Anything is possible

Now, this has to be the best ad for a sports franchise. A rich Tamil + Telugu flavour, accent, local Chennai mix, a few finer points of the game and terrific creativity - its right out of the top drawer.



A few things worth noting

--> Toss... "Baetting"
--> The runner starting to wear sun glasses when the bowler is about to deliver
--> "Staap", "Releeese" and the runner's reaction at that time
--> Volume increase and its background score
--> Jujupee

Now go back and view it all over again :-)

And I must say, the ads of the other teams are about a light year away from that of the Superstars, who by the way are living up to their name so far to be the only unbeaten team in the league right now.

Oh yeah!

Got this as a forward. Brilliant creativity yet again. வாழ்க தமி்ழ் சினிமா

T.Nagar in Downtown Hartford

5.45PM - My friends and I were waiting for the bus to go back home. There was a huge traffic pile up every street and even in nearby Interstate ramps. "Mama" was omnipresent controlling traffic. The bus that usually comes at 5.40 and starts at 5.45 did not arrive till 6.30.

A cop parked his car on the road in an attempt to regulate traffic on a one-way street! He supposedly didn't know what he was doing. Buses usually turn right and arrive at the stop. Courtesy the cop, all buses were forced to divert towards the left (its a 50 degree turn only).

An official from the transport dept came around announcing that buses would start from a different place and so a crowd of close to 75 people ran towards the other boarding point which was about 250 feet away.

Based on our experiences in Chennai, we firmly believed that the cop will move his car and so, did not travel the full distance towards the new boarding point. We were waiting on the pavement and guess what? the cop moved the car away and the transport official came about apologizing to everybody asking people to go back. One could not hear the flurry of words people had reserved for that cop... siva sivaa... தேன் வந்து பாயுது காதினிலே...

This summarizes a daily routine in T.Nagar or any other big terminus in Chennai albeit with a difference... The transport official wouldn't have had any courtesy in Chennai, first to go about asking people to move and then apologize and ask them to move back.

I miss this... :-(

Having been out of India for close to 7 months now, this is what I miss the most :-( Thanks to Vikhyath for sending and hail the "punniyavaan" who uploaded uploaded this!

A Fearsome Ride to Office!

Oct 27th:
The bus I was in was searching for the road in the Medavakkam-Sholinganallur segment while it was pouring down cats and dogs. A mini stream was running down south across the road. Even heavy vehicles could feel the pressure of water pushing the vehicle sideways. If anyone would have driven, or rather had the guts to drive thru the road that day, the driving logic would be simple; Spot for two electric poles, yes u got the road; its inbetween the two poles! Such was the condition of the road.

I was seated right behind the driver and what else I could ask for? It was just fearsome. The bus would tilt about 30-40 degrees when it crosses a pothole. Imagine the driver's mindset with people inside the bus making noises out of fear. Its simply the skill and guts of an unsung hero that carried us thru the stretch not only on that day but for quite sometime after rains battered the road crazy.

Intha mazhaikke Chennai naari pochu. What would have happened had Chennai had a Bombay kinda rain?!?

This is certianly one of the rides of my lifetime, but nothing to match the one downhill in Tirupathi courtesy Girish and co. Man, those guys are crazy. I still feel a bit for having missed the ride uphill though walking uphill to Tirumala was a pleasure and adventure in itself... :-)

Now its really... Sing in the rain...

There is no particular reason when I named this blog the way it is. I didn't even think about having to think of a name. This just came through my mind just like one of those famous jokes of Vadivelu that comes every now and then and takes up a good 4 to 5 minutes of my team mates' time during our prime time! Of course that culminates in a lengthy chat about the same during our scheduled coffee breaks and of course, lunch.

Today I had a different reason to sing in the rain... man its raining in Chennai! And what a great drive back home it was! The sky opened up and it was "Sing in the rain... I am swooying in the rain" all the way. It was great getting drenched in such a heavy rain after a very long time. I felt so happy for every Chennai-ite. We badly need this, though not the crazy thing happening in Bombay. No one can even imagine what will happen if Chennai gets even 15cm of rain on one day, leave alone 94.4cm on a day! Never mind, if you live here and you get potable water, you'll settle for anything else.

And when I entered home and switched on the TV, it was "vaigai puyal" on song with "Sing in the rain"... wao! Now I could go back to one of my friends in office who asks me often "what do you sing in the rain?" and say what I got to sang and what else I got when it was raining... a super water wash for my bike! :-)

Schumachers of Chennai

"They drive like maniacs, they show scant regard for traffic rules, courtesy?? thats greek and latin for them... " and so it goes, a flurry of complaints against the MTC crew.. If you have ever had the dubious pleasure of travelling in the badly maintained battered MTC buses, the lifeline of Chennai's transportation, you would not hesitate to accept it. And neither would I, for I had travelled in 21G, one of the most famous buses in Chennai, connecting the northern and southern ends of the city, for 4 years during my college life.

That experiece didn't change for me even a year after I passed out of college. But I was in for a surprise this morning. It was 6.45 in the morning and I didn't want to leave that early to office, for game 6 of the NBA finals had just started. It was chill outside and the weather, absolutely brilliant. Mr. Sun who was consistently serving at 40/30, as KG pointed out, was not yet out and what else could I ask for. T51 arrived spot on at 6.50. I happened to witness some impeccable behaviour of the crew. The counductor was courtesy exemplified. Never have I in recent times seen a conductor so polite to the passengers. He announced the name of each stop, never cribbed even if a 50 rupee note was given to him for a 2.50 ticket and above all, he was always on the move despite the heavy rush. The driver on the other hand, followed traffic rules to the core, slowed down and honked at the sharp turns, never crossed the speed limit and he let the real maniacs, the Sathyabama and SJCE college bus drivers, to overtake.

I was only happy that there are quite a few good crew members with MTC as the week began on a bad note for hundreds of commuters who were left stranded in the Tambaram bus stand as the crew went on strike. And demonstrations are becoming the order of the day everywhere in the city. Is Chennai becoming another Kolkata??

Engrossed in these thoughts, I alighted at Tidel and was all set to start a brand new day in office. The sun was still not out. The widening of the OMR stretch between Madhya Kailash and Siruseri had already started in the morning. Tidel Park is a beauty to watch in such a glorious weather. A tasty combo (Idly, Kichdi and Vadai) and delicious filter coffee at C++ Sandwiches made up my breakfast with "Kannum Kannum Nokia" in the background.

In the meantime, my favorite team the San Antonio Spurs had lost game 6 of the NBA finals. It would be a cracker of a finale on friday between two 'D' minded teams and I dont want to miss it. Its 'D' that fetches you championships, they say. Quite true it is!

Altogether a brilliant morning it was.. though a bit upset with the spurs losing a chance to wrap it all.