Abhirami, Abhirami... Not the Guna's Abhirami, but the real Abhirami Theatre owners have come up with a Mall kinda complex in the Panicky Purasawalkam. This is not new, however - this was started sometime in mid of 2005 itself. But this is first time that we were visiting.
A small elevator that attracts children is fixed in the front. But there were many oldies also who enjoyed going by it! Our friend's daughter was overjoyed to go in it that she did it twice and she tripped down the Security. (Poor guy)
A huge Mummy kinda statue is standing in the center lobby (who is the architect, huh!) and around it are the restuarant's tables and chairs. ok, our aim was to go on to see the 'Snow in Chennai' as was advertised in 'The Hindu' (Madrasi's Times).
We paid a pretty higher amount as fee and were forced to remove our shoes; (Gosh, the friend's daughter was wearing a shoe that the parents took hours to remove and put back) they gave us boots and jerkins... gee.. me and my husband went back to our 'first' honeymoon at Kashmir!! but there is no zip in the jerkins.. sheepishly i turned to my hubby and he tried to locate a velcro and apdi ipdi yedagudama, ended up wearing the jerkin. again, it took hours to locate a perfect jerkin for the kid and to dress (?) her up! they gave us the gloves to wear. it was not proper gloves but the one that are used in chemical researches. i am sure we did stand stupid there in that costume, that too in hot madras! and then we waited for a few minutes against a room. (seem they are doing batch processing) meanwhile my husband and his friend was having a nice time in looking at the girls around. the friend's wife (realised very lately that i didnt know her name!!) was too busy talking over mobile - that left me with the kid. the kid's tamil was wonderful (her mother tounge was Telugu) so was enjoying it. suddenly my hubby at last realised my existence and came to me. chucks, the jacket's hood didnt fit me at all. ok, the bells rang and we were let in!
We entered a room that is of the size of single bedroom flat in Annanagar. it was fully covered with artificial snow.. err.. ice blocks... whatever! there were ACs fixed on the artificial ceiling. The walls were filled with plasters and thermocools. the temperature read as zero degree. it was damn cold within 5 minutes. because of the poor jacket, and my hood kept sliding - my ears went for a numbness immediately. the chemical factory gloves and boots were of not much help. my husband is used to these kinda chillness but I have never given a damn. the kid was also in pathetic situation! there was a small igloo(?) built in a corner. people were eager to enter and come out of it. but only few - without paunch could make it done. my husband who is six feet got stuck half the way. had a tough time pulling him out! there were sledges(?) kind of work put over. so sweet of my hubby to give me a push! :) the ice was a bit slippery that our friend fell down several times. Cameras were not allowed inside. but they had men who took snaps and that was only allowed (ways to earn money!!) Several took snaps and we also took one. (Later when we came out, we just escaped without getting the foto printed! :) ) could feel the feet and hands going frozen. hardly 15 minutes would have gone and they sent us out.
then we went to have our next loss - kids section. it costed 30 rupees for adults (who are just supporting their kid) and 50 rupees for kids. Inside there was again a small room with toys that any kid will play everyday in its school. our friend's kid is too timid to play anything. so it was just a waste of money. we came out and unfortunately sat down in a chair. my my!! there was atleast ten men who swarmed around us. each one from a different restuarant, each marketing their restuarants. we ended up with french fries that took away a 100 rupees.
ok, we did have a damn good time pass, but for this we ended up paying a huge sum. There are n number of ways to earn money, just that we are not aware of those.
But the Best one i really liked was a painting done in the center wall of the mall - that had the faces of all tamil actor-actresses starting from Bhagavathar to latest Simbu. But I couldnt identify several actresses in the list. There were few hindi and english faces too peeping from the corners.
