Moving to Chennai: Hey!

*pooja*

hey!! i am new here, jus wanted to ask abt chennai. do u like the city? my bf is from there n i am thinking if i can move there ever with him. we r now in china...i am from poland, n not speaking tamil..wht do u think?

Nick-H

Yes! I like the city!

English will get you a long way here. If your boyfriend speaks Tamil then that will be an advantage.

If you wish to stay here more than the amount of time allowed on a tourist visa then that will be difficult unless you are married (assuming that your BF is Indian citizen/origin). Lots of information on this site about the visa/immigration issues.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

*pooja*

My bf is Tamil, so maybe i can learn some from him. He jus scares me a lot about indian attitude toward white people ( especially white girls), but i think he must be overreacting...

Nick-H

I guess it depends on his particular background --- but, I think you will find that, at least on a superficial level, most people here will be friendly to you.

madan80

second Nick - its not an adverse reaction to foreigners. People are friendly - a lot of ex-pats in the city enjoying themselves. So come on over- and have a blast!
(Wish the govt would hire me to sell this city... )

mirjamd

I am also moving to Chennai to be with my boyfriend (soon to be husband...). I have already lived in Chennai for 8 months altogether now, and have had no problem whatsoever with being white. I find that people are either very friendly, or just indifferent. You get a lot less stares in the city than you get in rural areas, where I also lived. I also feel rather safe, with some precautions, such as wearing appropriate clothes and not being out alone too late. But I used to take autoriksha's when it was dark in the early night and nothing ever happened.

I also don't speak Tamil or Hindi, but I am planning to learn because it makes you feel you belong to the city if you stay there longer. And I found that a lot of communication between family members is in Tamil or Hindi, despite their efforts to speak English when I am around. I don't know if that might be the case with you..

Chennai is a fun city, with good places to go out, if you're into that. And, you can buy almost the same things as you would at home, except very specific stuff.

It is a noisy, polluted, hot city though, so if you cant stand that, then I'd think twice about it. Have you already visited the city? I think that would be the best way to decide whether you warm up to the place or not.

Good luck with deciding!

Nick-H

Oh, offer a good deal and I have no doubt that they would. The Chennai SEZ?

tripcat

Hi Pooja,

Tamil men STARE! Whenever I go out in western or Indian clothes I get stared at a lot, and they make jokes about me in Tamil. But hey, at least I don't know what they are saying! South Indian men are more polite than North Indians though, the northerners make comments in English and are a bit more threatening. Also there are less rape reports of foreigners here than there are up north. Hope this helps!

capt_mahajan

Umm, as a North Indian male, and though I agree with the general sentiment of the post, I must mildly point out two things.

One, I disagree with the generalised tone. Many Northerners are polite.

Two, if the situation is threatening, I for one would much rather have people threatening me in a language I understand
"at least I don't know what they are saying" implies ignorance is bliss, when it sometimes is oblivion.

Nick-H

It's a bit depressing!

When was the last instance of a rape of a foreign woman reported in our press? Pretty rare, here, I'd say.

Some Tamil men will stare, sometimes. I suppose they might make jokes too, though this must be hard to identify if you don't speak Tamil.

madan80

well... making it a region specific thing might not be fair. men in general stare... be it in India or abroad...this is just my opinion.

tripcat

Ok, I should be more specific. We had a bunch of North Indians come to our university for an engineering conference, and they were not very polite. Perhaps it could be because they were in another city.

While travelling in New Dehli last week, my friend (a young white woman) found walking around the streets to be much scarier than walking around in Chennai, despite being accompanied by her parents. She was followed closely a few times by groups of men.

I'm pretty sure a rape was in the papers 3 weeks ago, but I can't find the article. There is some information on other cities here:

"Rape cases targeting tourists force government to act"
http://www.delhi.headlinesindia.com/...ews_code=67978

capt_mahajan

So you base your generalised comments about Northerners' politeness on this? And I take it you haven't travelled there yourself.

I rest my case.

Nick-H

Sorry: by our press, I meant Chennai, not India as a whole. Very badly phrased.

The point I was trying to make was that there are not fewer cases of rape against foreigners in Chennai --- there are almost no such cases.

Your profile tells us that you are An urban planning student, stuck in Chennai for 5 months! I can imagine that that could be rather depressing, given the dreadful state of 'urban planning' here.

brishti

heck - girls of indian origin get stared at too, in any city trust me!!! the trick is - not to react.

capt saab: not generalising - BUT traveling in delhi, public transport or otherwise, is unnerving at the best of times. eve-teasing up there is more aggressive than it is, say, down south or in the east. thataway - mumbai is an absolute pleasure. sure there are incidents in them other cities - heck no metro has the monopoly over misbehaviour.
but delhi, capt, hmmm...

:brishti