Happy Birthday, you have given me a great time
Yesterday, my city turned 368. A sleepy fishing hamlet called Madraspatnam once upon a time, is now a thriving metropolis called Chennai. Some may raise their eyebrows when i say thriving, but the city is no longer the orthodox and conservative place it once was. Today, Chennai is easily one of the better Indian cities to live in, with a great balance of traditional and modern lifestyle.
I am new to Chennai, a resident of only two years and its been the best two years of my life. Theres much to explore, much to see, much to experience, its a treat for your senses, the coffee, the beach, the jasmine, the autorickshaws, central station, the temples, classical music…
If you cant be here to live the Chennai life, the least you can do is enjoy its sights. I leave you with this wonderful gallery of photos from Chennai that was once Madras. This is my city.
9 responses to “Happy Birthday, you have given me a great time”
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Hi
PlaneMad's BitterScotch - A few photos, a little design, some unusual experiences and snippets of my college life in India more >
Wall of Names
 | In on Chennai’s share autos |
 | Sheetal on Chennai city corporation zone… |
 | rini chaturvedi on Terrain Visualization of India… |
 | As Hole on Free vector outline district m… |
| ISRO Bhuvan wms data… on ISRO sees utility of openstree… | |
 | onpagemail on Chennai volvo routes and … |
 | Arrearadvisor on In the arrear hole |
 | lakshmiramya1 on Chennai’s share autos |
 | santhosh kumar on In the arrear hole |
 | Abishek on In the arrear hole |
Moments captured
feed me some bitterscotch
- Terrain Visualization of India using SRTM and Openstreetmap data
- Bangalore to Mumbai, 18 hours by bus and better than expected
- Found it! my scholarship to the Wikimedia Hackathon in Amsterdam
- Chennai Urban Area Landuse Map
- Designing a multilingual bus information poster for Mumbai’s bus stops
- ISRO sees utility of openstreetmap data
- Lessons from the New Tamil Nadu government text books
- //
- Enroute to Ladakh
- The essential Chennai rail transport map – looking back
Bitterscotch 
Awww. 🙂 I love, love, love this city! Wherever I go, when I get back to Chennai, I always have the home-coming-kiss-the-earth feeling! 😀
//but the city is no longer the orthodox and conservative place it once was.
Really? I wanna be in this city too. How do I get to this non-existent unorthodox/non-conservative Chennai?
Have you heard of a city called Mumbai?
//the coffee – gone are those days. Now it is Mocha or Latte, which as you may have noticed from the names aren’t even remotely related to Chennai.
//the autorickshaws – stop encouraging these bastards. There is nothing to be proud of Chennai Auto guys. They are filthy criminals. Go to Bombay and check the auto drivers there. chennai auto guys are a disgrace to the city. Nobody wants to meet them and it defi. is not a treat to their senses.
//the temples – wait a min. were you talking about Chennai or Madurai? We got like one famous temple and that is Kapaleeshwara temple, where thanks to those disillusioned foreign blokes who hand over 100 bucks to the road side beggers, we get man-handled if we give the beggers anything less than 10 bucks.
The whole temple smells of rat urine.
//classical music
The biggest of all bullshit.
Yeah, all this humidity really messes up your brain. Im lovin it 😀
Btw, took chutti today eh? Arent you ashamed sleeping at home when your friends are working hard in coll? tch tch..
1. my year has hardly anything to contribute – in accordance w/ hierachy – apart from being in sari, having photo-sessions and prancing around. 2. i’m least inclined to do the above. i’m sure my day’ll be better spent than at college. 😛
Okay this isn’t funny at all. My comments are getting moderated… sheesh!
@ Sagaro
Look here man, im not portraying Chennai as the greatest city in India. The place has certainly got a laawt of downsides, but imo lesser than many of the other hyped up places in this country.
This city has certain charms that you cant find elsewhere. If you choose to ignore the good things this city has to offer, then its your loss.
And yeah, i know how much you like Mumbai and it definitely is a great place to visit. But lets face it, the quality of life there is miserable.
@Planemad:
//But lets face it, the quality of life there is miserable.
Maybe. But we at least have a life there in the first place!
@sagaro : Oh its d classic mumbaikar attitude again… dude… give us a break… go back to mumbai n stay there wont you 😛
@Vigneswaralu:
I will defi. go back to Mumbai and stay there, but how is it going to give you a break? Are blogs from Mumbai banned in your college?