The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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Plum,




It took swAthymuthyam to get you into cracking form!

This is called writing (compared to "reporting" or "musing" that I typically do in all my posts)!


I'm sure we'll have great treat from you for the rest of the week!

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After that series of phenomenal write-ups by Plum, there's not much interesting that I can write about 'thuLLiththuLLi nee pAdammA'

Still, for the sake of record keeping, I'll do a post on that song today. Those who do not want to read about Cbe-1986 can ignore it

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#236 துள்ளித்துள்ளி நீ பாடம்மா, சீதையம்மா
(சிப்பிக்குள் முத்து, 1986 , ஜானகியுடன்)

My only 'not-so-fav-part' of this song is the 'thuLLee-thuLLee-thuLLee-thuLLiththuLLiththuLLi' portion which almost sounds like making fun of the song. I'm ok with the thuLLi word and the thuLLiththuLLi in the pallavai also - they are good and jell well. But the multiple thuLLees in the end of the saraNam and elsewhere in the song sound comical to me. It should have been replaced with some swarAs or humming or even instrumentals so as to not dilute the greatness of the song. After the phenomenal start by SPB-SJ with swarAs and having an extremely lovely melody / terrific interludes, the song's greatness had been reduced somewhat by this comical repeat. Strictly MO. It may not be such an earsore in the original. (There are similar issues with other songs as well for me -e.g. SJ singing like a child in another - that brought down the album in my personal rating and making it inferior to salangai oli).

Ofcourse, the movie is very good - Radhika is adequate for the role (comparing with JP of salangai oli will be an akramam ofcourse) and though I've not taken bath in Godavari, I can onRify with the story / sentiments / sensibilities / sensitivities. On many scenes shed thArai thArai during each watch. While IR scores over KV in SO by miles, KV walks of as the winner, IMO, in SM. (Just for record, I've crossed Godavari on train a number of times and royalgrape is a place I wanted to visit many times but could never go beyond the rly station).

OK, like I mentioned before, watched this in Cbe , possibly in one of those theaters around the central bus stand in Gandhipuram, don't remember...may be somewhere else, but my mind is wandering around the Gandhipuram area for the last few days. There was no Ukkadam terminus (western outskirts of Cbe) where mofussil buses stopped in 1986 so Palakkad buses came to the Gandhipuram and I had a ton of favourite places to wander in that area

To start with, "Ashoka Plaza" , a shopping complex right next to the bus stand where there was this music shop that played terrific music. There was a cassette disti on 1st floor and the ground floor had City Color Lab that gave me fantastic pictures. (Many of my friends recommended IAB, Indian Art Buerau at x-cut road for prints but I loved this place that gave bright output and one of my pictures of sooryOdhayam at Palakkad was such a lovely one that I used it as a greeting card 100's of times). It was fun to give the Konica roll (was called Sakura during college days and we used to buy in Trichy burma bazAr and get one hour prints in the Sevana hotel) and wander in the Gandhipuram area before getting the prints

"Wander" means, spend time in the cassette shops, sometimes buy clothes, visit one or other of Annapoorna's in the area (one right in bus stand, one in the entrance of x-cut road, one in lachchumi complex...well, x-cut road + lachchumi complex deserve a separate post), have tea / thEngA bun / bun-butter etc in one of the tea-shops with music etc. What a simple life, carefree and full of fun those days! I still remember one tea-shop close to Thiruvalluvar state bus stand that had such a classic sweet-bun served with butter and 'iLamai idhO idhO' for Dec 31 night Close to the aarvee / amaravathi hotel...

[al_gates]

App...pls continue

[genesis]

#236 துள்ளித்துள்ளி நீ பாடம்மா, சீதையம்மா
(சிப்பிக்குள் முத்து, 1986 , ஜானகியுடன்)
To start with, "Ashoka Plaza" , a shopping complex right next to the bus stand where there was this music shop that played terrific music. There was a cassette disti on 1st floor and the ground floor had City Color Lab that gave me fantastic pictures. (Many of my friends recommended IAB, Indian Art Buerau at x-cut road for prints but I loved this place that gave bright output and one of my pictures of sooryOdhayam at Palakkad was such a lovely one that I used it as a greeting card 100's of times). It was fun to give the Konica roll (was called Sakura during college days and we used to buy in Trichy burma bazAr and get one hour prints in the Sevana hotel) and wander in the Gandhipuram area before getting the prints

App - Nice memories from Coimbatore. I have also bought few cassettes from the shop in Ashoka Plaza. Lakshmi complex was one of our favorite hang-out place in my late-teen years.

By the way, post a link to your sooryOdhayam picture please (with Holiday greetings?!)

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al_gates,
Are you from Kovai by any chance?

