Top 5 Holi Songs

I love Holi. And I love Holi songs from the silver screen even more. So this year I thought I'd put together a list of my favourite songs.

Pichkari!

Without much ado, here goes-

No. 5
Haule Haule- Rab Be Bana Di Jodi
You might not think of this as a Holi song, but technically it starts off with Holi and the whole picturization is so sweet. I love the long takes, the synchronised choreography and the colour schemes. It's a treat to watch :)
No. 4
The No. 4 position jointly goes to-
Tum Tak- Ranjhaana
Dhanush is reason enough to love this song, but if that doesn't do it for you then A.R Rahman surely will. And if none of that works, then there's the exceptional cinematography. The way it's shot will make you fall in love with colours. *sigh*
Madubala - Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Again, not technically a Holi song, but there are Bhang references, and I love the UP feel :D

No. 3
Balam Pichkari - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
The folksy feel, the interesting instruments, the kitschy lyrics, the colours, and the carefree abandon of your good old college days. With a very hot Deepika Padukone. What more d'you need? This song makes me wanna get up and dance in the middle of the theatre. And that doesn't happen too often.

No. 2
Khaike Paan Banaras Wala- Don (1978)
One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite movies. I don't think it's actually set in Holi, but since it's all about Bhang, you'll hear it often enough at Holi parties. There's nothing I need to really justify here- the song is awesome and that's that. :)

And finally for my No. 1 Holi song------

Jai Jai Shiv Shankar- Aap Ki Kasam
Not your usual Top Holi song, but I like this much more than the omnipresent 'Rang barse' etc etc
Rajesh Khanna, who I love. Kishore Kumar who I love even more. Mumtaz who is too cute, and music that is so 70s. The song encapsulates Holi so beautifully, the lyrics and the music compliment the thought so well. Ek ke do, do ke chaar dikhte hai truly :)

Enjoy listening to these (and many more) Holi songs and a very happy and colourful Holi to all! :)

P.S- Do tell me what your favourite Holi songs, the absolute worst (that'd be a long list in itself), the downright sleazy...

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Madras- A one night stand that couldn't become a torrid love affair

This happen's to be my 100th post! :) I thought I'd make it special :D If you've been around for a while, do leave a comment to let me know whether you love/hate/abhor my blog and my narcissism or...just lemme know what's up...

I've been travelling for a while now. That's the one thing about being in sales, esp if you're a management trainee. You get to travel. A lot. Now it started off with the south. I spent a couple of days in Chennai, and contrary to popular belief (or just what ppl around me believe) it is not such a bad place after all. The way people had always talked about it, I thought there'd be nothing to do, no entertainment options at all. Boy, was I wrong. I landed in Chennai on the morning around 9-10 am and we were supposed to report to our regional office directly. However, they allowed us to stop over at our guest house to dump all our luggage before we headed off to work. Now, of course language is a problem in Chennai for north-indians (for anyone who's not Tamil basically) but Google Maps came to the rescue, and in broken english, we managed to reach the right location. I should mention here that my company's guest house is located in a really posh part of the city. Wide roads, tall trees, sprawling bungalows. An auto driver later told me Jayalalitha lives nearby and bcuz real estate there is so high, that's the reason they charge us a bomb for those short auto rides. But more on that later. People crib abt the Chennai weather, but I for one prefer the hot and humid over the cold and dry any day. Considering what it does to my hair, I'm being very generous I feel, but I just can't stand the cold. Now it was a friday evening , and when we got off work we decided to just chill at our guest house. The next day, we had work (have blogged about this recently- read 'The first day of the rest of my life') but after that we went out. Had some snacks at a place called Gangotree which was decent, and then headed to 10D. The only issue I had with the place is that it doesn't open till 7:30. Apart from that, I loved *everything* about this British style pub. Ambience is comfortable, old worldly and friendly. The music was a bit loud, and there were random people but I would still recommend this place to people looking to unwind in the city. The shots were good and the appetisers as decent as you can expect from a pub. I would give it a 4 star rating on 5. For further info on what I'd eaten, you can read the other blog entry I mentioned above. Other notable places to eat/party in the city that I discovered in my short stay there were Raintree Hotel (it has a lot of options- Rainbow, Madera, etc. etc.), this cute lil place called Sandy's Chocolate Laboratory (Near the Unilever guest house in Nungambakkam), Purple Room in Hotel President. Tangerine is another place in Alwarpet, but i didnt feel the food was very good. As for shopping, I only visited two malls. Phoenix in Vellachery and City Centre In Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai.

