CHENNAI vs HYDERABAD

CHENNAI vs HYDERABAD: A candid assessment of the 2 cities

3rd post in 3 days..jump start 2 my blog!
I jus cannot fathom y most of the Hyderabadis call it "hydra-bad" ,which they claim is the anglicised version as in "calcutta- kolkata" or "bombay-mumbai" , with the bad part being pronounced in the same way as the antonym of good-"bad". The other "bad"s do not suffer this ignominy namely Ahmedabad,Ghaziabad etc. If it were 2 b a purely posh,Anglicised name I wud have rechristened hyd as "Hydra good". Okie i wont go abt extolling the greatness of Hyd now.

I grew up in the wonderful,laidback,Nawabi city Hyd. My stay in Chennai -where "barota","bajji" and "sundal" stalls r as ubiquitous as "chaat bandis" in Hyd, is {and will certainly be}relatively very short compared 2 that of Hyd but enuff for this blog. Also innumerable visits in my childhood do supplement the comparison.

The first thing that strikes u on landing at the Chennai Central is the unbearable stench emanating from the umpteen gunny backs filled 2 the brim with fishes. Ppl say "singara chennai" but i feel "Stink aara Chennai" wud b better .The other thing is the perfect discipline which the coolies diligently follow. They never enter the train unlike their hyderabadi counterparts where a plethora of coolies simply barge into the train oblivious 2 the troubles of the disembarking passengers and the air full of "maa ki.." and "behen ki .." stuff!!. Of course the coolies do charge exorbitant rates and that is their forte. The modus operandi is 2 pick out the bakras-non tams, frm the trains and convince them in a smooth,genteel manner in a "khichdish" lang infested with tam wrds and a few gult words being thrown in here and thr. For eg. he will offer 2 carry ur baggage till the auto stand and quote an outrageous,out-of-the-world 3 digit figure which will leave u shell-shocked. More shocks at the taxi stand where the guy will quote exactly the double of the prev 3 digit and triple if u have a comp which is a kinda ' white elephant' . If ur a tam, well all u can do is a bit of bargaining and reduce it slightly but u do run the risk of being rebuked in the choicest of tam expletives wen u have reached ur destination, on not complying to his demands! The autowallahs also deserve a mention here . The state-of-the-art digitalised meters in the autos will surely catch ur eye but wait, they r purely for decorative purposes and agreeing 2 a pre-fixed flat rate will not burn that big a hole in ur purse as against metered fares. I do not recall any instance of entering an auto or taxi with equanimity in Chennai.

The N.Indian stuff in the restaurants will leave u fuming and leaves a lot 2 b desired. Very few hotels dish out quality stuff and it is beyond the reach of students. Did someone say "Be Roman while in Rome"?? Well the "roman" stuff or "chennai" stuff namely idly,vada etc er quite good in the eateries . Regarding entertainment the theatres r not at all good and this is very disappointing for movie buffs like me. On many occasions i have seen movies in black with many empty seats indicating a tie -up. I badly miss the 35Rs ticket in Hyd!!

After all the flogging-to-death time for goody stuff akin 2 my first post. The traffic sense is amazing and a hyderabadi driver will never find it easy here. The theatre{drama} circuit is quite bright and the reverence of Chennaites towards religion and God is well known. The city is up by 6 am with evrbody sporting "vibhuti" unlike the laidback attitude of hyd.The hyd attitude of "chalta hain" or procrastination has caught up with me big time and i am one of the innumerable victims of that attitude. An evening near the beach will rejuvenate ur spirits and the tides have washed away my worries many a time. The transport network is xlnt and the local trains have an amazing frequency at a very cheap rate. So i do not loathe Chennai too but do have certain points against it.

Hmmmm yet another exhaustive post. Bears testimony 2 my "vettiness"..
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So which is better?Without an iota of doubt PHIR BHI DIL HAIN HYDERABADI