Getting To Know - Chennai
Moving around in Chennai
Geography
Chennai is located near the 13th north parallel and 80 degree longitude. The city stretchesits 19 km length along the Coromandel coast and extends inland about 9 km at its widest.Its irregular shape covers about 172 sq km. It is a fairly low-lying strip of land, its highest point being only 60 m above sea level.Chennai is trisected by two east-flowing rivers that traverse its width. The Cooum river almost divides the city into half and the Adyar river divides the southern half of the cityinto two. The historic buckingham canal runs nearly parallel to the coast almost throughthe entire length of the city.The city has somewhat ungenerously described as having three seasons - hot, hotter andhottest. Indeed, except for four pleasant months, November to February, the weather isuniformly hot and humid.... May is the hottest season with the mercury sometimestouching 42 C and the mean temperature about 33 C. December and January are thecoolest months with a mean temperature of 24 C. Howerver, the cool sea breeze (whichsets in shortly after 3 PM daily) makes even the warmest of evenings bearable. Butventuring out in between noon and 3 PM during April-August is best avoided.The Chennai monsoon is from October to mid-December - and in a good year (from the point of view of water-short citizens) the rain on some days during this period can bequite heavy.
General Information
Chennai, (formerly Madras) the first city of Tamil Nadu, is a comparatively new city. Theerstwhile villages of Mylapore, Triplicane, Ezhambur (Egmore) etc. all now a part of Chennai, have a recorded historical past centuries older than Chennai. Chennai, the present gateway to the South of India, is itself, however, only about 350 years old.."Madrassis are zealous gaurdians of Tamil culture which they regard as inherentlysuperior to the hybridized cultures further north. They have, for instance, been among themost vociferous opponents of Hindi being made the national language, and Chennai is thefilm Center of tamil Nadu - even the State
Chief Minister, Jayalalita*, is an ex-moviestar."
-
Created For AIESEC, Chennai
2
Leave a Comment