Recent News in Chromepet

Vanakkam Nanbargalay.........

I hope many of you might be aware of my recent visit to Chromepet. It was very nice trip and enjoyed roaming in the streets of chromepet. Now I would like to share the recent news in chromepet with you all.

BREAKING NEWS:

As now it is become a fashion in all the television channels to display each and every news as 'Breaking News', I also will try to adapt the same now in this post..

The famous Church 'Amala Annai Aalayam' was broken (demolished) probably for further construction. This is the first breaking news in Chromepet. This church forms a part of the famous school Holy Angels Matriculation, where so many legends were grown and now several of those have become popular too.. Great School, great students..

Secondly, I was told that the founder cum owner of the famous one and only Nayar Kadai (Tiffin Shop)expired recently. So as a mark of respect and condolence the Nayar Kadai remained closed for a day. I visited once and met the sons who were as usual busy with their business. Also I came to understand that one of the brother (I guess Mr. Ravi) has moved apart from the main shop and opened a branch some where near hastinapuram.

The Hyssop VSP hotel is now the talk of the town. Unfortunately due to various reasons I was not able to visit the hotel even once, but came to understand that the quality as well as the cost is good. This hotel is now become a hot spot for the youngsters particularly during week ends.

For a change I found the Radha Nagar main road to be well laid and maintained to a greater stretch until Nemilicherry. Also I could see the M52E metropolitan Transport (MTC) bus roaring in the streets of Radha Nagar.

I got chance to ride on bike (Bike courtesy my niece Ms. Lavanya) in the streets of Radha Nagar. But to my disappoint I was treated like alien and in fact once got shouted by co-riders for using the indicators while riding the bike. When ever I used the indicator the near by vehicle riders starred at me as if I am from some unknown planet.!! One fellow shouted at me for using indicator and asked me in tamil 'Un Kai nallaa thaaney irukku, pina edukku indicator use panra' (means your hands are ok, then why to use indicators..!!).. I was stunned and there after never used indicator (to be true.. after this incident i never used the bike.. !!). Nalla kelupuraangaiya beedhiya...!!

Another interesting information I heard was, that oflate traffic police are so vigilant and strict in catching the offenders of not using the helmet for two wheelers. It seems if a person rides a bike without helmet the penalty is only Rs.50/- where as if a person has a helmet and if he does not wear while riding his bike the penalty is Rs. 100/- .. enna kodumai saravanan idhu.. I am not sure of the authenticity of this information.. Utkaarandhu yosipaangaloo...!!

The crowd for purchasing the train ticket was lengthier than the number of coaches in 2 electric trains!!.. No improvement at all in this issue..!! I felt this huge crowd might encourage lots of illegal (without train ticket) passengers in the electric train..

The great vettri and rakesh theaters remains same. I happened to watch (unfortunately!!) the tamil movie SURA in vettri theater. It was the very first week of this movie got released and to my surprise I got the tickets in the counter (totally empty..!!, the ticket issuer was all alone .. looking so sad..!!). Once I went inside and saw the movie I then realised the reason behind the ticket counter being empty..!! Also I co-related the dailogue of SURA after watching the whole movie... "SURA padam paarkkaradukku munnadi nalla yosichukoo.. yena padam paartha appuram konjam kuda yosikka mudiyaadhu".. aaavvvv... I became speechless until home after exiting the theater..!!!

Few of the old characters (shop people) recognised me and I had a brief chat with them too..

These were few of the recent updates about Chromepet. I shall narrate more in the coming posts..

I hope by this time the heat might have reduced to some extent in Chennai. Beat the heat (summer) with Thayir sadam... Njoy this blog post about thayir sadam: Courtesy Mr. Badri

http://chinnuv1.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/thayirsadham-oru-varaprasadham%e2%80%a6-rusi-kandavarrkkutagline

---vartaa..

My First Experience of Original Tirunelveli Halwa

Vanakkam Nanbargalay....

I hope all are fine and busy with their own routines. Summer is at its peak every where in particular at Chennai. I some how managed to visit during the peak Summer so called as 'Agni Natchathiram' (not the tamil movie..ok??) during May 2010. As a result we got nicely fried in the non-stop heat of the summer through out our trip. Just to cool us, before our departure we were able to experience the heavy rain fall in the name of cyclone 'Laila'. That was really so nice to enjoy the thunder and the heavy rain in chennai that too during May month..

We also managed to visit so many places during our trip to Chennai. I would like to share my experience of one of our trip, that is Tirunelveli. The main agenda of our tirunelveli trip was to visit a family temple near a place called seranmahadevi (now they call it as seranmadevi..). We had a pleasant & comfortable train travel from Chennai to Tirunelveli. We have planned and arranged the things very well before our travel to tirunelveli. So every thing went on well during our entire travel.

We visited few tourist spots like Famous water Falls 'Kuttralam', 'Pabanasam', 'Agasthiyar Falls' apart from en route temples like Nellaippar, Kailasanathar etc., To our disappointment there was very little water falls in kuttralam. But we thoroughly enjoyed a detailed bath in agasthiyar falls. We were told that this agasthiyar falls has abundant water through out 365 days. I cant put in words of the joy we had in this falls.. Amazing.. When ever some one visit tirunelveli never miss to have a shower in this falls.

The high light of the entire tirunelveli trip consists of two things. One is the visit to the family temple 'Kallur' Sivan Temple which is on the banks of the river tamira barani. Excellent temple to visit. The idol of shiva is a 'swayambu' (Swayambu = originated of its own.. not man made idol..) and this temple is just 1500 years old. Great sculputres and fantastic divinity through out the temple. We were told by the priest that this particular shiva temple is second in number in the Nava Kailsam (Nine shiva temples) and also this is the one and only temple where Goddess Parvathi resides on the right side of Lord Shiva in the temple. This is the very first time I am visiting this temple and thoroughly felt the divinity of the place. Memorable experience.

The second high light was the famous tirunelvi halwa which is sold in the popular so called 'Iruttu Kadai' (Iruttu Kadai = Dark Shop; less lighting..!!) This shop is located just in front of the famous nellaippar temple. We found more crowd in front of the shop than the temple. So we also joined in the Jyothi and became one among the crowd. It seems this shops opens only in the evening at around 6.15 and closes exactly at 7.45 likely. We bought smaller quantity of halwa and tasted at the same time. Wonderful taste. What a moment was that.. Original Tirunelveli Halwa... that too in front of the shop which is the authenticated seller of this famous halwa and also we were served hot halwas in plantain leaf... Then we filled our bags with sufficient quantity for our chennai consumption as well as distribution for our relatives and friends..

So far I was very nicely given 'HALWA' (bulb!!) by so many people... This is the very first time I myself got the original halwa of my own..!! I am sure many of you might have got nice halwa (bulbs!!) from several of your friends etc.,!!

Apart from this two high lights there were several nice experience during our tirunelveli trip. I shall try to share it with you in the future posts..

vartaa....