Kalakshetra, the premier training centre for arts and performance in Chennai is having the Birthday celebrations of one of its founders, Rukmini Devi Arundale.

The institute founded in 1936 was formed to culturally revive the country at that time which was under the British Rule.

Check the details about the celebrations here at kalakshetra

The various moods and the pictures from the recently concluded 32nd Chennai Book Fair at the St George’s School grounds by BAPASI.

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.

…. they go all out to capture more of the person, object in varied angles, lights and perspectives. They would’nt want to miss the Golden Moment.

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

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.

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

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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Previous test matches in Chepauk MAC stadium have been a real test of skill for both batsmen and bowlers. Think back to the tied test against Australia in 1986 or the agonising loss to Pakistan in 1999. But this time around, the pitch has been a feather bed till now, late into the 4th day. There has been nothing for the bowlers so far.

Yet this match will be remembered for the highest test score by an Indian batsman. It was in this same stadium that Gavaskar scored his 236 n.o. against West Indies, which was the highest score by an Indian for a long time. It took a great effort from Laxman in 2001 to go past that and Sehwag upped it in Multan in 2004. After seven years, the record has come back to Chepauk.

Do you still think a result is possible in this match?

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, brought up the point more than once – how does the audience ask questions on a book they haven’t yet read?! Last Sunday evening at Landmark, the audience worked on it, and somehow managed to ensure a decent 90-minute interaction with filmmaker-writer Saeed Mirza, who was launching his first book “Ammi: Letters to a Democratic Mother”. (first book to be published by Landmark’s new publishing wing – Tranquebar Press)
(Personally it was the reading of the essay on the “Ham Sandwich” that had me clutching the book and waiting in queue for Mirza’s autograph in the end)
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Chennai is “Celebrating Sara” was a message that percolated through three different newspapers and one magazine, over the weekend, so V and I decided to succumb to the silent urgings of mass media and track down this Samukha Art Gallery (right before Raintree evidently) and take a peek at the private collection of an extremely intriguing individual.

Geeta Doctor’s book, sharing the title of the exhibition, which welcomes visitors at the entrance of the gallery (located in the same compound as a gorgeous house) describes the collector, Sara Abraham as a variety of things, but we sorta hastily dropped the book at the mention of her “withering glance”!
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