Bonus post about... nothing in particular and everything

Once again I didn't mean to come to an internet cafe today (therefore I don't have the camera chord with me today either, sorrrry), but after walking from Thirumailar train station all the way to St Thome's cathedral and from there aaaaaall the way up the Marina Beach and from there aaaaaall the way to Spencer Plaza (the vast majority of you have no idea what I am talking about, so take my word for it, this is a llllot of walking), I felt like taking a seat, having a pineapple juice on my right, and talk to my loyal blog readers a little :-).
In a few hours I am leaving Chennai, a city I came... closer, let's say, to, comparing it to Hyderabad, maybe because I started its "exploration" from the moment I stepped my feet here, and not 36 hours later, as in Hyderabad's case... The first day I made several auto rickshaw drivers... happy. Before leaving my -decent- hotel, I asked the receptionist how much specific rides should cost me, having read in Lonely Planet that drivers here never use their meters (which, by the way, is too true). So, every time I asked a driver how much he wanted to take me to... the Marina Beach for example, I knew how greedy he was being, and I always agreed to give 10 rupees more than what the receptionist told me. For a short distance, a 30 rupees distance for example, giving 40 instead if 30, is a relatively big difference, but 10 rupees is less than 20 euro cents, so I found it silly to argue with drivers over 20-30 euro cents... Yesterday though, I turned to the suburban rail network, because I wanted to cover longer distances, go to T Nagar for example (by the way, londonair, I saw the place you suggested :-), and having read something in Sarah Macdonalds' "Holly Cow" about women and jewelery, didn't surprise me that much, seeing SUCH a huge place, exclusively for gold stuff), and also I wanted to experience this... "taking a suburban train in Chennai" thing... I wanted to see those fans on the ceilings on the carriages, I wanted to see how damn crowded they can get (trust me, they sure can...), I wanted to see people hanging from the doors, or... should I say, from the place where doors should(?) be, only there are no doors... I wanted to see all this, and paying 4-5 rupees per ride, this is the definition of "bargain price". Going to the High Court and Parrys Corner, I saw many people living in... something like houses, even more lying on the street, obviously homeless, I saw kids playing practically in the middle of a big road where cars use to speed, and I was thinking that the images didn't shock me that much as my first day here... This got me thinking... This is my sixth day in India, and I think I have... surrendered, in a way, I have... adopted, in the sense that things that shocked or pissed me like hell the first two-three days, no longer have the same effect on me. A car driver beeps his horn like maniac the moment he is passing next to me? So what?... People steal my turn in a line (I'd say people here have no idea what a line is)? So what? Shoot me, but I started doing the same... Who?! I?! The master of being "correct" and NEVER stealing anyone's turn in a line... Guys burp while passing next to me? Big deal... Someone's staring at my PC screen (like now... let's see if he can read English and get the hint...) even though I have politely asked him not to stare? Oh well... (He is unbelievable... He is still staring... I guess he can't read English, but is just fascinated seeing little letters appear on the screen while I click on keyboards some 40 centimetres away from the screen). Every day that passes, everything looks and feels "normal", I guess.
Bottom line, talking about Chennai, I liked it, because I did here everything I want to do when I visit a city. Several people asked me, before coming to India, why I included many cities in my itinerary and hardly any "chill-out" places. The answer is, I love cities, with all their good and bad aspects. That's all. I love getting a grip of how the local transportation system works. I love finding my way around a place which seems (and is) chaotic. I love wandering around side streets, seeing people work, kids play (cricket, in India's case), I love doing all these silly little things, and maybe most of all I love the... full of surprise look on locals' faces, when they see a foreigner walking in front of their house, in a place where no foreigner has a real reason to be, while "sightseeing" in... Chennai, in this case. I love leaving a city and knowing that... this is here, this is there, this other place is next to the first one, and if you take this train you will be there in X minutes, and there you can find a shop whose owner makes great wooden Ganesha sculptures... Are all these important? Well, for me they are, and I know so because when I see a city my way and the time comes to leave, I have this feeling of... "completeness" if there is such a word. I feel I saw the city the way I wanted, and this makes me feel great. Of course, I would be a liar if I didn't admit that I am looking forward to lying under a coconut tree at some Goa beach... :-)
That's it... I think I mumbled enough today...
Hm... :-) I was just about to say again "thanks everyone for keeping me virtual company", but I just remembered a middle aged gentleman I met yesterday. I was standing across Emerald Plaza (which, by the way, disappointed me, it is nothing like Lonely Planet say), and I had to cross the street, only it was damn difficult because the traffic was indescribable. So, the same gentleman who told me that THAT was the building I was looking for, volunteered to help me cross the street with his bike. So he did. I thanked him for helping me out, and he said, "don't say thanks, just pass it to someone else", which gave us the chance to chat for a few minutes. I remembered something similar I read in "Zahir", a recent Paulo Coelho book, he said he didn't know the book but he sure did follow this "pass the favour to someone else" thing, but still, the moment we were to say goodbye, I wanted to thank him, so instead of thank you, I came up with "peace be with you", a line I learned during my short-short time in Australia, attending Sunday morning Catholic masses at some church... "Peace be with you" is a nice wish, and it's not "thank you", so I wasn't "disobeying" his request not to thank him... :-) SOOOO, I am not saying thank you anymore, I will just be there for you when the time comes for YOU to travel and set up a blog I WILL follow. Fair enough, I say... :-)