Nostalgic notes

[nsmkrish]

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Theatres in Chennai
Here in this thread I would like to share my musing about the past as the title says. This one is about the theatres in Chennai.
Mount Road had all our favourite theatres. I remember watching Godfather and Jaws at the old-fashioned Casino which had pillars in between seats. Magnificient Seven, Bond movies at a modernised Sathyam, Bridge Too Far, Battle of the Bulge at Safire and Wild Geese at Pilot. I am mentioning a few here.
Devi theatre once featured a Charlie Chaplin festival. Blue Diamond had continuous shows where we caught John Wayne's Hatari.
After cutting classes, I would always go home, tell my mother I was going to a film and then go after changing the school uniform. We would go to one film watch it and reserve a ticket for another. Sometimes we would go for matinee and if we did not get tickets will wait and watch the evening show. English films were our favourites. Films used to dictate our life. We had to cut classes according to the show time and wait.
With DVDs powering themselves into the scene, the mountain has come to Mohammed. The rare charm of waiting and watching the stars has faded. Their greatness has been robbed by the frequency with which we see them. The silver screen had a magic that made stars and stories appear far off and mysterious. Hindi evergreen star Dev Anand once said that he was a star and hence would not appear on television as the charm would fade away. How true!
But now, thanks to DVDs we can control all the stars, we can watch any film any number of times whenever we want.

 

[nsmkrish]

Nail in the wall
We went to our Uncle's village in Palakkad some years back. Nice quiet place, looks hidden from the prying eyes of the crowd. Has its equal share of development (cable TVs, cars etc) and antiquity.
My mother always wanted to go there were she was born (also my brother) and grew up. As we went, she showed me the school where she and her brother studied. As soon as she reached the house, she went inside and then later told us: "I went inside to see whether there was the nail on which I used to hang the school bag. It is still there."
It evoked similar feelings in me; my school and college days came back to me.
I think there is always a nail in the wall in all our lives. An old friend or enemy, a school teacher, a tree, a street, whatnot. Something we would like to visit really or in thoughts.
How many of us have left our villages or shifted within a city or moved out?
Oftentimes I have felt strange moments of sentimental silence when I visit villages where I have been as a boy.
Before a person dies he/she feels like visiting the place where they spent their childhood. Coming a full circle, probably.

 

[manoharkumar]

Thanks Krish,
For making me roll back to my village days in my thoughts, though sitting in front of the computer, mind travels so fast to those things i did in my village... those many faces of farmers in our ancestral lands, those many friiends with whom we played so many games, the endless hours spent in the sugarcane fields, or in the river bed spalshing in the flowing crystal clear water!!! I also look for the signatures that we made in the beams with date and think what happenned that day... i still remember that day when we had electricity in our homes ....Like mr.Saidevo in his thread of "kadhai muyarchigal" i see the nostalgic writings in english here.. keep this up. CAn i also join about the nostalgic chennai theatres?
Cheers!!

 

[nsmkrish]

Yes Manohar, there are many memories waiting to gush out. I hope to share them here and bring out such feelings. You should write about Chennai theatres. Please do.

 

[guruvayurappan]

dear nsmkrish !
nice nostalgic theater and village visit.as sri .manohar kumar said ,let me also join . when i visit Bangalore ,i visit ulsoor area to find out LIDO where i saw magnan's gold the towering inferno etc. but i could find Big bazaar shop only.in school days many of friends visit english film theatre for sex film .did you go to english film for it good content or anything else ? i went to english film after hearing from my friends about it good content only .THE BENher ,TEN COmmanments and CLeoptra films are still in my memory.in trichy many theatre has vanished .seeing first day first show was our priority and i felt like done a heroism .my friends will come and listen to the story.i used to go some film for the side reels (laral &hardy,charly japline and cartoon ).reacall the news reel before every film.only ad. nowadays.there are many and will be sahred when you kindle our thoughts with your post.
when we visit the village many thing has changed and even the temple look has changed with mosaic flooring.we used to have thayir saadam(pazhya soru )served in our hands by our grand mother without pickles.when asked for pikles ,my grand ma will say only your kattai viral is the pickle.
guruvayurappan

 

[nsmkrish]

dear Mr. guruvayurappan. I thank you for sharing your flashback feelings with us. Films like Ben Hur and Ten Commandments are favourites even now just are Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. What you say about pickles is nice. Do share more thoughts. Thanks again

 

[Raji Ram]

........ But now, thanks to DVDs we can control all the stars, we can watch any film any number of times whenever we want.