Plum says I'm kAverikkarai which is not correct (ofcourse my wife is from there). namakku ellaththaNNiyum konjam-konjam taste irukku, including siruvANi (claimed to be the second best water in the world by Kovai people )

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By the way, post a link to your sooryOdhayam picture please (with Holiday greetings?!)

Unforuntately, I don't have it here anymore

There may still be a copy somewhere in India...it had a tall tree, almost totally dark & two people walking below it (don't know who but the lodge mates) and the sun light emerging from the Palakkad fort area...I even had a big size print those days...onnaiyum ippO kANom...

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al_gates,
Are you from Kovai by any chance?

I did few years of primary schooling there.

Plum says I'm kAverikkarai which is not correct (ofcourse my wife is from there). namakku ellaththaNNiyum konjam-konjam taste irukku, including siruvANi (claimed to be the second best water in the world by Kovai people )[/QUOTE]

I know kovai people who says you can find dead cows and goats in Siruvani water sources But yes, the 2nd sweetest water is a popular claim too

[al_gates]

To start with, "Ashoka Plaza" , a shopping complex right next to the bus stand where there was this music shop that played terrific music. There was a cassette disti on 1st floor and the ground floor had City Color Lab that gave me fantastic pictures. (Many of my friends recommended IAB, Indian Art Buerau at x-cut road for prints but I loved this place that gave bright output and one of my pictures of sooryOdhayam at Palakkad was such a lovely one that I used it as a greeting card 100's of times). It was fun to give the Konica roll (was called Sakura during college days and we used to buy in Trichy burma bazAr and get one hour prints in the Sevana hotel) and wander in the Gandhipuram area before getting the prints

"Wander" means, spend time in the cassette shops, sometimes buy clothes, visit one or other of Annapoorna's in the area (one right in bus stand, one in the entrance of x-cut road, one in lachchumi complex...well, x-cut road + lachchumi complex deserve a separate post), have tea / thEngA bun / bun-butter etc in one of the tea-shops with music etc. What a simple life, carefree and full of fun those days! I still remember one tea-shop close to Thiruvalluvar state bus stand that had such a classic sweet-bun served with butter and 'iLamai idhO idhO' for Dec 31 night Close to the aarvee / amaravathi hotel...

I cant remember Ashoka Plaza, but I do remember Singapore Plaza which had the weird address of '333 cross cut road'. I dont know the photo labs in that road as I was too small to dabble in cameras then. But it is news to me that the cross cut road IAB was there in 1986 itself. For me the most important landmark there was Vasantham Stores. I could never understand why this guy named his store like a furniture/vessel store when you could pick up any sort of school/college textbook there. It was more of a stationary shop-cum-Higginbothams. (And then the bus route #36 was often my preferred route to gandhipuram...I often took that bus as I was very excited that a conductor on the bus looked like Kapil Dev!)

but anyway, the main reason I'm writing is I was hauled up at a relative's place that very month you described. It was great freedom from me, as for that one month, I was able to move from the nasty-no-seat School bus, to catchign a town bus to school(like the Big boys). The travel from DB Road to Hopes was enjoyable as I would usually get a place to sit. I dont rememebr the route number but it would get really crowded soon and my only option was to look out the window, and that route had a ton of cinema posters. I couldnt help noticing from the posters that apparently there was one guy who had all the garish megasize posters and he seemed to have ridiculously insane luck with the ladies. Wherever I looked, he was there and onto something... This dumb kid didnt know that it was the bloody CM

Dec 86 was the time I completed my first novel(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man-Eater_of_Malgudi) and I often spent time on the terraces with a transistor listening to the Ind-SL cricket series. The last day of that year, I saw the end of this game:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engin...tch/63450.html

Gavaskar batted low down the order and hammered 74 off 79 balls to set up the declaration, going berserk with some crazy six hitting. Later on the day, Ratnayake was caught off his pads and Mendis tried to hammer his way out, with 6 fours in his 38. Late that night, DD featured a program Images-86, an hour long review of the days events, after Uday Bir Saran Das' 9:50pm Eng news.

App, I should have joined you for that late night tea

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I cant remember Ashoka Plaza, but I do remember Singapore Plaza

Ashoka Plaza was/is adjacent to the bus stand on Sathy Road - There was a theater behind Ashoka Plaza (mostly screened either mallu matter movies or Hindi movies). Google map shows that theater has been demolished now. Singapore Plaza came-in little later, may be late 80s, on X-cut road, more or less near power house bus stop (The famous loop Route# 7 - You need to know whether it is going CW or CCW). When Singapore Plaza opened that part of X-cut road used to be dark!! I bought my first "Flying machine" jeans at Cambridge store, Singapore plaza. I think it was my first or second year in college.