Singara Chennai or Pizza Chennai

There used to be the cliched statement about culture shock when folks visited US from India. But the last couple of trips in 2 years has made me realize that we are facing a reverse culture shock, atleast it was the case for this tayir sadham (yogurt rice) boy who grew up in singara (beautiful) chennai.. Here is the ramblings about singara chennai or pizza chennai....

If we wanted to have fun it used to be besant nagar beach basking in the fresh air,
now its the coffee house, sipping some random tasteless coffee

Shopping used to be Pondi bazaar and ranganathan streets
now its nothing but the malls

Playing cricket in the evenings in every small street corner with the rubber ball,
now its playing online cricket on the computer

Diwali days used to begin at 3 AM, bursting the oosi vaedi, bijili, 1000 waala,
now its checking the clock and celebration happens in silence

We used to sing baratiar songs about "namadhu naadu" (our country),
now we have the US flag in our movies and in the attire

It used to be, sitting in the tea stall with 5 ppl sharing one soda and a puff,
now its the internet cafe chatting with a guy posing as a girl

And finally, If you wanted to take a girl for a date, it used to be in a nice restaurant
now its subway ??? (This is one thing i can never understand)

I can go on and on.. How the dosa and has become a pizza, the filter coffee has become a starbucks coffee, the ambassador has become a hyundai, the sweet has become a cookie, the friendly smiling faces have become yahoo avtars, the hands on the shoulders among friends have become SMS messages, the smiles have become emoticons, the innocence has become style, the singara chennai has become a pizza chennai...