One and only Alwarpet Anjaneyar Temple

Well, I deliberately left out this place in my Mylapore stuff since it can't be a passing reference and needs one full episode as I have a special attachment to this temple dating back to 1980’s from my college days.

The small little temple is situated inside the Co-op Bank building premises near the Alwarpet corner 1 km away from Luz corner and also known as Co-op Bank Anjaneyar/ CA Anjaneyar since many budding CA students believed in this Anjaneyar temple more than the exam papers or the way they had prepared for the exams and most of them also passed with flying colors with frequent visits to the temple as the results day approached. For almost 8 years I continuously visited this temple on Thursday evenings come sun shine or rain and many of my office friends and colleagues joined me as the years went by and it became a must visit place on Thursdays. Of course the crispy vadas used for the vada malais as well as the nearby Canopy food joint with its hot idlies was an added attraction. I have seen lots of celebrities over the years inside the premises like old actor Srikanth, Chinni Jayant, Poornima Bhagyaraj, Cho Ramswami, Police commissioners, Judges of Madras High court, SPB, some famous doctors and so on and so forth going around the temple 9 times with absolute silence.

Even today the temple remains in it's same small place and the little tree inside a thulasi madam once destroyed by rain has grown back again and the Deity continues to be powerful attracting the rich and poor alike who flock to the temple especially on Thursdays and Saturdays and the offerings like vada malai, vennai kappu etc are booked much in advance.

Though it's outside the boundaries of Mylapore, the temple is an ideal add on to the other attractions of Mylapore and is a crown in the jewel of Alwarpet's growing clout in the city also housing some famous names like Kamal, Vasan(Moopanar), KB and a host of other eminent personalities.

RK

Innovation has no age boundaries

An amazing story of a simple farmer from Erode District in Tamilnadu is good enough to convince all and sundry that age is no barrier to human mindset and new innovations.

Duraswamy a 63 year old farmer with no formal back ground academic education has come out with two inventions for air energized pressure cookers and a multi tasking steam boiler. However what stands out is his new crop theory of fresh coconut seedlings from old trees which has lead to annual output of 200-250 coconuts per annum right from third year instead of the traditional 100+ from the fifth year. Imagine the increase in revenue potential of minimum of I.Rs 10,000-15000 Rs per acre per annum with around 632,000 acres available for increasing the coconut production across Tamil Nadu leading to a whooping 600 crores of revenue increase to the simple farmers by making their coconut farms fertile using Duraiswamy's approach.

Goes to re enforce the theory that age is no barrier to new thoughts and sky is the limit for human innovation!

RK

Satyameve Jayate-Forgotten Hero

It's now exactly 3 years since a young IIT, Kanpur Civil Engineer by name Satyendre Dubey working for the prestigious golden quadrilateral project was shot down at point blank range by shoddy sub contractor mafia for daring to speak the truth. His open letter to the PMO office on the scandals in the National highway projects and the resultant shoddy work which was leaked out to press was the real cause of his ultimate murder. Though there was a huge outpouring of grief and anti crusade slogans against corruption thanks to the Indian Express scribes nothing much has happened in the case with the CBI dragging its feet and none of those actually guilty being punished so far with law taking its own sweet time.
However in a rare tribute, NDTV recalled the poignant story of the young engineer who joined the Govt service to help the poor with better infrastructure and roads as a mission in spite of multinational offers and in the process inspired hundreds of fellow students from his home village to aim for higher education in institutions like IIT. At least people in his home town seem to be still remembering him and the school where he studied has been renamed as Satyendra Dubey School and seeing the forlorn figure of his father and sisters still seeking justice was quiet moving!

RK

'Gitex Times- the week that was'

Gitex mania took over Dubai last week and the 1300+ stalls and 125,000 visitors foot fall as claimed by the organizers had gone up from last year as usual making it the largest IT exhibition in the Region and one of the largest in Asia. People from both IT and business community swamped the halls in huge numbers with some looking for new technology and some for time pass and shopping away from monotonous office routine especially from places like Saudi. However most of the balance crowds, I should admit were more of on lookers who were looking for bags, caps, pens, key chains, valets, stress balls,etc and whatever freebies they can get hold of at the end of the day to proudly display in front of their eager families in the evening.

