Visible but invisible - Festivity, Fun and Frolic Season in Tamilnadu

Tamilnadu and Winter Season – festive mood around!
Some cynics will say, let the winter season actually come to Tamilnadu…ignore them, am referring to the generic time of Nov, Dec and Jan – when it houses the traditional winter month of “MARGAZHI”…Chennai and Tamilnadu wears a distinctive face and becomes a complete festive cauldron, which no other city in the world has.
You do have carnival in Rio De Janeiro, Glastonbury festival, Christmas season and celebrations in every city in the world, and the boat race season of Kerala…but not anywhere at the scale and variety as in Chennai and in Tamilnadu, and for catering to different aspects of people moods.
It is a pity the tourism ministry or cultural ministry or the tweeting ministry of internal 'external affairs ministry' affairs (ahem...) takes no care…maybe because of the usual biasness all has towards anything Tamil or Tamilnadu or Chennai! But it is sad even the culturals ambassadors, fiats, marutis and hyundais of Chennai fail to recognize, and promote this.
Anyway, laments apart, let me make a laundry list of camaraderie items…
GOLU
Actually, the camaraderie in Tamilnadu starts right in month of October with the GOLU season. It is in this Tamilnadu, where people are ok to live like they live on the earth …30% moving space, 70% water – except that here, instead of water, it is all Golu Padikkatu and Golu Bommai. While Dashara is celebrated, with Devi Pujas in all the other states of India, it is only here in Tamilnadu, where one gets sundal and gets to see the creativity at its best (and sometimes worst) in almost each and every household with decorated dolls
Deepavali
Of course, this is a national festival, and the festive mood prevails in TN as well. But what follows is…

Karthigai Deepam
The Deepam day dots almost every household with beautiful diyas; it is a sight to watch

All these serve as a prelude to the stream of cultural events to an otherwise boring, chilly Margazhi month (mostly mid-December to early-Jan)
Cutchery Season

Much has been written about the uniqueness of 25 day long carnatic music season, where a huge congregation of musical talent present their musical prowess to every nook and corner of Chennai. Can any other city, boast of any such unique musical event?
Chennai Open
Sports is not left far behind…Chennai Open Tennis happens during this time. Home to many Davis Cup players like Amritraj Family and Krishnan family, it is a unique event of Chennai where many foreign players participate. It is one of the reputed sporting events of India

Pongal Cricket
This used to be another traditional fare until about a decade back…no one knows why less and less International Cricket Matches, that too played by India, is being hosted at the Stadium, which has distinctly earned the laurels of many country players alike. Never one would see such a sporting crowd, who would applaud a true cricket game regardless of the country excelling in it. No trampoline pitches like KOTLA, nor unruly crowd like EDEN, where hooligans hide behind the name of fanatics...But no one knows why no more matches anymore, and no one seems to care too, including the “Mountroad Mahavishnu”, the BCCI Selector Chief and the IPL T20 team owner(also BCCI secretary, in a very powerful position)…but the tradition had it, Chepauk stadium will necessarily host a test cricket match during the Pongal season – mid January. It used to be as much a tradition as a Boxing Day match in Australia!!!
BAPASI Book Fair
This is another traditional fare of Chennai. After having the food for ears, with beautiful lilting carnatic music, it is time soothe your reading senses…the BAPASI Book Fair is an annual affair, with so many bookstalls. The crowd to this year’s bookfair is a proof of people’s love for books in Tamilnadu, which has always nurtured the literati. No TV, no internet could keep people away from books
Jallikattu
The bull-fighting feat of Tamilnadu is no less than the bull-fighting feat of Spain. In fact, the Jallikattu (bull-fighting) takes a very humane approach, and with care for animals (Thanks to Government intervention), this courageous sport happens during the Pongal season – early Jan to mid Jan timeframe – in Tamilnadu
Sangamam
Thanks to Kanimozhi….despite her political intonations and her political opposers’ chidings, she has managed to bring the folklore of Tamilnadu back into the hearts of Tamil people… all Tamil folk dances, theater (koothu, poikaalkuthirai) and traditional Tamil music in the form of 7-day event, staged at the public assembly points is a huge boost to otherwise disappearing Tamil culture
And for gluttons like me…
The other good side of Sangamam is to make available in street corners many specialty Tamil dishes….while the carnatic music festivals in sabhas, have canteens to present traditional Brahmin fare, otherwise available to you only in Marriages or other big functions.
So, there you go – feast for your eyes, ears and mouth. Add to this, stimulation to intellectual senses, and to the sporting buffs…everything culminates Post-Pongal with the...
Republic Day Parade and Tradefair
This is yet another feature of Tamilnadu, which is topped only by the Republic Day Parade at New Delhi. In Tamilnadu, the parade happens in the beach road. The various “alangaara oorthigal” – decorated vehicle floats – showcasing several schemes of Tamilnadu, go and get

