It’s been a couple of weeks since my blog post on what happened before, during and immediately after the Chennai rains. What was meant as an update for family and friends on what was going on (OK, mostly to reassure my Mum, who does worry so), seemed to have captured the attention of Chennaites around… Continue reading
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As Chennai Sank, Humanity Rose in its Place
I don’t think November and December of 2015 are going to be two months that I forget for the rest of my life. Every year in Chennai, the Northeast Monsoon (NEM) pours rain all over the city. When I first arrived in Chennai in 2008, I remember that like clockwork the rains would come during… Continue reading
Where does one go for Christmas in India?
Listen up Internet. Can you help my wife and I? We want to go somewhere for Christmas but we just don’t know where! The only requirement is that it’s in India, we shouldn’t have been there before and there should be some things to do or places to explore. This will be my fifth year… Continue reading
How I Tried To Rescue A Puppy But Ended Up In Hospital
Living in Chennai, one is never too far away from an animal of some kind. Whether it’s a street dog or an animal more common to a farm than a city, the city is teeming with local fauna. Every day, Darwin’s survival of the fittest plays out as disease, competition for food and danger from… Continue reading
Tales From the Taramani MRTS Station
My team mate is known for being the resident crazy dog-lady in the office. Now somewhere out there is a lady with twenty dogs, dog pictures on the wall, doggie slippers, t-shirts with dogs on, crockery with dog pictures, a poster hanging on the wall that says ’15 reasons why a dog is better than… Continue reading
How I Ended Up In Colombo For Christmas
For the last three years I’ve spent my Christmas in Chennai. Each year we went back to the Taj Connemara for their Christmas brunch, which is pretty good with all the turkey, roast vegetables, pigs in blankets and so on, but to do it again for a fourth year. Just no. Not again.
A Tale About Socks
“Meuw, meuw, meuw, meuw, meuw” came a squeaking noise from the bushes. “Hey, it’s a little kitten!” my wife exclaimed. “Are you sure? It sounds more like a high pitch chirp from a bird” I replied, confident in my avian chirp recognition. A motorbike zoomed past, its headlight briefly illuminated the bush and silhouetted a… Continue reading
Is it time for middle class India to vote?
I’m absolutely fascinated by the Indian general elections, there is so much controversy, so much colour, so much hatred and so much passion from all sides. Unlike the UK, where the major parties have sort of morphed in to one giant bubble that is either marginally centre-left or centre-right but basically the same, India has… Continue reading
Life in Chennai is Now Uber
Taxi services. Little has changed in the last 50 years. You call up the taxi company, ask for a taxi to pick you up and you wait patiently for them to arrive. Only it’s not always that simple in Chennai, especially for a foreigner (although I consider myself more of an almost-PIO nowadays). You call… Continue reading
That Devil Called Inflation
To my utter surprise, I’m coming up to completing five years of living in India. Being an expat usually means you are paid more than the local workers, and India’s strict foreigner employment laws almost guarantees that. One of the things about living in a developing country is that there is incessant, non-stop, almost frantic,… Continue reading