As a connoisseur of Good food and living in Chennai for the past decade, I stand witness to the amazing trasformation this city is currently going through, especially on the food scene. Yes, Chennai may not yet be close to Mumbai or even Bangalore in terms of options on the International cuisine, yet, Chennai is fast on the heels and is already home to a huge variety of options, something which was non existant hardly a decade ago. I have been reviewing restaurants for a few leading magazines and famous blogs for the past 5 years and amongst the huge otpions available today, the following are my favourites. A word of caution here, these are, as I said, my personal preferences and has nothing to do with the completeness of the list. The list has nothing to do with any form of ranking as well and is just a list of options. HIGH END (Star Category) Name of Hotel, (part of), Kind of cuisine, Location, Phone number 1 Southern Spice (Taj), Southern Indian Cusines, Nungambakkkam, 044...

Doom in the world outside, rings music to the media man’s ears – goes the old dictum. The aptness of this adage was on display on those fateful few days, which no Patriotic Indian can ever forget - the tragic events on that fateful night of November 26, 2008. Mumbai was burning, for over 70 nightmarish hours, from a cowardly act of terrorism, on innocent humans which claimed over a 175 lives. Indians, irrespective of their religious or regional identities, were glued to their TV sets praying for the brave security forces to weed out the dark forces, while the news channels went on a frenzy to gain TRP's under the guise of 'Breaking News". The nation was up in arms – not only against the dark forces of terrorism, but against the Media in general, for not exercising restraint and crossing all lines, telecasting live, not only the carnage as it unfolded, but sensitive, critical and classified operations and movements of the armed forces. Little did they realize, that this l...

Tirukadaiyur  The Main Gopuram The Name is music to our ears. Having spent most summer holidays of our childhood here, at the palatial homes (Pitchakattalai estate) of our grandparents, legendary icons of the yesteryears and demigods for the people of this quaint little village on the Mayavaram (now Mayiladuthurai) – Nagapattinam highway, the very mention of Tirukadaiyur is a nostalgic trip down memory lane for my cousins, my brother and me. Today, Tirukadaiyur is synonymous with the Sashtiapthapoorthi (60th) or Sadhabishekam (80th) birthday celebrations, and the transformation of the little town from a small and financially insignificant hamlet during my grandparents regime hardly a couple of decades ago, to one of the financial super powers of the Tanjore district, is simply not folklore, but also an indication of the longevity of the average Indian life span, leading to hordes of them thronging this place. Why Tirukadaiyur for this occasion? Legend has...