Aliens.....

Scary topic....not quite.....I guess everyone knows how the movie "Independance day" made a huge box office hit all over the world. The message was clear, we are not alone in this universe and this message reached even the uneducated crowds of Star. Especially Madhi azhagan (the second part of his name was the most conflicting, had the director of independance say seen madhi, he would have offered the role for the alien to madhi).

Madhi, apart from being a top notch mechanic in KK nagar was also a cinema enthusiast. He loved watching all films, english, hindi and any other language. The only condition for him, was he should be drunk enough to sleep in the theatre. His position could be well justified. Imagine in what state of mind would a man, who claims himself to be a mechanic but has not been able to get a single bike started after a whole days work, would be. Getting abused and occasionally hit by customers (and others) for the pathetic job he had done in making a running vehicle into a lifeless metal rubble. C'mon man, he has to relax. So, he hits the wine shop and then the movies for some peace and quiet. And then he would come by next day and explain to all of us what a superb movie it was or what a flop its gonna be.....

Independance day had released and was being talked about all over the world. The words dint escape star either. Being the only literate gang in star, we also discussed about the movie. Madhi overheard our coversation and asked about which movie we were talking about. Once he knew, he was all over the place. With his sweet voice he said "appo neenga innum andha padam paakaliya, naan nethu paathuttene"....me and eeyan were in a state of shock. What did this god damn pig face understand out of the movie and even if he did how the fuck would he explain to us.........and so we asked him can you explain the story.....the response was something we still laugh at.....not even the best of the tamil literates could come up with that kind of description......

"adhu onnum illa jackie.....veli grahathulendhu, boochi vandhu namma ulagathukulla poondhudum....adha oti veliya anuparadhu dhan indha padam...."the whole of independance day movie wrapped into a single line in tamil.....can any of you guys do that??????

Ennudan Jadhai Seyya Thayaaraa.....

Hmmm....thoppa pottuten....have been travelling around and eating well and hence the signs have showed up....i have a small ponch protruding out of my otherwise fit body....hahaha.....So i thought i'll join the gym. But, when it comes to gym all of star will remember only one guy.......Raman.....

So, i decided that i will write this blog as a tribute for the "Jadha Raman". Ram was once a gym fanatic. He used to attend the gym relegiously and by the end of 3 months he had the build of salman and the face of hanuman.

By god, he was now in perfect shape and had become more aggressive. He started challening everyone openly. To avoid any diversions to his gym program, he used to sneak past using the back roads of star and was quite sucessfull for some time, until rajesh spotted him. He had openly challenged rajesh for a jadhai.

About the gym. Raman joined the 1st sector gym. His "master" was "Vada gairyuuuu" ,which incidentally is also an ancient chinese matrial art. Ram was his favourite student. The catch about vada gairyu was that he was no ordinary master. He used to groom his students and send them to the "jadhai" cometitions. At that time the 2 of them were his students. "Puliyur kandhan" and "Aduthotti Soman". Finally, the 3rd of vada gairyu was also named "KKNagar Raman".

Raman and his master were against this guy shiang hussain who was doing some stupid TV shows. They believed in real action, fights. They dint care about any sissy TV shows and campaigns. They were sure that this guy was a dupe and wanted to challenge him openly. They decided to print the wall poster.....the poster had on the left side Vada gairyu (in his traditional karate outfit and punk) and on the right (Ram, with oil molish and a langot) and in the middle was the challenge phrase "Ennudan Jadhai Seyya Thayaaraaa".........

So, we all derive inspiration from our raman and i hope my gym classes will help me just as it helped raman.....

Ramanukku J......

old monk vanzhga....

This incident is also one of the most remembered incidents in star history......All of us were prepapring to drink......reason, kadir's sister delivered a baby girl. Just another reason to drink.....OC sarakku'na udane, all the star boys assembled on time. The gang was kadir, jackie, bharath, iyan, ram, iyer balaji and mookan. Balaraman and rajesh were working at that time.

