The Talkative Man speaks
<--Added on 8/22/08 for migration to TPB -->
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
  Date with a Chennai girl !
Happened over five years ago on a pleasant and memorable summer evening. A north Indian friend of mine was working in Chennai for a couple of years. Conversely, I was out of TN. When I met him a year after his moving to Chennai, he had got accustomed to the city-goes-dead-at-ten and idly-sambhar lifestyle and was full of beans(pun unintended). A year later, I stopped in Chennai on a holiday and we spent the weekend together catching up on things old and new.

But this time, my pal was having the away-from-home blues and as we embarked on a morn-to-night roam around Chennai, starting whining about South India, South Indian food and South Indian people for hours and hours. Since this was a rare opportunity to be with him, I had no desire to retain a sour memory of this meeting and as the tamil cliche goes, quietly took his rants in one ear releasing them through the other. I didn't quite understand why he had to make a North-South issue out of casual differences in lifestyle, food and customs. The only valid point was when he exclaimed, "Why can't you tamils learn from the gults and mallus instead of biting and tearing each other apart like dogs?"

Anyway, he was talking about his south indian boss and wondered why the latter pronounced hair as rhyming with there and not as hayyrrr. I was puzzled since as far as I knew that was how hair was meant to be pronounced.

Then he went on to talk about the south indian female colleagues in his offices and how often he went to dinner or movies with them. For a person with such low tolerance of South Indians, his tolerance of south indian females seemed remarkable indeed !!
He mentioned how he befriended some Chennai girl from some Java forum that he was a part of and they would often exchange emails about tamil movies. That evening we happened to stop at a browsing center and were sharing the same PC. He opened his mailbox and sure enough there was a mail with the gal's name on it. However the name in the Inbox showed up as Chandramouli.

Promptly I smelt a rat. But then they had known each other for a few months now. Besides, I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Who can rule out the probability of existence of a Ms.Chandra Mouli? Just like a Meenakshi Sundaram, Gowri Shankar or Leela Krishnan. Theoretically, they're valid. Heck, Navjot Singh Sidhu married Navjot Kaur and Navjot Sidhu(the bride) is now a very legitimate housewife!

In the opening line of the email, Chandra had made some comment about Jothika. This piqued me even more for I'd expected a girl to yap about Ajith or Maddy.

The sledgehammer blow came in the next line, where in response to his suggestion for a rendez-vous at Besant Nagar beach, our dame answered that she would arrive on her bike and pick him up and later on, they could visit her bachelor's flat!

(In some movie, Koundamani turns up at a village and wanting to check out the chicks, contacts Senthil. Senthil tells him that Radha, Chandra and Gowri are all waiting. An impatient Gounder wants to meet them all, and Senthil takes him to a deserted place where 3 banian-clad rowdies bearing clubs and grinning like the Beagle Boys accost Gounder. Senthil introduces them as Radhakrishnan, Chandramouli and Gowrisankar, who waste no time in whacking the shit out of Gounder!)

Anyway, that was the end of my friend's adventures and when I saw that mail, I promptly thought "Goodness me, these dumb northies don't even know the difference between a guy and a girl! How the hell will they know the correct pronunciation of hair?!?"

PS: Standard disclaimers apply

 
Comments:
I've always been an anti-lets-bash-north or south person. But I get irritated with people who assume all southies wear jeans and sport mallippoo. Its as good as assuming that all N.Indians own a pawn-shop.
Anyways, wanted to point out something, just found time. Its "Katradhu Kai Mann alavu".
 
My Karpanai Kudhirai: had you accompanied your friend to Besant nagar beach where he finds out about Mr. Chandramouli, You could've done a Mouna Ragam style, "Mr. Chandramouli! Mr. Chandramouli! Vaanga Sir, vandhu oru cup coffee saapdunga, Sir!" :)
 
LOL ! Once a sysadmin friend of mine was mailing another friend with a female name. This guy fell hard for it, until I decided to expand all the mail headers and it turned out to originate from the same intranet. Not sure, but I think gmail doesn't display mail headers.
 
