Sticky in Chennai

From a moral and cultural perspective Chennai is a very mixed town. There is a hardcore nugget of cosmopolitan modern free swinging clubbing action - within a very large mass of traditional and quite conservative culture. And at the center of the modern Chennai high-life one place was clearly seen as the modern of the modern: The Park Hotel.

The Park is home to one of the most notorious of all Chennai clubs: the morally depraved Leather Bar. Many of my co-workers have spoken about the Leather Bar in hushed tones, afraid that the gods themselves may strike them down for even mentioning a place that is home to such horrible acts of sin. Strangely, the many times Hana and I have walked past the Leather Bar late at night, it struck us as far tamer than your typical Hoboken Bar. Whatever, I guess these things are quite relative. Basically the Leather Bar consisted of a bunch of people fashionably attired drinking cocktails till the late late hour of 12 midnite, at which point they would close for the night.

Traditional Chennai tolerates these drinking spots, but they have some strict laws governing their operation. These laws include: no drinking after midnight. No overt acts of 'indecency.' And no live performances without a permit. Perhaps a little strict, but the law is the law...unless of course you are the Park Hotel who found these restrictions just a bit too restrictive.

Last week, splashed on the cover of the local daily, The Hindu, was a photo showing a male patron drinking a cockail at a party at the Park, and receiving a kiss from a scantily clad female waitress/performer. In the eyes of the traditional majority of Chennai this was a triple violation: drinking after hours, sexual indecency, with a live performance thrown in!

It was too much. This photo threatened to ruin the careful balance between modern and traditional Chennai, the powers at be could not tolerate the sudden winds of change. Resolution: A court has decided to revoke the Park's license to operate for a full 90 days. As of tomorrow morning all guests of the Hotel need to vacate the premises. (Yes, this is not America.) Understand this is a very large, swanky modern hotel that must employ hundreds of people. Most of the staff look like they are about to burst into tears any moment. Its a real shame.

Farewell to the Park Hotel. Next stop: The RainTree. (It seems kind of swanky! I can't wait!)

Update: We made it into the RainTree. It's a nice place. Much more tame than the Park. The Park People gave us a wonderful send off, they were very nice, but they were also convinced that the court order would be over turned tomorrow in court. Not sure if they really believed what they were saying or merely repeating the official line from the corporate office...

Update II: Strange fan-mail has arrived with stranger photo:

Yum. That cone is a dosa.

This is Nalli's (pronounced Nully's), by most accounts, the most popular sari shop in Chennai. It is also one of the oldest if not the oldest. It is very large and bustling with customers. The walls are lined with saris from the floor to the ceiling. It is overwhelming if one is interested in buying a sari which I was. Of course it was difficult for me to find something I would like and wear as everything is too colorful, full of prints and busy for my dull and monochromatic taste. My taste is foreign here. I managed to find one Hyderabad cotton sari that I could wear.
FYI: We are moving hotels so the blog update may not take place for a few days or the transition may be smooth.

Hana and I walked out of a standard Chennai tourist stop (Fort George, you can skip it…) As we walk out we get approached by a few rickshaw drivers…one in particular pushes his way to the front and starts making conversation. “Where are you from? How long are you here? Please, come this way, I give you very good price.” It was hot. We were tired, we let him direct us to his rickshaw…

We drive for a while to the beach and ask to stop. We stroll for a bit and return to the rickshaw. The driver strikes up the conversation again, and begins to tell us about the many foreigners he has befriended over the years. From the rickshaw he pulls out a large bag filled with postcards, letters and photos sent to him by tourists. He hands us envelope after envelope and says “This is my real money, this is what I really work for!” And, strangely enough, I think I recognize a name on one of the envelopes. I look a bit more closely, it can’t be…I open the envelope and see a photo of our rickshaw driver with Sharon F., a former work colleague of mine.

Apparently Sharon had connected with the driver, who I quickly learned is S. Ramachandran, or, as he is better know, Rama the best rickshaw driver in all of India! Here is a photo of Rama and me posing with photos of Sharon F. with Rama. Very small world!

Later that day Rama refused to bring us back to our hotel without first visiting several crafts stores. He muttered something about getting a free sari for his daughter if he brought enough tourists to a certain street.

Marina Beach is the second longest beach in the world. I don't know what the longest beach is. It starts in Port Chennai on the north end and goes south for 10km on the Bay of Bengal. It is also a very wide sandy beach, scattered with fishing boats that look like large row boats, fishing nets, and a few people here and there sleeping, at least at night. It was affected by the tsunami last year. Chennai lost about 400 people and more were lost elsewhere in India as you may know. There are all sorts of people enjoying the beach, friends, families, "lovers" as the driver called them, and people having picnics. You can't see the beach but you can see us. I hope to get Ian to stand in the hot beach sun for a photo some day.

Stray dogs hang out, go about their business and no one seems to even notice them. Even at the train station, while a huge crowd exited the station, a dog napped on the floor in the midst of it all, unphased by the hundreds of feet walking by him an inch or two away. These dogs were on a narrow street in the older British fort part of the city enjoying the mid-day nap in the mid-day heat.

You may be able to see the man in the background of the photo, or just a silhouette of him, standing on the restaurant table, with his barefeet, food leftover on the table, he is cleaning the fan with a dirty rag. He had been on several tables around the restaurant doing the same thing. Once he came into frame for a photo that would include Ian and make my photo-taking less obvious, I took it.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Chennai is the many small Ganesha shrines that seem to be on every other street corner. Just simple little cement rooms - they are too small to warrant the word building - with an open front. Inside you will find a medium sized Ganesha adorned with flowers, bright fabrics, burning incense and odd decorative bangles. Occassionaly the street shrines are dedicated to other gods, perhaps Vishnu or Sheva, but it seems Ganesha has by far the largest market share of local corner shrines. We thing we passed one shrine today that was dedicated to Mother Mary. And for those of you who do not know who Ganesha is: He is an elephant headed god with a big roly poly belly. He is known as the 'overcome of all obstacles' and he is quite the popular guy round these parts.

Here is a picture of my lovely wife in front a typical Ganesha shrine:

And here is a bonus shot of of Hana riding the train today:

Rohit: "Hey Ravi, How are you?"

Ravi: "All, very well thank you."

Rohit: "You have lost some weight, no?"

Ravi: "Yes, 20 kilos! Feeling very good."

Rohit: "Are you dieting?"

Ravi: "Oh no. I've just been having a bout of typhiod."

Rohit: "Oh. When are those reports due for the new client?"

Let's say you own your own photo supplies and film developing store. It is a large store on a very busy corner in a large bustling city. As a savvy business owner you decide it is worth the investment to create a large electric sign to advertise your quality services to passer-byers for blocks around. You wrte the text for the sign, hire a graphic designer, a firm to produce and proudly affix the sign to your store front....but, oops...somehow no one through, through-out out this entire process, to proof-read the sign.

I would like to say that this one sign is a really odd sight in Chennai - but actually these kind of simple mistakes are common in just about everything you see round here - and not just in signs. You can reach your own conclusions....