TNPY

Yet again, am in Tamil land (No, please dont take me wrong. They are nice people, just a little different). Well, enter South India and there are a couple of things that strikes you. The weather, the language and possibly the people. I thought that the whole of India was one, but then I would be a little incorrect in that inference.
As you land at the Chennai airport and walk out, you get a call. Its your driver who has come to pick you up. "Sir, me waiting, you outside". And you had assumed that the South Indians know better english than most of the Indians. Doesnt matter you think. As you move out of the airport, you try and grasp the place, breathe in the city and try and understand the city. But then, you really cant read much. Its all only in Tamil. You tell the driver you want to stop for tea somewhere. He shakes his head and you have to say it again. He shakes his head again only to say "coffee". The car stops, you enter the restaurant and order tea (without looking at the menu card, you assume its there) and lo ! in sometime there is ... "coffee". "Very good coffee sir, this place", grins the driver. Whoa!! but then, there surely isnt much you can do about that. On the way you see the factories of Ford, Nokia and many more such engineering companies. But then, if you think you can read anything but the name, you are grossly mistaken. Thanks to the NHAI, which has made the roads, you do find certain place namecards on the sides of the road. Reach the premises and you are greeted by the Project Manager of the organisation. You start chatting with him in english, understanding that you dont know Tamil, and Hindi is hated like Hitler hated the Jews. You could be lucky, but mostly its luck against reality, the reality being different. He surely can speak english, just that the verbs and nouns can be interchangeable and be used in place of the other. But then, when with the workers or with anyone else, its either "Seri seri" or ille ille that one has to do. Or its the best language that comes to our aid and thats the SIGN language. The language barrier continues and one wonders /worries if he would be able to speak decent, grammatically correct english when he is out of the T land ? The news channels to the cartoon channels are all dubbed in Tamil and you search the 90 channel televisions for the 12 Hindi ones :)
I had always thought that India was a country of oneness, where people would learn new things and grow. Hindi we were taught was the national language. English we thought was the business language. But then, in absence of this for most of the population and the workforce, how does one grow? How and why do MNCs of the likes of Nokia, Ford, ABB, Godrej and many more come down to Chennai? Its possibly thanks to the nature of the people of TN. While on many of these trips, you learn from the driver, that many few people really want to shift to the cities from their villages/towns. Very few people are really interested to learn english as everything is available in Tamil, even movies are in Tamil and they arent like any other language movies. They are an industry in itself. Something that could give the bollywood a run for its money. But then, there it is that the secret of their success lies.
As bad as it may seem the very fact that the people here dont want to change enables them to attract the manufacturing units to their state.
Lets look at it this way, what does a manufacturing unit look for? It looks out for a stable and steady workforce. Who would be happy working and doing nearly the same thing every single day. They want a work force which would stay with them for long. Someone who wouldnt really want to jump and jump and move. The people here love their town, village and so on.. and undoubtedly so they prefer to stay there. Not move. Language barrier as there is doesnt allow them to go out of their state and so also makes it good if companies are very much in their own place. They get to stay at home and still work and earn a good living.
Most of the people in TN either go to South east asia (where they have tamil as a language being taught in school)or stay in TN. Never have i seen any other state with so many people working within the same state. Most of the states have their people going out and working. Businesses are again something that arent so popular amongst the middle class and seems like its kinda reserved for the higher class.
Well, good or bad thats the way it is here in the superstar's land. It gives you a feel that everything happens as if its meant to be.
All in all, its a nice green place with decent roads. Just that its a little too hot and sticky, but its nice to have food on a banayan tree leaf :P

Reminds me of Mani's Lunch home and the sunday lunches we've had there.

Heart with Japan.

of being not so one hits u. The scene outside the airport is still more unique. U cant read a thing !!! Its Tamil the driver smiles.