Bombay Bound
I am heading to Bombay. Lots and lots of things, and people, to catch up with. Hoping to meet all the Bombay Bloggers. If you are in Bombay, and don’t mind spending precious time with an insane guy from Chennai, drop me a line and let’s meet up.
A pictorial view of the blog meet
(The question was, “Who knows what a blog is?”)
More pictures of the Chennai Blog meet on Flickr
The (x)th Chennai Bloggers Meet
Where x > all the Mumbai and Bangalore Blog Meets. 
Chennai’s fascination with Blog Meets continues to run amok. The latest one promises to be a big, nasty, noisy one. Details at Nirenjan’s Space.
Oh ok. I’m supposed to put up instructions, directions and other such “tions”. Here goes.
Bombay has got Cafe Coffee Day and its Ethiopian Qahwah. Chennai will have its Java Green and Hazelnut Mocha. The venue chosen for the meet on the 22nd is Java Green, at Gold Crest, Panagal Park, T.Nagar.
To get there, one follows either of the two simple procedures below.
Option a) Hail an auto, hand over your savings, and hope the auto guy drops you close to T.Nagar.
Option b) No matter where you come from, get to Panagal Park and Duraiswamy Salai junction – the place now marked by Pothy’s, Lalitha Jewellery and sundry other business houses. Once at the junction of these two great roads, turn around so you face the big building called Pothy’s. Done? Good. Now, turn to your left, and walk/run/bike/car/auto down that stretch of road, till you come to a forkish part of the road. Turning right will take you to G.N Chetty road. We shall ignore that, and proceed like the arrow. Once you go past the turn-off, you will come across a green monstrosity, optimistically a shopping mall, called Gold Crest.
It is to the right when coming from Pothy’s, and to the left if from the opposite direction. Irrespective of your direction, Gold Crest is where journey’s end is.
Walk up the shiny granite stairs of the mall, turn right, and you shall come upon the doors to Java Green, Panagal Park. Spot the guy who you consider most unlikely to be a blogger. Ask him if he is Chandrachoodan.
Congratulations. You’ve arrived.
Got it? Come to Usman Road/Duraiswamy Road corner, face Pothy’s, turn left, continue past turn off to G.N Chetty Road, Look up Gold Crest on your right, walk up the stairs, and meet up with a bunch of crazy and some rare sane people.
A big thank you
All you folks. Thank you. And Once again, thank YOU.
Selective Amnesia has gone beyond 1000 comments.
In the short period of 11 months, this MT version of daily irreverent, insignificant random ramblings, otherwise known as Selective Amnesia, has managed to inspire a 1000 conversations. Thanks. I am delighted, honoured and a bit surprised. 1000 comments, especially considering the better part of these 11 months, SelAm was moderated by Typekey.
Besides, I am supposedly, well, actually, the 5th most popular blogger in India. Avis was number 2, and they tried harder. Imagine what a number 5 would do.
I thought I ought to be humble and politically correct about this 5th most important blogger bit, but really, why should I? I rightfully deserve it, don’t I? Especially considering that the blog that got me such a recognition – Selective Amnesia, ain’t yet 2 years old. Kiruba, Gaurav, Anita, Guru “Lazy” Subramaniam and the others have all been blogging for a minimum of 4 years now. Contrast that with 1 year and 8 months odd of SelAm.
Possible only because of you folks. So, once again, a Big Thank YOU
Headline of the day.
Comfort is dancing like no one’s watching.
And your trousers follow your every move.
Lyrics
Film song lyrics are sometimes the best form of poetry. The poet doesn’t have to communicate a message – the message being a familiar one, therefore, can concentrate on its structure and style. On the other hand, a poet or a writer is worried about the message that needs to be conveyed. Which means styling takes the backseat.
Some classic tamil film songs (80s Illayaraja) and very few modern songs have that perfect mix of evocative lyrics, brilliant music, and great theming.
Tamil film’s most popular lyricist – a guy called Vairamuthu (The Diamond Pearl, what a name) – was able to squeeze words into meanings, and meanings into words. A pity he no longer is able to do that.
As I mentioned earlier, A writer needs to convey a message, and styling is only secondary to the said communication. A writer in the field of advertising, therefore, has to more often, kill all his darlings. The more a writer likes his words, and his style, the less his message will be liked by the great boon to advertising, the clients and their lackeys, the client servicing people.
The message is the message, said Bob Levenson. People tend to take it a bit too seriously.
Chicken v Egg
A long discussion with the senior writer (Happy now Boss?) in my office, and still no conclusion to this argument.
Which comes first?
Hypothesis, or Evidence?
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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