The Centre has announced the Non-Smoking rule in the Public areas from Oct2nd, and as per latest report its a go ahead from the pinnacle court.

Hope the next Gandhi Jayanthi changes the scene in picture below …

Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan, of the popular blog Selective Amnesia the person who initiated Chennai Photo Walk, along with Mahesh and Seshu Badrinath are conducting The First Chennai Photoworkshop on October 8, 2008 at Chennai.

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The Photographic Society of Madras will commemorate its 150th anniversary with an exhibition of photographs to be held from September 17th to 21, 2008 at Lalit Kala Academy, Greames Road, Chennai.

This is a house in a residential colony at Velachery in Chennai. What is striking about the image is the paint – fluorescent paint – in ghastly colours. This is a recent trend observed in different parts of the city. These colours are not so pleasant to eyes. Yet there could be reasons why people go for such paints. In some apartments, only the frontage is painted with such colours. Some sources say it has got to do with Vaastu.

Vaastu is considered significant in India as it is an ancient science on the use and correctness of the space. A friend tells me that such fluorescent paints are sold as Vaastu paints by paint companies to dispose of their not so fast moving shades. The second image is that of a mansion at Triplicane ( bachelor’s quarters in Triplicane area are called mansions).

The third image is a shopping complex coming up at Taramani Road which houses Peter England showroom in the ground and first floor. The frontage painted with fluorescent shade paint.

A search in google with “Vaastu – Colours” throws some 55,800 entries. One such site www.http://www.sereneinteriors.com/colors-and-vastu.html  correlates colours with Zodiac signs as below :

Zodiac sign Colors suggested
Aries                            Coral red
Taurus                         Milky white
Gemini                         Green
Cancer                         Rose red, pearl white
Leo                              Ruby red, dim white
Virgo                           Emerald green
Libra                            Cement color, milky white
Scorpio                        Pink, coral red
Sagittarius                   Golden yellow
Capricorn                     Dim red
Aquarius                      Pink, blue
Pisces                          Yellow, pure white

The same site also bring out the colors compatible with the directions.

It is common belief in this part of the world that certain colours are lucky, brings good fortune and certain colours bring ill luck. The marriage invitations are still printed in yellow colour and obituaries are bordered in black.

But why this sudden craze for fluorescent shades ?

Could it be true that paint companies are selling their slow moving shades by calling them Vaastu Paints ?

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…

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.

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.

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.

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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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Is Chennai going the Singapore way? Naaah.. I don’t think so. It certainly doesn’t seem so from this penalty chart that the government has released!! While on the topic, I wonder what happened to the ‘other’ cleanup plans we have seen in the past? Remember the City cleanup proposal by Neel Metal Fanalca? or the port cleanup activity? or the river cleanup plan? or the innovative coastal cleanup competition? Anyway.. let’s not do a postmortem, and be as hopeful as before and believe that there is always a miracle waiting to happen that would solve all our country’s problems….

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