I decided to go to the smallest state in India, Goa, for my 30th.It’s on the Arabian Sea and supposed to have some of the best beaches in India.I’m going alone which isn’t ideal but I’ve heard that Goa is a great place to make friends so I’m sure I’ll have some people to hang with on my Bday.I’m also trying a new strategy for this trip- I’m wingin it.I have my first night’s hotel but after that I’m just going to see what’s what and probably rent a bike and travel around until I find another beach and hotel to my liking, probably several over my time there.I’m sure I’ll have plenty of adventures for my next blog post!Also, if you want to get in touch with me, I lost my cell so my new number is
I got turned on to this soundtrack a couple months ago, at 530 AM, on my way to the Chennai Central Train Station. Our cab was late for the butt-early train we were taking and I was in a serious rush. The music that accompanied the insane driving our cabbie was doing seemed to fit- just as hectic and crazy as the driving. By the way, that accordion type thing you hear in the song is called the harmonium and it’s a traditional Indian instrument.
The movie became relevant again recently when I got to spend the night in a location they shot some of the movie in. It’s called the Neemrana Fort in the state of Rajashtan and it’s an old fort from the 1400’s that’s been renovated and turned into a hotel- it was the coolest place I’ve spent the night since I’ve been in India.
Also, the rest of the soundtrack is great- it has to be my favorite. The producer is a guy named A R Rahman, he is probably the most famous musician in all of India. He produced about all of the most famous soundtracks in India in the last 10 years and I really dig his style- a mix of traditional Indian music and new beats and influences (he also did the Delhi 6 soundtrack that I blogged about a couple months ago). Plus, he’s from Tamil Nadu, which I have a special affinity toward so that just sweetens the deal! Here are two more of my faves from Dil Se.
So, the last day before I moved back to Coimbatore I gave out Dum Dum lollipops.It’s a tradition at the IT company that I share office space with that when you travel abroad you bring back sweets for the office.It’s a cool tradition and I’ve scored some candy from Singapore and Korea because of it.I figured since I went back to the US for a visit it was my turn.I bought a 250 pack of them and gave them out- I liked the idea that there’s something like 20 flavors, at least one for everyone’s taste.About 5 minutes after handing them out, my coworker tapped me on the shoulder and told me to stand up from my cubicle.I did and saw that just about every person in the office of 60+ had a lollipop sticking out of their mouth.Needless to say, they were a hit.Maybe you had to be there, but I’ll have a mental image from now on of an office full of people with lollipop sticks in their mouth- it was adorable!
Punjabi By Nature- I don't know if this is a nod to the 90's hiphop group Naughty by Nature but I'd like to think it is, all I could think when I was in there was 'Punjabi by Natecha, not cause I hate cha'... Okay, so this is a men's clothing/accessory store in Chennai. Not only is it called Sperm but do you notice the little sperm logo? It seems very out of place in conservative Chennai. Naturally, I had to go in an check it out for myself, lots of trendy clothes. Weird but hilarious, I don't know what else to say. I did buy a shirt there though, which I guess makes it a (store namesake) shirt.
Burger Man is a chain of these little shacks set up throughout Chennai. By burger they mean chicken burger as you can imagine but I like to think it's a take off of Pac-Man. It's more adoreable than anything and I thought Andrew in particular would like this since he is steadfast in saying that Ms. Pac-Man is the greatest game of all time.
Okay, okay, so any music video that starts out with someone wearing the outfit above ordering a tumbler of whiskey and a masala dosa and including a rap about breakfast foods is going to be AWESOME in my book- I know I’m bias (See my South Indian breakfast post if you need a refresher on the food) Plus, it’s a spoof on Rajnikanth movies, who’s tagline is ‘mind it’ and is always doing show-offy things like catching bullets in this teeth or defying the laws of physics in other ways, like spinning knives midair for indefinite amounts of time- youtube the guy if you want to see- he is HUGE over here!
Chorus: Idly, Appam, Sambar Khao Quick Gun Murugun ke gun gao He's a rebel without a cow Mind it, mind it, mind it… IDLY!
