Chennaiiii....

My hometown, then called Madras, was a seedha-saadha yet another metro city of India until I lived there. Ippo, already hot, hot Chennai is orey the super mega hot Chennaiii-thaan featuring in one of the top 10 cities to visit in 2015! Nowadays I introduce myself as from the land of the Chennai super kings(Dhoni tweeting in Tamil!!) to non-Tamils and some Pakis even surprised me that they knew Chennai because of Chennai Express!!

Spent the summer vacation visiting a lot of places in India this time experiencing almost all kinds of weather - sweltering heat, monsoon, cool and chilly. Traffic, crowd and an upcoming metro rail is the common factor in all cities. The highlight of the trip was celebrating anniversary, birthday, rakhi and friendship day with kith and kin!

More malls and multi storied chains stores in Chennai now but our traditional trip to Landmark book store was a big flop. First got disappointed to find the Nungambakkam branch closed and the branches in Spencer plaza and City central malls had hardly any collection. Surprisingly the Kotturpuram library has been well maintained facility-wise though next time I should consider volunteering at the children's department to organize the books.

Lulu Mall

God's own counrty's newest attraction Lulu mall is so fantastic that A2 commented "I don't know if I am in India or US, Amma!" Fresh and extra green from all the monsoon rains, the scenery of Kerala from a moving train is awesome-o-awesome! Namooru Bengaluru's Cantonment station poratti pottu-fied me this time. Missed a train(did not know that that train won't stop there!), sat waiting 20 mins in a train that was supposed to stop only 2 mins there unable to get down since the pick up person was waiting at the next station!

Mysore Palace

Brindavan Gardens

Musical fountains

And as always tried to eat as much good food as I could to sustain until the next trip. Cream center in Chennai got our vote as it satisfied both the kids and grown ups. Lakshmi Shankar Mess in Coimbatore with its local and organic food scored big. Didn't have enough energy or enthu' or room to try out all that at Eat street in Bangalore, After all that extravagant food, back home, the cereal boxes mocked at me, 'hehe... welcome back!" :-(

Super, super, super!!

Chennai super local kings!




Super sweet, cute song and movie!!



A very long, old but super interesting video...

Out of the world!

Namaste Mars! Ready for Tea & Samosa / Idli & coffee? Proud mom-ent for ISRO!!




Modi is in Madison square, Mangalyaan is in Mars orbit... orey the feelings of India dhaan!!

On a related note, there is this super one way ticket to Mars offer and a few have already jumped into the bandwagon!

Seri adhellaam irukkattum, what is this Multiverse  theory, huh? I am already dizzy hitchhiking my way in the galaxy with Douglas Adam's Guide!

Friday Melody

Anandha yaazhai - Thanga meengal



Just when I started to think Yuvan has lost his touch!

Manasula Soora Kaathey - Cuckoo

Nice melody!

Pakkadha pakkadha - Varuthapadatha valibar sangam



Such a cute romantic song!! Has become a bayangara fan of Sivakarthikeyan!!

Ayayayo anantham - Kumki



Haricharan, IMO, he is the South Indian's Sonu Nigam!! Super songs, lovely cast (Vikram Prabhu is so promising and Lakshmi Menon so expressive!)

Internet-il kandathum suttadhum

 OMG!!

 I-yo!!

 And the top-tucker!!

Sad, sadder, saddest

After all that hype about the Shiva trilogy from folks in India, very excitedly started "The immortals of Meluha" but ended with disappointment! Don't know if it was too much expectation on my part or my tastes don't sync with mainstream now! Sad!

After seeing the book "A history of the world in 10 and 1/2 chapters" in the must read list at a local book store, gave that a shot and ended up sea sick!

After all that sogam, I don't know how I landed with the "Light between the ocean". I mean, it is an excellent book but I am not ready for this kind of sadness now! I was vaguely reminded of an old Banumathi Tamil film called "Annai" but the setting, an island in Western Australia in the early 20th century was new and unique. The two main characters, Tom and Isabella were such an adorable couple! Just couldn't digest the ending. The author could've atleast let her see her once before her, you know! Pch!

To get out all that depression, I aggressively turned to humor of the highest order. With high ratings on all websites and the authors belonging to blog world(orey the kinship only!), started "Let's pretend this never happened" and "Hyperbole and a half". The first chapters seemed ligthly funny. And I get so angry with Athaan when he reads a few pages and gives his verdict when I endure the whole thing hoping (& failing) to disprove him!

May Melody

Dhoorathil naan kanda un mugam - Nizhalgal



Anandha raagam - Panneer Pushpangal



Ennullil edho - Rosappoo ravikkaikari



Ther kondu sendravan - Enakkul oruvan



Devanin kovil - Aruvadai naal

Ensoy!

and last but not least,

Kids broken-hearted over school's Valentine's Day candy ban

Orey the outrage(grown-ups more than kids!) over the decision to ban candy this valentine's day at a school in Connecticut! With left over candies from Halloween still lying around and the prospect of more sweet stuff coming home during Easter looming threateningly, this would be a welcome relief if everyone followed suit. And who cares for warnings like this - Cancer 'tidal wave' on horizon, warns WHO

Seri, namakku edhukku vambu! Lets enjoy this 'out of this world' video! 

Bye 13, Hello 14!

New research! Tirupathi trip, child birth and disney world during Christmas have a lot in common. Humongous pre and post planning, wait in queue/labour and the 3 seconds bliss moment - getting Venkatachalapathy darshan, looking and holding your baby for the first time and seeing the lighted Magic kingdom castle with your kids' faces all lit up respectively!

People who are guilty about not having done enough workout during the year should make a trip to Orlando, FL. The whole year's worth of workout can be done in a few days! Even my toe nails were aching after a couple of days of theme park walking! How much ever I try and avoid not to get sucked in to the Disney mania, summa solla koodathu, the ticket is worth just for Mission space and Soaring in Epcot! Like the Princess in Arabian tales Thousand and one nights, we leave some theme parks every trip to explore for next time thereby not closing the account with Disney.

Theme park tickets - $$$$
Hotel/food - $$$
Wear summer clothes in winter - Priceless!!