An array of soft dolls, toys on display on the car backs at Pondy Bazaar, T Nagar. All display and sales happen on the roadside and the display changes in an instant when the parked vehicle leaves to the next car.

potum: Via Ravages, aka. Chandrachoodan

History: Muthiah

When I moved into Chennai in 99, my classmate took me to Higginbothams to buy books. It wasn’t strange that we didn’t choose Landmark, which was already a much bigger store. After all, my granddad had fond memories of Higginbothams also because they sold the books he had written and the magazine he founded and edited.

I wasn’t disappointed at all. I spend close to two hours in the classics session. I had no money, so I tried to read.

Today, that bookstore is a pale shadow compared to what Landmark, and to a lesser extent, Odyssey have become. But still don’t you love that building?

I decided that I’d ask the GRT Thangamaligai store people to let me have a peek inside their machinery. After about a dozen phone calls and rescheduling of appointments, it finally did happen. I met the big guys. On their own turf, so to speak.

These gems have life in them: their colours speak, say what words fail of.

~George Eliot

It’s a woman’s dream.

Racks and racks of gold bangles hang on stands behind glass cases; gleaming strands of necklaces swing heavily from the hands of soft-spoken salespeople. Platinum earrings gleam palely, watched by the careful eyes of those in-charge, while diamonds sparkle from velvety soft busts.

I am within the sacred precincts of the GR Thangamaligai jewellery showroom, Chennai – and feel like a kid let loose in a candy store. Hundreds of customers mill about me, looking at every stand the sore has to offer, purchasing the requirements for weddings, births, special occasions, or even no-occasions. It’s a thiruvizha all hours of the day, and all days of the year.

I traipse up and down entire floors that are devoted to lovingly crafted gold, to mellifluously wrought silver, dazzling creations of platinum, brilliant confections of diamond that cost Lakhs of rupees and slither in your hand like the finest silk, and costume jewellery that seems to be a collection put together entirely of colours, light and stars. Established in 1963, GR Thangamaligai is among the largest of jewellery showrooms in South India – and they also hold the singular honour of being the largest Hallmark jewellers. “Purity without a Premium,” states their proud legend.

Not surprisingly, security people throng the halls too. When I tell one of them that I’m here to see the store’s high-ups, they’re suspicious. Notes after notes pass through their hand, and after three calls, I’m escorted to plush, AC-humming hallways, where I wait in a ochre-painted room. Finally, I’m met by the man behind GRT – who’s surprisingly down-to-earth and easy to talk to.

“I suppose, as we grew up, the store grew along with us,” says G R Radhakrishnan, Managing Director, of his father G Rajendran’s pioneering efforts in establishing the store. What was originally a small shop measuring around 500 – 600 sq ft, is now a gigantic enterprise standing four floors tall in its primary location on North Usman Road, T Nagar, along with another showroom of three floors, devoted entirely to silverware and other artefacts. The main showroom, in the meantime, houses every other metal and stone that adorns the best jewellery.

I’m captivated by the hustle and bustle on each floor, as I’m shown all the workings by a very nice young man called Thamizh. He walks barefoot, skipping nimbly though each floor, being accosted by people working there. Curious customers look at my camera questioningly. An asari works on jewelry in a corner, looking jaded, probably, with all the minute work.

One of the reasons for GRT’s immense popularity is its dual approach to the customer’s fashion sense: they cater both to the quintessentially traditionally inclined, as well as the needs of the modern woman. “We work on jewellery for Temples as well – ethnic work is our speciality,” asserts Radhakrishnan. “Name any of the large temples today: Thirupathi, the Thirumalai Thiruppathi Devasthanam on Venkatnarayana Road, and Lord Parthsararathy of Triplicane – all have jewel-work done by us. That, in fact, has acted a s assort of inspiration for our vintage collection: small sets of jewellery that costs anywhere from around Rs 30,000, and are intended to be worn for parties and marriage receptions.” Indeed, the collection is crafted in a stunning variety of designs that lean heavily towards traditional wear, but designed with a marvellous synchronicity: rubies and emeralds are in profusion, in collusion with modern conceptions of jewellery. There is also the completely bindaas costume jewellery collection that suits modern office-goers excellently.

The diamond collection occupies an entire section by itself, nestling with the Dewdrop Platinum Collection. Intricately woven strands of every girl’s delight dangle tantalizingly, wrought in intriguing designs. “We prize talent always,” says Radhakrishnan, as an employee handles the necklace with something very like devotion. “Our designers are not always in-house, neither are they restricted to well-known designing houses. In our opinion, creativity and originality come to the fore,” he says, displaying gleaming golden and silver pooja vessels that cost anywhere from 1 Lakh to 10 Lakhs. A ghee lamp alone, around 8 grams, is valued at Rs 8000.

