CHENNAI - City that stays special forever in my Heart!!

Chennaiiii.. One of the most loved cities in India. Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. This city stole my heart and became my second home. It gives me freedom, peace, and time for myself.

My Love story with this city started back in April 2015. Until before 2015, to me, Tamil Nadu means Rajnikanth sir and Suriya. But from then, it's different.

I don't say I instantly fell in love with this city. It took me some time but not longer than I expected. I came here for my studies, so I went to the institute and the hostel.

It all started here. It was my first ever time staying in a hostel, it was all new and I'm not all happy. Just felt to go back, but then I couldn't. So I started to cry and then my friend called me and convinced me. Trust me, that was the only day I cried in the hostel. I felt to accept it and started going ahead with my things.

There was only one girl along with me that day, and she had been really sweet. She gave me some time to get over my sadness. She was friendly, so I felt good. Then the next day, the rest girls arrived and it all went well.

My roommates were extremely kind, sweet, helpful, and lovely whatnot. They are my first-ever hostel mates, and they remain so special to me. My stay there was for a short time. But during that short span, I had the best moments.

My studies were going fine, getting up early in the mornings, attending classes, hostel, eating, studying, and sleeping. Two of my classmates are from the same hostel, but in different rooms.

One lucky day because of my classmate, I went to her room and then found a girl interesting. Like it was our first meeting, but our views on different topics were matching and instantly felt good.

Then there came a day when I fell sick. My new friend got to know that I was sick and came in to check on me after her office. She then went out, got me medicine and food, and took care of me so well that I didn't expect it at all.

Then there was one day when she was upset because of few people, and I couldn't see her crying. I cheered her up. We understood that we got a good bond, but it got stronger one day when we went to the park along with others.

Later we two felt like going to Marina beach, and there that day, our bond got more robust. There is no looking back from then. We have been best friends now for seven years, and the bond got only stronger during these years. We went out, had fun, ate together, watched movies together, everything almost most of the time we were with each other.

Although we are this close yet, we stayed in different rooms, just that I couldn't leave my sweetest roommates. So here, this hostel gave me memories for a lifetime. I never knew or thought that hostel mates could become these great friends.

Days went on and there came August. This month gave me some beautiful memories that I cherish forever.

I happened to leave Chennai in October 2015. Though my stay was short, I had the most fabulous time with the sweetest people and created memories that last forever.

Marina Beach is my favorite spot. It gives me peace, happiness, and clarity to my thoughts. Even whenever I feel low, I visit this place which offers me that solitude.

Although the hostel isn't great, I prefer to stay there whenever I come to Chennai. It's special because of the friends, good memories and freedom.

I longed to come back to Chennai, but it didn't happen until July 2018. Although I came to Chennai in July, my actual fun days started only from August.

This time it was totally different. I don't have many friends to have fun at the hostel. But I'm glad as I got time for myself. I explored myself, trying to understand what I want, what I'm interested in learning, and more. I'm too grateful for 2018, personally.

I began to roam out in Chennai, and then I got in touch with an old friend. We met, and we started to roam together and created beautiful memories from then. Once, we found a fantastic ice cream parlor, which instantly became my favorite (Bombaysthan)

I got to learn Tamil better this time because of my office people. Almost everyone is from Tamil Nadu, so I got a great time listening, learning, and understanding the language.

I cannot end this article without mentioning two things. The first thing is about the Auto drivers here. I tried my basic Tamil speaking skills with them. I tried to communicate and somehow they tried to understand and helped me. I will forever remember that.

Coming to the second thing, even before coming to Chennai and even after staying here for a while, I heard many people mentioning Tamil Nadu people are not friendly and helpful to outside state people and speak in Tamil wantedly.

But I wanna say it's absolutely false. I had been staying here for a couple of years. I come back to Chennai again and again just because I love this city and the people.

I haven't had any bad experiences to date. Not even once. People were kind and helpful. You don't believe they be very friendly and even if they don't know English much by chance, still they try to help other state people. It's not like they speak only in Tamil.

But I like the way they respect their mother tongue, Tamil. In fact, I find the Tamil language very sweet. I will always have a special love for Tamil and the Tamil Nadu people.

Initially and even to date, I try to improve my Tamil just because of the actor SURIYA. I'm a huge fan of him. That's my main reason for learning and loving the Tamil language, but it felt better and sweeter as I started to love the language.

Also, I like the way these people protect their traditions and try to maintain and follow the traditions no matter how fast the city culture grows.

I keep coming back again and again. I stayed here in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, and now 2022. I have stayed close to 7 months and less than that each time in almost all these years. So you can understand how much I love Chennai and Tamil Nadu.

Some of the best places to have fun here are Marina beach, VGP, Dakshina Chitra, Malls like Express Avenue, Phoenix, Forum Mall, and City Centre. Other places to watch are Besant Nagar Beach, Vadapalani Murugan Temple, Kapaleswar Temple in Mylapore, Iskcon, Twisty Tales, etc.

I'm glad I got to explore some of the places around, like Kanchipuram, Pondicherry, Kalpakkam, Thanjavur, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Pichavaram, and Chidambaram.

You can visit places like Mahabalipuram, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Pollachi, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Coonoor, Madurai, Trichy, Rameswaram and Kanyakumari. I hope I get to visit these soon.

This is my love story with Chennai. If you feel I'm biased, I'm not but maybe a little because of the love, peace, and happiness I got from this city and its amazing people. My major issues with this city were food and then temperature. Especially the summers...goddd.. just terrible I say.

With movies and IPL (CSK), you must have understood the love of Tamil Nadu people. Just Wow. Right?!! Glad I got some of the nicest friends from here.

Love Chennai. Live Chennai. Namma Chennai. Haha. Whistle podu.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you love it and got connected to it, share your love in the comments.