)…Read one and a half books…Watched Chennai 600028…..Watched loadsa lovely cartoons (Thanks to my cousins)…Had fun watching that crappy Chutti TV 
(It’s fun watching cartoons in Tamil and its funnier watching Chutti TV hosts pretending to be cool like those in Pogo/Disney/any other sane channel 
)..Attended my first unofficial bloggers meet…A detailed report ensues
Chennai 600 028 :
A must-watch movie…Neat movie sans histroinics and Vijaykanth( You could also replace this word with words like Rajni, Vijay, Simbu, Dhanush et al )-like-antics…The skimpily clad girl was
an avoidable element actually and so was the other heroine…Neways a little bit of Masala here and there, doesn’t hurt, does it ? The songs are nice to listen to ….”Jalsa” is a common favourite, as far as my 7-9 year old cousins and I are concerned…..But the songs, I felt, were misplaced enitities in the movie…The movie would have been better if it were not for the girls and songs….
The Namesake :
A must-read book…I could go on and on about this book…Jhumpa Lahiri is a very talented and impressive and gifted story teller…I didn’t like her “Interpreter of Maladies and the other Stories” very much…But this book is so very refreshing and nice to read…Nobody can beat her, when it comes to describing the most trivial and insignificant detail in a very delightful and charming manner…The Bengali customs mentioned, the American tradition that Gogol takes a fancy to, Gogol’s birth, Ashima’s love towards Calcutta and Indian’ness’, Ashoke’s subtle and mature approach to anything and everything, his fondness for Nikolai Gogol, the typical Indian parties thrown in the course of the story, Gogol’s temporary infatuations, his ‘incontrovertible’ (Thanks Jhumpa, for this word…I love it 
) transformation into an adult, his detachment at the same time attachment towards his kinfolk, the name-change from Gogol to Nikhil, the regret, that he feels towards the end, when he realizes there is absolutely nobody around to call him Gogol, everything almost every single thing in this book is so marvellously written…Please do read this book…If you don’t lay your hands on this book, then you are missing out on something…Do not watch the movie, for heaven’s sake (i haven’t watched the movie as yet…Would love to watch..but if you are planning on watching the movie, watch it only after you read the book..) The movie might not have liberal doses of gratifying adjectives/descriptions in it…Read this book asap. Period.
Radio Channels in Chennai :
What do you do, when you are not in your home-town, with your kith and kin, snoring loudly in another room, with your cousins yelling their throats out, fighting in an unmanageable way, on a broiler ?? Listen to sooper programmes, that the boom box has to offer..I listened to every single programme on every radio channel possible …Just like I surf the Internet and the television channels, I surfed the radio channels as well… I recharged my batteries once in every 12 hours (For the remaining 12 hours, the player would be functioning non-stop)….I thought I could rate the radio channels on a scale from one to seven…
No 7 : Suryan FM (Cheapy is the word…The RJs suck bigtime…..They giggle throuought the show, ceaselessly..Now and then, they croak and snort too…You want Kuthu songs, you SHOULD definitely tune into 93.5)
No 6 : Big FM (Nothing Big in it to rave about..The selection of songs is pretty good actually..You can tune into 92.7, if the other channels sound muffled to your ears)
No 5 : Hello FM and Aaha FM (Nothing much to comment on…That 9-10 programme on Aaha FM sucks bigtime…I don’t know, what it is called though..It involves a lot of characters, talking asininely..)
The fourth spot is vacant, cauz there are 2 radio channels occupying the 5th position
No 3 : Radio City (Neat channel….Sooper RJs, who talk wunnerful English…The only FM channel, that plays Hindi, English and Tamil songs 24 *7…All the English songs, that they play on this channel are lovely to listen to…So are the Hindi and Tamil songs…Love their selection of songs)
No 2 : Radio One (90% of the programmes are good…Heard Mirchi Suchi is going to come into their firm as an RJ…That Neela lady, who does some teleshopping gap-filler programme in this channel is irritating and funny at the same time..)
