As I am wont to do I meet a lot of people when I travel. So far I've met three Americans living in Chennai. One is a girl who grew up in Knoxville, TN of all places... More on that trio of kids later, I'm sure I'll be seeing them more in Chennai...
I think the important thing for me right is talking about some other Americans I met in the airport who were in Chennai for a whopping 10 whole days (where 2 of those days were spent in Delhi). I felt sad for them because I think they are going away from India with no good travel stories and no real feel for India whatsoever. They of course were staying at a fancy hotel and had a driver the whole time. All they could talk about was how surprised they were to have not gotten diarrhea. Come on, you're in a 5 star hotel. They were staying (in my opinion) in probably the nicest hotel in Chennai, with absolutely some of the best western food around. Notice, that should not be read as "Best-Western" food...
No train, no Tamil, no rickshaws, no watching cricket, not forced to eat shitty food out of a shitty restaurant. All they got were the smells (and sights from a protected point of view). I almost started having pride for Chennai (then I realized how ridiculous that was). What happened was I started defending the fact that Chennai does have some cool stuff, and it's not simply old and beautiful hindu temples. Chennai has a culture, which is clearly not amenable to Americans in large part, but it's unique. The Tamils are very particular about everything. I don't think I'll be able to assimilate to most of their views, but I didn't go to Chennai only expecting to get food poisoning...
So, in some sense, these are the Americans I want to protect Chennai from. I want them to be able to come and see Chennai, but I think it would have been better had they come with open hearts. Open minds are not a challenge. Every mental facility you have will be tested just getting around day to day. But India, as I may have stated before, is a lot about passion. There is just no moderation in anything. The Tamils certainly propitiate that as well.
In the end, I think if you're going to Chennai, don't go with a fighting attitude. You will hate it. Hell, you might even hate it anyway. You might even hate it if you come expecting to love it. That's fine. You can't like everything... But I can't imagine what real benefit this trip has been to these guys.
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