So, we were all set as the venue was decided. It was called popular wines. Popular wines, as the name suggests was one of the most popular venues for different occasions. Right from having a 2 membered drinking break, it can even offer a banquet hall seating upto 20 members on colourfull plastic tables and chairs.....the glasses were spic and span.....and they supply only mineral water and duplicate liquor (both prepared in their court yard) and also have a variety of side dishes ranging from ravi's poondu oorga to nethilli fry.....

When we were ready to leave, narayanan (the owner of the bunk shop) had a request for us. He wanted us to get him a peg of "saaanisaaa"......what that means, we took ages to decipher...it actually meant "john exshaw".....so, we all left for popular wines to have a bash......

It was all set, 4 bottles of old monk, sparkling water obtained the kooum and ravi's oorga, pattani sundal and a lot of "silly sikken".....we started off....the first 2 bottles were over in no time....then, slowly people started feeling the old monk punches....the first was ram who came out with the standard dialogue...."machan, naan veetukku ponam, enga thathavum, rendu thangaiyum thaniya iruppaaanga"......then it was iyer balaji......then came iyan.....

Normally i dont drink that much too, but having bharath alongside is always helpfull. He can drink like a shark and still stand and talk. In fact, bharath, his bro om prakash and his dad "ganeson -- post numerology" were the inventors of the famous song "adichipaaru golkonda, aduchiputa inikkum daa".....Only me and bharath were left with a full bottle of old monk. Determination was sky high....we wanted to finish it all, we fought endlessly to swallow all we could, pressing in the liqour so that we dont throw up.....and finally it was done.....

End of it, i realised i was walking 2 feet above the ground......the rest were kind of OK but on the higher side too....bharath was tight too and so we headed back to star. I started out with a wheeling and zig zag turns and i still dont know how i reached star.

There it all started. I was crossing the road and a scooter guy stopped and saw me. I was abusing him (his wife was along too) and said he better run for his life....good fun....was lucky i dint get hit.......The rest of the gang was all spread over.....bharath and lawyer, iyan and mookan, me and balaraman, ram and iyer balaji...... Balaraman was totally unhappy with my drinking spree (i will be writing some blogs about his adventures....DAUD hai later)

Then i started throwing up, man, and it wouldnt stop......too much of old monk. I still remember all the stories i was told the next day. One interesting story was "they poured 4 buckets of water and i dint even budge a little bit".....Mookan, our doctor said, get me some lime....when he opened my mouth to sqeeze the lime, i bit his fingers......hahahaha....poor old mookan. On the other side of star, Mr bharath was on the throwing spree, athough he was still standing with lawyer, whom he called "pebetto....enna vittuttu pogadha da". Mean time, soda ,lime and all possible medications that these guys wouldnt never even dream of taking themselves were tried and experimented on me. Finally, they gave up.....the decision was to move me and bharath to the 6th sector ground.

Then came annachi......the crowd was silent and made way for the king. Annachi himself was drunk and had fiery red eyes like captain vijayakanth. He said "jackie, un annan annachi vadhurukken, paaru paa" and i said "dei, thevidiya paiyya kaiyya edudda....." poor old annachi, saw the people staaring at him and said, "jackie, en tambi maadhiri, konjam overa thanni poturukkan, avalothan"........On the other end, Om prakash, and his gang who were drunk came for inspecting bharath's health.....finally what happened was Om prakash and his gang were beaten up by annachi and they ran off..... The reason, no one alive knows.....

While me and bharath were being loaded into an auto to be taken to some one's place in nesappakkam, ram was already in his house sleeping. Iyan was looking forward to do a nightout in someone's place. Ballu was off to besant nagar beach and kadhir was home too. The next day was filled with a lot of enquiries and concerns on what we had drunk the day before. It was a shamefull event, though i should say i enjoyed it and every drunkard should have his story to tell and remember......i have mine.....

The scene.

