Crane Pakku

After lunch, at our work place, we used to take betel nuts. At that time a brand "Crane" was famous for betelnut. One day, a friend asked me," Do you have Crane Pakku?" (Betelnut is called Pakku in Tamil). Immediately I replied ,"Pakka rane" in tamil-meaning let me see. Since pakka rane almost sounded like the reverse of crane pakku, everybody enjoyed the humour.

TRIVIA

The Safire Theatre in Chennai (now demolished) has experienced strange coincidences. While the film Towering Inferno was being screened, a small fire broke out in the theatre. On another occasion,when the S.S.Poseidon was being shown sinking in the movie The Poseidon Adventure,cyclonic rains flooded the ground floor of the theatre.

Muthu kulikka varigala

This happened at the time when K.Balachander's(a famous director) movie "Anubhavi Raja Anubhavi"(A tamil movie) was released. Two songs of the movie " Madras nalla Madras" and "Muthu kulikka varigala" became big hits. We had a Taxation Manager,called Mr.Muthukrishnan in Ashok Leyland. We used to ask him," Hey, muthu! How will your wife call you for taking bath?" and he used to sing promptly and jokingly, " Muthu, kulikka varigala!" Even after 30 years, we remember this funny incident and cherish.

First Reality Show

The idea for the world's first reality T V Show, Candid Camera, aired in 1948, was inspired by missives (letter intended to be sent) of US armymen for their families, secretly recorded by a fellow soldier, Allen Funt.

Remembering .......

When we were working in Ashok Leyland Ltd , we visited one of our colleague Mr.Viswanathan. On that day his family was having the naming ceremony for the new born boy baby. Mr.Viswanathan was proud to announce the name of the baby as "Ashok". On hearing this, I told Viswanathan that eventhough, out of patriotism, he has named his son as "Ashok", his son is going to say "TATA" only,whenever he goes out. (TATA was the chief competitor for Ashok Leyland Ltd.) Everybody had a hearty laugh and this joke was remembered by my another colleague during his speech on my retirement function.
Unfortunately Mr.Viswanathan passed away about 10 years back. I always remember him and connect him to the above incident.

A museum for underpants

A print of Margaret Thatcher wearing a skin coloured flower-patterned pair of women's underpants and a tri coloured Y fronted headwear belonging to French President Nicolas Sarkozy are part of the "Musee du Slip" or underpants museum,which opened in Brussels this month.

Man on the Moon- 40th Anniversary

It was the first time that earth bound man left his footprint on another celestial body-Moon on 21/7/1969. It is now time for celebrating the 40th anniversary of such great event. Some of the fast facts of Apollo 11 mission are:
1.Spacecrafts - Eagle Columbia
2. Launch - 16th July,1969, 13.32 Universal Time (UT) from Kennedy Space Centre.
3. Lunar Landing Site -Mare Tranquillitatis (sea of tranquillity)
4.First Stem on the Moon - 21st July,1969 (02:56 UT)
5. Lunar surface traversed -250 Meters
6. Take off from Moon- 21st July,1969 (17.54 UT)
7. Return to Earth - 24th July,1969 (16.50 UT)
8. Crew : Neil Armstrong-commander; Michael Collins-Command modle pilot; Edwin Aldrin -
Lunar module pilot.

Michael Jackson Inc

Jackson's " Thriller" was the biggest selling album of all time,with over 100 million copies sold worldwide till date.
The Guinness Book of World Records recognises his $890 million deal with Sony Music in 1989-1990 as the single biggest music deal of all time.
He also became the highest paid commercial spokesperson (another world record) , when Pepsi Cola paid him $12 million to do 4 TV commercials.

TENDULKAR RESTAURANT

While in Mumbai it is worthwhile to visit the Master Batsman Tendulkar's Restaurant. It is located nearer to Gateway of India at Narang House, First Floor,34,Chatrabati Shivaji Marg,Apollo Bunder,Mumbai 400038. It is a multi-cuisine restaurant serving Indian,European and Mediterranean dishes. They have separately smoking and non-smoking areas, as well as a service bar. The restaurant also houses a museum on Sachin Tendulkar that displays photos of the rare moments of his cricket, awards such as a bat gifted to him by Sir.Don Bradman, World Cup 2003 cricket memorabilia and his lucky orange socks. The restaurant is little bit stuffy.Worth visiting once.

Authentic Cuisine

Recently we have visited a authentic cuisine in Bangalore. It is called " South Indies"-South India in a bag. It provides the taste of the flavours of South India containing four States Tamilnadu,Karnataka,Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Food is excellent. You can choose the soups,starters,maincourse,etc as per menu prescribed for each state. Murungai Elai soup, keerai vadai, kai kari stew,gongura pappu,parundu kuku sasime, elaneer payasam are some of the mouth watering dishes we had tasted there. Ambience,service and courtesy are good. They also take phone orders for serving at home. South Indies is located at 840 a,100 Feet Road,Indira Nagar,Bangalore-560038 (Phone 080-41636363). They also provide a small barani (bottle) containing pickles, as compliment(only during lunch). Worth visiting.