An Early morning in chennai

Traditionally speaking people in this part of the globe sleep very early and rise up early too. Of late, the tradition is given for a toss thanks to BPO's across the city. Madurai, a town in the southern part of the state , known for sleepless town due to continuous activities going around Meenakshi temple, has lost its position to Chennai, state capital.

The newspaper vendors are the first to occupy the city streets with dispatching van offloads the newspaper bundles in the wee hours. One must look at the dexterity at which they assemble the separate bundle into a perfect newspaper its amazing ! they are second only to the dabbawallahs of Mumbai in terms of their sorting process.Whether it is rain or shine they make sure you get a copy of your newspaper at your dining table before dawn. In the recent past, the local advertisers prefer sending their pamphelts through newspapers to reach their target audience so one could see a lot of local advertisers carrying bundles negotiating with the vendors for dispatching them. Of course,the vendors charge for their "services". Some newspapers have discouraged this practice but monitoring them personally is almost impossible.

There was a time in Chennai,when households preferred taking fresh buffalo milk straight from the cattle owners for their "filter" coffee.The cattle owners, on their part, bring a buffalo tether them in front of the house (possibly a lamp post)and "milk " them . An inmate of the house (probably an elderly person would inspect the milking process just to be sure that milkman does not mix water). The chennai milkmen are known for their notority in mixing large amount of water with milk. But, after an order from the chennai corporation the cattle breeders had to move out of the city hence,those scenes are missing today.

The hotels and tea stalls are ready at the crack of dawn. The visitors to hotels are welcomed with fragrance from incense sticks and nadaswaram concert blaring out from the FM channels.

Auto drivers outside the Railway station make a beeline to "capture" their passengers. Likewise, the passengers going out of city to catch early morning flights or trains would involve in high pitch voice battle with autodrivers over the fares.Sometimes, air travel would look cheaper than autotravel in Chennai. In the whole of India, autodrivers in chennai have earned a bad name because of their fleecing practice.

It i finish this blog without mentioning about temples than I am doing a disservice to the city where I live. The temples in chennai "wake up" around 5.00 a.m. To reach the fully fit status the temple works would start at 4.00 a.m. On either side of the road, which leads to the temple, is decorated with flower shops. Where you find marigold,jasmine, rose kadambham( a mixture ofvarious flowers) and marikozhunthu (a kind of green to enrich the fragrance)

But, there aresome temples theyn normaly wake up at 7.00 a.m. It is depend upon the relationship between the presiding deity and the priest.