The Bombay seth who recently came to Chennai was already troubling them to vacate Star as he wanted to construct a multi-story shopping center at its place. But he couldn't do anything when Annachi was around.

That day Annachi had gone to see the rain-affected areas in southern Tamilnadu. Madhi and Kabali, as usual, were at Star waiting for customers. Suddenly they heard a huge noise from behind the complex. A huge bulldozer was trying to bring down Star to the ground. They quickly joined hands to put up a fight. But Seth had arranged henchmen from outside area. No one here would dare do this to Annachi. Madhi and Kabali, first begged, later resisted, only to be tied to the lamp post in the picture.
They were belted like anything. The bulldozer was razing Star as this was happening.
Kabali cried and begged for pardon. He was let go.
Madhi did not even react. They were belting him like anything. It started raining. The rain water mixed with Madhi's blood. But Madhi was smiling like a "pacchai kuzhandhai". The public was watching but couldn't do anything.
The guys who were belting madhi couldn't do it anymore. They were tired. Still no reaction from Madhi. Seth;s men just leave him and go as their job was done.

Annachi arrives in the evening in a bicycle. He is the pillion rider. Seeing the crowd from a distance, Annachi gets down the running bike. Annachi sees Madhi tied to the post. He shouts "Madhiiiiiiiii... enna enna daa Madhi yaaru"
Then he turns to his complex and goes "aaa aaaaaaaaaa aaa" like Nayagan Kamal.
The people tell him what had happened.
Learning what had happened from the public, annachi goes back to Madhi and hugs him. Annachi: Madhi daai endaa endaa avangala vitta. Oru adi kooda adikalayamey nee.
Madhi: Ungalukku panni kudutha sathiyam dhan annachi.

Madhi's parents start shouting at Annachi for taking such a promise from their son.
Now annachi realizes his mistake and takes it back.
They both join hands to destroy Seth and his family.

The demolition of our home....

The time i am writing this blog, i am in a state of disaster. Yeah, the thought of our second home 3 Star is now a history and soon will become a legend......

There you see the remains of 3Star, once a trade center housing scores of traders from all over MGR nagar. It even influenced areas far and wide, ashok nagar, nesapaakam and anna nagar.......

Traders, hmmmm....i meant tea/coffee pub, online lottery, automobiles, cycles, stamp papers, katta panchayats, waste paper store, restaurant, a banyan tree.

Where will the big jobless go for having a chat over a cup of tea. where will students who bunk colleges hang around, where will the guys who drink and make merry pass their time...its all gone, the home which united all of us and made better men of the naughty boys......the home which provided food and shelter to us in times of grief (when silk smitha died, we observed a days starving in star), the home which taught us the best self defence techniques (run for your lives idiots) and above all, the home which even a couple of days back, made each one of us laugh and remember each other after years of parting......

Its all gone....

Next Character

He was the centre and everything revolved around him. When Kadir, Ragoo and I were considered seniors, it was he who bridged the gap between us and his classmates in the initial stages of the star-life. He had this uncanny knack of making friends wherever he goes. Whether it is his dimple chin when he smiles and the "singa pal" that comes out when he laughs, I know not. He sure had some admirers. Who else has ever been asked for an autograph during school days.

We all have nicknames. But has any of us been named by our own father? Yes he was. It was his dad who gave him the nickname Jackie, by which he is popularly referred till date.

After finishing twelfth with flying colors, he could have easily opted for Engineering. But he did not do so - like the other lesser mates did. His dream was different.

