Tim meets a super mega movie star... apparently

Whoa - 2 posts in 2 days... Don't expect this all the time!

I promise to keep this one brief!

Today I met a man named Kamal Hassan - apparently he is a major Tamil movie star (Chennai is in the region of Tamil Nadu, who have a different dialect and movie industry to the rest of India).
I was told that Kamal was the Tamil equivalent of Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks & Tom Jones all rolled into one... he was being given the Rotary club of Madras 'Lifetime Achievement Award' - and promptly he gave a speech thanking his family and friends who he couldn't have done it all without - I guess he must actually be famous then!

To tell the truth it was an interesting afternoon except for the fact a large portion of the presentation was in Tamil and I was the only person in the room who didn't speak it. Don't tell anyone but I was secretly more impressed by a beautifully preserved Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in the car park... A very famous Indian/British motorbike that holds the record for the longest production run of any bike model having been made non-stop since 1948 (oops - I'll put the anorak away - I promise!)

I did notice one interesting & quirky fact at the meeting though - ever since I got here I thought there was something slightly odd about the way Indians talk (apart from the accent) and today I finally put my finger on what it was: they use words that are deliberately long-winded or extravagantly Victorian... things are not definite or certain - they are manifestly indubitable. I even recently passed an old poster in a slum part of Chennai that was telling the passing crowds to bank with their firm due to their 'predilection to expedient enterprise'. To my great surprise the sign didn't seem to be attracting many of the market goers attention...