Learning Hindi in 30 days

Have you tried ?? I am yet to try, though circumstances are going to make me go crazy about Hindi right now. Till the eleventh of August ‘08, effectively, I was proud that I can converse in fluent Hindi. After doomsday, I feel like I am in some alien country with a bunch of people talking in some weird language that absolutely make no sense to me.

Before I go any further, let me make some things clear. I know Hindi, had taken it up as my main subject all through schooling and can read, write, and well, thought can speak well too. This, “thought can speak well too” comes from a person who has so far given 4 gaalis along with college kids in Hindi. I know, but those were college days, and we all assumed that we were right in everything, didn’t we?

Anyways, right now, my status is that, I am nowhere near Tamil Nadu, leave alone Chennai. The place where I am staying in is in the middle of India, where, the only way I can get to meet someone speaking in Tamil is through Kalaignar TV -that’s the only Tamil channel that’s here!! Sniff sniff.. I am not even aware of the movies that have released in the past couple of weeks. Left Chennai on the day of Kuselan release. Life is very unfair I say!

The brighter part of everything is Khaana. Food intake now comprises of imli-free-dal-full substances. Realized that Paneer in abundance makes life good. :D . Though have started missing seeramilagu sathamadu, vettha kozhambu and vadam. Other than that, I’m loving this place just for the food.

Language is where I’m struggling. They stare at me as if I’m talking in gibberish. Stares turning into silent glee and laughter. Laughter turning into mockery. Oh! The Misery reaches no bounds. Fact is that this has made me re-think my actual knowledge of Hindi. Thankfully, some people are kind enough to try and help me out. Worst part is that, my job profile also involves teaching people about the garment trade and processes. When I am taking a class consisting of 30 students who can only speak in Hindi, I sometimes feel like am a part of some stand-up comedy. During this process, realized that sign language can also be helpful!! So goes the Hindi story, likely to continue for the almost the whole of next year. I’m sure I would learn the actual words by then. ‘coz, the other day, I was asking for scissors, didn’t know how to explain in Hindi; ended up showing a sign which made the other run off for his dear life!!

Though the overall experience is as such fun, the only thing I am actually missing is the non-existence of Internet. Boo Hoo… No blogs, no social networking. The maximum time I get is only consumed for checking mails. Survival testing it seems. Hopefully shall still be surviving by the end of it. Have no idea about when I would be accessing the net again. So, for all few, but, lovely blog readers, Adiyen, will reply back in due course. Till then, Samathha irungo kozhandela…

Sing in the rain..Im singing in the rain...

Aan aan….for all the kindly souls wondering where I had ran off to, I assure you guys that it certainly wasn’t any sane place. Last month was filled up with ups and downs. The ups being the usual minimal and the downs, dominating the scene (or as my friend describes, it was filled with bumps and lumps!).

So, moving away from the depressing topic, I thought, I would dedicate this post to the one of the lifelines of Chennai. We shall discuss the critical modes of survival using the transport systems of Chennapatnam.

Requirements for getting qualified so as to attempt would be:

1. Patience
2. More Patience and
3. …Did I not mention Patience??? (And yes, it always comes with a capital P)

So, now that you’ve learnt basic mantra, we shall move further on to discuss specific topics. My first suggestion to you guys would be…don’t ever think about trying to ride a four wheeler in Chennai in peace… you would end up cribbing about the insanely bad roads there are or the lovely madras bashai being used by the fellow commuters about the perfectly divine art of driving. Trust me…it is never too late to learn about “Vootla soltu vantiya” type phrases.

Since, I live a bit farther than the actual city; I’ve been blessed with opportunities to try the exotic Suburban trains and the Metropolitan Buses. Though I trust the trains rather than the buses, I would recommend the buses to those who live out of pocket money from the dads. I mean, how else would you be able to travel 25 kms in Chennai with 5rs!! Though it becomes a herculean task to catch one when it is leaning at an angle 60 degrees towards the ground and does not have any safety belt as such. But it’s the one of the best way as long as you can avoid sitting in the driver seat and honking at anything and everything around. Surprisingly, in the recent times, there has been an introduction of news swanky buses to manage the Chennai crowd and I’ve found them rather comfortable and preferable to the suburban trains.

