Madras Day, which is being celebrated from 2004, has been revamped as “Madras Week” this year. Its going to be a week long celebrations starting from August 17 to August 24th

Checkout the events @ www.themadrasday.in

One such event which is based on the celebrations is “Chennai & Independence Movement – an Exhibition”, organized by “Roja Muthiah Research Library Trust” and “Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation”

Exhibition-invitation

Exhibition is open to all…

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An array of soft dolls, toys on display on the car backs at Pondy Bazaar, T Nagar. All display and sales happen on the roadside and the display changes in an instant when the parked vehicle leaves to the next car.

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Well, I did my bit – Passed on the message to one and all i know in Chennai, my Company switched off the Lights and power for the 8 minutes, and so did all my apartment people.

Most of the major IT companies like Infosys and Sify too had taken part in this and so did our Raj Bhavan.

I was really happy that my Company took this cause in a very enthusiastic way, by sending mails to the associates on the importance of this, right from the start of this week to the company hotline calling all the employees in their mobile phones informing them to shutdown the computers by 8pm.

Finally at sharp 8pm on August 8th for 8 minutes, the whole power to the Office was switched off.

Fella Chennaite, Share with us your bit, what your company or you did for 888888?

For those who supported this cause, a “thank you” from the bottom of my Heart!

I think we did create “awareness on the message on Global warming”. Let’s march towards a greener Earth.

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Though this was not a favourite subject of mine during my school days, the interest on Chennai aka Madras’s history is high and continuing.

Came across this sign board which traces the history about a particular shrine, hillock in Chennai.

Yes, its about St.Thomas Mount.

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Is that a quick number for pizza or buying Kuselan’s movie ticket!.
Well, its a campaign that has been started in Chennai to arrest global warming.

hmm.. what is this “Global Warming”

So what can we do as Chennaite? we cannot go to places or visit people to talk or explain about global warming. But, being at our home we can spread the message by turning off all our lights on August 8th at 8pm for 8 minutes. Similar practice was followed in Sydney, London, mumbai and now its our turn to create a awareness  that we spread the message on global warming.  I even signed for the “earth day” on Mar29th this year and supported the event by switch of my light’s for an hour. Next earth day is on March28th 2009 at 8.30PM.

There’s a clear and present danager out there and we must join our hands to support this “88888” by being a part of it.

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ticketnew.com, most people would or might not have heard about this website.

Started in 2007 this website has the list of favourite shows happening in Chennai. We can look for upcoming movies, drama’s, musical shows and even sports. For now, these people have tie up only with Abirami theatre but they are bound to expand. Couple of months back i booked a musical event show of mastero online and they were kind enough to give me an option of collecting the tickets at the enterance or mailing the tickets, i choose the second option and i would say they had good customer service as they called me the next day to get feedback on their service.

All though we are in Chennai we hardly come to know about the events, drama’s and musical fest happening in the city so I find this website more interesting to register and book online and have a unlimited fun and enjoyment. Have a sneak peak asap!

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If you think IT and software professionals think nothing but computers all through the day; here is some “play” for thought, well for those of you who don’t know - presenting Rebelz, a Chennai based English theatre group started by IT professionals was out with their fourth production last Saturday and Sunday(26/27th) at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium in Mylapore.

The show was not the usual kinds, which we see in Chennai theatre, it was a dated spoof on Arabia, a la Alibaba, Aladdin types.

There is trouble in the ancient Arabian kingdom of Petra, where the main characters of the play, Ali (Ashwin) is the handsome peasant deeply in love with the voice of a song he heard in the palace and his brother Sinkbath (Bharath) the bumbling sailor who owns a ’ship of the desert’, a camel named Humpy and not a ship!

The Director Harish, performed a cameo which was a totally unexpected character, school boy genie, right after the interval. Imagine a genie dressed in school boy clothes, well all is fair in spoof’s and it was really a funny performance by him.

The play had a happy ending when the pairs find their match and all’s well ends well. Music was scored by SAE School, was a nice hear. Arabian backdrops, costumes and music makes a little complex play compared to their other ones. The show had it all, from skeleton dance to bumbling guard, arabian dance and lots more.

Err Im not advertising for them, even though I happen to be the PR of the group, but if you want to join Rebelz, check us at www.rebelz.in

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My first post here ! Thanks Metblogs.

No plans for weekend ??? Then check this site here.

They call it Chennai This Weekend. Events (say Movies or a Sale) happening in and around the city are put together. Its updated every Friday. Right now you might find the schedule for the past weekend.

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12 years after Madras was rechristened to Chennai, we still find people (including yours truly) who have changed for the most part to using Chennai in formal/informal, oral/written communication forms. But every now and then, analogical to the unstoppable urge to use our mother tongue, we use the word Madras.