He aimed for fame. He chose sports. In sports he chose cricket. Yeah he had marked his man. It was Robin Singh whom he wanted to replace as an all-rounder in the Indian cricketer. So he prepared. He chose to practice with some of the finest cricket players of Chennai namely Vijayan, Murugesh, Siva , Sundar, Palan, Appu..... He chose to play in 8th sector. He was sincere. Every evening he had the much needed match practice that helped him prepare for the highest level.
Then came the floodlight season. Jack sported his tracks, started his bike with the cricket bat placed between the two handlebars of his Rx and later Samurai. He got ready early in the evening. Spectators were singing in his praise "Jackie vandha dangeru...dangeru.. danger...". We must admit that his off-field display was better than onfield. Yet he was chosen to play for the most revered Chennai League. But unfortunately even before he could establish himself India had discovered Yuvraj and Kaif. So Jackie dropped the plan.
He went back to academics. He concentrated on the BSC Maths inspired by Cheta and came out with merit. Then he went on to complete MCA in his family college Venkateshwara (yes, his brother also studied there).

In between these stints of academics - sports - academics, Jackie had a romance part too.
He was naive when Divya rejected him. So he planned and this time planned very carefully to the girl he fell in love to for the second time. Although she looked like a "sappi pota mankottai", Shoba was able to rekindle Jackie's senses. However this was also short-lived. Thanks to Kaushik and Iyan, he lost her to our own Ragoo. Yes, Ragoo took her to Besant Nagar in the Kinetic Honda. And if he does that it means it is over.

He also was considered the next annachi of Star. But Annachi wanted to pass on his legacy to Seenu like how Karunanidhi wants to pass it on to Stallin. This didn't perturb Jackie at all for he never cared for posts.

Verdict:- Obstacles but never perturbed. Binding force.

Vendha vada.....

Wondering what this title is for...read on for more...

This guy Venkatesh, was a sooper comedian. He was studying in presidency college (i think he took 5 years to complete BA) and was a friend of ram and karna. Bell bottoms, shiny pink shirt, sabarimalai belt and a curly hair falling on his forehead. All this together with his gorilla face made him a walking joke.

So, once karna and ram were in pondibazaar when they saw our hero was getting off the foot board of the bus, giving romantic looks (like the one goundamani gives) to the passing girls. Karna and ram tried to escape but in vain. He had spotted them.

Karna : Enna da venkatesh, eppadi irukka
Venki : naan sooper, neenga enna da indha pakkam
Ram : summa than vandhom, on the way la...nee eppadi inga
Venki : Dei, idhu enga "adda"
Venki : Enna karna, "innikki dressing eppadi, significant'a irukka" (side'la bittu pasanga kitta tea sollu)
Karna : sooper da. Enna un kooda ore bittu pasanga, dressing vera ore kalakkala
Venki : Dei, enna pannaromo illiyo, kooda eppodhum rendu bittunga irukkanum'da....Illana makkal yosipaanga "ivan oru vendha vada, ivan kooda sutharadhu oru venponglu"

Hence the name vendha vada venkatesh........

courtesy : "Ennudan jadhai seyya thayaara" Raman

working hard.....

This is one the favourite past times that "we the people" always did. Work hard and play hard. And we always do it in style.....

Kadir's cousins saravanan and raj had an ambitious small marketing company and undertook small projects in exhibitions. One of the clients was kellogg's. Although these eventfull activities have been forgotten over time, the record still remains strong. 2.75 Lacs of cornflakes sales in 13 days.......Its an evergreen sales record for the not so popular product at those times. Great job done, star guys.....

So, the first exhibitions was in the congress grounds in mylapore. The team consisted of saravanan, raj,kadir, jack, iyan, ram, bharath, mookan, rajesh and seenu. And able team of hyperactive young lads (excepting saravanan and raj, appove rendu kazhudha vayasu). We shipped the stock and arranged the stall and were briefed by raj about how to sell. He started off saying "if he is a muslim, say salaam maale kum bhai saab", if he's a noethie say "aayiye bhai saab" and if he's a tamilian say "vanakkam thalaivare". Talk about the vitamins in the product, B12, C12,D12, E12 and manyof them which never existed. Till today raj thinks he is from oxford university, unfortunately we never tried hard to make him understand that his english was awfull. The saravanan/raj english combo was perfect. Saravan used only "a, an" while raj used only "the"..........amazing guys to know

Ram was already chewing pan parag by this time. Bharath was busy adjusting his long python. iyan and kaushik were busy looking at babes in the neighbouring stalls. I was trying to meter mookan for some cigarettes and mookan as usual said, i dont have money for cigrattes, i have only 100 RS. Suchi was loading, seenu was arranging the stall and big boss kadir was discussing strategy with kelloggs GM.

