CHENNAI CITY GUIDE

CHENNAI CITY GUIDE

Chennai is the state capital of Tamil Nadu and was a centre for trade of spices and clothes which existed for more than two thousand years during the Dutch and the Portuguese who settled in this part of the country during the 16^th Century which was followed by the British and then the French. In the year 1639 the British settled as the British East India Company at a place near Chennai which was primarily into fishing and this place was taken on lease by the British from the Nayaks a local tribe in the southern part of India. Chennai is a conglomerate of several villages and is surrounded by fields into which the British constructed trading factories over them. The Mylapore Port existed even before the Europeans invaded the city during the 7^th century and the Parthsarathi temple bears witness to the city’s ancient times. Colonisation of the city marked the starting of the growth of the city into various financial transactions. Most of the business or corporate houses and organisation have their head office at the George Town and Fort St. George is the control office for the Tamil Nadu Government. The spreads on a total area of 172 square kilometres and is a mix of the old past heritage and contemporary society with its rich princely states type of the construction built during the British era says a lot about its glorious past. The city is highly dominated by the political influence and it has rich Indian culture that can be still felt and is noticeable amongst the local people. During the 19^th century the city was declared as the Madras Presidency of the Southern zone of the British colonisation in India.

Chennai is the state capital of Tamil Nadu and the entry point to the southern part of India. The city is about 368 years old and is the 34^th biggest metropolitan area in the entire world. The city was founded at Fort St. George in the year 1640 AD by an employee of the East India Company named Francis Day. Chennai is a place for commerce and industry and many new investments are further put into the infrastructure of the city due to its ever evolving nature of the city. Chennai has being named as the centre for bein the capital of automobile industry in the country and one cannot fail to reconnect the city with that to the British because of the large impact it has left over the city with its colonial way of structuring the city and also constructing the buildings in the city makes it realise the colonial influence and also the French and the Portuguese. People of Chennai are rich in culture and traditions even though they are highly contemporary in their outlook. Chennai has large spaces of green patch and has beaches all over the city. It has a population of Six Million and it is the fourth largest city as in terms of area spread in India. Chennai is referred to as the Detroit of the South due to its ever increasing rise in the establishment of the automobile industry and is also known as the Silicon City due to the emergence of the IT industry in the city and also because of the software knowledge is far more in numbers as compared with the entire country.

Chennai is an important source of importer of machine tools, garments and sea food primarily because of the presence of the coastline. Leather, chemicals, shipping, conveyors, hydraulics, electronics and jewellery are the other important sources of industries prevalent in the city. Timber clearing and forwarding, packing and hotel industry too does not lag behind and they are also a source of revenue for the state government. IT industry along with textiles, leather and automobile companies have got to know where to invest and thus it has helped Chennai emerge as a city like no other metropolitan city of India.

According to the population census of 2007 it has a total population of seven million with a density of 25.016 per square kilometres. Being at the coastline it has a high level of humidity and experiences a summer temperature that is above 37 degrees and during the winter the minimum temperature is 19 degrees Celsius and hence we can say practically it experiences no winter as compared with the entire country. March to October are the warmest months and November to February are the best season to visit Chennai.

Mostly Hinduism is practiced in the city as along with Christianity and also Islam. Tamil is the most important language and is the local language, even though Telegu, Kannada and Malayalam are also spoken over the city and Hindi is the least spoken language. English is the language for transacting business. People all across the city and the state prefer wearing cotton clothes due to the high temperature which makes it next to impossible to wear clothes other than cotton.

The city of Chennai can be reached by air and the kamaraj Domestic Terminal and the Anna International terminal both located at Tirusulam is seven kilometres south of the city. Egmore railway station is yet another source of transportation and the city is well connected by roads and national Highways and also is included into the golden triangle of the National Highway which connects three major states of the nation. Chennai being located by the sea has a sea link of transport as well and has a very important dock known as the Chennai Harbour and passenger vessels operate from Chennai to neighbouring nations as well as to Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Connemara Public Library is one of the four national Depository libraries and it was constructed in the year 1890 and I also serve as the depository library for the United Nations. It’s a must visit place and should be among the other itinerary of the bucket list while visiting the other places in Chennai. The Chennai Museum is the best among the country and is situated at Egmore and was established in the year 1857, it has areas specially dedicate to geology, archaeology, anthropology and botany. The Fort of St. George, MGR film city, Adyar, Valluvar Kottma, St Thomas Mount, Kalakshetra, Anna Salai and the major attraction is the Marina Beach which draws a huge number of heads after the sunset every day. Around Chennai one can go to Kanchipuram, Malappuram, Tiruvannamalai, Tirumala and Vellore are the places of religious interest and can be reached either by train or by the road transport.