899. Say Hello to the band - Nameless

The journey started a year ago. Me and a group of friends joined together and jammed some songs and sang at a friend's wedding exactly a year ago. We sang some old classics and the father of the groom came and asked us "So what is the name of your band?".

We stared at each other and thought to ourselves " Naaiku soru vachom; peru vaikkalaiyae" (We have done all the practice; but failed to even give a name for ourselves). Telfi (Simeon Telfer) immediately said " Engalukku Per illa" (We don't have a name). We laughed and continued playing. And that is how we got our name "Nameless". This is the picture of the band taken at that time.

I should talk about Telfi here. He is a prodigy and he will make it big. He plays super cool riffs and is a treat to watch. He also plays for Santosh Narayanan and has played strings for many movies. Then we have Beethoven, who composes music for our band. He is calm and speaks less and is the kind of person who lets his music do all the talking. 

Shobi Ashika! The Opera princess and a voice that can reach and hit extreme registers is the lead female vocalist of the band. She is the one in the center in the above picture. Immi plays the Cajon and bass and he is the latest member of the band.  We also have Seraph (My little sister) with whom I have been singing for almost 20 years. She is a good in covering some huge songs. Then we also have Cliffy (a soulful singer) and Siraj ( A rapper and an ex member of the band Hip Hop Tamila).

Our love for covering classics has made us to come together to perform at Aegam Decor Cafe. This is a one of a kind cafe in Chennai and one has to visit the cafe to experience the architectural beauty of this place. 

So the band "Nameless" will be performing western songs from various decades. If you are a lover of old songs and if you like Paul Anka, Engelbert Humberdinck, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Etta James, Dolly Parton, Neil Sedaka, Carpenters and the likes, may be you should come and encourage us as we perform at Aegam on Saturday the 19th of August 2017 at 6:30 pm.

Click the "The FB event invite page" and confirm your attendance. We will be making some important announcement there.

Nameless band does not have any social media pages. We will have our page when we release our first single :)

- Chronicwriter

Read More

898. A trip to Crocodile bank in my Big red machine

I recently became a member of the Renault family by buying a Renault Lodgy MUV. After driving a Maruti Alto for 6 years, when I finally started driving a 8 seater, it feels so different. When I make turns at intersections, I am extra careful because of the thought that there is an entire row of seats at the back of the car.

The reason why I love Lodgy is, even though it is a big car, it does not make me look small inside it. Being a shorty, SUVs usually look huge. When I was contemplating on buying a SUV, my friend reminded me of the Vadivelu comedy in Pokkiri movie where a short guy drives a lorry.

My daughter Anya literally slept inside the car when I first brought it home. Today we decided to go as a family to crocodile bank ( A park which houses 2000 crocodiles). A long drive in the ECR calls for a mandatory click near Muttukadu. Many people were getting out of their cars to click photos and I followed suit.

And we resumed our journey to crocodile bank. Anya was excited to see members of the Lizard family. But what caught her attention was the selfie wall where some artist had painted pictures of crawlies on the wall. At first she was scared of the image of the crocodile that protruded through the wall. 

Finally we saw all the Lizards. Some of them were too lazy to even move an inch. We also were lucky to see the largest crocodile in captivity. 

That is the big guy who is 6 meters long.

Crocodile bank is definitely worth your time if you are in ECR.

Time spent : 45 minutes

Now Anya wants to adopt a crocodile as a pet.

- Chronicwriter

Read More

897. Do you know why Dhoni knelt and kept wickets during the India Vs Pakistan bowl out in T20 WC 2007?

India went on to the bowl out with bowlers who had maximum stump hit rate while bowling in the nets. If you had watched the match, you would know that Indian bowlers Sehwag, Harbajjan and Robin Uthappa hit the stumps where as the Pakistan bowlers Arafat, Umar Gul, and Afridi missed hitting the stumps.

We all go gaga over the accuracy of the Indian bowlers. I believe Dhoni played a much bigger part in helping them hit the stumps.

1. Dhoni kneels behind the stumps and positions himself in such a manner that his shoulder frame exactly fits behind the stump frame. So the bowler has to just see Dhoni and bowl at him. This improves the accuracy level of the bowler and gives him the extra confidence when he bowls

Nothing to take away from the bowlers; but my man of that match was definitely Captain Cool- Dhoni. To read my answer full answer  in Quora, please click here [link]

-Chronicwriter

Read More

896. Miss Sophie

She was my 3rd standard craft teacher in school. She had a long nose, looked beautiful, was always neatly draped in a saree, but when she was angry we would all literally pee in our shorts. Shabir has once pooped once when she got angry with him. She oozed terror out of her every facial expression.

When she gets angry she would scream like a cat suffering from constipation. She would always walk around with a wooden ruler. She might have been a psycho and if she had been a teacher in the present day education system, she would have been definitely arrested and put behind bars.

During the craft period, she would draw some scenery on the blackboard and ask us to copy that in our craft notebooks. I am a pathetic artist. The only scenery that I can draw is a mountain, sun, coconut tree, crows, and a hut. Biswa Kalyan Rath was right when he explained about this in his standup routine.

One day she drew the map outline of India and asked us to draw it in our notebook. My Indian map looked as if India had been badly defeated in a war that was conspired by Pakistan, China, SriLanka and Burma. She got angry. She asked me to stretch out my hand and raised her hand to beat me. Three lashes on my hand. My eyes welled up. She did not stop there. She asked me to turn my hand and show my knuckles. Again three more times the ruler whacked my knuckles. Yes I did cry. Those were the days when the parents would tell the teachers to beat the children if they misbehaved. And Ms Sophie misused that privilege that was given to her by parents and the school management. I am not against punishments; but when I think about my childhood, I can understand that almost all my teachers had been abusers. Miss Sophie topped this list.

What makes me believe that she is a psycho is the fact that she used to smile after beating the students. Any teacher, even if she punishes a student will do it out of love for the child. But Sophie was different. She loved to see us cry. And if we did not cry, she would make sure to beat us till we cried.

To make matters worse, she was always the stand by teacher. When any teacher was absent, she would be the teacher who would come to our class. So we would always pray and wish that no other teacher gets absent.

One day, when she was in our class, another teacher called her out. Miss Sophie left her wooden ruler on the table and left the class. I used that opportunity to spring into action and throw the ruler out of the window. When she came back to our class she searched frantically for the ruler and when she could not find it, she screamed in a loud voice "WHO TOOK THE RULER?". That was it. Almost all of us peed in our shorts. Shabir immediately stood up and said "Miss, Chriz took the ruler and threw it out of the window". She got the ruler back and massaged my knuckles, bum, ankles, shoulders and my thighs with the ruler.

Result: Three days leave from school

You might think that my parents were silent on this issue. But that was our generation and the present day kids will not understand the logic behind this.

Note: Sophie was not her real name. I used the name Sophie because I am still scared of her. What if she comes home with a wooden ruler?

-Chronicwriter

Read More