The saree conspiracy

The boy thought he would be fine. "What is in it?", he thought. "I can handle these things..." But he wasn't prepared for what lay beyond the door, in the hallway... His pupils dilated, the trusty 'ol feet quaked in their shoes, his muscles stiffened, he could hear his joints creaking as he approached... He prepared for the struggle ahead.

'The boy' is me, and this describes my first attempt at buying a saree... 'The hallway' belongs to 'Nalli silks' and - believe me - it looks like one huge railway station. Racks and racks of sarees, hallways full of fawning females, exasperated kids and frightened husbands.

Not that this is the only shop that is this intimidating. Many other saree shops around. Oh, I'm sorry, you said you are a jewellery freak? Check out VBJ - another HUGE building stocked up with whatever jewellery you can dream of. If looking at the stars on a clear winter night doesn't make you think of your insignificance in the scheme of God's plans, this sure will.

But nothing beats the excitement of having around 5 - 6 tonnes of steel hanging on your head. Yep. This experience can be had for free in one of the steel shops you would find in the market. I couldn't see the ceiling. I was looking at the bottoms of God knows how many buckets, drums, cooking vessels of every shape and size. The inside of the shop was very musical. Gives one a whole new perspective to 'listening to heavy metal'.

Yeah yeah, Chennai has temples. Chennai has beaches. Chennai has museums. Chennai has Pondicherry (close by). But I enjoyed my time in the markets, roaming around in the hustle and bustle of daily life, heckling the rickshaw-wallahs (these guys are my favourites). I discovered a new side to tourism in the dirt of Chennai's concrete jungle (Yeckk... what a cliche).

I did go to Mahabalipuram, but that wasn't half as interesting as this. No apologies for not elaborating on THAT experience, though, to give it its due, it wasn't all that bad.