Chennai’s Happening Place

I would either be at my home (in Srirangam) or at some relative’s place in Chennai on a Sunday and I would have no worries (and sometimes no idea at all) of the scorching heat. Last Sunday was different. I was at my home in Thiruvanmiyur and I didn’t have any plans for the day. I started to feel the heat too. Not knowing what to do after taking my lunch at hot chips, I took a bus to a friend’s place in Mylapore. It struck me while on the bus. It was quite a common idea, though. Anyway, I went to my friend’s place and watched the second half of Panchathanthiram – a movie that I would watch any number of times.

I took leave from there by about 4 pm and got into 21(bus from Mandaveli to Parrys). I was on my way to the city’s best place to hang out – The Spencer’s Plaza. Only after I got down at my stop did I notice that I had missed my cap in the bus itself. Looking back, the bus had started. Without any second thought, I chased it and got into it in a jiffy to find my cap on the floor of the bus. Relieved, I got down at the next stop and walked to Spencer’s sweat drooping. (About the cap: It was the outing gift of the year and it also saved 100 Wah points for me!) It was quite hot and once I stepped in I began to realize the comfort. Yes, it was crowded as usual. But how many genuine shoppers?!? On the way, I heard a passer-by commenting – “OC la A.C…”. “He could not have known my intentions” thought I.

Every time I visited this place, I had wanted to check into one Planet ‘M’, a musical shop but it never happened. But this day, when I asked a fellow, he said the shop does not exist anymore!

After walking (read window shopping) for sometime, I stepped into Landmark. Wow! I love this place (only the place, not the cost of the products they have; exceptions being the audio and tamil books.) I first went to the Audio section. After browsing for sometime, I picked up an Mp3 Cd that had a compilation of many slokams and moved. (Ah! I got something to prove that I came for shopping!). Quite obviously, my legs took me to the book stands. I wanted to buy ‘Kadal Pura’ by Chandilyan. I was busy searching every shelf (they have limited no of tamil books as compared to English!) when I heard a voice of a security. Driven by enthusiasm, I stood up to see what was up.

Security: “Ungalukku enna book Sir venum?” [Sir, what book do you want?]
Customer: “Adhan parthuttu irukken!” [that’s what I am seeing.]
Security: “ Nanum parthuttu irukken. Romba nerama ingaye irukkeenga. Enna book venumnu sollunga. Na eduthu tharen.” [I have been seeing you for a long time. If you tell me the book you want, I shall help you.]
Customer: “Ille. Naane pathukkaren.” [I shall see myself.]
Security: “Ille…Kalaila 10.45 maniku vandheenga. Innum pathutte irukkeenga. Eduvum vangara madiriyum therila??” [you came at 10.45 Am and you are yet to buy something. You don’t look like buying something!]
Customer: “Pathe mukkalukkaaa……” [Silently moved away]

I said to myself – I have a CD with me. Did I tell that I had a gift voucher? Yes. I had one for 400 rupees (gifted by my team for my birthday.). So, I would not have got a chance to get embarrassed!

Turning my attention back to the books (in fact I was looking at them while the conversation was on but my mind was engrossed in the conversation. ‘Kadal Pura’ was not there. I confirmed it by checking the same on their database. When I came out of Landmark, it was about 6.15 pm. Of course, I got that CD and a couple of ID holders for my room mate.

I had something to eat at a bakers’ after which I entered Music World. I consider this the best thing in Spencer’s. Contrary to landmark, whenever I enter into MW, I don’t come empty handed. I spent about an hour or so in which I got a Carnatic CD, couple of MP3s – one of Hariharan and the other a collection and also the animation movie (It only had short stories on the important episodes of Hanuman) Hanuman (on Moserbaer). Well, I can count myself in the list of genuine shoppers!

So, at about 8.30 pm, I was walking on the road towards the Gemini flyover. I thought of stopping at the Raj videos to check for a CD of ‘Sabapathi’. As bad luck would have it, the shop was closed.

Disappointed, I walked to the 1000 lights bus stop. On the way, the back wheel of a 2-wheeler burst and the person almost skidded. A maruti (I don’t remember what car it was, but let me assume – which I have been doing since I started learning Algebra) screeched to a stop just inches behind the 2-wheeler. The driver of the 2-wheeler (!) was not alone. He had his little son, his wife carrying their baby! I was, for a moment, stunned when I saw the baby. Thank God!!

That was it. I reached home by 10 pm or so. It was a dry day – nothing quite interesting. But, to spend the second half of a day in a relatively cool environment (free of cost!), seeing many beauties…er…beautiful things was good.

And yes. I have the gift voucher still. So another visit sooner is always on the cards.

Thanks for your time.
Keep Smiling.

THIRUKADAL MALLAI (A) MAHABALIPURAM

It was the first of May. A holiday. We (Srikanth , Vaasu and myself) had planned to go to Mahabalipuram on this day. My intentions, while proposing this plan was to go to the two main temples – Sthalasayana Perumal temple and the Thiruvidanthai temple. I didn’t have in my mind the sculptures of the place which are more prominent. But the other two did. The two said even before starting that we would not be able to go to Thiruvidanthai. We planned for a 2 pm start (from Mylapore) but a heavy lunch made us delay the start by 30 minutes in which time we had a small session of 904. (For those who do not know, it’s a Trump game played with cards.)

At 2.30 pm we were in the streets of Mylapore walking under the scorching sun. Few minutes later we boarded a bus to Thiruvanmiyur. On the way, we noticed a Mamallapuram bus (No 588) from Adayar and with the help from our bus driver, boarded the other bus. It was 4.20 pm when we reached Mahabalipuram. We started off with the sculptures. The first one was that of Lord Krishna hoisting the Govardhana giri followed by Arjuna’s penance, the Ganesha Ratha, the Trimurthi ratha, the Rajagopuram (only for the name though!), the Mahishasura mardhini – all beautiful works of art! There was a light-house (which also houses a lot of bees!) but at a fair distance from the sea. When we were done with these, we proceeded towards the Pandava rathas. Unfortunately, the clock had struck 6 by then and visitors are not allowed after 6. We had to be content seeing the rathas from outside.

From there, we had a walk towards the beach and after spending some time, walked towards the temple. We felt we should have something to eat and so went to a nearby hotel – hotel Mamalla. I have never tasted sucha bad Dosa anywhere else. The guys had some coffee and we went into the temple at about 7.

The temple was a very small one. This is one of the 108 Divya Desams of Lord Vishnu.It houses the Sthalasayana Perumal – the name because the lord who usually sleeps on the ‘Adisesha’ sleeps on the floor here and his consort Nilamangai thaayar. He does not have his customary weapons. His feet rest on a Lotus that is said to have 1000 petals. The other sannithis include one for shri Andal, shri Lakshmi Narasimhar and shri Boothathalwar. In fact, the place is said to be the birth place of Boothathalwar. We were quite happy to get some Pongal offered as Prasadam. We missed to see the Utsavar. The brahmorsavam had started and the deity was taken out for a procession.

The place was heavily crowded, the day being a holiday and the buses were running full. So we took an auto to the by-pass with a hope that we would get some Chennai bound buses that could reach us soon. But we had to wait till 8.15 pm to board one such bus and had to stand all the way till Thiruvanmiyur. As expected we reached well before 9.15 pm.On the whole, it was a good visit worth remembering.