Our pay? It was simple, Rs 75 for a day's work. Lunch (soru, sambar, meen kari, 2 mutta) or a muniyaandi vilas meals. Night dinner is a chicken fried rice and a beer.

The first day started off with less crowd and rather dull. We had dull sales with rajesh and mookan on the cashier role. Ram and seenu were the in stall guys for packing and delivering. Iyan, me and kaushil were outside giving samples and convincing people to buy and bharath was the sample maker (and the consumer as well).

Evenings were busier with more crowds. The kind of crowds were amazing. Ram always got the best customers, some of whom thought that chocos cornflakes were beatlenuts. The white cloth that we had bought for the tables were not decorated with red stains (thanks to ram and his pan parag). Iyan was sometimes frustrated with people who kept askim him if the cornflakes need to be roasted like papad.....andwith his nosy comments, iyan always wished he had better customers........

Bharath had a way to go with the work. He was always with kadir like an assistant doing personal favours for him, like buying cigs, calling up raj and saravanan and once in a while trying to flick some money from the cashier.

I was an odd man and my skill on talking always made people laugh. The way i spoke hindi was not acceptable to ram (partly because he never understood) and would make fun of me. I wasnt the honest of them all. Once in a while me and iyan used to sneak out of the stall spending some time smoking or making some reasons......And every fuckin time i had to wear that god damn chocos bear outfit cause it only fitted me....this was the most irritating part.......

Mookan was a fool.....He was the cashier most of the times. In rush business hours, it was so easy to fool him. We used to say, dei 40 Rs kuduthen 50 Rs change return kududa....and he used to give....poor old mookan.....

Kaushik was exceptionally good in selling stuffs. Although he spent 5 hours of the dedicated 8 hours in smoking. He used to compensate in the short time. He would be sometime talking to some other stall guys and get something from them like a 100 bucks or something to eat, some of their samples. Most of time he was pretty productive in ripping off people creatively......

The muniyaandi vilas meal was a good refreshment. It also provided us with insight on how aliens ate their meal (ram especially). A combo of rasam, sambar, thair, pickle and vegetables made it look like the shit of a cow with stomach problems. But he ate it happily and we enjoyed watching him eat. Although the after math was kind of intolerable. He would fart right on seenu face and the poor guy used to scream "yow....ennaya saaptu vandha"........

Occasionallly some of the kellogg's packets used to be missing. Later we discovered them outside ram's house. This was common and permitted with ram alone. But till not we havent been able to find out how he stole those packs.

End of the program, we did a record sales of 2.75 lacs which earned us an extra beer for the day. That kanjoos ravidran from kelloggs was indeed generous........We all finally met at dinner to celebrate the success and raj was the first to raise his beer saying "this is for the kelloggs of the success of the......" we still are waiting for him to complete.........

We The People The Characters

Here I want to introduce some important people who constitute "We The People".
While there were these others who had their names inscribed on the blog headlines, "We the People" comprises the significant others who made "Three Star" special.
It would not be wrong to start off with Kadir.

Karthik K. Kumar popularly known as Kadir was the mainstay of the gang. He was cynical, sarcastic, jovial, serious, playful, compassionate and aggressive - all at the same time. He was what Rajinikanth was in his latest movie. To say the least, he was the real life version of Super Star. From Rajadhi Raja to BaBa, Kadir mimiced the screen star in his real life. The hairstyle of Rajadhi Raja, the tick mark in Pandian, the sacred-ash (vibuthi) of Annamalai and the god-fearing BaBa - we all got to witness from close quarters.