Some of the freebies virtually caused a stampede making people run all over the place just to get hold of these items as though they have never seen something like that before during their life time especially on the last day. What was surprising was that most of the big names put up their stalls in the same place like the earlier years virtually exhibiting the same partners and product lines making it bit boring and monotonous. Unlike the earlier years there were not many new names especially from India and who ever came to put up a decent stall privately confided that the Indian IT market and man day rates were growing at a phenomenal rate much better than the rest of the world including Middle East and prospects were coming in all the way to India to look for possible outsourcing of development and off shore opportunities rather than they having to come over on shore for business opportunities. Things have turned around and whether this Region likes it or not and they need to look at off shoring and automation even for regular on site transactional operations and support given the current trends of cost of living in UAE and the skills available back home.

Gitex over the years seems to be becoming more and more of a media hype and marketing exercise for getting some decent visibility and coverage, but otherwise is still an excellent place to network and meet all the old and new contacts in one place and of course for all the free gifts. Last but not the least was the fair, slim, good looking females employed by all the biggies dressed up in eye catching costumes going all over the place under the pretext of distributing some leaflets and special offers which made us wonder whether it was an IT exhibition or a catwalk!

RK

Dindigul Leoni at his best in Dubai

I have only seen him in TV debates earlier but had an opportunity to see him live yesterday in Dubai as part of the 5th anniversary celebrations of Dubai Tamil Community. The topic was the age old subject as to whether Money or love prevails (panama/pasama) with lots of local talent roped in as the speakers. Leoni stood out for the lively way in which he conducted the whole debate and his phenomenal memory skills and singing talent of both old and new songs with some interesting anecdotes was simply brilliant. He also sang two songs extempore live on stage as part of Gangai Amaran's troupe including the classic Chandrababu golden hit' bambara kannale' virtually imitating the master comedian with the same voice and style. His tribute to the Pavalar brothers family of Baskar, Raja and Amar especially to the one and only Maestro Raja on stage as one of the major contributors of contemporary Tamil cinema music simply cannot be disputed.

Gangai Amaran along with SP Charan and his son Venkat Prabhu as usual came up with lots of histrionics and meaningless jokes on stage to enthuse the audience but miserably failed with his attempts and came up as a cropper. In fact some of the songs sung by the local artistes were much better and Amaran's troupe was more like a fish out of water most of the time. He may be a good writer, lyrist, compeer, film director and jack of all such trades but nowhere near his illustrious brother when it comes to music direction or singing.

After all a Sachin or Ilayaraja or SPB are only born once in a generation and stand out for sheer class! We should all be privileged to be living in that generation.

RK

Indians lose yet again - Extreme reactions back home

It's nothing new since time and again the Indian cricket team over the last few decades has been thrashed abroad in both versions of the game and the familiar joke of the boy of divorced parents preferring the Indian team to either of the parents since they don't beat anybody is making merry rounds as usual. Victories like the ones against Australia or England in one test or the successful run in the last WC have been as rare as an oasis in a desert or a Rajni new movie release . No point in blaming the coach or the captain for the debacle. The simple truth is that none of the Indian batsmen except Sachin and to an extent Dravid are equipped to handle genuine fast and swing bowling and unless we address this bottle neck the results would continue to be the same abroad and only way to avoid these drubbings is to tour only within South Asia playing against Pakistan, SL and Bangladesh.

The South African fast bowling team is awesome (use of phrase thanks to Sridhar who is in town) to say the least and easily the best in business even surpassing the likes of Australia and Newzeland and in their home ground they are at the peak of their prowess. We should just be happy that none of our key players were injured in that match and seeing Harbhajan walk in at no 8 playing more like a baseball player to fast bowlers drawing away from the stumps conveyed the miserable situation of the Indian team as a whole in a nutshell.

Talking about the defeat in Parliament when there are better things to discuss and sending the chief of selectors (As though he was a UN ambassador) all the way to SA to convey the mood of the Nation as Pawar summed up it up is downright ridiculous and is the typical hyper reaction of India as a Nation to every defeat. If the Board is more sensible they need to go back to their drawing cup boards and chart out plans to make most of the local grounds as virtual green tops like the one we saw in Mohali during the recent champion’s trophy between SA and Pak and mercilessly throw out those who don't perform in those conditions. In the process we would also develop a new generation of fast bowlers who can also neutralize the advantage of the overseas teams even if our batsmen continue to fail!

