It's 8am on Monday at the Madras Gymkhana Club Golf course, and the Chennai sun has started beating down. That's my cue to get off the course and head to work; it's also the time when a minor South Korean invasion of the course begins. Some of the city's Korean women expats, most of them covered head-to-toe, tee off under the blazing sun. For them, golfing is the default entertainment option, much like kitty parties for some Indian women.
At last count, Chennai had over 4,000 Korean expats, more than any other Indian city. But as is typical of the city, you will barely notice this cultural influx. It all began 20 years ago with the groundbreaking ceremony of the Hyundai automobile plant at Iruganttukotai. Today, it is one of the company's largest production facilities in the world. In its wake, it has attracted a slew of Korean ancillary units, and a massive Samsung factory, apart from other auto majors. Inevitably, this has developed a unique Indo-Korean relationship that has spilled from commerce to culture. From churches to K-Pop competitions, the Koreans have found ways to turn this into home remarkably, without any ghettoisation.
"It's never easy for first time visitors. The weather and the local cuisine are the biggest challenges," says Kwi Ho Shin, a construction entrepreneur who arrived in Chennai in 1998, when the community was still nascent. "Most Korean families spend about four years in Chennai and it's particularly hard on the menfolk who work long hours and alternate Saturdays." It is here that golf comes to the rescue—it's not unusual for men to spend their Sunday at the golf course, much like their wives do during the week.
The culture-shock is somewhat easy to bear, Shin believes, because of the allure of Chennai's beaches and what he calls ‘soft-hearted locals'. The Korean affinity for beaches has seen most expats opt to stay along South Chennai's coastal strip, from Besant Nagar down the East Coast road. Quite a few of them also stay closer to the Sriperumbudur area, south of Chennai city, where most of the Korean companies are clustered. For daily affairs, they have evolved a system of communication that is a unique a mishmash of Tamil, English and a bit of Korean. "We like how most househelp in Chennai can at least understand elementary English, something we don't find in other cities in India."
The city's Korean restaurants, which began almost as canteens for workers, were the first signs of the influx. I remember my first visit to a Korean restaurant (Arirang in Nungambakkam, which has since closed) in the aughts; it felt like I had parachuted into Korean territory! There were no Indian diners and the piercing stares from the restaurant staff and Korean patrons didn't help. I was left to struggle through the menu—the staff were clearly not used to clueless diners, nor did they feel obligated to help.
Things have changed though. A few months ago, I dined at Young Doo (1st Main Road, Kotturpuram), arguably the city's best Korean restaurant and felt welcome, largely due to a friendlier service crew. The layout is similar to most Korean restaurants in the city and around the world–a maze of private dining spaces and cubicles each with its buzzer to ring for service. The décor is rather modest but everything pales in front of the colourful bibimbap. Like Young Doo, InSeoul (Alwarpet) also offers other iconic Korean dishes like the heamul-pajeon (seafood and green onion pancake) and the gimbap/kimbap (seaweed rice roll), Korea's street favourite.
Dining out every day isn't practical and so there's Seoul Store , a specialty Korean department store with a branch close to the Hyundai factory at Kancheepuram. The local supermarket chain Amma Naana's Chamiers Road outlet also has a decent selection of Korean specialties, making it a ‘go to' store for the city's expats and local gourmands. But nothing represents the city's growing ties with Korea as well as InKo Centre in the city's plush Boat Club neighbourhood. The Centre is a unique initiative supported by large Korean chaebols (family-owned conglomerates) with a presence in the Chennai. It offers Korean language classes and taekwondo lessons but it's the exhibitions and cultural events that are a standout. The centre also provides a platform for Koreaphiles, much like an Alliance Francaise or a Goethe Institut.
My favourite space within the InKo centre is its laidback café. Café Mori is one of the few places in India where you can order a Bingsu–a tall heap of shaved ice with sweet condiments. The café's patbingsu (with red bean paste) is particularly good. There's also Hanji Story, a tiny gift store, which does artistic Korean-style gift wrapping, even for gifts you don't buy at the store (at a price, of course). Sarah Gaeul Ryoo, who runs the café and store, has found several similarities between South Korea and her new home in Chennai. ‘The seafood is great, the people are friendly and I love the close family bonds in the city. I only wish the weather was better.'
In July this year, Chennai hosted the finals of a nationwide K-Pop contest, with 17 teams from across India participating. The singers performed tracks by Korean pop artists like Red Velvet and Ailee, sealing Chennai's place as the unofficial capital of Korea in India.