mylapore. where sri krishna sweets sells the same coffee for ₹20. where mathsya on kutchery road has been serving it for ₹12 since my grandfather’s time.
the brew room in mylapore has exposed brick walls and edison bulbs.
menu says “traditional filter coffee, artisanal preparation.” same steel tumbler and dabara my grandmother uses. same decoction method. costs nine times more because they put it on instagram.
three tables over, two girls in athleisure. just finished their run with sexy pace running club. talking about their “fitness journey” and tagging the cafe location. their ₹8000 nikes are on the chair because the floor isn’t clean enough.
the run clubs thing hit different. 72% of gen z join them to meet people. 20% went on dates with someone they met running. chennai has sexy pace, dream runners, multiple meetups every weekend. this isn’t about fitness. it’s about filling the space where community used to exist naturally.
remember when you’d meet people at street cricket, the temple festival, the neighbourhood store. now you pay ₹500 for a run club membership to make friends while sweating through humidity that hasn’t changed since the british left.
january 07, 2025. margazhi season. went to krishna gana sabha in t nagar.
tickets ₹750. used to be ₹250 five years ago. got there early for sanjay subrahmanyan’s concert. hall was half empty until 6:30. then suddenly packed. everyone dressed perfectly. silk sarees. diamond jewelry.
spent the first 15 minutes watching people take photos. not of the stage. of themselves. their outfits. the decorations. the “margazhi aesthetic.”
sanjay started singing. phones came out. not to record the music. to record themselves watching the music. ig stories with “margazhi vibes” and flower emojis and temple stickers.
woman next to me watched the entire concert through her phone screen. recording. didn’t look at the stage once. didn’t close her eyes during the alapana. just held up her phone for 90 minutes.
left at interval. went to the canteen. ₹80 for idli that used to cost ₹30. ₹60 for coffee that should be ₹20. sign said “sabha saapadu - authentic music season experience.” same idli. same sambhar. different price because someone decided tradition needs a premium. overheard three influencers talking about which sabha has the “best aesthetic” for content. music academy for the architecture. parthasarathy for the heritage feel. narada gana sabha for the “intimate vibe.”
third wave coffee now. opened last october. ₹150 for cappuccino. ₹200 for flat white. always full. everyone on laptops. nobody talking.
wifi password is sticken near the counter. printed in that fake handwriting font. “firstwavethirdwave” - lowercase, no spaces. very aesthetic.
went in once. ordered filter coffee to see if they’d do it properly. they did. ₹140. same taste as the ₹20 one at sri krishna sweets two streets over.
barista had an ipad for orders. asked my name for the cup. told him it’s for here, not takeaway, why do you need my name. he said “it’s our system.” daiii!
my name on a paper cup for coffee i drank there. sitting alone at a table for four. surrounded by people on zoom calls and freelancers on deadline. wifi was excellent though.
now every restaurant is “experiential.” curated. themed. music too loud to talk. menus with stories about ingredients.
asked for plain dosai. they don’t have it. they have “sourdough dosa with heritage rice, served with kuzhambu reduction.” ₹280.
it’s dosai. in chennai. costs more than my grocery budget for three days.
bangalore had this expensive restaurant culture first. we watched. saw instagram posts. thought it looked sophisticated.
now we have it. different names. same exposed concrete. same edison bulbs. same ₹1500+ per person pricing.
difference is bangalore salaries can handle ₹1600 dinners regularly. chennai salaries struggle.
but places price it for the imports. not for locals. imports pay. places stay. locals stop going.
watched it happen to my neighborhood. greenways road in raja annamalaipuram. used to have small restaurants. family-run places. ₹100 meals. now it’s all franchises. mainland china. absolute barbecue. punjabi dhaba chains. ₹800 minimum per person.
i came all the way from amsterdam NOT to taste the chennai version of subway sandwich, but local chennai food.
only local places left are hidden. you need to know they exist. actively seek them out. otherwise you just see the chains.
heritage became hidden in heritage city.gonna end this where it started.
brew room in mylapore charging ₹180 for filter coffee. except it’s not just coffee. it’s the whole thing.
the pricing. the aesthetic. the performance. the optimization. the content. the growth mindset. the imported expectations. the normalized surveillance. the disappeared traditions. the eliminated middle. the eroded identity.
chennai isn’t becoming bangalore because we want to. we’re becoming bangalore because bangalore became the template for indian city success. and success is only measured one way now: growth.
not sustainable growth. not quality growth. not growth that preserves while progressing. just growth. numbers up. valuations up. prices up. pace up. always up.
but some things need to stay level. some things need to stay slow. some things need to stay themselves. we’re losing the ability to distinguish between evolving and eroding.
chennai had something rare. city that was modern and rooted. developed and cultured. growing and grounded.
not anymore.
now we’re just another indian city chasing bangalore’s model. importing their solutions. adopting their problems. becoming what we watched fail there.
they’re at crisis point. water tanker mafia. infrastructure collapse. unlivable costs. we’re watching it happen.
and we’re still copying them.
amidst all, the beach is still there.
early morning, before content creators and before drone wedding pre-shoots and before the optimization.
for now.