Time is flying

How can it be Thursday already?  I took a taxi back to Chennai on Monday and checked into my "service apartment" in the center of the city, in a neighborhood called Poes Garden.  I found out that it's the most expensive area in the city, even though the room is just OK and costs no more than the even nicer B&B where I stayed in 2010--$65.  The exclusivity of the neighborhood comes in part because Jayalalitha, the chief minister of the state--equivalent to a state governor in the US--lives here.

She came to power many years ago as the protege of a previous chief minister known as MGR.  Both of them were stars in the movie industry during the 1960s and 70s:

MGR and Jayalalitha.  
Of course, the real star in this photo is MGR's glasses.

Another celebrity who lives here:  Rajnikant, one of the biggest actors in Tamil film.  If you read my 2010 India blog, at that time Rajni's blockbuster hit, the sci-fi movie "Enthiran" (Robot), had just come out.  

Here's a picture of him without toupee and makeup:

The cool thing about him is that he doesn't mind appearing in public looking natural like this. Anyway, I found out that his house is just next door to the place where I'm staying.  My friends in Chennai are impressed.

I spent Tuesday meeting and catching up with friends.  Had lunch with Deepa, who introduced me to a beautiful cafe surrounded by greenery in the middle of the city:

Deepa is doing well.  She has a year-and-a-half old baby girl, Nikhita, so she's not been able to progress much in her PhD work since I saw her last.  But she's happy, which is all that matters.

Tea and apple-guava pie with Deepa