Chennai- an eventful two months..

Its been about 2 months since I got to Chennai..I had been to the city before on numerous occasions but never for an extended length of time..I had my reservations against the city.in fact quite a few of them..coming from Bangalore, I like most others from the garden city felt that Chennai wasn't cosmopolitan, was a bit too orthodox and steeped in tradition, the heat was a huge deterrent. Perhaps the biggest factor was the feeling that one had to know Tamil to be able to survive there...This fear of mine was rather not justified as I am a Tamilian but prefer to converse in English until I get to know a person well...

Initially I struggled in more than one way...managed to find a house after a couple of weeks in a great area Anna Nagar, one of the posh places in Chennai...I chose to stay there despite having about a hour's commute to work..I had a horrible time at the work place initially and did not like it one bit to converse in Tamil..but Chennai soon taught me one thing that there is nothing like 'being a Roman in Rome'!

Decided I had to join a gym to keep myself kinda active and fit..I Joined Talwalkars and its been a great time so far there..met lotsa people and ogled at loads of chicks..!..weekends have involved tennis and of late I did make it to couple of cafes mocha and amethyst, the latter being a personal favorite..spent a few quiet hours reading there..Time has passed and I have settled in real well at work..

visited coupla famous temples the kapaaleeshwara and parthasarathy temple and was a great experience..jus goin 2 mylapore made me appreciate the culture in Chennai...the greatest aspect of the city is its culture and its passion for Carnatic and Bharatnatyam..this is something I really respect..

apart from the dreaded autos which charge the most exorbitant fares, the share autos which make you cling on for dear life and the atrocious driving in crazy traffic...its still been a great experience so far and I do look forward to the days ahead!!

A very strange phase....

I am without doubt going through a very strange phase in life...Though my present scenario isnt exactly something I didnt anticipate, I still never ever thought it would be quite as tough..ok! enough circumventing..lemme come to the point..I am feeling extremely LONELY and somehow seem incapable of building a new network of friends.. I have never had a struggle in making friends and have hundreds of them and most of them are friends from a long time...My people skills are something I am proud of and I have mingled with vastly different persona all these years with a great deal of ease..

Life was going very smooth until about last year when the global recession and my bad luck contrived to bring me back to India...of course I am loving the fact that I am able to spend a lot of the much yearned for time with my family who I so missed when I was in the US..But no gain comes without a price and it is quite a price-am facing a drought of friends..weird as it may sound, it is true that I am really not able to find the right set of guys I had all along..people of a similar mindset and wavelength are not to be seen around and I have also admittedly become a little more stubborn and unwilling to flex..I had an abundance of friends all these years and there were very few people who would have been blessed with such a great set of pals..

Also, I feel that me being single is another factor that augments the effect of not having a group of friends..honestly I do feel that if i did have some company in these times when I am feeling down and lonely, it would have been of great help...but again this is not the solution to the problem at hand..The right girl is a lot more than just a quick fix solution to this situation..what I do have to learn is that all these years, I was having a great time of it all and had the best of friends, but now I am at crossroads in life..and the dreaded fact that I never believed- that friends have to move on and that one cannot hope that their company is permanent is very much true..

All I can now do is try and drown myself in nostalgia and at the same time try and change myself to accept new situations and people just the same way as I did all these years and once again bring to the fore what I have always been proud of- my people skills...