Being Miss Babu
“You guys think I am a naive piece of shit, don’t you?” Babu screamed adjusting his spectacles and grooming his non-existent moustache. We didn’t know how to react. Of all the guys in the gang, we knew only Babu could be convinced to do it. Dilip Nair, consummate salesman and super star of Tata Press […]
Mr. Chari’s First Flight
“Did you try Tatkal?” He said. For the 476th time. I wished I could explain to him. How making our PM speak was a possibility as compared to getting a Tatkal ticket on IRCTC. About how I woke up for the first time in years at 6:30 A.M and was staring at the clock to […]
Rosy
She waited to die in his lap. She waited for three whole weeks. And when my father returned to find that he didn’t get his usual welcome at the door, I saw his eyes well up with tears. I knew something had changed in my home forever. We would never be the same again without […]
The Legend of Elikunji
Mothers spoke about him in hushed whispers. When they fed their babies. “If you don’t finish your lunch, Elikunji will take you away.” We debated, “Does he exist? Or is it just a conspiracy to make the babies eat?” But, somewhere in the dark corners of our minds, a nagging question kept us on tenterhooks: […]
The end of Suren as we know him?
For all you guys that know Suren, here’s some breaking news. The rum-loving, party animal who terrorized unsuspecting victims with his ruthless one-liners has been branded. Yeah, that’s what samarshanam means. They brand you with red-hot Sanku and Chakra emblems. What this entails is that Suren is not supposed to drink, smoke, and eat (even […]
Aandal Part 2
Read the first part It was a Sunday afternoon and Aandal was squatting outside our grand ma’s. She was telling my granny about this mentally challenged kid in one of the homes on Alwarpet street. She was talking about how that kid was always screaming for food. “Maami andha payyan eppo paaru bun kaapi bun […]
Aandal
You knew Aandal was in the vicinity when the atrocious stench of her chewing tobacco (called Panneer Pugailai in Tamil) assaulted your nose. It’d normally be early in the morning, around eight, when she would turn up to perform her duties as our maid. No one really knew how she ended up in the neighbourhood. […]
The Historic Test’s Last Day
One of the images that will stay with me for a long time is that of the lady from the cleaning staff of the MAC stadium in Chennai, running up to Sachin Tendular, shaking his hand, and blushing and running back. I was not planning to watch the match in the stadium. One of my […]
More Birds of Chennai
Went birding in Adyar Poonga again and I am still amazed that I found such a rich variety of birds, bang in the middle of the city. Rose Ringed Parakeet Shikra See more pics from Adyra Poonga
Here we go again Chennai!
This time is it is the outfit that Mallika Sherawat wore during the release of Dasavatharam’s music. It seems some self-proclaimed guardians of the so called Tamil culture tried lodging a complaint against Mallika. But the cops refused to accept the complaint saying it is impossible to enforce a dress-code. Oh really? Ask the students […]