Chennai

The rason I haven't blogged for a while is that I have been pretty unwell for the past five or six days. It's been quite frustrating. I really wanted to go to see the temple at Thiruvanemallai, but my body decided it needed to take things easy. The worst thing is that I cannot eat spicy food. Any hint of it results in diarrhoea. So, I've had to work hard to find places where I could order sandwiches with cheese or egg fillings. So, I'm not thrilled.
It's my last afternoon in India. In a few hours I will be on an airplane to Sydney (via Singapore). I spent a somewhat luxurious couple days in Chennai (formerly Madras). A dear friend of mine from Santa Barbara has relatives in Chennai and arranged for me to meet his cousin, Padmini. Padmini lives right in the city's center in a beautiful, spacious colonial style house. She arranged for me to stay in a southern suburb at the guest house of a club. The suburb, Gandhi Nagar, is quite upmarket with wide, treelined roads and many lovely houses and big, new apartment buildings. Nearby is an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). Unlike in all the other places where I stayed centrally amid the frenzy, here in Gandhi Nagar I got to see what it would be like in a neighborhood. Okay, an upper middle class neighborhood. And I found it to be rather pleasant - laidback, tidy, sane.
When Padmini asked what I wanted to do I said, "Well, I've spent the last four weeks sightseeing. I think it's time for me to do some shopping."
So she sent her driver (he works for her full time) to the guest house with instructions to take me to five or six shopping venues. I spent all day yesterday chauffered around in a nice, new airconditioned car to Chennai's classiest shopping places. I had great fun checking out the latest fashions by India's top designers. I'm not fond of the traditional kurta style dresses and tops and was pleased to find a few styles with cuts I liked.
As I got chauffered around I saw a fair amount of Chennai. I was quite surprised to see how modern it is. Many high rise gleaming buildings and shopping centers with stores resembling those in the west. This city definitely shows a rapidly changing India. There are billboards everywhere advertising the latest in technology. Unlike Bangalore, Chennai's infrastructure is pretty decent. The roads are wider and better maintained and the buildings are in pretty good condition. Since I haven't actually walked around the central part I can't say I know Chennai the way I got to know other places I'd been to.
Padmini's driver took me to Marina Beach (her instructions) when I was done with my shopping. This is Chennai's most central beach and it is the biggest beach I've ever seen. Many, many people were around and a line of vendors stretch from the car park to the water selling food and other knick knacks. Quite atmospheric.

Well, I would like to blog about my stay in Pondicherry, but I'll do that when I'm in Australia.
Meanwhile, I'm still a bit shocked that California chose Hillary over Obama.