STUCK- an evening out in coimbatore

I sometimes feel I am stuck....
Stuck in a spot....
The world is moving so am I...but I am still in the same place.....
Something like the red queen in alice in wonderland....


I still think I have not changed as a person.... I really havent....Beneath all this nose piercing and hair cuts in an effort to atleast look grown up lies a person who hasnt changed at all. My classmates in tiss made fun of me saying i look like a school kid. So much so that people often gift me stuffed toys(which am not exactly fond of)..because they believe I am kiddish...which i dont think I am.....I often argue on a very silly note with people trying to prove the thin line of difference between child like and childish....

Anyways....now back to my main thought.... I am stuck.... and today I found another companion.... My city was also stuck.....!!!

I live in coimbatore....the city is stuck.....

with a name for which humpteen people give umpteen stories of origin.....that is like umpteen*umpteen...

stuck with it s textile mills which are almost obsolete....

stuck with every aspect that was once a pride......

There was new mallu movie in town and my mum wanted to watch it. So thought will take her for an outing and decided to go for the movie.

For starters the movie timings were the same since i have known what movies were....

We reached the movie hall and i got down from the car and there were guys(am sure from some local engg college like mine) who found me and my mum very amusing.....STUCK....

Stuck with "such guys"

We bought the ticket...and entered the theatre.....the place hadnt changed in years...stuck.....
So much so the deaf ticket collector was still there....stuck....

The same carpets...dirtier of course......
Same wobbly seats.....

Me and mum found a place to sit...... and at sharp 5:45, they ran a short film....like the 500000000000 million times earlier on filaria........

so imagine you go out with junta to have a nice time, plan to watch a movie...and what do u see - a movie on filaria...i was half scared I would get filaria in that hall..!!!!!!!!

The theatre was stuck with the concept of educational movie for the masses....good idea..but dont think it really works...still stuck.........

The movie me taught me intricate details about how to clean filaria ridden feet.....worst case scenarios of filaria( just so that i realise that it IS A SERIOUS DISEASE, if i hadnt in the past 10 mins).....

Then a row of ad films....was almost expecting to see....aarthi aarthi...aarthi...(clap clap)...
okie for non- coimby guys...this used to be the high point of our visit to the cinema hall when we were kids... ad films used to be screened before the movie and at that point there used to be a store called aarthi readymades......and it had a very peppy tune for a jingle...that when it came on the whole theatre would sing....'AARTHI AARTHI AARTHI...CLAP CLAP...SUITING SHIRTINGS READYMADE....DESIGNGAL PUDHU PUDHU VIDHAM,...VANNANGAL..PALA PALA RAGAM,,,, AARTHI AARTHI aarthi ...CLAP CLAP"(PHEW;))

but thankfully it was the turn of some other store.....

Then came the movie (very unceremoniously when compared to the ads).....

My mum was all super thrilled because the movie was supposedly shot near her native place in kerala..... (read my earlier blog entries to know how my mum is stuck in a fanatasy mallu land)

It was a mohanlal starrer(i love that guy)......really nice movie,,......but remember the city is stuck.....the current got cut....like good old times..... and like good old times...the hooligans started barking...... the movie resumed and unceremoniously again the movie got cut again....this time for an intermission....no mention...no slides...nothing....ON YOUR FACE!!!

I made a quick call to dad and told him it wasthe break....and my dad very much like his old self asked when the movie would get over(he has hardly seen movies in theatres....the last time he did...he entered in the intermission and was blissfully asleep in 10 mins)....the movie resumed and no points for guessing....unceremoniously....lest anyone buying popcorn, attending to natures call would know it has started !!

awesome movie....me and mum enjoyed it....

It got over...and I and mum walked out...dad was waiting to pick us up...(he was there in a jiffy....that is because of my theory that any place in coimbatore can be reached in 15 mins from any place!)

Me and dad decided to take mum out for dinner and chose...again no points for guessing ...ANNA POORNA....

ask anybody about coimbatore and they will mention three things....
ooty, textiles and annapoorna vadai sambhar!!!!!!!!

we decided to try their north indian cuisine....( coimby guys.....bear with me...i mean cuisine et al....)))
My dad remarked about how his Lion s club meetings used to be held in a small hall next to the restaurant.The place has remained the same as far as i can remember....

my mum and dad very cutely and quintessentially ordered sweet corn soup and cream of tomato soup.....

and we ordered this dish called gobi manchurian....

Okie...now everyone has to know about this gobi manchurian.....everyone in south india/coimby loves gobi manchurian.....
it is neither a chinese dish nor north indian....but any party...any get together...any marriage SHOULD have gobi manchurian..!!!!!!!!!!!! and the hotels across coimby dish it out in various manners and annapoorna makes it in the best possible manner........my mum has even asked in earlier occasions to the waiter...the secret 7X formula behind it.......

and i ordered vegetable do pyasa and the waiter looked at me with a "what the hell was that lady" kind of look....

apparently though it is mentioned in the menu they dont know about it.....so what is available is(no points for guessing again).... malai kofta.... panneer butter masala.....kadai panner/veg...mushroom fry.....STUCK STUCK STUCK!!!

we ordered some naans and kadai veg. and of course GOBI MANCHURIAN....

pop and mum wahed all this down with a glass of horlicks....


Now everyone in coimby/south india in general have a horlicks fetish!!!

I am not even stepping into the coffee area(kaapi....) but horlicks is a must for people who are sick...so when i was young...and having watched horlicks being used in every movie/ real life situation where a person has been admitted to a hospital... (its there...on the side table...near the patient...always....like superman on seinfeld's shelf).... I asked an uncle of mine who was doctor the reason behind the panacea for all illness-HORLICKSSSSSS
he explained to me that the first questions families of patients generally ask him wrt diet of the patient is " can we give him horlicks?" STUCK.....

he went on to say that in fact horlicks is avoidable because it is so heavily malted that patients can sometimes puke because of the malt!!!!!!!!! but no... WE ARE STUCK WITH HORLICKS....AND YA GOBI MANCHURIAN!!!!!!!!!

we took a quite drive back home, the end of an evening out in in coimby at 9:30....the city is almost asleep...!

....I observed...a CCD, a barista on the way back.... hip youngsters hanging out for cuppa.... hmmmm at least somethings have changed..... (or so i think)

I almost felt like being part of the coimbatore algorithm. A perfectly well oiled machine....which churns out millions of protoypes... upgraded every once in a while

.....same school for 14 yrs.... 4 yrs of engg just like every other kovai sarala, kamala, vimala.....

slipped into an mba somewhere (and damned because of that by many a..... not a software engineer after all and not onsite and ya not married!!!!).....

My brother was a step ahead in the code.... he was among the NRIs in my colony just like the guy in the opp house, next door, diagonally opp house, back side house.... and in the colny next to ours.....
like any other kovai mani,pani, shani.....

But behind all this contorted view of coimbatore is a place which is a lovely city(??) to grow up in.... some lovely people....the best climate, the best tasting water.....


No wonder I am stuck....like my city is....the place where i grew up....like the junta around me.....and just like everyone around me I contribute to this program- by being stuck to the same place ...in order to move on.......

no wonder am adorable (:P) in a weird way.....just like coimby is......