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The Chennai that I left back is never the Chennai that I see today. That’s a common statement that we here from NRCs [Non Resident Chennaites] who keep rambling that how good Chennai was in those days when compared to the present. On the other hand we have these patriotic Chennaites who vow to live and die in Chennai even if there is an acute water scarcity. And if you ask them why, they would reply that Chennai still remains the heart of cultural /conservative India.

Apart from the New Yorker restaurants, Leather Bars, the Pasha discos of Park Sheraton and the re-opening of EC 41 on the East Coast Road there are quite a few things that’s makes Chennai better and even the so called patriotic residents and the NRCs fail to capture.

One such amazing thing is the drive to build a median from Guindy to Tambaram on the GST Road. From Tambaram it gets connected with the existing median that runs from Tambaram to Chengalpat. This new median stands at 3ft in height and 2 ft wide and is mostly continuous from Guindy to Tambaram. What’s the big deal about this?

The median that is built now is being made of cement with huge rocks and building blocks. It is also artistically curved at the ends that give a nice appearance. It isn’t one of those yellow painted grills laid as median, which you often find in Chennai. We used to jump over them when we go to colleges. Super heroes, huh!! Those are old humbug solutions. This one seems like a long time solution, probably.

And the interesting thing (!!) really, is that there are water pipes running inside these medians and there are these hanging plants/crotons that are planted throughout the whole stretch. Give another 2 months and see the drive from Guindy to Tambaram becoming a scenic ride to glory with all those greenish plants hanging in from the center of the road. Already Hutch, Airtel and most of this money spinning (read sucking) companies are adopting these medians for a particular distance. They pay the gardeners and make sure the plants are properly maintained.

The only hitch that I see here when some lorry driver who is on his high should crash onto these medians thereby damaging the median. I don’t have high hopes on the highways dept to repair all such damages immediately. Such acts may bring us back to square one.

But we are talking about the hanging gardens of Chennai here. Finally I am happy to get a scenic bike drive on the GST road to my workplace. I would love to have it soon.

And so the rain came down today on a Sunday, telling us, this is how a rain looks like. Chennaites refreshed themselves about the PHENOMENON called rain and went back to sleep. But before that rain went away.

FYI – Little Johnny wants more rain!!.

With the exponentially doubling Chennai traffic, I notice a sharp raise of the speeding ambulances.

Should we be happy about the speedy service that these ambulances render or should we sad of the augmenting emergencies/casualities.

Listening to a Kolla Kuthu (meaning a gaana) song called Sandai Kozhi from Dhanush‘s latest flick Sullaan, me and my friend pondered over the music sense of the current tamil music dierctors.

We both agreed on the fact that Illayaraja‘s music was free flowing even in a Kolla Kuthu song. These days, even if it is a melodious song, either you sit, listen and concentrate to enjoy it. Or shut it down, because it hinders your jobs.

But now, even as I am connected to the net and typing this very blog post, Illayaraja’s 80’s hits is playing in the CD player. Not a slightest disturbance it does to my thinking nor does it affect my flow. It serves as perfect background and still makes me jive. Ok, so you might argue that it is one of those Illayarajaa’s melodiest song that plays now. No way. It is Muthaduthey Muthaduthey Raagam from Nallavanukku Nallavan. It is fairly a fast paced song with disco beats. The amazing way the music flows given S P Balasubramanian‘s lovable voice, I think we are dearth of such music these days.

A R Rahman to a huge level filled up this gap. But because of his recent association with Hollywood, the gap has widened and gives me a feeling that tamil film music is getting down to ditches.

Even Yuvan Shankar Raja or Vidhyasagar comes out with some amazing tunes. I recently fell in love with Bharadhwaj’s Manasukulley song from Autograph, especially that malayalam accent was a great blend and the recent YSR’s Kanna Kaanum Kaalangal from 7G Rainbow colony are precious ones, hard to find stuff in the given tamil music scenario. But they don’t fill up the quest for good music of a tamil music fan. They don’t even come near it.

At this juncture, I can’t hope more except to shout, COME BACK ILLAYARAAJA !!