parked at the Tradefair at Island Grounds. This tradefair continues almost till March-end.

There you go…so much fodder and so much cultural, sports and intellectual extravaganza!

Unfortunately, not being promoted internationally, or even nationally…
I sure would feel proud to showcase my tamilnadu’s specialty through any ruling party, despite them stealing the credit for the entire season…the idea is the word should spread around!
And what a traditional season of stress-busting in Tamilnadu!

[Am posting the actual draft in my blog and as a guest post in my wife’s blog, and as a request post in a couple of blogs like idlyvadai, my friend chakra's blog, dubukku's blog etc...for people to read…and spread the word about Tamilnadu...as is being said by people it is not a "NOT HAPPENING PLACE" but the "most HAPPENING PLACE"]

Foodies Lane of Chennai that starts at Mahatma Gandhi and ends at Uttamar Gandhi

This particular stretch I am talking about in Chennai, actually consists of 3 roads; Starting at Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai starts at Mahatma Gandhi Statue, passes through Cathedral Road and goes all the way under the flyover, into Uttamar Gandhi Salai (better known as Nungambakkam High Road) and bangs into Nungai Amman Koil!

Borrowing Mountroad Mahavishnu’s clichéd lines – this is a stretch, with a taste of almost every cuisine to suit most of the budget ranges, and tickle the taste buds of veggies and non-veggies alike (this particular part of the sentence from the previous comma, till the start of in-note, is dedicated to the reluctant cliché-gourmet Shonali Muthalaly).

Let us start and list down:

Gandhi Beach – Beach eateries and Sagar Resturant
On the Southern Side
Radhakrishnan Salai
Manhattan Square (or something like that) – till sometime back Hotel Palimar had a counter, not sure if it is still there; don’t know about the taste of food here though
Chennai CitiCenter and its
Food Court housing
Hotel Sangeetha (and their lipsmacking sambar vadais),
Subway
Pizza Corner (or Hut?)
Gangothri
Good fruit and smoothie shop
Gelato (GOddamnly expensive but heavenly tasting ice cream shop)
Lavazza/Barista
Little Italy (and their amazing pastas)
Chinese food shop (sorry forgot their name)
Halal Shop (again forgot their name)
Desi Mane by Sangeetha
Level 4 - A Roof top restaurant
KFC
Hotel President
Café Ashvita
, then further down the road, after next signal,
Beijing Blues (closed shop soon)
Anjappar
Pizza Hut
Komalas (but not there now I think)
Saravana Bhavan
Rasam (Krishna Sweets Kongu Style restaurant inside Sabari’s Nest)
Bombay Talkies (north Indian food items)
Enter Cathedral Road
Palki – north indian specialty
Amravati – Andhra food (full meals is awedome)
Coconut Lagoon - Kerala style restaurant (inside Palki)
Snowfield - AN Icecream parlour (inside Palki compound)
Hotel S
Hotel Chola Sheraton
Peshawri
Durrant Bar
Shirdi Quick Bites
Woodlands drive-in (boo hoo what a place to lose…)
Under Gemini Flyover and into NH Road…
Hotel Palimar
The Park
Hotel Ranjith (and the bar;-)))
Hotel Taj Coromandel
Hotel Ganpat
Aiwo - Northern Spicy
Cakes & Bakes
Pizza Corner
Seetharamas (is it still there?)
Cholayil Sanjeevanam - nature food keralan style
ChicKing
Turning at the Northern Side
NH Road
Hotel Sangeetha
Arjun- inside Hotel Gautham Manor
Canton - as the name suggests, chinese one
Little Italy (inside El Dorado complex)
The Dhabba Express [inside El dorado]
Rangis - hotel in that Airtel office building, good taste
Ispahani Center and myriad of outlets including
Marry Brown
Café Coffee Day
Sweet Chariot Center
Dahlia
Bella Ciao
New Yorker
Cathedral Road
Baskin & Robbins
Noodle House (easily tucked away upstairs near Gangothri)
Gangothri
Don pepe
Copper Chimney - Kebab restaurant
China Town - Chinese restaurant
Zara - The Pub
Music Academy canteen
RK Salai again
Hotel Savera
Brindavan – Hotel New Woodlands
Karaikudi
Punjabi Dhaba
Ice cream parlour
Dominos Pizza
And then nothing upto citi center signal
Seasons (excellent salads, juices and pastas, at never believe prices – actually tucked inside the Pazhamudhir Nilayam)