God save the Indian batsmen from the South African fast fury without any major calamity by the time this tour ends!

PS- After a long time I had a five-for in a local match yesterday with my gentle leg spin and needless to say I was thrilled and kept the ball as a souvenir. I was getting worried that with my bowling standards deteriorating this season with lots of unusual wides and poor deliveries down the leg side, the end was inevitable with age catching up. However this performance has given me some breather to look forward to the rest of the season.

RK

The Mylapore Episodes- Part 3

I did miss out two important landmarks of East Mada Street. One was the corner 'Kalathi Kadai' which had one of the best rose milks you can ever think of at 50 paise. The other one was the 'Lady Sivasami School' mostly made up of smart, sharp, good looking 'iyer girls' in the traditional pavadai-dhavani uniform and the roadside Romeos of Santhome and PS schools used to wait eternally sipping the rose milk on the kalathi kadai wall for the school to finish so that they could accompany their respective Juliet’s back home. However we used to sit on the 'thinnai' of Vietnam House of Mathala Narayanan Street(we had spent more time on that thinnai than at our homes) waiting for the girls to pass the street in the evenings since that was a perfect starter before we switched over to cricket sessions. Each one of us had a girl to 'site adichify' and also remember all of us making a horse like'toktok'sound when one particular girl used to pass through the street since she was fair with a long nose and pony tail and looked like a horse which was not exactly appreciated by one of our guys who had his eyes fixed on her.

Getting back to the other landmarks of Mylapore which was our daily walking route to college on Cutcheri road-Luz Corner there was the calm Vinayaka Nagar colony with some pretty girls, Raja Kalyana Mandabam which was virtually built on the Buckingham canal ( God knows how the crowds for the wedding tolerated the adjacent 'cooum') Aavin ice cream parlor, Shanti Vihar, Bombay Halwa House, Luz Pillayar temple(quiet handy during exams) Udupi Suga Nivas, the Old man's platform book shop, the fragrance of Amrutanjan factory inducing a headache even for normal people all the way on to the 'Madam' alias Vivekananda College on the Sullivan Garden street which is now renamed if I am right.

Eating on Shanti Vihar with some college friends was a delight and since we had very little money, I devised an ingenious plan where we used to eat at the post paid area which was meant for Tiffin and then cross a small barrier to walk through to the pre paid meals area and then exit conveniently tipping a server with small amount who happily obliged us every time. Bread Channa of Bombay halwa house was all class and the 'sambar vadai' and 'Rava Dosa'of Udupi Suga Nivas were 'heavenly'.

But beyond all the fun and enjoyment derived from all these places Mylapore had something very special and that was the 'Shiridi Sai Baba temple' across South Mada street. The place is very nostalgic even today for me especially the 'Thursday evenings' and sitting in front of the 'Dwani' and the prayer room for even 5 minutes and touching the lotus feet of Baba is a life time experience which just can't be explained.

Mylapore stands out even today in Chennai city and has everything you can ask for!

RK

The Mylapore Episodes- Part 2- Mada Streets,Santhome Beach and the one and only'chakkadi santhu'

Well, I am encouraged by the kind of response for the Mylapore episode where lots of old friends have sent mails or even called up all the way from Chennai to recall those glorious days and ask for more of the nostalgic stuff.

Mylapore without the 4 majestic Mada streets and the Kapaleeswarar temple is like Vatican without the Pope. The temple has now become very commercial thanks to those endless tourist buses, guides(I still can't forget one of our friends, RP who made some quick money by taking the foreign tourists for a ride in broken English introducing the two Dwara Balakas in the entrance as the security guards of 'Lord' and the Navagrahams as 'Duumy Gods') a massive eating joint under the pretext of annadhanam, temple kulam which has dried up and seems to have lost bit of it's sanctity though it's still one of the famous landmarks of South Chennai and Mylapore in particular. My best temple moments in the years I have stayed in Mylapore was the fortnightly Pradosham festival where you could feel a sense of togetherness and joy as the Lord went around the temple three times on the majestic Nandi Vaganam accompanied by the soul stirring sound of the four Vedas and the songs from the 'odhuvars'. Come the month of December-January or the month of Margazhi' and from early morning 4-7 AM it was bhajans all the way with different troupes ranging from the classical tiruppavai/tiruvembai up to Swami Haridoss Giri's classical bhajans walking around the 4 streets. Swami Haridoss himself used to turn up on some days of the month and people from even places like Adyar and Triplicane considered it as a great honour to be just part of those troupes walking along listening to the soul stirring music in the early mornings which used to set up the day. Srivati stores with that coffee powder aroma as you passed them, Srividya kunkum, Ambika Appalam, the majestic Sampoorna Sastriar silks ( incidentally hailing from that family hierarchy) Karpagam restaurant, the endless vegetables shops of the South Mada street, the two Vaishavite temples of the Chirtrakulam on either side where people from one sub sect never used to visit the other one(vadakalai and thengalai, I suppose) were some of the memorable landmarks of the temple town. The big days of course for the Mylaporeans is the 10 day summer festival of the temple and the biggest day was the '63 moovar' function which saw huge crowds thronging the four Mada streets in an atmosphere filled with fun, enjoyment and a sense of 'de ja vu' as the Nayanamars took the limelight along with the Lord in decorated palanquins.

