Chennai? What's that?

This post comes about courtesy the good folks at the Chennai Bloggers Club. The Tag-blog has been going on for over a month-and-then-some. Sulaiman Sait, the lover of poetry in all its forms, has passed the tag to me - the penultimate link in this log. 

Why aren't we doing this in French? Portuguese? Double-Dutch? I'd like to think it is because of my city. 

It is a pity they named it Chennai, because that was like introducing a socially awkward uncle at a hep soiree by his pet name, the one used only by close friends and family. He knows all those beautiful people at the party will stumble over his name and feel sorry / hurt / irritated at that. He knows they'll soon recognise him for the good man that he is, but until then, he will have to suffer their awkwardness. He knows they will value his ideas, his perspectives, his point of view - and the vast knowledge he places at their disposal, but he also knows they would not like to be seen in conversation with him; with Him!? Of all people!! Yet, they will be back again, seeking his approval, his energy, to help them fulfill their plans. But to be seen around with, they'd prefer the glam, even if there was little substance beneath the wrapping. Why, Chennai is going to be around always, we can lean on Chennai as a backup, Chennai won't mind.

And Chennai doesn't, it truly doesn't.

But, the uncle wonders, what if I could have used my other name, the one I used to be known by to everyone else around the world. The word that is linked to cloth, paleontology, music, spice, spirituality, heat, learning, mathematics, movies, ophthalmology, beaches, automobiles, art, trigonometry… and pretty much everything else. ‘Madras’ had it all, the right connections, and, very wonderfully, didn’t hoard any of it. Madras just gave of itself to the world. The world of course, took a lot of it, and expected Madras to remain the same.

Madras didn’t mind. Not even when the pet name became official and the world had to scramble around to find who this was.

Chennai was Madras is Chennai will remain Madras.

Call it what you will, but you can’t take away the fact that this is the city:

• That’s completely self-made. No queen or king poured largesse on it. It was built from nothing but the fancy of an Englishman and the enterprise of those who helped him. 
• That the French lusted for. When the diplomats at Paris traded Madras back to the British in return for Cape Breton, the French military fumed. Under Comte de Lally, they desperately tried, for close to a decade, to take the city back. Had they prevailed, vous seriez lisez ceci en français (without Google Translate, of course) 
• That should be on par with the Vatican and Amalfi for being the only sites known to have tombs of an apostle of Christ
• Without which, there would possibly have been no Yale University
• With a wonderfully rounded economy, without being disproportionately famous for just any one sector
• That hosts the largest cultural event in the world, spanning over a month, without any visible central organizing force
• That cradles within itself the smallest National Park anywhere in the world
• Where the Pakistan cricket team was given a standing ovation as they did a lap of the stadium after winning a close match
• That is more than competent in several disciplines, but never with an in-your-face attitude – and that quite often leaves it a perennial runner-up
• Which is the only one I call home! More about it, every day, here

If you've managed to get this far, do take it ahead tomorrow with the next link.  Bhavana, an irreverant, still-not-comfortable blogger married to Chennai via an arranged match, who writes on socially relevant issues, will be talking about her marriage (to the city, of course!) on her blog. That's going to be the last link of this Blog-Tag, so you might also like to get more perspectives of what Chennai is all about by going back along the chain!