No 1 : Radio Mirchi (obviously !! Am not biased in any way…It’s a fantastic channel, with sooper-cool RJs like Ajay, Shiva and Deva…Love all of ‘em…I never fail to listen to Radio
Rettaivaals in the morning…That Rettaivaals song is damn funny, especially the part in which a guy says “Yen ma..5 rooba ku paada sonna 50 rooba ku padituirukkiye…porum porum”…Humour, dynamism, zing and zeal are something that these RJs are inherently gifted with..this channel is definitely as hot as the brand emblem molagai )
The Unofficial Blogger’s meet :
Met Sangeetha Akka there in Chennai….Spent an entire half-day with her…We walked all the way from my relative’s place to her place…On the way, we messily devoured a Chocobar each…I never knew virtual world could be of great help in finding friends in total strangers….She is such a sweet-heart…Came to realize that she is a distant relative of one of my very close friends Her parents and grandparents are sweet as well…And yeah, that Ganapati bommai near the television at her place is sweet as well…We were supposed to go out together to a CRY (Child Rights and You, not Child Relief and You) meeting and to the British Council Library…But Poor Akka, lost her mobile phone ….An easy camaraderie existed between the two of us…In Harish’s terms, we had this ‘haven’t-we-met-before’ feeling in our hearts… Thanks Akka for having spent a substantial amount of time with me, for putting up with me…Thanks for everything Hoping to meet you soon, either here at my place or there in Chennai…Thanks Blogger !!
And the Rest……
The vocabulary of my 2 insane,cute little male cousins has increased, after their trip to Chennai…They call each other Machan now…They shout Saroja Samanikalo at passers-by, from the terrace (One man, walking on the road, after listening to the little one shouting ‘Saroja…’ , came home and blasted my uncle )…..They say “Naanga Jalsa Panninom”, when you ask them “yenna da panninel Chennai la? “…
And Happy Happy Budday Mani Ratnam and belated birthday wishes Maddy
Well that’s all from my end….Am baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkk !!
Radio Mirchi is the best. have u read the inheritance of loss
hi! good to see u baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!
back a?? avlo thaan i wud be missing atleast ten posts i n the next ten days….:(…anyway anga net irundha paappen
.
@ Jagan –>Thanks for dropping by
Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai ? Nope…Have to read it…heard it’s pretty good..Have you read it ?
@ Iyer –> Hey..good to see your comment as well
@ Sharan –> he he…Paaru paaru net irundha paaru…blog um pannu
..Travelogue-updates on Idle Mind 
…Sharan’s heroic exploits (edha andha maari irundha, that is !) 
Nice to see you back!Looks like you enjoyed the trip to Chennai(barring the weather,of course).Good’review’ of radio channels, though I listen to them only very rarely.The heat is actually ‘cooling off’ here a bit now.And looking forward to your poetry.Seriously,it is quite good and makes worthwhile reading.
Sathej
hmm somebody back eh, to wreak havoc on this poor page again hehe…anyways nice to see you caught up with virtual friends, good feeling actually, gives to a reason to go back and visit the place for the heck of catchin up with em…..
oh had fun eh? good..and i told u namesake is lovely didnt i?? where did u get it btw? try interpreter of maladies..is aweome too…
@ Sathej –> The heat is cooling off ?? Hmm…The temperature must’ve decreased from 39 to 35 degrees prolly…Yeah will write poetry, prose and fiction in the forthcoming days
@ Shrey –>
“gives to a reason to go back and visit the place for the heck of catchin up with em”
Very true
@ Uttara –> I did read The Interpreter of Maladies..Infact, that was the very first Jhumpa book, that I came across..Couldn’t appreciate all the short stories though..A few were good…:)
Thanks,Nithya:)
It was simply wonderful to meet you,too!Wish i hadnt lost my mobile phone at such a wrong timing:(
What a slave we have become to technology…!!!
These days i PRACTICALLY dont memorize phone numbers…thanks to my estranged(!)mobile phone…
welcome the back!
1. Me also watched Chennai 600028 – awesome movie! very realistic and very very funny. enjoyed it!
2. Yet to get my copy of Namesake
3. Radio Mirchi rules!! even in Hyderabad, that is. the rest are just crap.
4. your cousins sound adorable! and that ’saroja saaman nikalo’ bit is just so rad! I watch that comedy competition on Vijay tv just to hear this!
@ Aprilslady –> Technology has its own boons and banes..We all know it too very well..It’s a worn-out debate topic…
@ Priya –>
…I liked that “Enna Kodumai Sir Idhu” fellow…what about you ??
1) Yeah absolutely
2)Oh..Do it quickly please
you will like the book…
3)YEah…5 !!
4):)
“’saroja saaman nikalo’ bit is just so rad!”
It definitely is ….and I too watch that Kalakapovathu Yaaru show on Vijay, just for that refrain