I'll race ya

In a wonderful swirl of entertaining cultural fusion, some of my colleagues organized the Chennai 2007 Cinco De Mayo Great Rickshaw Scavenger Challenge. In teams, we had three hours to scour the city of Chennai, deciphering clues and riddles and then gathering photographic evidence (click here for the winning team's entries) of our favorite metro-village's quintessential icons - and our main mode of transportation was the mini-taxi of India, the putt-putt three-wheeled auto-rickshaw (one vehicle per team). Although the challenges may not have been as daunting as braving crocodiles or decorating kolams, every team had a blast racking their brains to remember if it was St. George or St. Thomas who was martyred here (and was that at the cathedral or up on the hill?). Every time we stopped to get a picture of, say, our team posing with stuffed animal vendors and their wares, we cracked up a curious crowd of onlookers and volunteer assistants. In the end, we got a fresh look at our temporary home and learned how good-natured and playful the residents of Chennai can be, whether we were coaxing a bicycle rickshaw driver to lean back and enjoy the ride himself, playing cricket on the beach with local kids, or offering to help a traffic cop direct Chennai's dizzying intersections.