Chennai with a bang

Madhu and her daughter

Easwar, his daughter and his brother-in-law

Sindhu and Preetha

Ajay and Rushil

Meena, Ravi, Preetha, Ajay and Us

Highlights of the Chennai Trip:

1. We stayed at the exclusive Madras Club for one night. Prasad has a friend with a membership and she was able to get us a last minute booking for one night. I was quite impressed with how peaceful and serene the location was. The club is located along a quiet street lined with trees in the Boat Club area. Many of the members walk or run along the CooumRiver, the lawns are well groomed, they have a well maintained pool and their pool side cafe has an extensive Indian and continental menu. Other facilities include a small playground, tennis courts, a game room, a formal dining area with a dress code and they have tried to maintain the same architecture of the buildings over the years. The rooms were spacious and comfortable.


2. We visited my aunt and uncle in Annanagar. We enjoyed her delicious Andhra lunch. My aunt, Sindhu and I stepped out to do some shopping. Sindhu got her ears pierced for the 3rd time a couple of weeks back and she needed a pair of earrings she could wear daily to school. Unfortunately, one ear was infected, the goldsmith was convinced that it was because a gun was used and if he had done it manually himself, her ears would have been fine. Sindhu's ears were pierced in a doctor's office by an ENT, how much more cautious could I have been? Anyway, she picked out a cute pair but I'm worried the stems are a bit thick, they don't have thin stems like the ear rings you can buy in the US but these earrings will likely not fall off either.


3. That evening we had dinner at the Park with Prasad's friends Madhu and Easwar. Madhu's family is very well connected in Chennai and she knows the "who's who of Chennai". She is very helpful and sweet and quite an interesting person to meet and I'll leave it at that.


4. S & R swam in the pool at the club and didn't want to get out, the water was apparently very warm. Although we have a pool at our complex, the water is cold so the kids haven't been in the pool since the summer.


5. On Sunday morning, Meena, Ravi, Preetha and Ajay joined us at the Madras Club for breakfast and lunch. Sindhu and Rushil had a ball playing with their friends, it was like they were never apart. Meena and I made a quick run to Kalpadruma across from Chola Sheraton, a store similar to Fab India but even better. I bought a few printed cotton fabric pieces with which I'm planning to tailor kurti tops for Sindhu, let's see when I get around to this project. Kalpadruma sells cotton fabrics that are vegetable dyed, ready-made clothing for adults and children, linens and they have a handicraft center all for fairly reasonable prices. It was great to catch up with Meena and nice to see she hasn't changed. She brought over a suitcase full of bottled water from the US so they could drink it at their village during her father-in-law's 60th birthday celebrations. She was worried they would not be able to boil any water at the village given how hectic their schedule was and Meena doesn't trust the bottled water in India so buying it here was not an option. I had a good laugh although she did have a point about the bottled water being of questionable quality in India, we all did see SlumDog Millionaire.


6. Ride to and from Chennai with TK, it was great to have the company. Somehow we always estimate that Chennai is only a 4 hour drive away but the drive is actually 6 + hours long. The weather wasn't too bad in Chennai, we slipped in before the heatwave started, it was hot in the afternoons but pleasant in the mornings and late afternoon. The weather seemed to have suited Rushil's skin. His skin is now healing from all the boils last week and he's doing much better now, let's see if it lasts.