There are a lot of things Madras. What I am about to talk about here in Madras String Quartet. Led by VS Narasimhan and joined by several artists at different points in time, this is one of the finest quartet style orchestras aimed at bringing harmony between Western Classical Music and Carnatic Music.

If you will, please try the album Resonance by MSQ. It’s a treat to listen to.

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No…clog is not a new internet paradigm. It is just a contraction of Chennai Metropolitan Web Log!

I am very passionate about Chennai and in anything about Chennai. Specifically, my interests are related to infrastructure, culture and music. Since Chennai itself is about as big as a state, let me also say I belong to T Nagar

Looking forward to meeting you all!

For starters, identify where this picture is taken.

This is not my first ever blog. I am about to score 2 centuries at my personal blog!

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Writing for Metblogs has the potential to be the most rewarding experience in your entire life. It’ll make you rich, famous, good looking, will help you lose weight, make your clothes fit better, and get you a super good deal on a new car. It will make you the most well known person on the entire planet. Yes, each and every one of you. Really.

OK maybe not. Actually those are all lies, but it’s fun at least. The truth is Metblogs is the largest network of locally focused blogs on the web, covering almost 60 cities around the world and we’re looking to add a few new bloggers/writters/authors to this fine site. If you wanna know more about us check out this wikipedia entry but it’s kinda boring so I won’t waste time repeating it all here again. If you wanna write for us, here’s the scoop:

• All author positions are volunteer. That means you don’t get paid.
• You must live in (or very near) the city you plan to write about.
• Anything you post must relate to the city somehow. That means you shouldn’t post a movie review, but talking about going to see a movie at a local theater is fine.
• There’s no requirement for how much you can or should write, but we ask that if we set you up as an author you make about 3 posts a week.
• You can post about things you love, you can post about things you hate. It’s entirely up to you

Additionally, because of our global network, there’s plenty of options for things you write to be read by people all over the world. Interested? Want more details? Post a comment and we’ll be in touch!

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Every year starting April 16^th, there is a ban on fishing in the Tamilnadu Coast from Thiruvallur to Kanyakumari Districts. Since scientists found fish breeding to be active in the eastern coastal belt during April and May, fishing by mechanised boats from Thiruvallur to Kanyakumari districts is prohibited between April 15 and May 29. The ban excludes fishing by country boats and catamarans.

Read more

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I recently met with a chennai veteran who told me this interesting backdrop to the Burma Bazaar of Chennai, which accounts for most of our media hightlights, that I thought I’d share it with y’all.

So, here’s how the story apparently goes. Back in the days, around the time when we had just gotten our independence, there were quite a few people from the region who were working in plantations in Burma. There was a sizeable working population that was from India, and life went on. When a new emperor/king took over Burma, as a means of doing what Srilanka started off to do as well, the government wanted to increase the chances of locals getting employed, so kicked out all the non-burmese population out of the country. Quite a few countries interfered and so did India, especially TamilNadu.

Out of humanitarian concern, the govt of tamilnadu setup a strip of land, where the refugees could sell whatever posessions they had - most of them were plantation equipment, so that with that money they could start a living. This was around 1962. The selling still goes on :)

How much of this is true, I am not sure, but it certainly rings true from whatever research I’ve done. Have you heard any other story? Can someone add to this, if they do more?

This city has such a rich heritage of the past. Would love to dig up more stories like this.

Photo Credit: The Hindu.

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I am usually the most vocal of critics when it comes to the government and their efforts to improve something.
Which is why, either the government has either devised a way to brainwash me remotely, or they have actually done good. I think it is the latter.

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I never thought I’d get into this. The IPL frenzie, I mean. Too much of pompous marketing hype, and a proof of what would happen if cricket was more than cricket and added bollywood and cheerleaders to the mix - thats what I thought. I had initially gotten some tickets from a friend, and had passed it on to some friends who showed more interest than me in the game. But when a couple of tickets were offered by a close family friend with the best seats in the stadium, it was a bit tempting to say yes, than to put it down and Yes I said.

This is the first time I am watching a live cricket match in the Chennai stadium and I am no sports reporter. So I hope the readers of this blog will be lenient should this fall short of an actual coverage.

The game was to start at 4pm today, but the ticket said that folks would be expected there a good two hours beforehand. Knowing how our folks have no sense of time these days - or are just enjoying an extra hour or so lazing on a saturday - we decided to play the first mover advantage and head to the stadium early. We reached there at around 2:45. The sun was still out. It was fairly hot, but a couple of folks - Mirchi Suchi, Benny Dayal etc were trying to keep a few people occupied and entertained with their live music.

At around, 3:30, the teams started coming in, and were going about their routine of stretches and excercises, and ten minutes before the game, the coin was tossed and Kolkata won it, preferring to bat.
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