It's not easy being a vegetarian! Ask them for a fried bird, a baked animal, a marinated limb...a breast in sauce and they'll promptly get it. Ask them for "something vegetarian" and they'll first serve you a look of surprise, then a look of "uh, now we have to figure something out specially for this one" and then... pity because they know whatever they have managed to throw on your plate isn't even appetizing to them... leave alone your vegetarian taste buds!

No surprise then, that I was very excited when we decided to take the show to Chennai, where I'm told a vegetarian has enough to choose from. I love south Indian food! Its another matter altogether, that my description of south Indian food begins and ends at dosas. Anyhow... I was excited.

There are things I knew about this city, even before this travel. I'd stopped over several times in (the then Madras) on our way from Port blair to Delhi. My only recollection of Chennai was getting off at the airport and heading to the train station to board a train to Hazrat Nizamuddin. And part of that trip, was this one unforgettable riksha ride where the rishawala made mum, dad and me all get off and pull the riksha up the slope when he couldn't manage alone! In hindsight, that was his subtle way of saying "You fat cows... heard of a diet, ever"!"

We went to Chennai with the idea of doing a show about the massive He-She divide that is an inherent part of the city. Something I'm told that comes in at the very grass root level, schools and colleges. Lets not even get started on the whole "denims and t-shirts are not allowed" bit. The thing that amused me , was that certain colleges have separate water coolers for boy and girls. What amused me further, was that of the lot we met, many students disliked the idea (well, can u blame 'em!) however didn't dislike it enough to react to it. "I just have to deal with it while I'm here, and then I'm back to kochi once I'm done with college," said a guy called Abhishek Mehra on camera... when I asked him about the gender divide and how it makes him feel.

Colleges aside, wWe went looking then, (and this is the part that this show is really about), for people who're managing to live within this society...without having to give up on what they think is right or wrong. Is it easy"! "Not really," said Nanditha, the by now famous lead singer of the Band NO IDEA. I don't know what made her a household name... the music or her live in relationship. Because quite frankly, more seemed to know about the fact that she lived in with a guy for years together, than they would about the fact that her band has been a winner at the Great Indian rock band fest. And that is what made her so interesting. The fact that she hasn't stopped living because her neighbors would make faces and pass comments. And that's when we realized the youth of Chennai was out to make it big...

So weather it was Sunita, the female bar tender who's learning the skill despite the fact that almost no bar in Chennai will hire a female bar tender, or Alisha...the female biker who's continuing to race despite the lack of sponsors.... We were all excited about the show... because it managed to take us beyond what we went looking for... the gender divide.

A quick lesson in bharatnatyam and a filter coffee later..we had some stuff we could say with conviction.

Does the gender divide... yes!

Does it really matter"" Well, to someone who has that go getter attitude...how can it really"!

They're too preoccupied making dreams come true!

P! ;)