Here’s the basic premise- QGM is a Tamil cowboy who's mission in life is to protect cows from non-veg restaurant owners. Seriously. On the other side, there’s Rice Plate Reddy (the dude singing in the music video), a nonveg restaurant owner who is hellbent on creating the perfect nonveg dosa. While protecting a village in Tamil Nadu from RPR, QGM is killed. 25 years later after (present time) he is able to reincarnate himself thanks to his lifetime devotion to vegetarianism. He then searches for RPR, who is trying to start up a Dosa franchise called McDosa (love it) in Mumbai. The evil RPR has been kidnapping aunties across the country to find the perfect Dosa recipe that he can then fill with meat. This leads to a showdown between QG and RP into an epic battle of veg vs. non-veg as well as Quick Gun vs. the big city- I know Justin would love how it has some Crocodile Dundee type moments in it as Quick Gun has to deal with Mumbai/Bombay! Don’t worry, I’m buying the (bootleg) DVD and going to have several screenings in the States. Enjoy the music video and MIND IT! Without further ado, here is the video for “Mind It (Tamil Bhangra)”…
So, the second I got out of the air condition of Chennai International Airport and into the steets of Chennai a familiar smell came back to me... the smell of Chennai (as I know it).It could only mean one thing, I was back.As weird as it is to like the smell of 95% humidity and campfire, that’s what the overriding smell of Chennai is in my opinion.There are trash fires everywhere in the city but they usually don’t smell like burning plastic or other grossness but have a sort of campfire smell to them, I think I must have missed the place if that smell makes me happy though.Then, walking around the streets, I realized there were all kinds of other smells I missed (and didn’t miss) during my two weeks back in the US.A friend called India an ‘assault on the senses’ and I think there is often smell overload with all the sensations for your nose to take in, here are some of the other best and worst.
Chai/Coffee- Chai wallahs (chai tea vendors) are all over in Chennai.It smells like the spice cardamom and is a delicious smell.Coffee is also really popular in Southern India, although it is mixed with copious amounts of milk and sugar and is really hard to find good black coffee (my fave).However, there are many places that sell ground coffee, these shops smell fantastic and the smell wafts into the streets, I could stand in front of one for hours.You can get the ground coffee to go and make your own black coffee at home- this has been my taste of home while I’ve been here.India loves their caffeine just like I do, it’s a match made in heaven!
Diesel Fumes- All you have to do is walk down the street and you get a big lungful.It’s even worse when you’re stuck in traffic in an autorickshaw, which is exposed to the elements, you can even get lightheaded- who likes carbon monoxide poisoning???
Jasmine /Other freshflowers- I have NEVER seen so many flowers anywhere in the world.There are people selling flowers everywhere and their smell is probably stronger than any I’ve experienced.In particular, women wear strings of little white jasmine flowers in their hair and it smells great, it’s a very particular flowery smell that I’ve never experienced.
Beedies-Tobacco wrapped in a plant leaf- it has a very particular smell to it, actually not bad, it almost smells like herbs burning.Maybe I just like them because I used to smoke them from time to time in high school.One of the most popular brands here is Ganesh Beedis which is weird to name a product that kills you after a god- can you imagine Jesus Brand Cigarettes???
Urine/Ammonia- By any wall especially, you get that strong ammonia/kitty litter smell.Men seem to think the whole city is their urinal here and I don’t think a day has gone by since I’ve been here that I haven’t seen someone sidle up to a wall and let loose.One of my first days here a co-worker told me not to walk so close to the walls and I was all like ‘what’s the big deal?’, but I quickly realized how wise his advice was.
Incense- You can smell it burning everywhere, from temples to people’s homes, I love the smell.My favorite is when a rickshaw driver has a stalk burning, which masks the diesel fumes a bit.
BO-With so many people around all the time, it’s inevitable that SOMEBODY forgot to put on their deodorant, or even more likely, just refuses to wear it.It’s in the air at all times though, I think that all the South Indian spices make BO even more pungent here than elsewhere in the world though.
Open Sewers- In some neighborhoods (like by my work in Guindy), there aren’t proper sewers, just drainage ditches filled with a slowly moving, milky-watery substance.Nuff Said.
Indian Food- Well, duh.Street vendors in particular, especially when they’re deep-frying something, smell delicious and are hard to pass up- too many varieties of smells to post here but trust me, there is a smell for every palate, from spicy to mild, from healthy to fat saturated in saturated fat!
Fresh fruit- Sold everywhere, it is often displayed and stacked beautifully and the smells make it too tempting to pass up, from mangoes to sweet limes (they look like tennis balls but are actually some kinda combination of an orange and a lime, not sour at all like our limes), from jackfruit to oranges there is always something sweet smelling and delicious when you walk past a fruit vendor.
