Well, this might be a tad late for this now, but some one please tell me the best name that Chennaiites could conjure up in a naming contest for their own IPL team is "Chennai Super Kings"?

Really?

"Super" Kings?

My wife does not watch cricket and I asked her what was the first thing that came to her mind when she heard the name "Chennai Super Kings", and with absolutely no hesitation, she said "Cigarettes". Like Wills Filter Kings.

Of course, on the other hand, at least Mr Jumaani didn’t make this one "Superr Kiings".

But still, "Super Kings"?

I mean, Chennai Gadjee Kings sounds better. Or perhaps they should have paid tribute to the brilliant ad campaign of the successful Chennai Superstars and named this team Chennai Jujubees.

Or Chennai Macchis

Or even something to sporty like Chennai Killadis

What do you think?

FM in Chennai is a stillborn child. I listen in at all hours and with unfailing regularity get morons on air. Unlike TV, FM can easily go niche. Here’s some things I rarely or never find on radio.

1. Name of movie, singers, composer
2. Talking about the background, popularity of songs
3. In the case of old songs, a little of history
4. Intelligent conversation
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I recently caught a re-run of Evam’s Art. Its their first production, and supposedly their favorite. The story is pretty simple. Three friends, Mark, Sarge and Ivan, are there. Sarge blows an obnoxious sum of money on a piece of modern art. Like most commonfolk, Mark cannot appreciate the painting, and has issues with Sarge blowing money on it. In the middle of the conflict is Ivan who is getting married soon. The play is about how these three have their relationship defined by this painting.
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Chennai based Pixelkraft Media Solutions has produced RamandRia.tv, claimed to be India’s first internet Sitcom. The storyline is light and easy, about a hard core South Indian Techie Ram and a cosmopolitan gal from Mumbai, Ria falling in love and getting married before realising the culture shocks that await them. I saw the first few episodes, nothing great, but a good attempt.

More than the content, it is the media that is interesting. Professionally produced content for Internet is scarce, and this is a welcome break. Get ready for the day when the cry-a-ton Tamil serials will invade your computer screens too.

Last Friday I decided to watch ‘Moonshine and Skytoffee’ which was a part of the celebrating 100 years of Basheer festival. The festival for some reason which I am unaware of is called ‘Under the Mangoostan Tree’.

The play was in the museum theatre, Egmore, which has lovely acoustics and not to mention the charming Victorian architecture. The play was a mix of two stories by Basheer, one is Love Letters, and the other story’s name, I sadly do not remember.
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Mylapore Festival, an annual event in Chennai in the month of January is sponsored by Sundaram Finance and organised by Mr Vincent D’Souza of Mylapore Times. This year the festival was celebrated from January 3rd to 6th, 2008
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Chennai is a bit of a low-activity place they say. Well, I disagree. If at all, a city is a representation of the energy that is in the people who live there, there is way too much that is hidden and repressed among the citizens of this city.

We hunch a lot. Perhaps its time to stand up straight and celebrate.

Starting this saturday, yep that would be tomorrow, every week at 5pm, we plan on meeting on the beach with a group of percussionists (just about anyone who can play a tabla, bongo, or even pick up two sticks and keep a beat going), for an informal jamming session.

As of now, I have been getting a lot of calls to confirm people’s attendance and I am quite excited about tomorrow. If you do know of friends and such who are on the “outgoing and outrageous” side, this will be a fun activity to be part of, as a city.

Initiated under the banner of community driven initiatives of “I Love chennai”, here’s hoping that those who hunch, hunch not and bring out that vibrancy out, that we know is hiding inside there, and which makes a city great!

For more information, visit the site

Basheer is a malaylee writer, and his birth centenary is being celebrated in Chennai.
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X sells DVDs, most of them rare and classical films, to his regular customers. He doesn’t have a shop anywhere in Chennai. He operates mostly by word of mouth. His customers are assured of two things: The DVDs that X sells are of a certain quality both in their content – films and documentaries – and the quality of the DVD itself. This means that not only do you get good films to watch simply by approaching X, but you are also assured that the DVDs play smoothly.
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With Diwali (or Deepavali… Folks, It’s not the name… Its the spirit that matters… ‘A rose by any other name shall smell as sweet!!!’) behind us, Chennai seems to be reeling back to the bore or routine life after 3 days of celebration. Come Monday, everyone will be be back on their regular routines of office, colleges, work, household chores.

This Diwali too like all the ones before was filled with crackers and sweets. However, I did notice the change in the kind of crackers that people use at homes. During my childhood, we had what I remember calling vishnu chakra, flowerpot, mathaappu, vedigundu, snake(remember that?), the toy gun(this used to be around for  months even after diwali), the infamous 1000 gundu and sometimes a few rockets.

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