2006 July. It’s been a great month for all of us at Chennai metroblogging. And hopefully, for all of you too, readers and stayers-on.
Just so you do not miss any of the posts this month (at last count, we’ve posted 255 posts during July – way more than we thought we could manage.) here’s a small round up. So sit back, grab that cup of filter kaapi, switch off the mobile and read on.

As I was saying, we, the Chennai Metroblogging team made a total of 256 posts all through July. A lot of these posts saw a lot of you commenting, taking part in the discussions, carrying on conversations and what not. But there were also one or two posts that kinda slipped under the radar. This post, hopefully, will cover both kinds.

Alrighty then, to business. (Note: Right now, let me tell you that giving you all links to all the 250 odd posts is easily the most difficult thing I can do, and pretty unnecessary too. I shall give you the link for the entire July 2006 Archive)

From DVD Rentals in Cinema Paradiso to Traffic flow in Adyar/Besant Nagar, from Chepauk Palace to reviewing restaurants and movies, from questions and trivias to comic-book fans, from architectural trends to movie-making in Chennai. This month pretty much ran the entire gamut of life and work and entertainment in Chennai.

July saw us review so many, many restaurants, street-food joints, bajji kadais, messes, and what not. So much so that Krithiga created a special page to keep track of all the restaurants and its reviews. So the next time you are out looking for a good place to eat, you know where to look!

David here made a series of posts on the city’s history, more nostalgia. And that got me hooked. Meanwhile some of us broke news as it happened. Keerthi talked of the Mumbai train blasts, while Nancy and Nandhu kept up to speed on the blogspot-ban.

Chenthil, who makes me feel majorly inferior with his trivia on Chennai, has begun a series of ‘Where in Chennai‘, while Lavanya and Vatsan bantered about on sweet shops and milk-shakes and the like. Kiruba posted tiny snip-lets of news about Chennai, and covered the BlogCamp, set to go live in Chennai soon.

GV Balasubramanian posted photos and news about different landmarks in the city, always the personal touch about each of these photos. Weather, which fortunately has been on the well-behaved side this month, was briefly mentioned, much like them passing clouds. While we all await the arrival of the rains, big-shot industrialists and their ilk came into Chennai, and left as quickly.

One post that really, really surprised me this month was this little question Chenthil posed

There has been a lot of activity about installing or reinstalling statues in the past few months. So here is a question for you, for removal of whose statue was a committee formed and agitations held in Madras during 1920s?

The answer, much to my surprise, was General Neill at the Spencer’s Junction. Sowmya got that one right.

One of the things we here at Chennai Metroblogging are trying to do is post a Picture of the Week thingy, every week. Which is why, we would like it if all you professional and amateur photographers here join the Flickr – Metroblogging Chennai group and post your photos. The winner gets a coffee.

That reminds me, I owe a coffee to Anand, who got one of my questions right. Ping me sometime Anand.
Anyway, as I was saying, besides the ‘Photo of the week’ feature, we aim for the Chennai Metroblogging site to have as many pictures as it has words. Makes for one lively and colourful blog. Which is why, we gave you posts that were all pictures – and what great pictures too…
-> Chennai in Photos – a pity really that this post didn’t get too many comments. Most of the photos here were just too awesome.

-> Of Crows and Chennai

Anyway, back to the words. We here wondered about the plight of the D’Monte colony as well as the merits of Chennai being under the radar, in terms of publicity. And oh, before I forget, we found out what really happened to D’Monte colony

July also saw a new Metroblogger join the team – Vinod Subramanian. And the dude has burnt rubber here, blogging every day about some restaurant or the other.

In all, July 2006, to borrow a phrase a friend of mine in IIT Madras uses often – was majarly pseud.