Mohan has powers to make you CRAZY!!

My son and daughter-in-law wanted to give me a surprise when I visited him the last weekend at Bangalore. My son flashed some colorful sheets of printed matter and asked me to take a wild guess as to what it was?

Looking at those colorful printed sheets of paper, I quickly realised that it must be tickets for some Musical show, dinner coupons or something related to entertainment!

When he showed me the tickets, I was over joyed and more happier to understand that I will be meeting my old friends after a considerable period of time and that too in a place away from Chennai. Somehow, time and pre-occupation in life made us drift and prevented frequent meetings!   I along with my son and daughter-in-law drove to Chowdiah Hall to watch the first play- Crazy Kishkinda!!

with Crazy Balaji (Madhu)

Balaji with my son and daughter-in-law Pavithra

                                                                         
I went back stage to meet the humour artistes and also introduce them to my son and daughter-in-law who were watching the play for the first time and also meeting them for the first time.  I have attended all the plays staged by Crazy troupe several times in Chennai and have known their style of functioning and preparing themselves for the play.  The artistes are such professionals that they all know their dialogues well and also manage the show in case of any slip in dialogue by any artiste on the stage.  All of them knew their roles well and also the roles of others, in case someone does not show up on time!

with Lawyer Subbu

with Vasu and Gita

                                                                     
The Artistes trouped in just 20 minutes before the show and were very casual and calm about it.  No one was tensed up and no one was seen rehearsing the lines walking to and fro in a corner, as normally seen in case of stage plays?  I met Gita wife of Vasu who is also a part of the Crazy shows!  Gita is my schoolmate from Delhi and known to me for more than 45 years!  We exchanged some old memories relating to the place where we lived and about our school days.    The announcement came saying that Crazy Kishkinda was being staged for the 365th time spanning a time of 30 years and that the same drama was staged in the same hall about 20 years back for the fun loving Bangalore audience!!  Amidst thunderous claps in the auditorium, the play commenced with Crazy Balaji and Lawer Subramanian sharing the stage delivering dialogues that merged with their roles and  character.  There was no scarcity for laughter and the entire hall was seen enjoying their wits and timings to the maximum.  The subject and debate whether Rama should have killed Vali standing behind the tree prompted laughter in waves and the role of all the artistes had a hall mark of good acting skills.  Crazy Mohan himself came in the role of Vali and evoked peels of laughter with his own scripted dialogues that were crisp and class apart.

I felt elated when Crazy Balaji and Lawyer Subbu while exchanging dialogues brought in my name and even spoke about my singing abilities!  I thought that was a class of recognition of friendship that has been there since the past 30 years?  I expressed my thanks for acknowledging my presence in the hall and felt quite elated to realise the friendship that the entire troupe valued and cherished as much as I did.

with Crazy Mohan before he emerged as Krishna!

Crazy troupe would not  allow me and my family to leave without seeing the subsequent show of Choclate Krishna which was more hilarious and fun with Crazy Mohan doing magic on the stage!  In one of his interviews to a Tamil Magazine, he had said that he learnt the trick of magic from a magician and spent quite sometime in perfecting the art.  True, the dialogues and the magic woven around it was absolutely magical and pushed the audience to the pinnacle of laughter.  When the show ended, I heard a person sitting in the back row passing a remark that Laughter is the best medicine for any ailment!!  How true is that word can be well understood after seeing the Crazy shows.

I noticed a couple of members missing from the troupe who were great contributors to the show way back?
Nevertheless, Crazy creations is a true entertainment package and one can be assured of relieving themselves of worries and seriousness and live a life of humour!!

My best wishes and greetings to the entire troupe of Crazy Creations and wish them hundreds of shows year after year for many years!!

Power of Love that can bring you back to the person loving you?

