Plenty of questions....moving with family to Chennai

Wolga

Dear twin-mummy,

I am also from Germany and had an offer to work in Chennai for my company. I went there for a week in June to get to know the place. I have lived in China for 3 years before so it is not the first time that I consider to work outside Europe. My experience in Chennai was:

- Traffic is simply horrible, it takes a long time to cover a short distance, especially in rush-hour.

- Rental cost: I saw reasonable cheap beach houses which were ok but very far away from the city. The problem is that you may need up to one hour to drive back if you need anything from a special shop in the city. There are also nice houses in the city area, but here it depends where your husband would have to work. In general I found the quality of the houses poor, also compared to the houses I know from China.

- I found shopping possibilities to be very poor, there are shops with imported goods but only a few.

- Air quality was ok, I did not have the feeling that there is a lot pollution

- Beaches: Dirty in the areas where there are those small fishermen villages, in other areas ok but no place to spent a complete day.

- I also heard that there is a long waiting list for the American school

- I took plenty of pictures and small movies to discuss it with my wife after I returned and in the end we decided not to take the opportunity to move there.

Nick-H

You could hardly get to know a city one quarter the size of this one in a week! Maybe it was long enough for you to decide you didn't want to live here; fair enough, no-one can argue with that. It still has lots of surprises in store for me!

I'd rather drive here than in London, and I can probably get around faster here than I could there. Horrible? For quite a lot of the day it is reasonably easy to get around, and it does not take a long time to cover short distances. Some days, some roads, some times, yes it can. I have horrible memories of the [London] North Circular Road brought to a halt at 1.00am, with huge jams caused by idiot road-work management. Oh, here we don't have road work; in that respect the roads can certainly be horrible!

I'd agree, though I think Chennai houses grow on one. But then, I like old houses! It is a villagey sort of place; nearly everything you need for day-to-day life will be available on your street, or nearby, and very likely brought to your door for a phone call, even for a small order worth just a few rupees. Living in one of the posher areas, one is unlikely to be far away from one of Chennai's more modern shops --- I hesitate to call them supermarkets; we have nothing that vaguely approaches a Tesco or a Sainsbury. But an hour's drive for ordinary shopping would be rare indeed; in fact just about all Chennai's shops are likely to be within an hours drive, unless you settle far out!

Yes, very true. People will tell you that you can get everything here. It's not that they are wrong, you can get most stuff. What is lacking is the choice and, in many areas, the quality.

Yes, I think so too. It has improved immeasurable in ten years, despite there probably being 100-fold more vehicles on the streets.

I've lived in Cornwall, South-West England. Chennai is proud of it's long strip of sand between the city and the beech. Sorry, I can't see why; it doesn't impress me.

I'm known to be a bit protective about my adopted city; I don't believe it has ever been given credit, right from my early encounters with the standard Guide Book message that it is an airport to land at and then move on from. That is not to say that there are not negative aspects (I think I've mentioned the aroma from our waterways) and I think it is a very good thing to bring out some of those to balance the picture. It's Not a tropical paradise!

Speaking of which, it is certainly tropical, and many find the climate one of its worst aspects. The mercury doesn't hit desert hights, but the humidity is always high, and it is never what a European (or even a Northern Indian!) would call cool.

When I first visited this place, I thought it was a mad, crazy chaos. As I said, there must be 100 times the amount of traffic now, compared to then.

It would be quite easy for Chennai to be a beautiful city. It is the dynasty-power politics that doesn't make that a priority. I find that very sad and very frustrating

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AwayFromHome

What an incredible miasma of feelings! Well said, Nick-H! Sometimes it is difficult to put feelings into words, but you have done it very well in this post.

Please visit north India and stay for a while, and we'd get to see you describe that part of the country too (not that we have any lack of estimable IMers from there - you guys are awesome!).

twin-mummy

Dear Wolga,
Thanks for the words. Of course no place is like paradise, but I live in Malaysia right now and I would say it comes quite close....besides of the pollution, esp. around this time of the year when they are burning the palm trees in Indonesia and the water that is at least a one hour drive from KL. We can buy everything, sometimes not on stock but will return in a couple of weeks and housing is fantastic if you move a little bit further out. Yes traffic here can be difficult as well (rush hour, rain). I think I have to go for a week to find out myself like Nick mentioned. Thanks for a different side of view... maybe if you do not mind you can send me some pix?

Wolga

Dear twin-mummy,

Of course I can send you some pictures, but I do not have your e-mail address. If you check my profile, you can see my address and send me a mail so that I can reply. From tomorrow on I will be on a 2 weeks holiday, so I could send you the pics today or after 07.07.
I also lived in Malaysia for 8 months in the past (KL) and I would say there is no comparison between the infrastructure situation there and in Chennai. I was quite surprised about the poor road quality and infrastructure in general, especially once you leave the city.
One more comment regarding driving: I drove my own car in China were driving was already quite an adventure, but I would not recommend to do so in Chennai. If Nick-H prefers traffic in Chennai compared to London then he must refer to traffic jams. I would be more concerned about the very dangerous way people drive in India and besides that – at certain times there was really bad traffic in Chennai too. We tried to drive to a restaurant near the beach from a hotel near the airport which took us 1 ½ hours at 6pm.

Best regards

Nick-H

Errr, yes... Early evening is probably not the best time in most cities and it certainly is not here. That particular journey will be better now as the new flyover up the road from the airport is functioning, although the entire traffic system is far from complete. For some reason I do not understand, though, the hire-car drivers hate taking short cuts, and I might have shaved a little off your journey!

I also think the pro drivers are responsible for putting people off driving here with their speeding and aggression: maybe they're worried about their jobs! But it did take me a year to pluck up courage to drive here, and no, I don't mean I enjoy the traffic jams: I enjoy the normal traffic on normal roads! you can understand from my previous comments that also I often feel safer driving than being driven!

There's a lot that one needs to not mind, or at least learn to put up with. For one thing, I would say that the bad and couldn't-care-less driving reveals a lot about the attitudes!

For another, you need a strong nose, even away from the rivers. People will not cros the road (especially if it is going to cost them a rupee) to use a public toilet when there's a wall right by them. Nor will you be very impressed by the inside of that toilet when you pay your rupee to use it! Mess and dirt and neglect sometimes seem to be endemic.

Getting a house renovated here is the single most stressful thing that has happened to me in my life. It was far worse than redundancies and heartbreaks, and lasted longer. Months longer.

Getting things done doesn't seem to be a priority, except for the last person who came in the room and shouted about their job, and just because someone did a good job last week doesn't mean they will this.

I could go on, about some of my negative impressions; I'm far from sure I'd enjoy working, or trying to run a business here.

Nick-H

Thanks, AwayFromHome

I used to have a sig:

I'm not a traveller; just I found a new home 5,000 miles away from the old one

But I'll get up North, one day.

Made it to Hyderabad last year!!! (Actually, hoping to make Delhi later this year).

dallas_maverick

Not sure if the location is convenient for you, but Mahindra World City has a gated residential community. They have independent bungalows, detached houses as well as apartments with lots of amenities. Check them out if the location is okay with you.

Nick-H

It would help if you mentioned the location!

dallas_maverick

It is about 30 kms south of Airport on NH-45. It is closer to Chengelpet. The Mahindra World City has a train station named Paranur. For more info on that, check it out at http://www.mahindraworldcity.com/ or http://www.myworldcity.in/

SAHM

I may have repeated some things.....I'm just skimming along here. Hope this helps.

SAHM

Check out my blog at http://my.opera.com/myfamilyinindia/blog/ for a more detailed look at life here.