In the lap of luxury @ Le Meridien, Coimbatore

On 11.11.11, Starwood Group of Hotels launched their 100th Le Meridien brand of hotels in Coimbatore. I attended the grand opening and explored this luxurious hotel in the middle of a small town in south India.

If you are surprised what this French brand is doing in Coimbatore, don’t be. The city is on its way to become an IT hub in South India and truly deserves five-star luxury. It’s also in close proximity to Chennai (about 8 hours), Bangalore (about 6 hours), Kodaikkanal (about 4 hours) and Ooty (about 2 hours) and with Le Meridien opening here it’ll soon become a favourite weekend destination. The hotel has hosted numerous corporate events within a year since it started operating in phases. Read more...

The missing link

27 Jun 2011 – A rave party in the Raigad district near Mumbai was busted by the police late on Sunday night where about 300 people were rounded up. 

5 July 2011 - 31 fined for 'indecent' dancing in Mumbai nightclub after police raid 

13 July 2011 - 3 serial blasts rocked Mumbai in the busy hours. 

Do these news when put together make any sense to you? If not them let me elaborate.

A semi-harmless rave party is raided by cops and some very harmless Dirty Dancers are fined, by cops of-course. But a very harmfull bomb blast is neither stopped nor the people behind it fined, caught or as much as traced.

I would like to know that while our police force is busy busting and fining the defenseless youth who's going to take charge of the constant bombings the city is going through? Why is everyone (read cops and politicians) trying to stop something that could happen over something that is actually happening.

The drinking age in Maharashtra is 25 because if you drink before that you might drive irresponsibly and die. What the hell? You'll anyway die, in a bomb blast or a terrorist attack. Why doesn't the police of this country forget about the culture and morals and do some real policing for once.

Yes...I was there..

Finally....after 29 years of my existence in this world and a wait of almost 15 years I witnessed it. Yes.... I was there, I was a part of that magical moment. Like every other Indian I jumped with joy when Dhoni hit that massive six, like every other Indian I had tears in my eyes when Yuvi, Harbhajan and Sachin couldn't control theirs'. And after that the ear to ear grin just couldn't stop.

The feeling of winning the World Cup was yet to sink in when we decided to go out for a drive. I had no idea what awaited on the roads of Mumbai. It was sheer madness, people came out on the roads, waving tricolors, cheering for team India on top of their voices. People in the cars, people on the cars, there were people all around. Crazy, mad people, crazy with joy. Thats when it struck me that nothing else could do this to our country. No films, no festivals, no religion.... when Cricket takes over the nation becomes one. Strangers hug and high five each other, every difference dissolved, every problem forgotten. So what if we have to go back to the same old boring life the next day, so what if it doesn't bring down the increased prices, so what if it doesn't save us from traveling in buses and trains in scorching heat....If people think its over hyped just because it brings joy to our otherwise joyless lives, so be it.

Thank you team India for giving us something to look forward to when everything else seems crumbling.

The 'S' word

Standing in the midst of The Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, I was wondering, is this the same country I live in? Is this the same India or Bharat or Hindustan? whatever you call it.

The same country where walls of ancient temples are carved with nude Gods and Godesses, where one can see cave paintings depicting humans indulging the sacred act of reproduction i.e SEX. Why has this 3 letter word wrecked such a havoc in this country?


In India where population goes around 1.2 billion, we can't even utter the 'S' word.

Is it the same place where the famous Kamasutra was written? where people so openly worship the Shivalingam (for those who don't know, Shivalingam represents the male and female reproductive organs). So why is it that a filmmaker has to struggle forever to get a kissing scene passed through the censor board? why does a painter gets thrashed for painting nudes?

Do we have any idea where all this hypocrisy leads to? A confused generation. Can't we just accept the fact that people have sex in our country, before marriage or after marriage and then educate the younger generation rather than keeping it under covers and letting them explore it on their own. Be it the right way or wrong way?

Applause

Munnar, a beautiful hill station in Kerela was the second destination of our South India Trip. This place is mostly visited for its lush green Tea Estates, Dams, rivers and of course the most famous Ayurvedic massages (by now if you are thinking that this is going to be a 500 words' essay on Munnar..... then no it's not)

After visiting all the tourist spots, clicking photographs, spending (read wasting) some time and money in the Tata tea museum, our (my husband and me) quest to find something that's hidden and not so famous took us to MUDRA, a small platform for the local Kathakali artists (for those who don't know, Kathakali is one of the most famous and ancient dance forms of Southern India). So, we reached this small (actually very small) theatre. It was a small room with a very small stage and plastic chairs to accomodate hardly 50 people. Tickets for the show were priced around Rs. 200 per head. So, after a short discussion over, whether the small place and plastic chairs were worth the money and BLAH... BLAH.... BLAH.... (won't go into details) Vishesh (my husband) and I decided to go for it while the rest of the group left.

After half an hour of makeup session (which we could actually see), the performance started. I can't describe the whole experience here as you got to see it to experience it. but trust me, it was worth every single penny and even more than that. I was amazed to see how such a small stage and merely 25-30 people in the audience could fill an artist with so much enthusiasm.

No place or stage is bigger than the artist himself. All he/she needs is a few claps and smiling faces.