Chennai's new fashion statement.

The rain god is back with a bang in Chennai and today was one of the coldest days of the year by far.You may think i'm exaggerating. Maybe I am.hehe..But u cant stop a chennaite from bragging when the mercury drops even just a milli.Trust me, today's weather was "romantic". It rained in the wee hours in the morning.,but not good enough for schools to be called off.I had a bet with the kids in the block here.Half yearly exams are on and they dearly prayed for a holiday!.I won the bet (muahahaaa... i know im evil!!).

Anyways, now that I'm unemployed and all that I have loads of time to kill in the evenings. I decided to hit Usman Road around 6pm to porikify some cheap trinkets and stuffs.Since the weather was good, I decided to walk it up.I didnt even cross my street when i noticed something was amiss.Seriously!!. People and fellow passerbys sported something funny on/over their ears.It was a flab of stretched fluffy woolen cloth on both the ears connected from behind the head with a flexible thingy. It wasnt the same from person to person..some pink,fanta orange and some with the nike tick on both ears. I even spotted one with Vijay's vettaikaran print on it.

Even the "street corner " tea kadai bhai was wearing it..

"Bhai, rendu boomer thaanga",I asked. I didnt shift my gaze from the hideous thing on his ears.His was military camouflage pattern.

"Bhai, Athu enna? unga kaadhule???", I piped curiosity beckoning.

"Ithuva??...Earmuffs ma"... As he adjusted the thing with both his hands so proudly showing it off (I cudnt help rolling my eyes)

"WHAT the heck ??? ear muffs ah?..Why are you wearing it??? "

I could sense. He smirked at my ignorance of the most "in" thing in chennai. I smirked harder when he failed to catch the sarcasm in my voice of the above previous question.

Thats when it dawned on me. Everyone on the street had one pair on.The road side romeo's played carom board, all with a pair of earmuffs. The paatis and thathas all sported colorful muffs on their way to the temple. Platform stalls on usman road were selling these earmuffs like hot cakes. Two for twenty five bucks. People thronged around these stalls to pick the more fancy/colorful ones than the previous customer. They were'nt too embarrassed to even smack it on their ears then and there.I understand its cold in chennai,I know its raining and all that.But EARMUFFS IN CHENNAI...really?? you must be kidding me.Grrr........

I muttered "madness" under my breath as I returned home and opened the gate only to see my dad reading the evening newspaper in the portico with a pair of black earmuffs on......

No further comments .I end my post here!