CHENNAI: They said Apple Inc took India by storm, when they arrived a few years ago. Thursday at midnight, the tables were turned as the city’s weather Gods took Apple’s iPhone 4S launch, literally, by ‘storm’. Admirably, the twin launches in Chennai, by mobile operators Airtel and Aircel went ahead with the launches despite the rain steadily increasing in intensity from 9pm. The roads flooded up thick and fast and commuters were few as the clock ticked past eleven. For their part, the organisers of the Airtel event at Univercell in Alwarpet adapted fast — all parking ushers were supplied with large umbrellas to get the guests and actor Sneha inside with as little rain damage as possible.While the mention of any Apple product launch has always evoked images of long crowds outside stores after midnight, this launch in Chennai was at dire risk of being washed out. This automatically meant that there were no crowd of excited fans outside the Aircel store on OMR, where Suriya arrived at the stroke of midnight, but it also meant that the bouncers hired by the stores for crowd control, were able to have an easy night. Suriya himself looked perfectly at ease, expect when he tried to recite some manual-inspired talk about the new iPhone's voice activation features.Once the stars arrived though, relief flooded the stores. The water was forgotten temporarily and the compactly packed iPhones' came out. Expectant customers with wives and kids arrived to receive their pre-ordered phones from Suriya and Sneha at their respective launches. The smiles lasted well after Suriya departed, right up to the time when they walked out and saw the Old Mahabalipuram Road almost submerged under the flood water.
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