This's my first post from Chennai.
Many people've asked me about the difference between Bangalore & Chennai.....and why anyone in his right mind would shift from bangalore to Chennai - that too when that guy's parents/girlfriends r not in chennai. I've tried to analyze in what ways Chennai is different from bangalore. (apart from the chicks perspective , that is default!! )
* Chennai has awesome FM radio channels - Mirchi,Suriyan,Radio City and Rainbow. I'm tuned in to radio almost all of the time - my fone's earfones are in my ears all the time.
I've even formed a 'FM Radio Law' which states that
" Whenever there're more than 3 Radio Stations in any City, its very probable that at any point of time between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM atleast one of the stations is playing a song that u like ".
So, u only need the Radio to be happy. Suriyan FM's bland Radio Jockeying is made up by its nice songs while sometimes, its a relief from the 24/7 hyper nature of Radio Mirchi's jockeys. The radio jockeying of the new kid on the block - radio City (105.8 FM) is unbearably tacky - especially when all jockeys start all their sentences with 'friend' or 'nanba'....ugh!! And the jockeys also have such wierd names - Chooo chweet sharmili,smiley sulabha etc...oow!!
Maybe they're trying to catch listeners using the concept that once enough people start talking about how aweful radiocity is, more people will tune in to see why exactly its aweful!! But i've gotta say - their station song is cool!! Its only thing worth listening to on that channel!!
And wonder of wonders, Rainbow FM plays some great english music in the afternoon and in the evenings....something that i've not noticed any radio station do in bangalore.
FM maybe cool, but that doesn't make up for the very serious lack of pubs in chennai. While I was in college, drinking was considered cool in tamil Nadu. There were flambuoyant bars,with bright lights and innovative marketing techniques...(Kushboo wines in madurai offered a half-boil free with every quarter). And then,I read somewhere that Amma got worried about the fact that APPA and his men owned most of the wineshops and bars in tamil Nadu and so, she decided to nationalise(stateise would be more accurate i guess) the liquour Industry in TN.
And she started TASMAC. And this has continued even after APPA came to power, 'coz the TASMAC revenues are going to the state govt anyway....so, why disturb a well runnning process oriented looting?
Now, drinking has become somewhat of a dirty thing in TN. The TASMAC shops are situated in seedy corners of the city and are strictly maintained in a very dirty state all the time. Any sober man would think twice/thrice before entering a TASMAC joint.
I agree that drinking is an evil - but it mostly affects the poor people where, the husband gets drunk and beats his wife and kids. This is not so much prevalent among educated (not just literate) people. So, drinking is more of a problem for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) people who waste all their money on liquour than for the educated middle class people who just want a chilled beer to wind down after a stressful day.
The sad fact is that nationalising the wine shops hasn't changed the situation in anyway - the BPL people don't mind dirty environs and non-existant service, and the educated middle class people have shifted to bars in the city's hotels. So, basically, what it has done is to make the people spend more for the same.
Bangalore has such awesome pubs....each one with an ambience and genre of music of its own!! I used to visit STYX on MG road atleast once a month (any more, and it would be injurious to my purse). It played ROCK - and HARD METAL at that. Myself and my friends who like Metal - Rajesh,Vinod,Arun barathi etc used to visit it religiously!! I still believe that any visit to Bangalore is incomplete without a visit to STYX.
I visited Chennai's ONLY hard rock pub - STAR ROCK in hotel Arunachala......they played nice hard metal - but they had a limited repetoire of songs.....once they've played all the famous songs of Metallica on one saturday night, what will they play the next weekend?
Its OK...but Chennai needs more!! If anyone of u who reads this blog is a guy with loads of money and thinking of where to invest it, please do consider this business opportunity.
OK...this post is long enough...... I'll continue with my next one!!
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