I very well know this list is incomplete, and I know I have missed out some more points and got some names wrong; I will update them soon, and perhaps do reviews as well…

Can any other area in Chennai claim their fame like this stretch??? Perhaps Anna Nagar, maybe...
I can call this the Foodies Lane of Chennai!

I love Bangalore...

...because it has made me appreciate Chennai on a few points. Main thing being 'traffic'
In Chennai, the drivers have not become so rude or so blind, like the Bangaloreans. Chennai drivers still signal to some extent, most of them wait when we signal about crossing or going first. These drivers include govt vehicles and autos as well. In Bangalore, they drive like anything in front of them is non-existent, and they can simply drive through that object - may it be human being or another fellow vehicle on the road.
Buying an over-the-counter medication, like a saridon or a crocin or anacin, is much easy in Chennai - especially on main roads. Even simple shops stock them. In Bangalore, on the bannerghatta road near Arekere gate, believe me or not, I had to go to Wockhardt hospital to buy a simple saridon to ward off the headache given to me by the Bangalore drivers mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Bangalore weather is good enough - mild and pleasant- most of the times. No doubts about that. But what beats me is that an average Bangalorean, who grew up with this type of climate and weather, prefers to wear a jacket or sweater even when the sun is blazing hot. Beats me!
Of course, Bangalore traffic snarls are better not said. With wider roads, wider than in CHennai, and enough number of flyovers, still it is not enough for the Police and for the planners of the city, and for the staying population of Bangalore, they end up in traffic pressure points often. It is indeed surprising. They can easily learn from neighbouring states like Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh as to how to handle road space. Claim space, widen roads - isn't it a simple thing to do?
Ok, ok, I am simply tryig to pick holes for me to justify my irrational hatred for Bangalore, or, is it actually inner desire, which doesnt let me openly accept my unsaid pleasant feelings for Bangalore? I may never know, cos I may not bother to figure it out!!!

