The Man in My Life

For those who know me well and have heard me claim for the past 6 years of my life that I somehow seem to be romantically challenged, this topic might come as a bit of a shock!!! Its quite strange that I should think of HIM in the middle of the night as I listen to some Illayaraja music on TV! But then, who else could I think of....
He is the one
- who patiently hears me out when I want to crib after a hard day at work,
- who turns up at weird hours in the mornings and nights to safely escort me home, without my ever asking for it,
- who glared guys down if they were found anywhere in my vicinity in a crowded bus,
- who gifted me my first mobile phone,
- who gives in to all my silly tantrums and fulfills all my unreasonable demands,
- who sits on my bed admiring me sleep
- who is always on my side in any argument irrespective of whether he knows what the argument is about or not
- whose hands I proudly cling on to wherever we go
- whose hands held my little fingers when I was a kid and taught me how to walk
- whose hands firmly led me through life
- whose patience and presence in my life has made me what I am today
- who taught me honesty and principles
- whom I shall look up to every day of my life

Yes, I am talking about my father, My Hero,the Man in my life and the benchmark by which I shall measure every other man I know.

Sathyam Cineplex- Chennai

I am again blogging about yet another landmark in Chennai - The Sathyam cineplex. The Sathyam theatre today is not what it was 15 years back- yes, it has kept pace with time. But at any point in time, it has been the best theater in that period. One of Sathyam's attractions for me has been that it's 10 minutes away from home in Chennai and used to be a 10 minute walk from school ;)... Incidentally, there are some 10 other schools situated around that area. So, end of a tensing round of exams would find a number of school uniform attired students in Sathyam.

Much before people got into the habit of visiting malls on weekends and well before HBO and Star Movies had any viewership, Sathyam brought to the audience some quality cinema and in general improved the taste of audience.Situated in the centre of the city, in early days, movies in Sathyam were an expedition in the weekend for people living in the outskirts of Chennai. From the early James Bond movies to the first day first shows of our heroes Kamal and Rajini and the Night Shyamalan movies which never used to be screened anywhere else in Chennai, Sathyam was the only place where you could find variety.

Sathyam was the first theatre to bring the RDX technology to Chennai and I remember the times, when we as students in college, would just wait to watch a movie with RDX and then boast about the experience to the rest... Times when people would wait for weeks to watch a movie, just because they wanted to watch it in Sathyam and nowhere else ;) Now those are extreme cinema crazy people. But then Sathyam proves it is the best time and again.

There was this one time, when we had gone to Sathyam to watch the movie The Village(Night Shyamalan).. There was a scene where the blind girl in the movie is shown in the middle of the red flowers(supposed to attract the monsters in the forest). All of us were sitting at our seats edges waiting for a monster to pounce on her.. Suddenly we heard a few screams from the back seats.. We turned around to see a few yellow monsters in the theatre!!!!! Not to fear, these guys were arranged by Sathyam dressed like the monsters!!!! Need I explain more on this??!!!!

Sathyam today is a transformed place, extremely posh, affordable, comfortable... Some bright new ideas are the Blind Date(as the name implies, you don't know what movie you'll be watching) once a week, the Magic Hat(playpen for kids) and the Fuel Card(that you can swipe for online tickets and snacks)... All this with ticket prices ranging from Rs 70 to Rs 150. Each screen also has a row of RS 10 tickets... If it movies in Chennai, then its Sathyam for you.. And all that in style and comfort!!!