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It was a far too early and, as usual, far too hot a morning in August. For the very first time in my already four-week-long stay in Chennai I was sitting in a four-wheeled vehicle (commonly known as a car) and was looking forward to finally seeing the oorani project in the village of Edaiyur which I had already heard and written so much about. But I didn't know then that the unknown landscapes, villages and ponds were not the only things I would make an acquaintance with that day.

When we stopped in front of the international hostel at the Anna University campus, I saw a white (!) girl coming towards our car. And although I was still very sleepy and her face also was obviously marked by a far too short a night, I immediately recognised her as a German. The moment she had taken her seat next to mine we started chatting which, to be honest, hasn't stopped until today…She is bubbly, enthusiastic and full of laughter and fun.

Of course, it may be a coincidence. But from the day I met her, our experiences with India changed from strange, interesting and fascinating into simply unbelievable.

Cornelia - that's the girl I am talking about - arrived in Chennai one week after me, on July 22, and has since then worked and lived at Anna University where she is desperately trying to do some research work on the filter capacities of sand taken from the Adyar river in Chennai.

As she needs the results of her project for her studies of Tropical Water Resource Management at the University of Suderburg (north Germany), Cornelia was a little bit shocked when she realised that the work, which in Europe can easily be completed within two weeks, might take her two months in India. "The bureaucracy in this country is so tricky and complicated that only the purchase of the pumps, water containers and mountings that I need for my surveys took me three weeks!"

Sometimes, it even seems to her that some of her colleagues at the Centre of Environmental Studies (CES) don't respect her work and simply ignore her demands when she needs equipment or just some specialist information.

"The Indians' favorite answer to my requests seems to be, 'Yes. Tomorrow.' Maybe it's because I'm a foreigner, maybe because I'm only a 27-year-old student, maybe because I'm a woman - I simply can't get the hang of it!"

Thus, an ordinary day in the office and the lab at CES mainly means discussing an apparently endless number of problems with the director, her colleagues and some tradesmen (whose names she is now finally able not only to remember but even pronounce properly!), with reading thick geological books, drawing sketches of the equipment's construction and analysing sand samples from the rivers in Tamil Nadu in the lab.

"The only thing that really worries me is that I still don't have a clear idea about the aim of my investigation. I prefer to do work which is obviously and directly linked with a real problem. I would like to contribute to finding a solution to this problem instead of analysing something which many people have already analysed before me and for more than enough times."

However, Cornelia is far from being desperate. Only very rarely she asks her boss, Dirk Walter, for help when she feels that she definitely cannot get further with her project because somebody refuses to give her the necessary help. Usually, she simply faces every difficult situation with a disarmingly confident smile and laughs about the "tomorrow" which in India never seems to come.

"I don't think that it makes sense to prove one's authority by arguing or screaming at people. I prefer to stay calm and my experience shows that the respect you gain by calmness and understanding is worth much more than the authority which is based on the fear of your colleagues."

And thus, even if she probably won't be able to finish her project to her full satisfaction, Cornelia's mind will surely be full of lovely experiences, impressions and memories of Chennai and its charming people.

Because, as soon as she finishes discussing the problems of the day with her chief, she is immediately surrounded by people and the CES building echoes with animated talking and hearty, loud laughter. Especially when it's close to 1 o'clock which means - lunchtime! Then a group of five or six youngsters starts heading for the canteen and while her friends pamper her by taking care of her beloved parotta, dosai and sathukudi or watermelon juice, Cornelia's only task is to fight tooth and nail for finding seats for all of them.

Their joint lunches are one of the highlights on every day of her life in Chennai. Not only because of the great Indian food which for a vegetarian like her (who in Europe always desperately has to search for a meatless dish in a restaurant) offers almost endless possibilities but also because of the chaotic, friendly and open atmosphere in the canteen where there are many people who seem to be very curious about the "new white girl".

"Most of them are too shy to simply come and talk to me. But even if they only look at me and give me a big, friendly smile, it makes me happy!"

Cornelia has realised that the Indian way of getting to know people is different than in Europe and that especially the men needed some time to get used to her very open and direct nature. However, she has not only accepted this fact, she even enjoys it by now. "Yes, it's true that the mentality of the Indian people is very different, but it's definitely not worse than other cultures' way of living. It depends on you: if you are able to build up a friendship with people who come from a different culture than your own." And the girl knows very well what she is talking about.

