Chennai is rocking! There was a time not so long ago when this city was quiet, laidback and securely rooted in its ancient cultural and social traditions, able therefore to confidently absorb other influences, and to overlook all those that were incompatible. It was tropical, comfortable and the pace of life here was ‘dignified’. Three years on, the metamorphosis that the city has undergone — it’s strange external transformation — leaves one bewildered. Surely there must be a way a city can grow into an energetic, dynamic metropolis without losing its inherent soul and intrinsic cultural values that differentiate one city from the other, making the federal, plural political entity that is India, special and extraordinary.

Why has contemporary India lost it? Why has the steel frame of modern India, the administrative class led by an incompetent political class managed to corrupt centuries-old social systems that had been tried, tested and successful, and replaced them with alien mechanisms that the people of this land have been unable to comprehend?

Today, people want to explore and experience a world outside of the hitherto predictable environment, a world that is technologically motivated, one that is presenting a fresh set of opportunities for the young that are beyond those that families and traditional professions have to offer. The salary benchmark has shifted with the BPO boom. First jobbers in this new generation business draw a salary of twelve thousand and upwards each month. They live at home with their parents, eat free, and have large disposable incomes that have triggered the ‘consumer’ boom.

It’s rocking

Nuclear families do not make as much sense anymore. The young are recognizing the security of having the larger family — in the not-so-distant past abhorred as the joint family — taking care of many personal needs. The ‘family’ has become a comfort blanket for the young professionals, one they can trust their babies with! However, the infrastructure to deal with this rapid transformation is symbolized by general chaos and anarchy, a breakdown of those public facilities that are imperative for positive, rapid growth.

Café Amethyst, a genteel haven for young and old alike, was an oasis, happily removed from the truly maddening streets of the city. The thought of hundreds of Nanos invading our cities, where the existing roads are choked, and where there is no attempt to add more macadamized surfaces, is frightening. At this café you can breathe and be a voyeur, observing the change. Jeans and pedal-pushers, short vests exposing the midriff have replaced the pavada, a version of the ghagra, and sadly, the great saris of this region that have come off the famed looms of Kancheevaram for centuries, have given way to the Punjabi suit.

It is rare to find a truly superb temple sari in the many shops that sell local silks. The colour palette has changed, which is fine, but the design dictionary has collapsed in an attempt to be all things to all people and for all occasions. We are becoming robots, a phenomenon that is reflected in an represented by the dumbing down of our media.

Does this stagnation, this confusion, this lowering of standards evolve from the rather average, run-of-the-mill intellectual level of those men and women who are anointed national heroes by the State and now, by some media companies? Do people, ordinary citizens, often feel compelled to emulate those ‘stars’ because they are the ones singled out and ‘awarded’ honours and accolades? ‘Co-opting’ the fourth estate, and media houses honouring those companies that sponsor their ‘shows’, need no comment. That’s life in ‘rocking’ India, as ominously silent Bharat looks on.