Hot and Happening-Chennai

The sun has set and offices in New York Downtown are beginning to empty out. Robert, a consultant with a head-hunting firm, is checking his email. He looks at the clock on his cellphone: 6.30 pm. He logs off, shuts down his PC and goes to the men’s room. Looking into the mirror, he combs his hair, practises a smile and goes down to the parking lot to get into his car.

You can’t be sure what’s on Rob’s mind as he is driving home, but one thought is most likely to escape him: that most things he can’t do without today come from Chennai. His car, an Elantra, is made in Chennai. The Nokia handset, which told him the time is made in Chennai. The Dell desktop, which he just shut down, is also made in Chennai. So is the Saint-Gobain mirror he looked into moments ago. And the Samsung TV he is going to switch on once he is home — that is also made in Chennai.

Rob isn’t real. He could be a Mike in London or a Peter in Paris. What is real is that he represents the young global Indian who aspires for a good life. He could be someone who never set foot in Chennai and has no links with the city — not even a distant relative — and yet, he has a strong ‘Chennai connection’. Even the lingerie his girlfriend or wife dreams of buying someday, thanks to Fashion TV, is most likely to be made-in-Chennai: one-sixth of the bras sold by Victoria’s Secret are currently manufactured in a factory on the outskirts of the city.

The ‘Chennai connection’ is going to get even stronger as more and more multinational companies descend on the city to set up their plants and back offices. Most of them are already here now: Nokia, Flextronics, Motorola, Hyundai, Samsung, Dell, Caparo, Saint-Gobain, Foxconn, Perlos, Jabil, Salcomp, Laird, Wintek, Ford, Moser Baer, Accenture, IBM, Delphi… The list is as mind-boggling as the line-up of musicians who descend on the city during margazhi, the music season in December.

Consider this: If you are a brand addict or the one who use any of those famous brand (be it any!!), chances are more than 90% that it is or atleast has one of its critical compenents from Chennai.

Welcome to my Chennai!!