Myriad musings of a mylaporean

Mylapore is one of chennai’s oldest localities , getting it’s name from the lore of Goddess Parvathy coming in the form of a peacock and offering the leaves of Vilva maram to Lord Shiva, this being in the famous temple of Lord Kapaleeshwara. Ask for the tank stop, and you will find the gargantuan gopuram of the temple shining down on you with the words “Anbe Sivam”, clearly showering the love of Lord Parameshwara onto all his children.
IT was an extremely sultry sunday evening , my mind was feeling smothered and I needed a breath of fresh air and I needed refuge from the thoughts that eat me alive during the weekdays … so I left to 2 spots in mylapore where you could spend hours without even realising.
After getting off a PTC en route the temple, i took a nice roundabout walk to the temple premises. The street shopkeepers selling everything starting from women’s accessories to slippers to toys and clay artefacts even. The street surrounding the temple tank also is home to yet another Saravana Bhavan [who’s quality of food, not to mention service, is highly overrated, if I may add]. Also around that stretch you will find many jewellery shops ice cream parlours , Mylapore maami’s bajji’s on one end of the lane leadin to the entrance of kabali temple.
On the other stretch we have a chat shop where the food is palatable.
That walk on the sunday evening made me realise wat a mix of two worlds we CBUTB’s have become [Chennai.Born.Urban.Tam.Bhrams]. I was reminded of the time when my grandma looked at my Q & Q black dialled watch and asked “Yenna maa dosa tava maadiri watch poturka?” and also reminded of my uncle [who is a columnist in a carnatic music magazine] throwing me looks of shock and anger and termed my love for GnR as blasphemy 😀
This is what happens when you listen to Metallica’s “Wherever I may roam” and walk around the Mylapore temple tank, while other people throw you weird looks…
The second best place in Mylapore has to be the Universal Temple at RKMutt.
No matter how much of a barbarian a person is on other stretches of Chennai, they shut thier traps and sit in silence in the temple. A great place to set aside your worries and meditate. That is , if you’re into that kind of a thing. This temple is very similar in structure to the RKMutt temple in Kolkata.
Mylapore has always held a special place in my heart and forever will be … this place is home ground to my alma mater , my lord 😀 and is of course home to Luz Corner, where you can always drop in for a evening stroll for shopping for chunky jewellery or ice-cream at Aavin.
The Nava Sakthi Vinayagar temple at the Luz intersection is one of the most popular Ganesh temples in Chennai, rock bound by people’s faith, a must see for all ganesha devotees.
The other side of Mylapore is also home to some very special places in my heart 😉
Including my place of birth .. someday , they will rename the entire block after me .. the Trinity Teal block .. [yeah yeah nenapu thaan]
Was flooded with memories on that evening in mylai … but these myriad bunch wpuld do for now 🙂

Of Birthdays and bashes! [minus the bumps]

Connect the following~

Lara, The Rock, Becks and Satyajit Ray.
All share one common teensy weensy detail wid me … yep … my bday!

Maybe that’s because we are pioneers in our field 😛 [OK ok … so much for modesty!]
There was something about this May 2nd, that I would probably not ever forget in my entire life …..
The day started out as drab as a typical weekday … long waiting for the bus that would take me to work, after reaching the place an abyssmal 15 mins late, the lady who waited me was gracious enough to patiently work it out and ultimately the work got done. Then I had to meet my buddies who were working at the other facility for a quick lunch before I headed back.
Little did I know what they had in store for me!
As I reached the facility, BDogg had the all pervading herculean task of keeping me distracted from the surprise … which he proclaimed he sucked at … but good going bro! I was really surprised! 😀 Interodonna surprised me by taking off work just to spend time with me , babe lovya loads >:DAfter watching and gazing at the new water fountains and the fake palm trees put up in the entrance, Hazel came over to blindfold me and drag me into a small coffee joint, which had opened up in our food court.
Voila!
Waiting inside was Interodonna, Fluffy, Granny , BDogg [contrary to his nick, he is no hip-hop reak or fan of Snoop doggy dogg 😛 ] and Meanie along with a lovely chocolate truffle cake just waiting to be devoured. I blew all the candles on the cake [quite a lot, believe me 😛 ] which means, my wish will come true 😉

Thanks to the sumptousness of the cake, most of the gang junta dint want to waste fudge on my face, save BDogg who put cake on my face anyways … phbbt .. 😛
This was just the beginning! Bdogg walked to the farther part of the cafe, to bring back a lovely 14 fret acoustic guitar. And then I was told that Hell’s Angel and Interodonna were also a huge part of this Master surprise 😀

HA called me all the way from Hyd and spoke for a looong time. After me, meanie played and sang with the rest of the gang junta, we headed right to the food court. After a treat at pizza hut for the gang, I headed back to the other facility for another day of work, where Bday Cake part 2 happened. This time it was a Black Forrest cake. 😀
***So much for health consciousness***
But my teammies werent as nice … got a superb facial of icing … great moisturiser you know!
All in all … one of my best birthdays ever … a red letter day in my life.
Something that I would never ever forget.