Chennai Diaries

We are hoping for the best

 

Happy to be in India Satchi. We are planning to meet my uncle’s wife on Sunday. No auspicious things for 13 days including Temple visits.

 

Day 3 - Friday - Chennai Diaries

The first day that started with more hopes and less stress. We had a good night sleep and the car reported on time. Unfortunately I could not get appointment with the tax advisor in the morning but the builder confirmed the meeting at the worksite of our house. My wife and I did some shopping in the morning. We ordered some gift items for the builder’s staff in a gift shop called Chaya in Eldams Road. Then we proceeded to Mylapore Kitchen located in 10th Cross Street, Indra Nagar to buy some interesting delicacies. This company was only shipping items to their customers including international shipping. Now, they have taken a place to display their pickles, vadams, ready to eat mixes, etc. We bought some items to taste while we are in Chennai so that we can request them to ship some items regularly. I never knew such a company existed and we generally buy things from Grand Sweets and Subham.

We had sumptuous lunch and then headed towards ECR to visit our house construction site. The house has come to a great shape but got a little overwhelmed to see how much work is still left out to finish. But the builder is confident he could finish all of it before Grahapravesam. Only set back was tiles as the supplier lost the ordered items due to unexpected rains in Chennai. Now we have to perform our Grahapravesam without tiles being placed. However, the builder is arranging to clean the floor and place sheets (Jamukkalams) for the guests to walk around the house.

Today we are having discussion with the caterer followed by a meeting with the tax advisor to sort out our long-standing tax refund issue.

 

My wife found her while she was searching on the internet in the US. She told me before the trip that she wanted to visit. I just accompanied her. Now that I know her stray animal welfare measures, we will definitely commit to buy from Mylapore Kitchen.

 

Ever since my uncle became a film personality, I have lost contact with him as he made himself unreachable for his relatives. Probably, he thought his relatives will knock at his doors for money. We knew he had a major health issue 20 years back. It has become a habit for the film personalities to develop some unwanted habits and kill the lever. Finally, his habits consumed him. I am not writing this to blame a dead man but so saddened to lose him as we were just six months apart from each other in terms of age. We are planning to meet his wife on Sunday as I didn’t want to be part of film industry’s tribute to him.

I remembered the days (1960s) as a young boy his interest to write scripts for a play in the village ask us all to act in the play. I also remembered the days he struggled to find the next meal. I was studying CA in Chennai when he was aspiring to become a director. I used to visit him regularly those days. I remembered the actor Kamalahasan giving him an introduction to Bharathiraja to become an Assistant Director. His first debut as an Assistant Director was Pudiya Varpugal. He used to be friends with Suhasini, Robert and Rajasekhar , the budding cinematographers who were graduating from the film industry in the 70s. He used to buy a lot of books about film industry from Alwar, a Mylapore street vendor. I have attended a few of his shootings when he became an independent director. In the meantime I became a practicing CA and in my own rights had tax practice with prominent film industry stalwarts like Balu Mahendra and actress Shoba. I will write about my experience of visiting Shoba’s funeral another day.

 

I am glad you have nothing but good memories of your trips. I also had great experiences until recently when I asked for wheel chair for my mil. I like United/Lufthansa combo very much.