He was so compassionate that his only motto was to make sure that his cousins Saravanan and Raj, who were already working, get settled. At that time of making this statement Kadir was not working - both Saravanan and Raj were better placed.

His experiences with love and Pithaji family needs no introduction. If Kaushik was for the youngest, Kadir eyed the middle one. But then, there was Ragoo*, who wanted all three and the small one which was 4th standard.

Kadir had the abiltiy to pick up fights and make compromises at equal ease. Who can forget the night when he smashed Tinku and co. all over the place. Or the one where he joined hands with Ragoo to knock down a weak old man.

His leadership qualities were at its best when the exhibitions began in the Chimera. He not only assigned roles. He made sure that there was accountability too.

Verdict : Kadir - A stern leader. Real life hero
*Ragoo is our Raghu, the " oo" is to give an effect - like the kangaroo

Election campaign.....

Elections have always been memorable, whether it was in high school or in college or in politics. There's always huge noisy crowds (most of them drunk), shouting, swearing, banners lined up against the wall, incomplete paintings and hoardings, and lot of activities.

So, the election story that i am referring to is in 3 Star. The story began like this, Annachi (the king maker in the area) was the Vatta Cheyalalar for ADMK in MGR nagar district. His position earned him nothin but a free dhoti and white shirt once in a while and some free cheap drinks from the star guys or the loyal associates for sorting out problems. The problem he dealt with were very minor, petty fights and buying and selling of waste paper.......No one knew what the actual Velusaamy was made of, his true colour (jet black)......

The counselor elections were nearing and there have been a lot of nominations being filed. Everyone of the "vetti" star mob was asking annachi, if he had filed nomination.....Annachi, deriving some cheap pride in this comment used to respond saying "namma aatchi ellam over, inume namma yaaravadhu valathu vidanum".......as though he was tired of running the state government for 10 years.......

Everyone thought it was a big joke until we met the scape goat. Yes, none other than Dravida mani and his brother Chezhian the fox. The deal was that Annachi will campaign for dravida mani and assure him victory while chezhian would fund the election campaign. Once elected, dravida mani will rule the district with the able counselling of annachi and company. It all seemed perfect. What a plan !!!!!!!

So, the activities started in full swing. We could see kabali was into the banner program, madhi took the transportation and finances, cheta was the bunk supplier for the mob including tea, cigarettes etc, Annachi's den was the place where we planned for the "Kalla Vote" activities and the restaurant was the store room. There were about 100 cycles, 20 bikes and an Half cut Auto with a tubelight on top. You are right, that was dravida mani's campaigning vehicle. He had no interest in bullet proof vehicles and BMW's, he was rajiv ghandhi types..down to earth and always with public walking with them.......what a joke he was with his frenchie.....

Now, what was our role? We were the only educated "gumbal" in all of 3 Star and only we could speak and write english (Although i think bharath, ram and karna) were not counted in this even then). Anyways, our responsibility was to campaign for dravida mani in english and cover the middle class mass. The members jackie, iyan, bharath, ram, karna, lawyer, krishna,suchi. Kadir and balaraman were not impressed with the idea and rajesh too opted out of it. I still remember kadir's dialogue "ivan periya junni, ivanukku naan campaign pannanuma".....

It was a globally known fact that this was a bull shit activity but all of us were thrilled by elections and the free tea and cigarettes. The offer was too good to refuse. Biriyaani and old monk peg always go hand in hand with elections......

We distributed the areas for campaigning. Suchi was in charge of 1st and 2nd sector and he was out in every house with his hands in prayer position....his dialogue was "ammmaaaa suyarchi" "akkaaaa suyarchi" "aiyaaaa suyarchi". In fact i remember one of the ladies had bought some rice and old food thiking it was a beggar outside. However suchi stuck to his job and did a marvellous job in the end.

Iyan, and I were on one bike, bharath and krishna on the other, shouting at the top of our voice. It was fun, we shouted "Podungaya votu......" and they responded "mezhuguvathiya paaathu".......man, it was a super comedy......BTW, the burning candle was our man's "chinnam"...