The Fire and Earth Collection occupies another especial pride of place, along with the Featherlight Collection, composed of feathery chains and necklaces that almost float on thin air . “We believe in re-inventing ourselves – for this is a fluid world, and we need to stay on top of things.” Small wonder that the showroom has won the Best Diamond Showroom Award, and the Best Platinum Showroom Award recently, for their professionalism and creative approach.

On top of the list of achievements, however, is clearly the Silversmith showroom, containing the Natya Collection.

Designed especially keeping dancers and dance schools in mind, the collection features a mind-blowing collection of anklets, Muthumalas, headsets, bangles, maatal for the ears, necklaces, and rakodis. “Long ago, Temple dancers wore these jewels made of pure gold embroidered with precious stones. Today, Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi dancers wear temple jewellery. Also known as the Kemp set, these ornaments are made of silver, dipped in gold with intricate stone gem-work adorning them. This form of jewellery is a favourite among South Indian Classical dancers, as it provides a very ethnic feel and makes the dancer look even more engaging,” says Radhakrishnan. “We brought the Natya Collection to the dancers and dance schools themselves, campaigning to them about its merits. I must say, the response has been wonderful. Our collections are handpicked designs inspired from the deities that adorn the South Indian temples. Our Natya Collection has the entire range to garb any professional dancer from head to toe.”

There’s also general artifacts, like Thanjavur paintngs and crystal showpieces.

How does he think jewellery trends have changed from the 60s to now?

“In those days, women were much more concerned with locking up their jewels in lockboxes – accumulation of wealth was the primary criterion,” smiled Radhakrishnan. “These days, a woman wants to use her jewellery. No more does a bride wish to lock up her jewels that she’s worn to her Reception – even her marriage jewels need to be usable in everyday life.” He pauses. “These days, women wish to make the best of everything, and jewellery is no exception.”

Spoken like a true jewelsmith.

Among movies I rented out were Ram and Bharathy, films I missed during their release in the theatre. Now I have a chance to catch them.

Tic Tac isn’t very liberal with the rental schedule. If you run late, you might incur a huge fine.

But otherwise, the rentals rates are cheap and if you rent TV serials like Friends that run into hours you get more time than the normal 2 or 3 days.

Tic Tac also has a decent world cinema collection. Though not big, this collection does offer Bergman, Kurasowa, and Keislowiski films among others. Tic Tac also stocks a pretty good Malayalam and Hindi movie collections. Classic Hindi films of Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray to the latest Hindi flick is easily available. One huge advantage with Hindi films is that they hit the DVD market faster than Tamil films do.

If you a film buff, especially one who doesn’t have the money to own DVDs and who is not into piracy, this is the store you want to hit.

Many folks apparently found the Zune Review Post of mine to be absurd and non related to chennai. Guess what im gonna blog again about my zune and i care not what you think but this time i will make you happy with chennai info on my zune experience.

So this gadget freak in me decides he will get his Microsoft Digital Entertainment Platform setup by new year 2008 and upgrade his comp big time with 29 inch LCD and 18 gigs of ram, 2 tb of disk space and finally looks around to see the zune is not yet in India, damn! Microsoft what were you thinking?!?

So i go to ebay and bid on a zune and beat the crap out of a Chinese guy by 18 seconds and big 2 dollars more than him and get it! Order the product via United States Parcel Service Priority Mail which is equivalent to our speed post. The normal delivery time is 6 to 10 days but since this will be subject to 13% tax i knew this may take another 2 days. Unfortunately nothing showed up even after 20 days, which is when i get pissed off.

I’d already raised a complaint with USPS who gave a clean chit that they handed it over to Indian Postal Department in Mumbai Airport on the 21st (i ordered the zune on the 12th and it was shipped on the 14th) which was a fair deal.

I head to the GPO in 1st lane beach road (right opposite to the beach station/burma bazaar) and i think that this was the most useless thing i ever did. I go into the enquiries department and i was given a pleasing welcome by a well mannered gentleman.

Surprisingly the worlds second largest populated countries postal departments foreign parcel departments investigation cell does not use computers! I’m like what the f***!!!!!

I mean, you dont need a Lenovo power house but you could have a dumb terminal with a mainframe backend that all personnel could use to track orders. So me, this gentleman and his female colleague take three Big ass ledgers, believe me when i say this, they were 3 foot long and about 2 foot across, that BIG!

We go through thousands of entries for Chennai 42 which is velachery, where i live in. Well at the end of 3 hours of searching we find nothing phenomenal. Now this guy says “I’m sorry sir we express our inability to help you. What i suggest is you call the American postal department and i launch an inquiry about this” and i told him i had already did that.

He then suggested i write a complaint and post it to the director of postal department chennai and as soon as an acknowledgment would come they would launch an investigation in two weeks time and if they cannot find it in 60 days they would give it in writing that the article is lost. I was baffled by the amount of nerve they had to tell me its gonna take another 60 days + 2 weeks for them to officially accept my package was lost.

