Akshaya Trithi

Yesterday, May 11th 2005, was the day of "Akshaya Trithiyai"(AT). Buying gold on this particular day would lead to heaps of gold right through the year - so goes a school of thought. In fact, the media managers were quite busy for the last 2 weeks creating a hype targeting the women folks. I felt that the hype was more pronounced this year. I was not aware that such an event existed, say, 5 years back.

If you ask me if I went for this "Gold rush", my response would be in the affirmative. I saw an eagerness in my mom when she asked me, 2 days earlier, what to get on the eve of AT. I got the cue and promptly took her to, you know it, TNagar - the hotspot in Chennai. The crowd was amazing, to say the least. Even the small jewellery shops were not spared. The stores were open as early as 5:30 in the morning and went on till 11pm in the night.

I just talked to one of the employees in one of the stores about his experience that day. It was already late evening. His voice dropped when he mentioned that he was working since morning and could go home only by midnight. He could not move anywhere and was surviving on biscuits/tea alone for the whole day. Poor folks. But then, who cares about them when there is a wave of people thronging the shops. The Gold business succeeded, for they made a sale of, hold your breathe, 100 crores (1 billion) in Chennai city alone on that particular day.

I am really wondering as to why the purchase has to be of gold only. Why not some other consumer durables or any other thing? In fact, the other retailers were also trying to woo people to buy their products on this day. There was this ad, trying vainly, "Why buy gold on Akshaya Trithiyai. Buy a mobile phone, instead'. I am sure he may not be laughing his way to the bank as the jewellers did.

May 12, '05

I came across the mention of "Everybody loves Raymond" show in Filbert's blog. I really felt bad for having missed to see it during my earlier trips to US. I like Friends, Bill Corsby's show. Man, they create wonders!!

I was contemplating on the reason for the serials in India not unto standards or rather, as a matter of fact much below standards. Why do the serial makers harp on the same formula? They have the same run of the mill stories - the heroine to be soft-spoken and another female in a negative role, who decks up in jewels, jeopardize things for the heroine especially because she lost in the game of love or else it is the fight of two women for the same man or a mother in law abusing her daughter in law. God, I need a break!!!!

At times, I used to wonder how much revenue do these ladies generate for the glycerin factories. How many times the dialogue writer scripts the same words? I guess he may not recheck his wordings. The negative energy associated with these words is so high and is bound to affect the writer himself!!!

The twist and the turns in the plot are based on the availability of the artistes. There are births and rebirths also. More than it, it is a major achievement if the same artistes partake from the start till the end of mega serials, if at all it has any.

One of the major things that capture the attention in these serial especially the Hindi ones, is the costume. I really wish the directors spent more or rather at least an equal time on the script than the costume!!

I don’t remember having seen any good comedy serials for a while. The current ones are really pathetic. To say the truth, pathetic is also euphemistic. Just as in silver screen, where the Tamil movie thrillers have its theme adapted or rather fine-tuned from a Hollywood movies, these small screen serials too ape the successful English comedies and fail miserably. Why don’t they understand that the viewers expect originality?

May 09, '05

Folks like me who are the core fanatics of Chennai, would fail miserably in one topic i.e. the Chennai climate, which of late had been the "hot, hotter and hottest". The Agni nakshathiram had begun on May 4th with a squall and light drizzle preceding it. This gave faint hope of having a cooler summer and as well as raising our collar against all those who complain about the Chennai Summer to say, "After all, our Chennai weather is not so bad. you see"

But the heat on Saturday really shattered all the hopes and little did I realize that all my hope would crash and tumble with a heavier acceleration to the ground. My God, what a summer it is!!! Being in the air-conditioned rooms on most of the weekdays, did not give me the chance to meet the summer.

We had been on a trip to Chengalpattu on Saturday. The sweltering heat of Chennai summer totally diminished the car AC and I really had doubts that I shall have a pronounced dehydration or that I shall see myself melting.

Chennai is one of the most beautiful cities, which can boast of having a beautiful shoreline. It is a place where people can afford to eat a meal from five to five hundred rupees. It is a city, which nurtures many industries. After all the weather had not been so bad some 15 years back. The power cuts during peak summer was always taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, I do accept that during those years, we did have some free space for the wind to move around. But why there are so many changes in the recent years. Is it b'cos of a gross fault in city infrastructure or a dearth of city planning?? Where did we fail?

Is it the recent sprout of multi storeyed buildings or the deeper search for ground water or the sudden explosion of vehicles or the consecutive failure of monsoons the reason for such a climatic change???

All I can say to end this blog is “May God save our singara Chennai!!!!”