There’s an offer of JYG’s album 11:11 (bootleg) free CD with the Rs 150 per ticket.

Check more of their other tours here.

Ok this is not about the merits of walking and why you should start it immediately.

This is about Walking, but with a Camera. (As C says … any type of camera be it a Mobile phone or Point & Shoot or a SLR).

Photowalkers

More Photowalkers

The Eighteenth Chennai Photowalk is on 19th April ‘09 & 26th April ‘09. Yes, two editions, different locations, different times. Check here for more details.

But the books and the love for it will push most of us from Chennai to visit them in their 33rd edition or more to come after that too.

Via – Ram’s abode.

Seen here are the Photographers in action during the 12th (1st anniversary) Chennai Photowalk.

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!

For a minute, I didn’t know what I had done wrong. Then I realised I was wearing no helmet. By that time the cop, dark and fat, had my keys.

I stared back at him. I was the press, after all. I knew what would happen. I had been through this charade a thousand times.

Why are you talking on the cell phone? But, I am parked, I lied. Orama Po! Onna Ellaaam…

My friend had just arrived at the airport and was calling me. I had to pick up and had been driving for the last two minutes till the signal with the phone in my hand. Neenga keeya appadi edukka mudiyathu. I am in the press. Please give the key back, I said.

For a minute, we matched stares. I backed off but so did the cop. He opened his palm and stretched out his hand. I took my keys.

Then he realised he could not possibly let me go. He had gone too far and had been defeated. So he make me walk with the vehicle until we met with the SI.

There was a gang of three. Eager eyes, I thought.

Enna Pressu? I named my newspaper. Ennathu? I repeated the name. Sir pressam. He is been on the phone for 15 minutes, said the cop. Id cardu irukka? I took it out and gave it to him. He inspected it gravely.

Oru carda vachukkuttu enna vena panratha? Athallam romba thappu, sir. Would I finally pay my first fine in Chennai?

By this time, a cop on a bike arrived. For 15 minutes he was on the phone, he began. Sir, pressam, this one whispered.

Pressunna vidu pa. Poi tholaiyattum. The last was a murmur.

Then the dark cop pointed out the board. Don’t talk on you mobile when you drive, it said. Or something close. I don’t remember.

The warning lasted whole of 2 minutes. As I left the fuming gang of cops, my friend at the airport called again. Before I knew what I had done, I picked up the mobile. But this time I parked after dropping the mobile into my pocket.

On the drive to the office, I was wondering why the cops never fined journalists or take them to court. I even thought it was be right to be fined for speaking on the mobile and not even wearing the helmet, which the cop pointed out as I was leaving.

Is the police too lame to take on the journalists? Do they have too many skeletons up their closets? What pleasure can they possibly take in being so rude?

Either ways, I guess I have to leave my phone alone while driving.

1. Loving Tamil

I love it when people around me speak the same language I do. The year I spent in Hyderabad, I always felt like an alien because I had to struggle with my rustic Hindi. Thankfully, auto drivers were polite to me. Often I would long to speak Tamil at home and all my four roommates back then were Malayalees. Chennai became second home to me largely because its population is on the same page I am.

2. Movies in multiplexes

I was ecstatic when the state government passed the order asking multiplexes not to price movie tickets beyond Rs 120 in Chennai. This is the only order passed by MK that I love him for. My movie addiction is much lesser than what it used to be, but at least my fledging film reviewing career is taking off thanks to the multiplexes, especially Satyam. I recently read how Satyam overprices its popcorn to subsidise the ticket. I love that. I don’t have to buy popcorn to watch a movie despite all the rubbish about how the both go together.

3. Roasting in the sun

I actually love the city’s climate. If it rains around the year, I would feel blue. I know the Chennai climate-haters well and why they love to hate the heat here. But for me, the summers, and lately, the extended monsoons are a continuing source of joy.

4. Marina in the morning

I love Marina at 4 am. Sometimes after my night shifts, I walk to the beach from my house in Triplicane. Winding my way up Triplicane’s dirty streets has a pay off in the end. At that hour, you can’t quite see the beach. You just know it’s there. Sometimes you can catch the surf. It needs someone with more than my vocabulary to tell you how this feels. I might make it corny.

5. Piracy

Everything, they say, is fake in cities and true and genuine in villages. For once, the fakes are better and cheaper that the real thing. My hometown of Nagercoil is no more a virgin market when it comes to piracy, especially MP3s, but no one there yet sells DVDs of Korean and Iranian films. You got to love Chennai for its rampant piracy. Well, at least you got to love piracy because a Sony movie on DVD costs Rs 600. Moser Baer yet doesn’t have a good collection.

6. Food

I love the food here. It’s always good value for money. Eatalica, French Loaf, Murugan Idly Shop, and the scores of Andhra messes and Kaiyendhi Bhavans in and around Triplicane are my favourite haunts. I fell in love with Idly in Chennai something I continue to be embrassed about. I used to fuss about that back home.

7. Bloggers

For a while, Chennai was the blogging capital of India. I don’t know who started that rumour, but even if that claim isn’t true anymore, there are bloggers here, and a lot of them. I have met a few offline and they are funnier and often genuine, articulate people. After helping to organize the first blog camp, the Roof Top Film Festivals, and the blogger meets at my place, I realise I love my fellow bloggers in the city as much I love blogging itself. One of the last things I did was go on a photowalk. For some stuck with a desk job, a photowalk can be a lively thing, and it certainly was for me.

8. Steeped in culture

Every city is defined by its culture more than its politics or climate. Perhaps only geography defines cities as much as culture. Like Hawaii is defined by its proximity to the beach, Chennai is defined by its culture, which even at its most degraded and corrupt is still something to soak in. So city-like and I love it. When I was in Thiruvanmaiyur, it was a thrill catching girls driving bikes with the Salangai still tied to their legs.

9. Hangouts

Then there are the hangouts. Like Amethyst, which is a palace, and clothes stores like Fab Mall (where I haven’t bought a thing) and West Side. Books stores like Landmark and Odyssey. Cinema Paradiso. You really can find a thousand places like that in Chennai. Some of them are big brands and are probably present across cities. But I will always associate West Side with Chennai and my shopping experience of the city. I am sure you have a couple of places you love. May be the teashop down the road?

For the lack of time, I end my story here. You are welcome to add your list. Just make it personal, if at all that has to be told to you.

The story appeared in the Sunday weekly magazine Dinamani Kadhir of February 10, 2008

It so happened that the newspaper carried the report on February 10, 2008, the day on which The Fourth Chennai Photowalk took place.