I regretted saving that 20 dollars and not spending on Fed-Ex instead of USPS. Fed-Ex does it in 5 days flat. They have their own people at customs and they call you to ask if they can pay the money and release it from customs and later deliver the goods to you and collect the cash from you by cash or card. USPS however thinks our postal department is trustworthy enough to leave things in their hands. Why blame them? It is we who accept such inefficiency as a norm and go by who are to blame.

Anyways guess what? The very same evening this happened my post did come to me and the postman asked for 1300 bucks and i was at office. I took a break from work and then i go to the post office and they tell me that i have to wait for 1 hour since the postman is on rounds. Kudos to the postman because he promptly misinformed me that he would be at the post office till 6.30 pm when he spoke to me on the phone from my house.

I go there the next day morning and sign end number of papers and collect my zune which thankfully was well packed and in shape.

Phew! thats probably the last time on earth im gonna use the Indian Postal Department! Their Speed post to Bangalore which they promise a 24 hour delivery time took 8 days, my dumb ass should have learnt a lesson then but i was too good a fool to trust them again and give them a chance with a 8000 rupee worth parcel from half way around the world.

I’m waiting for my new sennehieser headphones to come, and this time i did Fed Ex and right now they are telling me through their hourly SMS update that my package that was shipped last afternoon is in hong kong as of now and will be in mumbai tomorrow morning and in chennai by tomorrow night.

Now thats what i call customer service or in other words, peace of mind!

With Janmashtami celebrated last week and Vinayaka Chathurthi being celebrated today, it is festival season at Chennai with Ayudha Poojai, Navarathri, Deepavali, Karthigai Deepam, Ramzan and Christmas to follow.

I present some random shots taken at Velachery today.

I have often found myself wondering how the authorities are letting these hawkers sell their stuff on the roads? These vendors don’t pay tax, rent or anything to the government. Why then, is the government tolerant to them?

Couple of weeks ago, when I was at TNagar, a weird incident answered this question of mine. I was standing on the footpath, waiting for my mom to finish of her shopping and I saw a lad selling colorful laundry baskets. As I was watching, a well-dressed man walked to this lad and extended his hand. The lad, promptly placed a Rs. 5.00 note in his hand and the man walked away without any words exchanged between the two. I didn’t think much about this till another guy walked up and this mute drama repeated. By this lad turned around, saw me watching this whole episode and smiled.

I asked him – “Do you have to pay rent to be selling stuff here?”, He answered, “No. But, we have pay money to Police officers to sell stuff here. We pay Rs. 5.00 to 10 police men every day”. I asked him, “Really? Do you get receipts for this? Is this a fee levied by the government?” He smiled and answered, “No”. I try to push further, “Do you break even at the end of the day? After paying Rs. 50.00 to police men everyday? Is the business really worth it?”. He replied, “Oh Yeah! Business is great! We get back that Rs. 50.00 within minutes. If they allow us to do business here, we make more money than selling elsewhere.” With that, he went on with his business with the next customer.


Image Source: Wikimedia

I was left standing there..thinking. Ok. So, that guy dressed in civil dress was actually a Police Officer? And, this lad ‘bribes’ the police every day. The last I heard, paying bribe was as big a crime as taking bribe. But then, thats just idealistic crap that I can churn out sitting in luxury of my a/c office. It wouldn’t make any sense to that lad whose next meal is probably a question mark. Anyway, Lets look at this from the other end and do a little bit of math. A police officer gets Rs.5.00 from one vendor everyday. I guess there would easily be at least 200 vendors on usman road on any given day. So, that makes it Rs. 1000.00 per day. Now, If there is any truth in what the lad said, a police officer gets Rs. 30,000.00 a month from TNagar without doing any work. In fact he earns that much FOR not doing anything. Now, thats a pretty good pay for doing nothing. Of course, each police man is probably sharing that 30k with superiors and others. But, at least, now we have some reason (I really do not want to call this a reason as we don’t have any legal evidence that this practice is happening. It’s hear-say.) why no action is taken against these illegal business establishments. Apart from the amount of money the government loses in Taxes, there are more problems these vendors create – noise pollution, sound pollution and chaos. It makes shopping experience in TNagar so bad that whenever my family talks about going to TNagar for shopping I check whether I can get the same stuff elsewhere in the city.

This whole story may not be true. Maybe that lad just bluffed. I really do not wish to spread rumors here. So, I would like to emphasis that there has been no background check of any kind to make an accusation as serious as this. No investigations, No Sting operations. But, if there is any truth in the lad’s story, it would be food for thought for the Anti-Corruption bureau of Chennai (I hope there is something like that in Chennai).

The best part is the events, members seemed to contribute in this section and the navigation is greatly categorized as “All Events”, “what’s going on”, “what’s coming up”, “what’s over”.

Local search is one more important feature, I guess the site has tied up with other search engines/ portals to give you the best results for your city. So next time you want to know the where abouts of a restaurant, this site is a cool place to hang around.

word of mouth one more interesting section where users recommend a service or product – bad and good times.

Ok enough of me telling stories, check out the website http://www.ilaaka.com