Pollution

This is a topic that came up in one of a meeting.
Someone wanted to have a celebration at their home and had an emotional reason for the same. She fervently pleaded for a 2-hour once in a year. Typical middle class brahminic coward he was - typical 'paappaan' whom carenonidhi admonishes often - instead of confronting the lady with his problems he talked of an advocate who came and complained to him about the noise and said he could file a nuisance case against the lady and her family. The reason was pollution. Noise pollution.
Well, am not going to talk about the community pollution this gentleman was prepetrating, and not the noise pollution the lady was accused of (no silly meaning please...). We have worse noise pollutions around to which we turn a deaf ear - literally. Like the air horn in all those "socially aware, socially responsible" IT companies buses that run on our city roads, like the air horn used by even government buses, like the multi-decibels generated by the diesel generator set, just outside the hospital, like so many instances.
Coming back to the meeting, another person got reminded of the pollution by this hospital and brought up the issue. The pollution caused by the adjoining hospital - Isabel Nursing Home in Mylapore. It was shocking to hear about this. This is a hospital of repute, about which I had been amazed in the past. Such disrespect to people around was and is intimidating.
The hospital waste disposal system chimney height is not enough to let off the burning waste fumes very high up in the air. Instead, the fumes are reaching to even first floor residents in our building. The intensity is so much that people have permanent breathing problems and the balcony is useless to dry clothes, as the black soot settles on it easily.
When this was brought up, I was quite taken aback. Because I have seen lot of things being very efficient in this hospitale, with very good doctors and a haven for lot of poor people. What was even more shocking is that including the gentleman who hid behind an advocate for filing a nuisance case - who is also being affected because of this - had not made legal representations to the hospital but had been enduring this for long.
Even more to come. Another lady, then narrated how things used to much worse earlier, when aborted foetuses wouldnt be disposed off properly, and the pit was not closed inside the hsopital properly, that often scavengers would come to feast on them, and drop off waste parts in the balcony of these people. It was downright horrifying, scary, nauseating!

World Environment Day and Chennai Buses

I wonder what this organization in our citycalled TNPCB is doing to the blatant pollution of our dear Chennai. Maybe the point I am raising is also within the purview of this department as well...but then we know how spineless they are...(and addressless too...this website is not operational any more)
Almost every airbus operated by MTC, have only airhorns fitted in them. And, the IT Company buses also have only air horns. All of these run at breakneck speeds, characterised by their rash driving. They honk against the fellow users to bully them using these air horns. It just shocks the hell out of people who are on their two-wheelers.
This has been going on for quite sometime - noticeably for the past one year atleast. With my limited legal knowledge, this is ILLEGAL perhaps from the point of View of air horns - CCTP's purview. if not, atleast under TNPCB as the noise level is sure above the limit. Environment day could have been the used to make people aware of this. But then, "World Environment Day" came and went much like Gandhi jayanti, and the TNPCB was like TNCC...if you know what I mean!
What bothers me most is, this has escaped the attention of city activists, and TNPCB, and CCTP, and the (De)Press! While helmet issue got the right attention, this has gone unnoticed.
MTC can be directed to fit normal horns, in place of air horns through a simple G.O. Any activist / NGO / Press can help easily achieve this by taking it to right forum.
Private buses can be easily directed to adhere to norms.
Who will bell the cat!!!

After a long break...

..the ahambaavam is back and peaking!
One year down the line, no major changes in status of Chennai, except for

• unreasonable change in rentals by 20% for absolutely no apparent reason
• Mr. Moron replaced by Ms.Can-I-Muzhi and Mr. Harakiri in Deadly Morons Konglomerate
• Mr. Stal(l)in(g) is busy installing flyovers at junctions where a simple drive to remove encroachments and a simple move to replace the traffic policemen with working signals would do
• And yes, we re having power holidays - scheduled powercuts by EB, and announced downtime for electric repair, rather than inefficiency by Power Ministry

Oh! Me and my lamenting...hopefully i catch up with my writing streak again and write blogs regularly.

Aavin...Wow Win

When you come out of the Guindy railway station on the Race course side, there is an Aavin Milk Parlour. When I come all exhausted from office in the evening, I find the Hot Milk (available at Rs 5 a cup) very refreshing.
I struck a conversation with the person manning the parlour. Information he gave was very interesting.