Although she was born in Tuebingen in the south of Germany, her motherland is still a country which she doesn't know very much about. Due to her father's profession as a GTZ-expert (German Technical Cooperation Association), Cornelia has spent her childhood and youth in countries like Saudi Arabia, Botswana and Zambia and then she decided to study geology and environmental change in Liverpool, Great Britain.

Only since 2002 has she lived in Germany, working in a hospital and clinic specialising in eye diseases and in research into sleep. When Cornelia talks about this time of her life her eyes start shining: For hours she did nothing but look into people's eyes, watching their movements and making sure they don't fall asleep.

Actually, she had even once thought about studying medicine, but finally her interest in different countries and especially the scenic and climatic characteristics and problems in tropical regions overcame her and she decided to become a geologist and environmentalist.

"I dream of examining the El Nino and La Nina! Both phenomena have an unbelievably decisive influence on the weather conditions not only in the tropical areas but my suspicion is that they are also the reason for the big floods in Europe (which have occurred unusually often during the last five years)."

And if she was able to predict the course of the climatic change, it would be of great help for farmers in India, Africa or South America, for example. Apart from geology, climatic research and medicine, this is another of Cornelia's addictions.

Even before her trip to Cuba last year, she had had a weakness for everything concerning the continent of the carnival, the Andes and the famous cigars. Actually, Cornelia seems to know more about the South American culture, history and politics than anybody else I know. And not only her beloved Che Guevara T-shirt is proof of that, her little apartment at Anna University overflows with books about Cuban and Chelonian history and of music played by Latin American peace campaigners like Victor Jara.

And when Julio Chavez recently won the elections in Venezuela, this was the very first thing Cornelia informed me about when I once visited her in her apartment.

After we had spent whole nights on discussing political events and attitudes, I asked her why she hadn't decided to study politics instead of geology. "That was a really hard decision for me. But then I remembered that I'm a Communist and that thus I would never be able to put my ideas and ideologies into practice!" But she will definitely never lose interest in the political events of our planet and she will always be in a fever of excitement when the people in any part of the world rise up against an arbitrary and unjust government.

A geologist, a doctor, a politic, a globetrotter - Cornelia seems to be unable to decide on what is most important for her among all these things. But she doesn't care. "I've got more than 1.000.000 interests," she says and gives me a bright smile. "I think that's because, in my opinion, you can find something beautiful and interesting in everything you do. All there is to do is to try everything at least once and to search for these interesting and beautiful aspects in it. The worst thing for me is when people stick to what they think they have learnt and then don't dare to try something new because they are afraid to fail."

Consequently, Cornelia wants to gain as much experience as possible - In her life, in general, as well as in Chennai.

When she first heard that she was supposed to do her compulsory internship in Chennai, she was not at all pleased. She would have preferred Cuba or an African country - Asia seemed to be just too different from everything she knew. But soon her opinion towards India changed: "Yes it was, and is still is, strange! Very strange, but this is what makes this country so exciting, so interesting for me!"

Now she enjoys the streets in Chennai which usually people describe as terribly crowded and far too noisy, because she "just loves this chaos everywhere. The people, the autorickshaws, the lights and the music - all these things together are just fascinating!"

However, when I tried to convince her to go by bus and by train (which is cheaper and besides also can be very exciting for non-Indian people) instead of taking the autorickshaw everyday she admitted that she sometimes is "just a little bit too lazy…" 

It may be true that Cornelia normally likes her comforts when driving through the streets of Chennai. But if she gets an idea into her head nothing and nobody can persuade her to drop her plan. 

Once after we had been swimming (or rather: playing…) in the swimming pool at Anna University for one-and-a-half hours and thus were almost starving, we started dreaming about once having an ordinary "German dinner" instead of our usual favorites dosai, chappatti or parotta. So, we went to Adyar and bought cheddar cheese, butter, milk, curd and a paneer dish (we simply couldn't resist some Indian food…) and then rushed back to Anna University to prepare our lovely dinner. Unfortunately, we had to face the terrible fact that our bread had gone bad because we had forgotten to put it into the fridge (which means: in front of the AC).

