to do simply because I’m pregnant. My least favorite no-nos are coffee and tea, two beverages that are near impossible to avoid in India, and taste so, so good. I still have a cup of tea in the morning, as it’s too good to pass up. I justify all this by saying that I am in the 2nd tri, and I hide the fact from the co-workers. They are not the only ones who tell me what to do, but everyone else does too. What is this shit? Am I suddenly too stupid to make my own decisions? All this time, I thought that being pregnant and married would give me all kinds of street cred- when really it just makes more people get into your shit. I have a lot to learn here about privacy, family and paternalistic attitudes that come from this annoying place of concern. I can’t win. I am sure my social worker friends understand what I mean here.
“Midnight Coffee” Anyone?
The thing to do among “cool” 20-somethings in Chennai is to go out dancing at the Park Hotel or Havana until they close at 12pm, and then hit the Coffee Day with your friends for a cup and a pastry. Coffee Day is similar to a hipper (by Chennai standards) Starbucks frequented by college students and young professionals—you rarely see Auntie and Uncle hanging at these places. The “clubs,” are generally located in the restaurant/bars of top end hotels. This makes sense. The hotels have the proper infrastructure; licensing and can serve alcohol in a place that caters to the foreigners. It’s an intriguing space, in that in order to go dancing and drink, one has to go to a location that no Resident Indian would ever really go. For example, how often do you go to a hotel in your hometown? —its just when you have to go.
I had this grand plan last night to check this out, but I the baby decided that we were sleeping instead. I am so curious about this—we are just going to have to go next weekend. However, we did get to have another experience—we went to what was described as a “brilliant food court.” This food court is called, Planet Yumm and offers multi-ethic fare and some American favorites that are arriving soon. There is an idli-sambar-vada counter, a Frankie counter (a Frankie is a Indian burrito, where rotis replace the tortillas and various subjis replace the beans, rice and meat), a salad bar, two coffee and pastry counters and a weird beverage counter in the center of it all, called Quenches. Quenches offers a chocolate fondue fountain and other colored drinks and smoothies. They have a bar where you can sit and check people out. There is also this open format, full service “Thai” restaurant that is off to the back and side of the food court. There were about 7 waiters to serve Rahul and myself. I don’t even pick up my own fork or napkin, pour my mineral water, or even serve myself. So weird.
This restaurant is equal to any Thai restaurant you would find in Seattle or NYC, nice décor, beautifully set tables, with matching plates and silverware—but the waiters were trained in the full-on, fine-dining way. Strange, to have so much service for a place where we in the US, one would spend $20 for a casual dinner with a girlfriend, before heading off to a movie. I of course steered clear of anything on the menu that was described as Manchurian and/or Hakkanese and all chicken items. Remember this a Thai place—I didn’t see a single item on the menu that featured, coconut milk, lemongrass, and peanut sauce—not a single thing. And, when you live in Seattle, you know your Thai food- and this wasn’t it. I kept thinking of my dear friend Jonathan a.k.a Maruit, who is Thai and a Thai food expert. He would have dirtied himself reading the menu. But, in the end, the food was decent- we ordered veggie spring rolls, veggie noodles and schezwan prawns. None of these items were particularly Thai or really even Chinese, as the names would suggest. They were just Chennai-ified interpretations of these dishes. And the surroundings, including this Thai restaurant’s décor, were again, just Chennai-ified interpretations of an American mall’s food court—but all of this set inside the new IT Business Park called Ascendas—whatever that means.
Most of my friends, would say that globalization and this desire to seek American culture was ruining India—but I have to say- that the Indians love it. They think that Planet Yumm is the place to be, and that Coffee Day is the “cat’s whiskers” as Kenneth likes to say. Alternatively, as one of our IT housemates says, “Yeah, yar, isn’t this really great. Its just like America but in India.” Yeah—it’s great, but not “just like America.” I have grown to appreciate (and admittedly have been known to mock) the Chennai IT interpretation of America and American culture.
Off to Mahabalipuram
So, its 6:30am, time to get ready and hop the AC min-van tour bus to Mahabalipuram, which is about 45 minutes from here and features amazing store sculptures, a shore temple, caves and apparently amazing seafood. Amazing seafood I am not supposed to eat. Whatever! Like Indu, one of the owners of the house says, “Just be normal. Eat whatever you want, do whatever you want. If you are normal, then the baby will be normal.” The word “normal” used by Indu to describe a state of being, in the American sense means to “be relaxed.” So, I am going to relax and eat some yummy curry leaf, dry fried shrimp. And, if I have to, I’ll go the annoying tourist restaurant and pay more. It can’t be any different from Planet Yumm.
posted by Anju at 2:48 AM
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