Theaters Madras

The Madras of the sixties and seventies upto eighties before it became Chennai ( somehow for a Madras born bred me ,Chennai sounds funny i prefer Madras )was more elite regal and had many firsts .
I will just focus on cinema theaters .
Madras was hub of south Indian cinema .
All four south indian language films were made in Madras .
All film actors ,script writers ,music directors ,choreographers ,extra actors ,make up artistes ,stunt men lived in Madras .
Anyone trying to make it in the film world packed thier dreams in a suitcase and headed to Madras .
The area around Kodambakkam,vadapazhani ,Nungambakkam , T.Nagar were filled with lodges where the small time creative people stayed
Huge studios like AVM,Vijaya Vauhini ,studious were full of activity .
Naturally in such a filmi city there would be good theaters too .
Some of them I remember are

Kapali theater was in Mandaveli was close to where we lived .I remember my mother taking me and sister for matinees as dad was never keen on films.we always used to stand in long ques for a ticket as she would only buy a not very costly one but we enjoyed the trip.
It was only when my uncle and aunt from Dubai came and we all went for a tamil film Chithi that i sat in the costliest srction at that time Rs 2.50 please dont laugh as that amount those days could fetch a lot
Today a beggar wouldnt touch it .
Uncle clearly bored of the melodrama in the film was seen sneaking out to the lobby for a quick smoke which was met with angry grunts from aunty in the dark of the theater !
One rare occasion when my dad did come ( probably he was hen pecked into it )i remember he took me to a nearby small hotel and bought me a plate of mixture while he had a coffee
Nothing tasted as good as that ever because those days eating in hotels were very rare .

Kapali theater was also where me and my fruend cheenu used to go for seeing Deepavali day matinee !
The other theater nearby was in Luz corner named Kamadhenu
Dad never shirked taking us to the famous Childrens theater in Triplicane as it screened only childrens films.
I always remember seeing David Copperfield there .
During my high school days came the multiplex Safire Blue Diamond and Emerald in Mount Road in heart of city .
Blue Diamond screened films continiously ie if you get in with a ticket you can go on watching the same film any number of times till you walk out .
So this was ideal for many visiting city and had time to kill but did not want to pay to a hotel they watched a film slept ate jn the attached refreshment room in air conditioned ambience .
It was also good for lovebirds an ideal perch with no time limits .
Safire was huge 70 mm and always screened Hollywood hits till tamil chauvinism forced them to screen tamil films in nineties.
I remember seeing battle of the bulge
Ben hur ,mary poppins ,if its tuesday it must be belgium,its a mad mad world ,cleopatra etc here .
Emerald also was small theater
Anand theater in mount road again screened good hindi films like Aradhana ,Bawarchi ,Anand film etc
Anand will always be my favourite theater as i saw my first film with a girl ....who is my wife today too  in that theater or in other words it was my first date with her..manjil virinja pookal a malayalam film with a wiry Mohanlal as a grimacing villain.
Down into mount road was the famous Shanti theater said to be owned by veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan himself
The Devi complex was also very posh
The Anna theater nearby came later showed mainly hindi films .
In thousand lights there was the elite sangam complex where we saw lot of films post engagement and after marriage .
Odeon theater was in Royapettah
Casino theater again near Mount road screened mostly english films and Eliphinstone theater near subway of main center of mount road screened mostly malayalam films and was a sort of meeting place for the madras settled keralites.
Marriage matches were made there i heard .
On sundays there would be snaking ques to watch a pencil moustachiod gesticulating Prem nazir to a buxom sheela or a towrering hulk madhu .
Today most of these landmarks have changed some like eliphinstone became shopping complexes
Many are modern movie plazas
Childrens theater was turned into some govt theater with idiot politicians barking
Safire complex was rudely plucked from its owners by sasikala caucus in the nineties

The bliss of the kumbh

Time is a dimension that disappears in the Maha Kumbh mela on the sands of a flowing Ganga as it gushes and frolicks to a meet up with Yamuna and subterranean Saraswati in the Triveni of Allahabad in 2012 .
The cold sands in the banks of the holy river on that winter evening is filled with throngs the multitudes of India on thier spiritual quest .

Those sands are softly treaded by the rishis and saints whose normal abode are the lonely icy peaks of the Himalayas where they lose themselves to infinity .

The sparkling lights of the row boats twinkle at us from  the bobbing river .

Man in his most humbling smallness in the front of an enigmatic all pervading power  that enlivens his soul .

we march on the banks with the trillions on it men women children .

 Souls from varied paths united in thier seek for the supreme .

We get into a boat sent to us by providence which takes us into the lonely middle away from the gushing crowds who appear now as disappearing dots .

The waters of the sacred river are deep and we peer into its blackness and fathom the myraids of lives that have done so earlier .

The boat rocks as it hits a sandbank on the spot where the three rivers unite and merge

Like the melding of the soul to man to create consiousness and life itself .

As we dip into the freezing waters a moment comes when the cold hits us like a sledgehammer but in time we flow into a green world of bliss and joy unparalleled .

Its nirvana itself and we as individuals momentarily stop to exist

We are part of those sparkling waves those spraying drops Maa Ganga has enmeshed our souls and we wished it would never stop but for that state we need aeons of lifes ahead .

