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.

potum: Via Ravages, aka. Chandrachoodan

History: Muthiah
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So, I’ve always wondered what the inside of a jewelry store was like. Nah, not the shopping-for-wedding kind of curiosity. There you’re pretty much bombarded by everything they’re trying to throw at you, or gawping so hard at bling so obviously out of your range (for me, that is), that there’s no time to take in anything else. What I mean is what goes on behind scenes, sort of. It isn’t to be expected that you, as a total stranger, will be shown the whole caboodle, but you can ask, right?

I decided that I’d ask the GRT Thangamaligai store people to let me have a peek inside their machinery. After about a dozen phone calls and rescheduling of appointments, it finally did happen. I met the big guys. On their own turf, so to speak.
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Tic Tac is on Third Cross Road, Raja Annamalai Puram. I think it’s one of the biggest DVD/VCD rentals in the city. For those with the odd LP players, it also stocks those big laser disks. The Hollywood movies section is the biggest and includes movies dating back to the 1940s. Romantic comedies, thrillers, cartoons, the collection includes films of many genres. For example, the entire Bond collection is available on DVD.
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My heavenly experience with the Indian Postal freaking department!

Many folks apparently found the Zune Review Post of mine to be absurd and non related to chennai. Guess what im gonna blog again about my zune and i care not what you think but this time i will make you happy with chennai info on my zune experience.
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If you thought that this one is a Medical shop exclusive for Paediatrics, Well I am really sorry. It is petty shop.


click on the image for a larger version of the Photo

With Janmashtami celebrated last week and Vinayaka Chathurthi being celebrated today, it is festival season at Chennai with Ayudha Poojai, Navarathri, Deepavali, Karthigai Deepam, Ramzan and Christmas to follow.
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Ever been to TNAGAR? Been on the Usman road with shopping plans? Ever been forced to drive through Usman road? If you answered YES to any of these questions, then you would be as mad as I get when I talk about the nice place really battered and destroyed over the years. Thanks to the pipe laying activity by the corporation, walking through usman road has just got more difficult over past few months. Add to this scene, countless illegal street vendors trying to sell stuff right in the middle of the road and you have an atmosphere of chaos, celebration, arrogance, irritation and what not. TNagar is no longer one-shop-stop it used to be. Today, there are multiple shops (Saravana (Yeah! All those Saravana flavors together), Pothys, Rethna Stores, RMKV, SKC etc selling the same stuff. And on top of it there are these vendors selling interesting stuff at earthly prices on the road side.

I have often found myself wondering how the authorities are letting these hawkers sell their stuff on the roads? These vendors don’t pay tax, rent or anything to the government. Why then, is the government tolerant to them?

Couple of weeks ago, when I was at TNagar, a weird incident answered this question of mine. I was standing on the footpath, waiting for my mom to finish of her shopping and I saw a lad selling colorful laundry baskets. As I was watching, a well-dressed man walked to this lad and extended his hand. The lad, promptly placed a Rs. 5.00 note in his hand and the man walked away without any words exchanged between the two. I didn’t think much about this till another guy walked up and this mute drama repeated. By this lad turned around, saw me watching this whole episode and smiled.
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Just the other day I accompanied my wife on a shopping trip into T Nagar’s famous Pondy Bazaar. One of our first stops was a saree shop specialising in silks. What I saw blew my mind. Shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves of the 6 yard drape in various blends of silk. And when I came to the end of the store, there was more. Courtesy an elevator that ran up and down 3 floors. All stocked in exactly the same manner as the first.
Wow!
But wait. I also learnt that day, that there are a few hundred similar shops dotting the Pondy Bazaar landscape. Being just a year old in Chennai, I couldn’t help being amazed. Now if you’re visiting Chennai, I recommend this one route you simply must not forget to take.

A website seems to be picking up attention, which has a mashup tool of Google maps so called Wikimapia, and a wide variety of other choices to search for.

The best part is the events, members seemed to contribute in this section and the navigation is greatly categorized as “All Events”, “what’s going on”, “what’s coming up”, “what’s over”.

Local search is one more important feature, I guess the site has tied up with other search engines/ portals to give you the best results for your city. So next time you want to know the where abouts of a restaurant, this site is a cool place to hang around.

word of mouth one more interesting section where users recommend a service or product – bad and good times.

Ok enough of me telling stories, check out the website http://www.ilaaka.com