We can thank youtube also which has many full movies uploaded.
Last month, I saw the movie which I had missed, on youtube! :ranger:

Here is the link:

7am Arivu full movies (2011) [suara DVDRip -700MB]TMZ.mp4 - YouTube

Added advantages are:

1. No expenses on tickets, transport and DVD.

2. No hooting by the wild 'rasikAs'.
3. No smell of cigarettes and humans! eace:

 

[Brahmanyan]

Memories are precious. I remember my first visit to Madras in 1946, when ever I visit Chennai now. Many of the places I visited then are gone for good. Valluvar Kottam at the Numgambakkam Lake is one such place. Old Mount road is gone as also the Madras Electric Trams and historic Marmalong bridge, neither I could see Moor Marcket or the penitentiary buildings. Where is Roundtana now? I can add on so many things about Madras, which I have seen when I was young..

“Change (parivarthan) is the essence of Life (niyam)” declares Lord Krishna in the Bhagwat Geeta.

Cheers,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[nsmkrish]

Yes, even Yahoo movieplex has some movies, though the collection is limited. I dont mind the rasikas hooting and theatres do offer privacy and quality movie-watching time.

 

[nsmkrish]

Mr. Brahmanyan , Chennai is changing in such a way you wont recognise it. Nowadays the building of metrorail is disrupting traffic and altering the landscape. But after metro comes, our travel woes will end. As Lord Krishna says, change is needed. Thanks

 

[manoharkumar]

Chennai is changing in such a way you wont recognise it.

Yes Krish, but one thing i cannot understand is why with the change the first casualty has to be the green in the city. How many trees have been felled and in the entire mountroad stretch from fort station to the and not even single big trees that lined both the ways are to be found. When people die or pass away there is so much regret but when the huge trees of 100 years or more are felled no one cries for them?
The new secretariat buiding has consumed more than 50 huge trees inside that place and the coolness one used to feel while passing that area in completely gone. Except for the guindy IIT complex and goverors place i cannot find that huge greenery that chennai used to have.. so sad!!!
My brother from Bangalore alsoi says that metro there also ate up huge number of trees & greenery of Bangalore. So sad.

 

[nsmkrish]

Manoharkumar, it is right that when one development takes place we lose something else. What is needed is a coordinated development which would keep everything in mind while ushering in development. Chennai has lost many trees. Nowadays there are trees as you say in Governor's place and IIT as well as some roads in Besant Nagar. Each area should have a green lung to help people breathe fresh air. Parks should be a must in every locality. It is tragic that the Garden City of Bangalore itself is falling a victim to development.

 

[nsmkrish]

Vadam in summer

Summer during childhood meant vacation and vadam. We would get up early in the morning and prepare ourselves to taste the 'maavu' which our mother would give us to eat. In many households eating the maavu is a strict no-no. But our mother would set aside a portion of us to eat. Then comes putting it on a sheet and then under the hot sun. We would guard it from hungry crows and adventurous squirrels by sitting near the sheets and reading books. Then when the vadams were half done, we would eat them. My mother would allocate a portion of the half-done vadams for us to eat. It is a delicacy in itself. Finally, in the night we would take out all the dry vadams from the sheets and put them in vessels.
So the vadam was tasted in its three stages: as maavu, then half-dry and then fried.
My mother used to make rice and jav arisee vadams, both are a delicacy in all the three forms.
Even during winter, when we were hungry our mother would prepare the maavu for us to eat as a snack.
The practice continues even now as sometimes I have jav arisee koozhu as breakfast.
I don't like the practice of buying vadam, as they were made in our house and as I don't want to let go a bit of my past.

 

[vgane]

Not just the making of vadam is fading....There are many such artefacts which can be found in my house...My grandparents used to make coffee using the antique coffee grinder...The smell of coffee would permeate till the Thinnai/Thavarm....We used to rush to the kitchen to taste coffee which is freshly brewed

The Usha sewing machine is another antique piece...Ladies dresses were stitched at home...And any repair work (fixing buttons, adding a fall in a saree or repairing a torn cloth used to be done using this machine...The bobbins with colorful threads was charming & we used to play with these bobbins as a small kid

 

[sarang]

See google earth's image of chennai. It still has more green cover than most other cities. Of course, it will be nicer if no buildings are seen.

Yes Krish, but one thing i cannot understand is why with the change the first casualty has to be the green in the city. How many trees have been felled and in the entire mountroad stretch from fort station to the and not even single big trees that lined both the ways are to be found. When people die or pass away there is so much regret but when the huge trees of 100 years or more are felled no one cries for them?
The new secretariat buiding has consumed more than 50 huge trees inside that place and the coolness one used to feel while passing that area in completely gone. Except for the guindy IIT complex and goverors place i cannot find that huge greenery that chennai used to have.. so sad!!!
My brother from Bangalore alsoi says that metro there also ate up huge number of trees & greenery of Bangalore. So sad.