Talking about the trains, there are in total three routes that can be taken to reach various parts of Chennai. The best one and the oldest one is the route that covers south Chennai to the central part of the city- it’s the best one coz Her Highness uses it :P !! Anyways, these trains aren’t like the Mumbai ones, crowd- wise. They are such a pleasure to travel with good entertainment around; what with the hawkers selling yummy one-rupee-samosas, hankies, hairclips etc, and office going women and men singing old movie songs aloud to pass the time, tussles breaking between women as to who gets the window –seat, you get the picture. :). I have spent almost 6 yrs travelling in these trains, and have had some of the best times of my life. This is the best optionsif you want to avoid traffic in Chennai.

After all the above said, I really shouldn’t miss out the life and soul of Chennai- the autowalas. They are such gifted people who have learned the book “How To Drive And Survive On Pot-holed Roads”. The book apparently also offers a supplement which throws light on “Gonna Getcha Manni”! Still, it is worth a try to have an adventure on an auto through the traffic in Chennai, especially, in T.Nagar. But try bargaining in Tamil, else, forget your Manni. Anyways, As the saying goes, there are more Autos in Chennai than its actual population, you are never bound to miss one. And after 8PM, when the moon goes high, so will their targets be. So, beware of hearing the most ludicrous prices that can ever be quoted.

So, now that you kids are well fed with food full of fluff, Please..Please..grace the lovely city of Chennai soon. This information is not provided or sponsored Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation or by the Umbrella in the Logo. Come come…Besant beach ish waiting….

For those who were wondering the link between the title and Post, Go Crack NUTS!!

Filter Kapi

What is the connection between tam- brahms and the above mentioned beverage?? Is it some kind of unexplainable link that we are born with? A curse…no no…it can never be a curse…a divine blessing, I presume. The exhilarating feeling it gives when we have one Davara full of filter kapi along with Hindu newspaper is out of the world! A day never goes perfectly without the above combination

The aroma of the coffee powder drifting from the Raja Coffee house in C.Pettai main road itself gives me a high! My paaTi had a huge selection procedure when it comes to buying it from any coffee shop. No..not those fancy CCDs or Baristas where they give you froth laden, creamy, water with coffee powder sprinklers, but those where you get coffee beans and powders for daily usage. C.Pettai has 3 main coffee shops and a couple of other smaller ones which don’t even get short listed by my paaTi.

Coffee Day- it was a pioneer launching, actually one of the first fancy shops that opened up in C.Pettai. All the vinyl board on the shop’s headboard impressed paaTi (compared to the hand painted Raja Coffee, where we used to buy) and we soon joined in the queue to get our ½ kilo kapi poDi along with its freebies- variants included plastic mug, one stainless karandi and of course, a davara-tumbler. I still remember my paaTi saving the coupons for increasing her pointless-saving-stainless steel-davara tumblers account. It took a while for her to realize that there is no point in getting those davaras when the coffee decoction is watery!! So, we went back to Raja Coffee which also had started the freebie business (Competition boss!!) to get back their old customers. I think raja coffee was established somewhere in the 1800s, this coming from the oily look of the half deaf coffee mama. But since we had changed patrons, oily mama started giving us scorching looks and more chicory in the kapi poDi. PaaTi started complaining again about oily mama not treating her as a venerable customer. So, we again had to shift to the newly opened Narasu’s coffee- ‘Bhesh bhesh!! Remba naNNa irukku’, right opposite to Raja Coffee. Though business never picked up well, oily mama moved to Narasu’s for no particular reason. Narasu’s also had a business strategy, giving away free packets of chicory or parrys’ sugar. But the business started soaring when they decided to start giving home deliveries. Now, all my paaTi has to do is dial their number, make sure her instructions are clearly spelt back by half deaf oily mama “Kaal A Kaal B, No chicory” (These lines were god’s lines- never to be forgotten at any given point of time- by the oily mama/me/dad) And very soon, oily mama’s son used to drop in the packets of ½ kg every now and then. Thankfully, we haven’t changed our coffee shop for the past couple of years.

I still savor the first batch of decoction prepared everyday morning by paati (no..i haven’t tried making it; tried once, was a huge fiasco) along with sudoku in the Hindu and Vishnu Sahasranamam on Jaya TV. Aah! What will I ever do without filter kapi daily morning????