Fortune Cookies

We went to this Chinese restaurant( PF Chang's at Austin )the other day to indulge ourselves in delicious Chinese food and it was my birthday. Having enjoyed the meal and the bills settled, we were about to leave when the waitress gave me and my husband a cookie each. We broke the cookie to find a fortune written on it. I was amused to find the above words in the cookie. My husband's fortune read as "Those who seek will find"...

Kaatrinile Varum Geetham...

The name M S Subbalakshmi is not new to the carnatic music fans all over the world. The divine voice of this "Bharat Ratna" carries the listener beyond the worries of this world. Be it the rendering of Rajaji's "Kurai Onrum Illai" or Annamacharya's kirthanas, the divine influence is for us to rejoice. One cannot ask for more after listening to her rendering of the sanskrit slokas Sri Vishnu Sahasranama. Mahakavi Bharathiyar's songs come to life when MSS sings them with fervor and life. I'm posting some of my most favourite songs rendered by MS in the form of audio or video. Hope we'll enjoy this

Kurai Onrum Illai:

Kaatrinile Varum Geetham:

Meera Bhajan:

I Know it all

Dedication: To all the "All-in-all azhagurajas"** in my peer group and to the only such person we know: Madhu

"Take it easy dude. I'll solve your problem" is the favorite line of the all-in-all azhagurajas. No matter what your concern is, they have a suggestion. Sometimes they do give wonderful suggestions to their peers like "Try out Coorg* for an adventurous outing. It is a good place" and "Don't take the bus route between Mountroad* and Guindy* today, there is a procession. Take the suburban train". What is best about these people is that they pro actively contact you and give you a few tips with their vivid imagination guiding them to do so. For example, one day Madhu, my cousin called me at 6 a.m.. I woke up from my sleep and took the call with a sleepy hello. I was kinda wondering when he said "Charge your mobile phone..It's battery is going to drain".."how the hell he is saying that when we live at least 15 kms apart and haven't met in the past 1 month?" and to my surprise the phone was indeed running out of battery charge. We cousins kinda keep making fun of Madhu all the time and also conferred the title "Ellam Therinjavan ( the guy who knows everything)" on him. So whenever we have a problem we call him. Like the other day, Madhav, another cousin, had lost his wallet and was searching for it for about 5 minutes. Suddenly he realized "why take the pain?" and called Madhu to locate the wallet for him :)). Despite all the fun we make of Madhu, he is a sport and never tries to underplay his habit of sharing knowledge with others. Hats off to you Madhu.

* Coorg, Mount Road and Guindy are towns in Southern India
**Note: "All-in-all Azhaguraja" is a phrase which defines a person who is adept at everything he does.

I need a parcel

There is this energetic Indian guy who goes into Subway ( for those who don't know, Subway is a fast food chain in America) . He says "I need a veggie sandwich parcel". The cute attendant asks, "Sorry, what?" and this guy repeats "a veggie sandwich parcel" with a sharp accent. The attendant politely and confusedly replies "I'll give you a veggie sandwich but for the parcel you need to go to the post office". This situation may be quite stupid for most of you, but you should know the usage of this word parcel in some parts of India. People walk into a restaurant and say "one masala dosa parcel" and walk out happily with a masala dosa. The catch here is that in the US people refer to take away food as "to go" and "parcel" means a package. In India, the word "parcel" is used in both the places. So this bubbly chap wonders as to "why the hell should i go to a post office to have take away food?".

Home Sweet Home - Triplicane Rocks

• Want to taste hot idli sambar and spicy masala dosa?
• Want to indulge in the divine spirit of Lord Krishna?
• Want to chill out and have an evening with friends and family?
• Want to watch a nail-biting ODI cricket between India and Pakistan?
• Want to take a tour down the lanes of history?

Hang on, its all thrown open to you at Triplicane.

Triplicane also known as Thiruvallikeni ("Thiru alli keni" translated as "The Holy pond with Lily flowers") is a small yet beautiful town in the heart of the Chennai Metropalitan City in India.
It is densely populated with a variety of people like the Tamil Brahmins, Telugu businessmen (they do rice business, in large), the muslim community, the working bachelors and a variety of retail vendors from kaaigari (translated as vegetables) to clothing to grocery super markets. Not to forget about the kaiendhi bhavans(translated as fast food centers) and famous restaurants.

Ratna Cafe
This South Indian Vegetarian restaurant is very famous for its delicious Idli and Sambar ( a south indian snack prepared with rice and urid dhal with a spicy soup like side dish). Ratna cafe has a huge fan-fare from all over Chennai for its unique masala dosa and filter coffee. People even take "parcels" back home from this place. (To read an interesting anectode on how the word parcel is used in India and the US click here). To read reviews on RatnaCafe please click here.

Sri Parthasarathy Swamy temple ( A Hindu worship place)
Sri Parthasarathy temple is one of the 108 sacred SriVaishnavite temples and has Lord Krishna as its main deity. Partha Sarathy means "Charioteer for Partha alias Arjuna". As the epic Mahabharata unfolds, Lord Krishna himself takes the form of charioteer for Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers and enlightens him with The Bhagavat Gita (The Holy Divine Song from the Lord) leading the brothers to victory in the war against evil.

This temple is also known as "Brindaranya Kshetram". Sri Andal is the main consort of Sri Parthasarathy and Sri Rukmini Thaayar is the consort of the Moolavar Sri VenkataKrishnan. Even though the main deity today is Sri Parthasarathy, this temple originally had Lord Sri Narasimha as its main deity. The legend goes that Lord Parathasarathy requested Lord Narasimha to give Him a place in the temple so that He can rest after the tedious Kurukshetra war and He stayed there ever after blessing His devotees. Apart from Lord Parthasarathy and VenkataKrishnan, the temple also has the sanctum-sanctorum of Lord Narasimha, Lord Ranganatha, Lord Rama and Lord Varadharaja. In this temple, Lord Varadharaja offers Nithya Garuda Sevai ( The Lord sits on his chariot Garuda, the Eagle) to His devotees.
This temple is personally very special and close to my heart.

The Marina Beach
Asia's second longest beach, the marina is just the perfect place for an evening outing. Marina is a boon to the Chennai-ites given the scorching hot weather throughout the year. You cannot miss the paatani-sundal ( a spicy snack), molagai bajji (chili hot dog like) when you are out there.

The MCC Stadium
The Chepauk Stadium is no new name to Cricket fans all over the world. In fact, it is Sachin Tendulkar's favorite stadium as he blazes all around with his smashing shots. I was lucky to watch the third day's play of Australia-India Titan Cup Test Match at this stadium.

Down the lanes of History
All the places like Ratna Cafe, Sri Parthasarathy temple ,MCC Stadium are as old as my ancestors. Yet, thats not all with Triplicane. It has other famous highlights . One such monument is The Hindu Hr. Sec. School.
Some famous students of this "Red Building" are Mahakavi Subramani Bharathi, Nobel laureate Chandrasekar.
Vivekanandar Illam (associate this with Swami Vivekananda) or the "Ice House" is another famous landmark at Triplicane.

To Reach Triplicane,
Nearest Railway Station: Chennai Central ( approximately 3 Kms from Chennai Central )
Nearest Airport: Anna International Terminal, Chennai ( approximately 10 kms from the airport)

While you are there at Chennai, visit Triplicane. It definitely rocks!