 

[manoharkumar]

Dear Sarang Sir,

We used to look at the city from the top of Chettinad towers in mount road and few years back we could not see any building but only the green cover of trees in woodlands drive in .( it has been closed and a big park has come over there), alwarpet area, T nagar all these areas had huge trees. If you happen to see some old songs of Tamil movie shot at Marina beach you could see lot of small trees dotting the road side.. except for one or two all are gone..May be googls is showing " Doorathu pachchai?" cheers.

 

[nsmkrish]

Mr.Vgane. In my house too we had a coffee grinder in which we would help. It was a wonderful instrument to watch at work. I remember the bobbins with various colour threads. Nice to share such things here with you all.

 

[sarang]

Yes sir, doorathu pachai; hundreds of lakes and water bodies have also vanished.

Dear Sarang Sir,

We used to look at the city from the top of Chettinad towers in mount road and few years back we could not see any building but only the green cover of trees in woodlands drive in .( it has been closed and a big park has come over there), alwarpet area, T nagar all these areas had huge trees. If you happen to see some old songs of Tamil movie shot at Marina beach you could see lot of small trees dotting the road side.. except for one or two all are gone..May be googls is showing " Doorathu pachchai?" cheers.

 

[guruvayurappan]

dear brahmanyan sir !
nice . என்றும் மாற்றம் இல்லாதது மாற்றம் ஒன்றே என்பதை அழகாய் சொல்லி விட்டீர்
guruvayurappan

 

[sarang]

Coffee beans were roasted in a 'vanali'; we even had a drum type roaster purchased from pattanam (madras); rotating drum over a charcoal 'aduppu'.

Mr.Vgane. In my house too we had a coffee grinder in which we would help. It was a wonderful instrument to watch at work. I remember the bobbins with various colour threads. Nice to share such things here with you all.

 

[guruvayurappan]

post 7 #
dear Raji Ram !
we may feel that we are watching DVD in the comfort of our house .but we miss the joy of planning,adjusting to new environment ,listening to spontaneous &enjoyable comments which we may not able to make when viewing DVD. pirated DVD are more which deprive the original producer.going to theatre ,give an opportunity to have a break from the regular day to day routine.it develop our for mind for waiting as well as accept things which are not to our plan and taste.there may be some pleasant surprise like meeting persons or the movie will be very nice without our expectation .
guruvayurappan

 

[guruvayurappan]

[h=2]Vadam in summer[/h]this title rewind my memory to 1970.for my P&T training went to Bangalore and stayed with my friend's brother(scientist ) house . he has just returned from London after a training sponsored by NAL.he casually speaking about making vadam in our native trichy and said that our parents would not have wasted the sun shine and vacant terrace .i told that present day generation are not for hard work and want everything ready made.laziness is the result.
after a while he has played back our conversation to my surprise since i have seen the audio recorder for the first time and also of the content
guruvayurappan

 

[nsmkrish]

A coward remembers
I had a friend in college. We used to together on his bicycle to evening college. We would discuss poetry and he used to write much. Suddenly one day, he told me that he had mental problems. It shook me, but I said "not to worry." After sometime he stopped coming to college. When I went to his home, his father told me he would relapse into strange behaviour and after medication he would be normal. I went to see him often. His father was grateful if I went to see him, as giving him drugs was easier in my presence.
Then he would come to college and then stay away. This continued till I finished college.
When I finished college, one day his father came with him to see me. His behaviour was strange. He imitated the train when he told me he went to his village by train.
His father asked me to tell him we are going to a movie and to take him to his doctor. I agreed. And I took him in an auto with his father following.
Once inside the hospital, his father told me "see, now he'll scream." I asked why and he said "shock treatment". It was I who was shocked at the thought that my friend would be given this type of treatment.
Later, when we met him, he was inside a cell. He looked me and said: "you said you would take me to a movie, you let me down." The look on his face was enough to kill my sleep for months.
When he was discharged, he came to my house and said crows and chameleon were talking to him.
After that I lost touch with him as we shifted residence. It must be about 25 years since then.
I don't have the courage to find out what happened to him. And like a coward, I write about him.

 

[Raji Ram]

......... The Usha sewing machine is another antique piece...

When Ram's colleagues asked me what I wanted as a wedding gift from their department, I told, 'Usha sewing machine, please!'.

This was in the year 1976! Even today, I stitched a new blouse in my lucky machine!

 

[Raji Ram]

...... we may feel that we are watching DVD in the comfort of our house ........

Now a days, I watch movies on youtube, Guru Sir! :ranger: