Vivacious Chennai: Abiding love for an imperfect city

I love Chennai. ‘Impossible!’ my relatives and friends in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram exclaim. ‘How can you? What is wrong with you? The humidity would kill me before the mosquitoes do,’ says one. ‘You can’t walk on its pavements for there aren’t any!’ says another. Rubble, building debris, wires, cables, vendors and their wares occupy every square foot of footpath space in my city, I am told.

Adds a third : ‘And motorcycles… they are everywhere, swarming the road like they own it, criss-crossing at will through lanes of traffic, flying through the narrowest space between your car and the one in front, inviting headlong crashes, and if your vehicle as much as touches them, god help you. You are the culprit. Worse, they park at will, right in front of shops, leaving zilch space for pedestrians who have to squeeze through the two-wheeled self-willed ravagers.’