Hungry and desperately longing for a slice of simple bread, Cornelia looked at her watch: "Ok, it is 8:40 now. The shops close at nine… We still can make it!" As fast as our slippers allowed we ran to the side gate of the campus, jumped into an auto (even I didn't insist on taking the bus this time) and told the driver to bring us to a supermarket (where we knew that we would find some whole wheat bread) as fast as possible. And although our driver did a really good job we stood in front of closed doors when we arrived at the shop.

Not willing to give up so early, we remembered another supermarket which maybe would still be open. This time we didn't want our shoes to hamper us in arriving there and so we slipped out of them before we climbed over a wall and started running through the crowded streets of Adyar. It was the first time that we didn't even realise how the people stared at us - two (probably mad?!) white girls running barefoot and laughing through Chennai at night… what a strange world!

We almost fainted when the vendor at the shop told us innocently that, "Sorry", they don't sell bread at all. But then, finally, in the third supermarket, at five minutes after nine, we discovered what we were looking for and proudly drove back home with a packet of the (considering all the auto charges) probably the most expensive whole wheat bread we have ever eaten in our life.

As a compensation of our efforts, we prepared an almost perfect candle-light-dinner (only that, because of the fan, we didn't have any candles - but who would care about that at such a glorious moment?) which lasted until 2 o'clock at night.

This experience was not the first time when I realised that time spent with Cornelia will definitely never be boring. Even our trip to Mamallapuram, which actually had been planned to be a relaxing weekend holiday with visiting the temples, swimming in the sea and walking on the beach, developed into a one of the most unbelievable experiences in Chennai so far - both for Cornelia and me.

Of course, our trip included all the things we had planned to do, but we had never imagined that besides we would also go to the sea with some fishermen, be invited for a chappati-dinner by a local family - and finally that we would return to Chennai not by bus, but in an expensive-looking A/C car with the director of a model agency in Chennai. The man had been searching for white models to make pictures for a London fashion catalogue and by chance had found us in Mamallapuram.

Thus, during the following week we spent two evenings standing in front of the camera, changing make-ups, hairstyles and clothes more often than ever before and, at the same time, trying to learn something about "posing" and "body language". However, Cornelia was unable to stay serious when she stood in the spotlight. Fortunately, after some time, even the professional Indian models, who were typical unsmiling models, not only accepted but even joint us in our chats and laughter so that the two nights of "working" passed in a flash.

This is how Cornelia, the Communist, became a model for a fashion catalogue in London - a career which, according to her, will definitely not last for a long time. "It was a really great experience, but it was definitely a single one as well. My work at the CES has top priority for me and I'm looking forward to get on with my project - as soon as possible," she adds with a naughty smile.

Apart from this, there are still many things Cornelia wants to see and do in and around Chennai, including a visit to Pondicherry and going to the theatre to see a Tamil movie. Of course, the girl knows that she won't be able to understand a single word. "Tamil is a closed book for me. It is completely different from all the languages I know and unfortunately I won't have the time to learn it properly in the three months of my stay in Chennai."

Some words she has nevertheless learned so far, like 'Vanakkam', 'Nanri' and 'Podhum', because she wants to show people that she may not know their language but "at least I want to express my thanks and greet them properly to convey my respect for their culture".

She finds it a little bit sad that she cannot talk fluently with all the people she meets because many of them understand and speak only a little English. This was a surprise for Cornelia who, before her journey, had read that English is one of the official languages of India.

"I was surprised by so many things in this city! For example, initially, I was afraid of falling into one of the holes which sometimes appear in the sidewalks all of a sudden… Now I also understand why the people prefer to walk on the streets along with all the cars, autos and motorbikes - it is simply safer!" As usually, Cornelia cannot suppress her infectious laughter: "That's Chennai!"

But what will she do after Chennai? Is there anything to do which can be more exciting than India?

"I have to see Cuba once again and I want to visit it next year during the carnival! But, first of all, although it my sound boring to some people, I finally want to learn more about my home country and this is why I will do my Ph.D. in Germany. But maybe I'll soon change my mind about these plans again…"

Yes. Who knows? Probably even "tomorrow".

Ania Zymelka

(Ania, born in Poland, now lives in north Germany with her family. She has just completed her schooling and is waiting to go to university. In the meantime, she decided she would also visit a country and learn about it. She will be exploring the economic, political, cultural, social and other links that Chennai has with Germany during her three-month stint in Chennaionline. Ed)