Kaushik was in the auto with the king himself. He had the accent and was assigned the task of talking in english in the educated areas of MGR nagar and ESI quaters. We still doubt if people like that existed, but we took the call. Here is an example to support it, Kaushik was shouting "Please vote for the burning candidate" and everyone was clapping.......it was all greek and latin for them.....

Lawyer was the cleverest of all. He dint participate much in the campaign. He chose back stage activities like banners, posters etc. Once in a while shopping too. Since the account was with cheta (the bunk store owner) lawyer was busy buying shampoos, soaps and goli soda......

Karna and ram had befriended the great "Thogudhi", who had spent 60 years in election campaigning. They were busy drinking old monk and discovered the long gone habit of accepting the glass of old monk in a humble way........they discussed all possible topics, nagar economy, nagar adi news, nagar stock market were just some of them......

The election began and it was thrilling day. It was raining that day and we spent all the time in going to different booths to caste multiple votes. Ram finished first with 12 votes (he had lost a good part of his nail), iyan was second with 11 votes and all the other were much behind with 2 or 3. But we counted our votes and saw that it came to exactly 40. Not bad we thought.......

The next day was the result day. We came in late that day and found all our kings and ministers in a disappointed state. We got the message, we lost the elections. Annachi came and told us.....there is no way that we would have lost....."pottiya maathittanga paa".......in return i enquired, "annachi evvalo vote vandhudhu".......the reply was a shock for us ....."40"

Since then we were always confused about one thing.....Whom did "dravida mani" vote for????????

Location

At the crossroads of arguably, two of the busiest roads in K. K. Nagar, is located a small row of bunk shops or bunkplex, which to a stranger is yet another of its kind in this big city of Chennai. Nothing really special is offered here that cannot be found elsewhere. Yet it was special in its own right.

The bunkplex comprises of four shops :-
* A tea/petty shop - that changed several hands and finally ended up with Cheta.
* A real estate cum old-paper mart - run by Annachi Veluchamy
* A cycle repair shop - owned and managed by Kabali
* A motorcycle repair shop - propreitor Madhi is all in all here.

Adjacent to this, is a PCO/STD/ISD shop which came in to the picture a little late.

The place was affectionately called "Three Star"although till day I don't know why three. Probably because Annachi held the stakes of the tea shop at some point before Cheta took over.

No other street corner, in entire Chennai if not India, offered such a variety to consumers in less than 200 sq ft of business space. To manage all this in such a small area required leadership and great management skills. And Annachi was no chicken at this.

Although, he did not train in any business school or for that matter any school, he somehow had it in him to marshall his fellow shopowners and lead them, the right way (Annachi Vazhi). Madhi and Kabali automatically accepted him as their master and so had to Cheta with some hesitation. Hailing from Kerala, Cheta found it difficult to adjust to Annachi's management style (Annachi Bani). But sooner than later he had to follow suit to survive.

To an onlooker who does not realise all this, it is just a bunkplex. But for those of us who frequented the place, it was a school that taught us about business, art of warfare, justice, leadership and social service - all these blended with humour and fun that will go to challenge the best of the schools.

To cite a few examples, Arun Narayanan who helped Kadai Saravanan in the procurement of Pan Parag, cigarettes and other products from M.G.R Nagar went on to become an M.B.A. Senthil who was witness to Annachi's katta panchayathu became a lawyer. Balaraman, Bingu and Kunju took up CA- purely impressed by Annachi's business acumen - not to forget is Iyan's BCom along with Aiyer Balaji. Jingli, inspired by Kabali and Madhi became a mechanical engineer . Raman, Bharath and Jackie looked up to Cheta's quick calculations and enrolled in Mathematics. Kaushik inspired by Cheta's other skills signed up for Caternig. Kadir, took to sociology only after being witness to Annachi's service oriented life. To most of us this is where our journey began.