For me discussion of Mylapore wont' be complete without mention of Kutcheri lane or chakkadi sandhu which was a small 2/2 lane widening further just enough for a cycle to cross but must have been the busiest lane of the Mylapore as it connected the Mada streets with the arterial Cutchery Road,Mylapore Police station and Luz Corner. The lane had a small shop managed by old mama/mami selling home made norukku theeni and the ' thavala vadai' made in the afternoon was sold out in minutes since it was supposed to be the best in town and the 'hot sundal ' was a product in demand till the shop closed late in the evening. There are also some great streets like Arundale street with a small road side pillalayar, Nattu subbraya mudali street with lots of road cricket, Nadu street towards santhome with a famous dentist and the dabba chetti kadais selling every thing on earth on bazzar street from sukku, thippli, deepavali marundhu etc which were precious commodities for the US NRI's of Mylapore origin.

I will recap my other favorite places towards LUZ corner and Mandaveli in my next final episode of Mylapore!

RK

My Mylapore episodes – MNCC Cricket team

Those who are familiar with the topography of Mylapore can never forget the famous by-lanes branching out from the four Mada streets and one of them was Mathala Narayanan street famous for Mangollai ground on one side and the music instrument repair shops and ‘pottala kadais’ spread through out the street flanked by the Jain temple which later became the new post office. There was a small lane within the street which was our turf pitch cum home ground for Mathala Narayanan Cricket club alias MNCC and was also a walk way for the lane residents when we were not playing. While the off side for right handers was a shortened boundary, the leg side invariably used to be the mridangam repair shop of one oldie on street side and deafening noise when the tennis ball hit one of those musical instruments and bounced back was greeted with a loud cheer by the batting team for a boundary and a frown rude look of the poor old shop owner.

However the house on the offside which was a kind of deep 'gully' was a difficult and tricky house and the owner who was nicknamed as ‘bald’ and later as bolt due to the owner’s receding hairline always used to either not return the tennis ball and preserve them for his future grandson whom he though would turn out to be a Sachin or throw back the tennis ball in two pieces much to our frustration. May be in hindsight if that gentleman had started a tennis ball shop with all the balls which we had hit into his house he would have become a Kerry Packer. Our only reaction was to shout ‘bald’ when we finished the day and run back to our houses.

The super big matches were always reserved for Sundays between the elders and youngsters as they used to call it and the oldies team had many veterans like Mani, Johnny, Kutti, Thiagu, Muthu, Mohan ,Anantha, Narayanan etc while our team boasted of players like Kathadi Pattabi who was our captain, Kannadi Raja, KilluVidya(he pinched a delicate part of his body before he bowled from a corner) Suri, Ramani, Kizahvan Ramesh, Gundu Ramesh, Thirunavakarasu,his brother Chuppindel(he was famous or infamous for a verbal mis spelt graffiti about one of the older players using a mango kottai) mechanic shop Kari, Self alais vuttu thattaal (for my late cut abilities)/Padhuthal for troubling everybody. Invariably after lot of close fights and bullying the elders were the winners by 7 PM when it was almost pitch dark and in the absence of third umpire most of the decisions were dubious and we used to return back practicing very hard during the week days for the next big Sunday. When we graduated to cricket and cork balls the matches were either in PS school, St Bedes or the Alphonsa near Foreshore estate where we played as a mix of young and old but the results were invariably the same and we were mostly thrashed with lot of post mortem analysis of what should have been the ideal score to chase or score first and the biased umpiring decisions as well the dropped catches where I was the major culprit. But the best part of the matches were the morning Tiffin at Rayar’s café in side those old red tiles where the chimney after countless idly and dosa cooking had almost become a heritage symbol. It was worth the wait to get in and the idly, vada, dosas, pongal etc served piping hot by ‘Bhava’ and company with a extra ‘nei’ or ‘paruppu podi’ on a clean plantain leaf and for all of us more than cricket that was virtually the next best thing on earth after may be the manna from heaven. The best part of the place was the self billing on a black slate where you had to simply write the amount, drop the money in the gulla box and walk out. Such was the integrity levels of the clients of Rayar’s café and the CRM practiced by Rayar’s even without any modern software.

