if you ever have to find a city with long beaches, ancient temples, legendary churches, magnificent mosques, marvelous monuments and good hearted hospitable people - Come to Chennai you will find that all.
You will always find good people at Chennai but how do you communicate or start the conversation with people. Language is a barrier in India, we speak more than 500 languages. But that should not stop you from feeling the hospitality of Chennai. For someone who looks to spend some time we have mentioned few colloquial words / sentences to get closer to Chennai and its People.
Anna Eppudi Irukeenga?: Brother, How are you
The moment you disembark from Chennai Airport you will have to find a Taxi or Tuk-Tuk (Auto) to proceed to your hotel or to continue your journey. But, how do you connect with the taxi driver. The moment you ask "Anna Eppudi Irukeenga" the driver would start connecting with you and he would be ready to assist you for a last mile.
There is a wrong notion spreading about to be careful about taxi and auto drivers in Chennai, but that's a misconception. Generally Auto and Taxi have higher helping tendencies compared to other people. Think of a period before the advent of google maps, only the taxi and auto drivers used to tell us the address. Even now, when the google map fails, auto and taxi drivers would come to our rescue.
Anna Sowkiyama?: Brother, hope you are well
You could use this term like "How are you", but this could be used when you meet the person for the second time. You would establish a more personal connect with the person.
Nandri Anna: Thanks Brother
Well, Thanks / Thank you would be the most used word if you are a positive person, otherwise one would use sorry more than thank you. Well try to end all your conversation with Nandri (thanks) / Mikka Nandri (thanks very much)
Sago: Short name of Brother (Bro)
Well Sago is an alternative word for Anna, though its not used very much like Anna. it is catching trend now to call a male gender as Sago.
Akka : Sister
If you notice above we were only addressing the masculine genders. One would address the female person as Akka. Akka Eppudi Irukeenga, Akka Sowkiyama, Nandri Akka.
Ayya : Elder Person
You could encounter elder male person on your journey to Chennai, you should them Ayya. it is equivalent to "Sir" in some context but also a respectful word used to address the elder persons.
By now, you should have realized that we are addressing people as brother / sister and not sir/madam. The very reason we address everyone as brother and sister speaks about our tradition, culture and hospitality of Chennai. Humans are social animal, let the social quotient in each one of us spread out its wings
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