New....

New city, new job, new colleagues, new prospects....

Old friends, old relations, old me.....

Starting my life in Chennai has been a good experience. I'm not necessarily starting from scratch, but I am definitely starting out my career in the India from scratch. Thankfully, family and friends have been a boon and an irreplaceable support along the way.

Some things of note....

1. I do not speak Tamil.
So communication can become tedious. Being a chatty person at heart, I wish I could even just converse with our lovely Pathi. She makes such an effort to communicate with me. At her age, she looks after this entire family and now myself included. She whips up a meal with her magic spatula and all you taste is some serious love and good food. 

I am also a keep observer. I always have this bizarre view of life. I somehow find the comical and whimsical in situations. I would love to listen in to conversations on buses, to wonder how people are living their lives.

I wish I could understand Tamil.

2. Public transport

My first ever run in with public transport was when I had to get back home on my own. The 23C wasn't going all the way to Besant Nagar, rather, it was stopping only at Adyar before it continued on the Thiruvanmiyur. The bus conductor had rattle off the buses from Adyar to Besant but it was told with just speed that it barely had time to enter my ear drums, before it rolled out of the bus window. When I went and sat down, I realised I needed to know the bus numbers, so when the conductor passed me by, I tapped him on the shoulder and requested what number buses went from Adyar to Besant. He shouted back,"WAIT WAIT!". So I waited, quietly, and 15 minutes later I get a small piece of paper handed to me with a list of all the buses that go to Besant Nagar! Now that is good customer service right there!

I've had various other run ins with acts of kindness from strangers who have helped me along the way. Telling me the right bus to Besant or Adyar and where to get off when I needed to. 

But with the good, bus come the bad and ugly, and the buses are immensely over crowded. Just to make sure I don't get felt up by some creep, I would advice placing yourself between some buxom, elderly woman's breasts. It's the safest place you can be! I rather be suffocated with women squashed up against  me rather than me any day.

Sadly, though, I think all the moving around and my stint with public transport has taken a toll on me. 

For the last week I have been suffering with viral fever. Not good. 

So even though this foreign-return decided to jump head first into everything she does, it all does takes it's out of you in some way or the other.