Slowly but steadily as we finished our education the team became defunct over a period of time and dis integrated for ever. Every time even now when I go to Mylapore, I make it a point to go and walk through that memorable pitch cum lane thinking of all those great charecters and friends where may be I spent the best part of my life eating, breathing and drinking cricket all the time.

RK

Old Anecdotes of places in Chennai

Noted writer Asoka Mitran in this compelling series ' Chennai Suvadugal' brings out some memorable places and names of Chennai with some intriguing stories. In this particular edition he talks about the famous of Royapettah, the unresolved mystery behind its name, its trademark clock tower which once upon a time seems to have been the center point of Madras and the deadly stand alone mortuary building which was housed next to the Royapettah hospital. He has also unraveled the mystery of why the Royapetta Vasis never took the 'jutka horse rides' which were available even in mid 1970's when I lived in Peter's Road colony and was always a mystery to me since they were cheaper than the Rickshaws. Looks like the answer is finally available and that's because they were transporting the dead bodies from mortuary once upon a time and the sentimental Royapettah citizens must have decided not to venture in to those mini mortuary vans alias jutkas
Brings me back to my favorite place in Chennai 'Mylapore' which is virtually a dream for me even today in spite of all the commercial growth around the Mada streets and I am going to share my delightful experiences of the lanes and roads of Mylapore in my next episode! Watch out

RK

'Sree Utsav' at Dubai

On behalf of Nandalala Seva Samithi a group of friends from Dubai are organizing a one day special event comprising of “Sree Utsav” “Pushpanjali (kanakabhishekam)” and “Mangala Haarathi” with breakfast and festival lunch as well as a cultural programme with a medley of Indian dances, songs and instrument renditions by children followed by dinner on 1st December 2006 from 7.00 Am onwards at Emirates English Speaking School, Dubai.

The event is being conducted by Shri Dr. Muthu Bhattachariar. PhD (Sanskrit), a renowned scholar from Chennai. The Samithi which is a non profit organization is dedicated to nurturing children's fullest potential through educational, cultural, physical, and service-oriented activities. Artistes like Svee Sekhar and Unni Krishnan performed in Dubai during the last couple of years and all the proceeds were donated towards the noble cause of providing subsidized treatment of dialysis for the needy and poor and charity activities.

Those of you who are interested are welcome to attend the programme.

RK

Sad end to Shoaib

The final blow as expected was delivered by the Pakistani Cricket Board based on the recommendations of the three member panel and Shoaib is gone. It's difficult to imagine his comeback after another two years when his injury prone body and his infamous attitude which is already suspect would have come to a virtual no point of return after two years of redundancy.

Kamran Abbasi in this beautiful article for Cricinfo brings out the multiple facets of Shoaib, his trials and tribulations and his supreme talents as a dreaded fast bowler who could on his day simply bowl out any opposition with sheer speed and aggression. Sad end for such a great entertainer who was a sheer joy to watch with his long flowing hair running all the way to the crease delivering thunderbolts at close 100 mph and the bird like two handed flyer when ever he took a wicket must be one of the most fascinating scenes of modern day cricket. I still remember the bewildered looks of Lakshman and Tendulkar when they were yorked by Shoaib and the stumps went cart wheeling beyond the wicket keeper.

I liked this particular line which summed up his career:

Is he villain or hero? Is he master-blaster or high-class fool? The best guess is that he is probably both, a classic flawed genius, a unique talent balanced on the edge of ecstasy and damnation.

RK