Mammo Deli, 10D and Sandy's

Phoenix is huge, and a lil confusing, but it's new so the time that I was there, a lot of shops hadn't opened. In fact, I'd gone there with a friend from work, management trainee like me, and we wished to eat, but couldn't find anything. Finally, we saw this small cafe 'Mammo Deli' where we had delicious mocktails and some tangy pasta (was very hot- temperature-wise). I found free-wifi in the mall though so I whipped out my laptop and started doing some work (didn't have a data connection USB then, and I had done some research before heading out, there's a list on foursquare for free WiFi spots in Chennai and I put it to full use). They have a decent food court as well. There was one joint which caught my eye, by the name of Cha Republic. They put those bead-type thingies in shakes, the kind you'll find in abundance in southeast asia. And now I hear, Zara has opened up there.
 So, Phoenix does offer enough options for recreation Yea, it's a joke that the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix City Mall which opened just a few months back, can't even serve alcohol. Because in Chennai, you need to have lodgings in order to get a liqour license. Which is why places like 10 Downing Street have lodgings as well in the first floor. For the average movie-buff, Chennai is a haven. Though, for a north Indian, there might not to be too much of a variety. The Tamil Nadu govt has imposed a regulation on ticket prices, so no matter that it's a multiplex and you're watching the latest 3D action flick, you still pay a meagre Rs. 120 to watch a movie. 

My point being, Chennai is a city where you can have fun, you just have to look in the right places. A friend of mine who's working there currently, parties every weekend, and eats out more than 3 times a week. Two of the places she recommends are Mash by Besant Nagar, near Elliot's beach and California Pizza Kitchen, which is a chain and has no "madras"ness about it. When I was "interviewing" her for this piece, and asked her if she'd visited some of the restaurants I've mentioned above, she was clueless, but I guess that is collateral damage...when you end up living in a place, you end up going to the tried and tested places to eat, hang-out, etc. Hopefully, this piece will wake up a few people, and encourage them to go out and explore the city that they may have written off in a hurry.

Another friend of mine, who has again, been working in Chennai the past couple of months very kindly gave me a sound-byte. Utkarsh Gupta, from IIMC, says "Chennai has the potential to be India's Miami with the long beachline it boasts of, but the local admin needs to realise it; a city still stuck somewhere in the 80s when the country is moving on". I wouldn't say I entirely disagree with what he says...

Now, I remember, I mentioned I'd get back to the auto-wallas, and I always try not to disappoint, dear readers. I thought it'd be funny if I tell you guys how a friend (fellow north-Indian) and I used to communicate with the auto-wallas in Chennai. I already spoke about the merits of Google maps, but we still had to give directions from time-to-time. So, the way we communicated was "Right-aa", "Left-aa", "Stop-aa". I know, this is probably very anticlimatic, but it's hilarious when you hear us say it :P But then, it works, so who cares, right? Na urr thadava sunna...Ok, that was randomly inserted there for good measure. He he. I do like showing off my prowess over the dravidian tongue by sometimes quoting Rajnikanth dialogues...There's only one that I know, so it gets old real fast. :)

But I digress...the whole point of this article was to stress upon the fact that every city has something to offer, and one shouldn't write it off without fully exploring the options it has to offer. Or maybe, it's just me, I like to find something good about everything...Whatever it is, I can't say whether I loved or hated the city, cause one week is hardly enough to take in the atmosphere, let alone explore all the nooks and alleys, but it's a city I would definitely love to visit again, and test the waters with.

P.S- A special mention to the north-Indian auto walla who was asking whether I had visited Marina beach and other sites in the city. :) You made me happy, Auto walle Bhaiyya :) I guess you recognised a kindred spirit in the land of Rajnikanth and filter coffee. (Sorry,I don't mean to stereotype. Apologies, if I'm being ignorant)

I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I find nice autodrivers/cabbies in whichever city I go to, be it Mumbai, Hyderabad or Chennai....Now, if only auto walle bhaiyya's in Delhi were listening....:/

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Free WiFi Spots in Chennai: https://foursquare.com/krishna06/list/free-wifi-spots-in-chennai

I found it useful, hopefully you will too.