Hmm...I remember how a college senior of mine played a prank on one of his classmates for almost 3 years. In the beginning of 2nd year, this friend kept sending him emails posing as a girl...This went on for 3 years and one fine day the prankster spilled out the truth...The Bakra was shellshocked :)
 
i almost forgot. death to indhi.
 
ha ha !! vayaru valika sirichan!! appurom? unga friend oda reaction enna?

Btw, oru chinna torture ungalukku.. I have tagged you.
 
Deepa,
Thanks! I first heard that from a Mumbai tamil of mixed parentage who was trying hard to learn tamil.

Me too,
haha! I wish he could come to some gathering and tell everyone how he came to know us :)

bnb/anusha,
Sometimes in these Sting Operations, its hard to tell who's the bigger perv, the exposer or the exposee.

I,
thappu raasa. Do you see anyone singing Hindi in fake accents or the Bihar/UP states getting westernised? It's tamil for whom the bells have already tolled. Watch this pattimandram and ponder :)

Bindu,
In shock he replied 'I thought you were a girl' - Mouli must have been pissed to death.
sorry, I dont write tags as I'm an infrequent blogger. Not a whole lot of useful stuff there, is it? :)
 
He he!! paavam mouli. :))

As far as tags are concerned, I think they are funny, improve bonding and can be made creative though it can be a nuisance at times. But blogging is much of a personal wish and anyone's ideas have to be respected. I respect yours :)
 
Bindhu,
IMHO blogging is merely a re-gurgitation of all that is obvious. Viewing the current content on blogosphere, all we see is an exhuming of dead-and-dealt-with topics. 90% of posts are emotional shit, with hardly a semblance of thought or research. Some blogs are just vehicles for mutual-backslapping and coterie formation.

I'm just trying to put some different content. Besides I don't know about others, but I find the formatting/posting time itself takes me an hour or two(too timeconsuming) so I'm sceptical about becoming a regular blogger.
 
The post is very nicely written and it contains many useful facts. I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement. Thanks for sharing with us.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

My Photo
Name:

An archivist with varying interests

Previous Posts

Davis Cup semifinal 1987
Sai Paranjpe's Chashme Baddoor
Director Bharathan's Pranaamam
Anything but Big Fun : bubblegum
Railway Journeys - II
A Hyperactive spirit
Ek Duje Ke Liye
Looking back on Amritraj vs Jaite
Freak Encounters - I
An unlikely friendship short-lived
Railway journeys - I
Michael Jordan the greatest:The Flu Game
History at Capetown?
Images from Malgudi Days(DVD)
Found after a 17 year search!
Champions Trophy deja vu
Remembrance
Deepavali song
Heard in passing
Phil Tufnell fielding school
Indian cricket since its embryonic days
Journalism's Joan of Arc
Stills from Idhaya Thamarai/Aur Ek Prem Kahani
The World of Amar Chitra Katha
..and I saw Carl Lewis last weekend!
Two memorable Calypso hits
The sensational triumph in the '83 World Cup
Doordarshan and Frustration!!!
Date with a chennai girl!
Mayhem in the morning
Dream Teams: India XI vs World XI
How Dad's work
Pelting his way into the record books!
Relentless march of time
Close encounters of the Desi Kind
Thandaa paani!
Keep going
Indian Male yuppie: Boy->Man->Gentleman
Hamlet revisited
Rediff is just another TOI
Malgudi Days on DVD
TN Cricket - I : Early heroes
Bala, Bharatan and Guha
Warne does the trick once again
Remembering PV
A rare pic: Aandavans of Alwarpet
Random jottings on friendship
A gutsy analyst
Rarest among Jewels
Adhu Oru Kanaa Kaalam(2005)
The Terrorist(1997)
Holiday plans
Those small pleasures
Stalwart Narrator
Beginning

Google

Blogs I read