• All private milk sellers have hiked the price of a packet by atleast 1 Re per half litre, but Aavin price is 1 Re lesser
• Further 75paise reduction if you buy a monthly milk card (consider the math = for a family having 4 milk cards saves 4*1.75*31 = Rs 217 p.m.)
• Aavin parlours, like this parlour, sell value-added-items like flavored milk, cheese, butter, milk khoa, ghee, curd, butter milk, hot milk - all made from Aavin milk
• No water is added to the Hot Milk sold at Rs 5 a cup.
• When I asked the parlour owner, why he could mix some water always. He said that there are surprise visits by Aavin officials, even as late as at 8:30pm
• Surprise checks mean quality and quantity check. They check the density of milk, and calculate the no. of milk packets that must have been used to prepare that quantity of milk, at the measured density.
• If there is issue found, for continuously 3 times, memo is issued, and then increment cuts would follow said the parlour manager
• oh wow! then is tha parlour manned by Aavin employees? He replied in the affirmative.
• Thats surprising! A Govt undertaking company considering these points seriously and want to give quality service and product.

Thats when I thought "Aavin" should be "Wow Win"...

Total admin collapse in Tamilnadu -> Moron, Stal(l)in(g) and CareNoNidhi

• Auto rickshaw fares in Tamilnadu have been revised, but am yet to board an auto rickshaw who agrees to charge the meter rate. And am yet to get through to the grievance cell number given by the Police. It is forever engaged.
• There is a huge pit right in the entry side of Royapettah Flyover. And, the road next to this flyover leading up to Royapettah signal is filled with potholes, very rough terrain. What's so special that it merits mention here? It is Mr. M. K. Stal(l)in(g)'s, High-profile Minister and the ruling party's Second-in-command's thoguthi!!!
• Name of Stal(l)in(g)'s consttuency is 1000 lights, and you can hardly see some 10 lights on the roads next to flyovers. With sheer luck, you can avid falling into the BRAD PITTs of 1000 lights
• Mr. Mu. CareNoNidhi's constituency(Chepauk) closely competes with Stal(l)in(g)s consituency in civic amenities (or the lack of it), rough shod, spoiled, potholed roads, rampant rowdyism and what not
• I wonder if this is a sample of TN administration, imagine other parts of Tamilnadu
• Lot of LTTE movement, Naxalite arms factory uncovered in Chennai - no where did Police make an arrest through their intelligence (ha ha ha), but the convicts got arrested for some petty offence, and on interrogation, other serious issues came out
• Tamizhan is given royal fucks by Karnataka (Kaveri), Kerala (Mulla periyar) and Andhra Pradesh (Paalar dam and Telugu Ganga). Carenonidhi will not even out up a decent fight with Central Govt, if he does his family's SonTV empire will not get enough support, and (Dayanidhi) Moron will not resign from his ministerial berth
• Leave Mu. Ka. Dr. Ramadoss, who criticises Mu. Ka. for handling the water problems with neighbouring states, will not let Dr. AnbuMONEY Ramadaze, as a mark of protest, even utter something to central government
• Mr. Moron who remarked some 1.5 years back to Bill Gates that he cannot take him down the IT Corridor, because the corridor is very worse as the then state administration was not doing anything for the people. Will he take Mr. Gates in the road now?...athuthaan around ayear aachay...still no great progress on OMR, nor on the Metro Rail Project
• When DMK assumed power after prev Tamilnadu General Elections, there was a murder attempt on M. K. Stal(l)in(g). The culprit is yet to be arrested. Shows the efficiency of Police, or exposes the stunts of our DMK = Dravida Makkalaukku pinnaadi etrum Kazhagam
• So, if they cannot take any of such admin tasks to completion, what are they forever busy with???
• Carenonidhi is busy with watching Namita and Rahasiya's kuthupaa(raa)ttu vizha organ(r)ised by Cine Artists; Moron is busy releasing stamps with Preity Zinta, and posing for photographs in any function happening anywhere in India.
• If not Namita dance, Mu. Ka. is catching up on his "aanmeegam"
• I am not an admirer of JJ either; dont get me wrong... And nor a fan of DMDK - Captain ha charisma and good heart; but that's not enough; we need some administration going on...sure his goons cant handle that
• Am stating this once again in this blog: It is very disappointing these days to be in Tamilnadu / Chennai.