We turn back and Mahadev our boatman with the name of the very lord Shiva himself rows us back sedately and leaves us at the banks like a mother placing her children on the floor

 And we walk amongst the Akaras or spiritual tents with thier long haired ash strewn sanyasis ,naga sadhus , in different forms of penance some conversing or debating animatedly some giving speeches to thier followers .

They are deceptive in appearance
 some are unkempt some nude some dressed to kill some elegant some are silent with a benign kind smile some are agitated almost angry some are laughing some are gesticulating.
 Many are highly learned some are IIT graduates phds some are drop outs , some are cheats and charltans making a living out of selling God ,some are selfless true and sincere
A mini cosmos of the matireal world .

We walked and walked far into the nights to preserve memories of the greatest gathering on the face of the earth on the shores of the elixir of life and death .

As the river flowed so would we the day and dusk being buried deep in the subterranean subconscious of our grey matter .

At times they rise uncalled and bob up as nostalgia and stimulate such pieces

Sashi tharoor poem

My ditty on Sashi Tharoor the Twitter Tittie

The Twitter Jitter

 The story of an Indian politician writer
From Kerala  a handsome blighter
  His comments on the twitter
 Mostly   puts him in a titter

He twitted on the cattle class
making himself a clever ass
 Got the fury of the Indian mass
who called his comments as real  crass

 kept his hand in the wrong place
as   national anthem was sung in countrys  praise
no no not where you guys think  or anything  base
 just kept it on his chest he always  says

Handsome sashi   married again and again  none of the times was it in vain
 His good looks could get him all but the  plain
While he jaunted in the first class plane

 Twitter caught him again in trouble
like a  Russian without a rouble
 he got some Meher from  over the border
When his searching  eyes looked for fodder

My advice is better stick to facebook
Even if you have all the good looks
 Twitter seems to be getting  some rooks
In trouble cornered  like crooks

Good looks  roving eyes aren't a good combination
Adding Twitter to this is an exclamation
Then one lands in real commotion
 Then no use  crying over the trepidation

Men by nature are known  to stray
while women want to  make them stay
Men are kids who want  sweets in a tray
And when in trouble they try to get away

So our good looking man in twitter
who  as a writer would always glitter
is now only having a temporary jitter
but for him  these  days surely looks better

His words are big and legendary
When he talks most pick up dictionary
His hobby is to put us in knots
Better than usual political rots

But words and flicked hair
May just cover up his bare
For now but maybe not forever
Sins may catch up wherever

Sashi tharoor the brilliant wizard
Changes colours like a lizard
And mesmerises with his speeches
His voters who cling like leeches .

Tweet and tumble and fumble
Your life is in a rumble
Talk orate speak and make lectures
Twitter is your true texture .

Indian diversity

When one mentions India it almost says read diversity .
India is one country in the whole world which is cauldron of variety
a kaleidoscope of collectibles
A treasure house of cultures ,art ,tastes, traditions ,languages ,history ,landscapes ,climates ,spirituality, music, philosophy .
In every single factor known to mankind and beyond this country in singular in having variety .


With 29 states and 7 union territories the more than 1.2 billion Indians speaking more than 800 languages and hundreds of dialects living in hardy deserts to snowy peaks or the humid plains are as different in their uniqueness as much as they one in their indianess    .
Though its a fashion these days for some to deny this one  cant evade from stark truths just because one doesn't like it .
Romain Rolland says I quote
"If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India ,"unquote


India has been the birthplace of mans quest to the supreme and its manifestations of important and ancient religions of Hinduism ,Buddhism ,Jainsim  ,and Sikhism and many other religions of the world like Christianity ,Islam ,Zoroastrianism  have all echoes of thoughts from Indian ancient ones


Though after freedom the scattered princely states came together they were linguistically divided into the present 29 states and 7 union territories ,
Each state in India stands out in its singular strengths and individuality be it in art forms culinary variety traditions language habits its dress behaviour of its people but there is always as string of undercurrent indianess holding it all together ,


Even in Europe we have several countries as big as states in India but we rarely find this unity in diversity though politically they have come together ,As Swiss culture is definitely different from a French one !


The best part of transition between states in India can never be experienced in a plane flying 30000 feet above land but only by travelling in a train or by road .


Gandhiji knew this and to get into the soul of India he travelled its length and breadth


The very interesting melding of cultures and food and peoples behaviours as one travels from one state to another the gradual change that takes place is palpable in such journeys .
its a discovery that keeps one stunned
its a need to rejoice in this unity in diversity of our country and try to strengthen its federal structure of sharing power in the centre and the state
lets strive to do that .

Premila

 multitasker par excellence
From being a mother ofr a special child for eleven years and learning how to care for her ,to running a centre of more than 140 special children in memory of her daughter and tending them like her own ,to looking after her family and to all aspects of her two children now ,being an excellent cook a travel organiser ,family medical practioner for more than two decades  trained counsellor ,project coordinator of destitute centre in cochin ,and early interventionist of mental disabilities winner of many awards ,trained from a child in Bharatanatyam and a mohiniattam exponent and at present working in Brunei Jerudong park medical centre this wife of mine is a multitasker indeed