under the fire star

Coffee House has been posting a lot of good pictures of everyday scenes of Chennai.

And an earlier Coffee House posting which I'd meant to link to and forgot: for all you Sai Baba fans, lots of pictures of Puttaparthi.

Right after Madras was renamed Chennai, Ramesh's sister came to visit from Bombay. She didn't realise that the flight was via Puttaparthi (who would? I don't think anyone but a Sai Baba devotee would go there, would they?). First she got a shock when the announcement came that the flight was going to Chennai. She grabbed the stewardess and said, "Let me off! I wanted to go to Madras!" Then the plane stopped at Puttaparthi, and she wondered where on earth that might be. Finally she arrived, and told me the story in the car as I was driving her home. I was listening to her and laughing. I took the wrong turn at the Nehru statue and headed off toward Kodambakkam or somewhere, got lost and had to ask directions; which confirmed to Ramaben that Madras is an awfully difficult place to get to.