I boarded Shatapdi Express on the 10th morning to get back to my home and work place at Chennai.  The train left the cantonment station exactly on dot at 6.10 am.  The journey was very pleasant and more delightful when the Railways served as corn flakes and milk followed by a hot cup of Tea/coffee.  The train journey was enjoyable and I did not realise that we were In Jolarpettai by 8 am.  More than 30 minutes passed and the train was grounded.  There was an announcement through the Public Address system in the station that the train will not move forward towards the destination as a derailment had occurred near Arakkonam through which Shatabdi had to pass.  Further, the announcement said that the delay could be at least 3 hours and more!!  Going by the standards of such statements in the past, I felt that the delay could be at least 6 hours and more and realised that there was no point in spending time sitting within the train.  I ventured out of the station to see if I could manage some Taxi or any other transport to get back to my destination.  To my amazement, I figured at least 500 people on the road outside the station trying their best to get hold of any form of transport to reach their destination that was 200 kms plus away!  There were a couple of Auto-rikshaws and 3-4 private cars surrounded by hundreds of people trying to win their luck!  I decided to wait for a while until the anxiety subsides.  Suddenly, there was yet another exodus of people swarming out of the station and this time Lalbagh express jettisoned its passengers in hundreds!!  I realised it was futile to spend time and energy standing outside the station at Jolarpettai.

Luck smiled upon me when I found a train steaming in from the opposite direction and heading towards Bangalore.  I rushed to the ticket counter and got a ticket for Bangalore.  Within minutes, the train moved and I got back to Bangalore in a couple of hours.

When I booked my train ticket, my son and daughter-in-law were  not too happy to let me go so soon and  wanted me to stay for a longer time.  I cited reasons that compelled me to return to Chennai and promised to come back at the soonest and never did I realise that the term"soonest" will be so soon!!  

Truly, the power of Love and Affection and its aura is so powerful that it can bring the person back!  Probably, its this mystique that gave immense powers to our Yogis and Gurus and added attractions??

Reliance Insurance

Reliance Motor car insurance is probably the worst I have ever come across in my whole life.  I bought a second hand car and along with it came the insurance policy that was valid for a few months.  when it became due for renewal, I contacted the insurance guys in Chennai office and they were quite curious to know if I would go for a comprehensive insurance?  My experience with insurance companies in general is that no insurer gives anything more than 65% of your claim and makes you shell out the balance 35%.  The insurance company has so many formalities lined up that it takes quite some time for the settlement and to get the car repaired.  Hence, I decided to renew all my motor car insurance for third party risks only!

The rate of premium for third party insurance was quite normal until about 3 years back but has more than doubled in the past couple of years.  The insurance company is not interested to renew third party policies and give vague reasons to the customer with an intent to drive him away from them.

in my case, the due date was 28th March, 2013.  Pressure of work and bit of carelessness on my part, skipped the due date for payment of renewal premium.  I did not get a renewal notice either from the insurance company.  When I contacted them on the 1st April, 2013 and asked for renewal of my policy, Reliance office bearer one Mr Kamal told me that the insurance premium is increased and that the renewal premium is Rs 1416/-.  I made a cheque for Rs 1416/- favouring Reliance General insurance and sent it to the office.  The company returned the cheque stating that it is not their policy to accept cheques and asked for cash payment.  accordingly, I sent the requisite cash and asked them to issue the policy.  Again the person named Kamal told me that they will send a surveyor to carry out necessary inspection and then issue the policy.  The surveyor came for inspection on the 2nd April, 2013 and submitted his report.  Today, the company is saying that they will have to take not sanction for this renewal as the model of the car in approved list(Hyundai Getz 2006 model).

Ultimately, it is the way these people do business and form their own rules and regulations giving a damn to the IRDA appointed by the Finance Ministry.  When I told the concerned person that I will be forced to take up the matter with IRDA, they are laughing it out and asked me to go ahead!

The money is deposited with the branch on the 2nd April, 2013 and there is no receipt issued for acceptance of the money.  The officials say that they will issue the policy only after clearance from their head office!!

No wonder, these private insurance companies are undependable.