This morning when I woke up I was greeted by the pleasing melodies of Illayaraja. His vintage classics from the 80s songs like Raja Raja Chzohan and Kannae Kalai Manae were being played on the speakers and stage made to celebrate MKs birthday. Usually one would be incensed with such displays, but I am happy, the songs are amongst my favourite tracks of IR, this definitely is better than any of Chennai’s radio stations, where extremely dumb RJs who are in love with hearing themselves on air constantly blabber on air between songs, and even dumber callers frequently call and flatter the dumb RJs ego.

All good things have to come to an end, as the clock struck 10 am, the men organising the meeting realised that party time was over and started to play MKs speeches, in equally loud volume, much to my ire. I could here him promise the rice per kg at Rs 2 and also speak eloquently about the importance of restoring the Kannagi statue on beach road, I presume the crows and various birds are overjoyed at the statues restoration, for they have another statue to abuse or rather use. Interestingly he also promised the colour TV which will be distributed on Septermber 15th, which has been called unreasonable by some experts. Now as I type, I can hear him speal eloquently about tamil culture and the Kannagi statue. After almost a gap of five years, there is some political activity near my house, and no street corner meetings such as this one during the last five years as there was a total clampdown on such activities.

But rather than the DMK’s poll promises, Im happy about them easing the pressure on the pirated movie industry in the state, and in particular Chennai. This is largely due to the unsophisticated manner of swindling money the DMK indulges in, where almost any activity which is even bordering the wrong side of the law, the party needs its share of revenues. The previous government has a clearer policy regarding the industries where they swindle money from, and in these industries they don’t demand a share, but rather control it. Thanks to the change in government, the price of tamil pirated movies is expected to drop to roughly Rs 70 per movie from the current price of Rs 100 in Richie Street and Burma Bazaar.