For the founder of Goli Soda Glass Studio, it is a captivating, understated medium of art
K Radhika remembers staring at the flames of the kiln long before her first glass art class at Ohio State University. “I would go to the classroom and just watch the glass melt in the fire for hours, but never do anything. I used to feel so intimidated,” she recalls. That was back in 2008. Today, the 39-year-old runs her own glass making studio, Goli Soda Glass Studio at Palavakkam.
Having returned to Chennai in 2016, after 20 years of life in the US, Radhika opened the studio last year and has been holding workshops on lamp working. “I think Goli Soda bottles have been our first memory of glass that is quirky and fun,” she says.
When I meet her, she is demonstrating how to join two thin tubes of glass. “You have to make sure that both pieces of glass have the same co-efficiency,” she explains. She later creates even thinner stringers out of the tubes, heating one end and plucking the molten glass out like cheese from a pizza: the stringers harden instantly.
She bends down on her seat, curling the end of a glass stringer in each hand simultaneously, till the fire fuses them to one sphere at the centre. A blue glass pendant with a white petal design inside it lies next to her on a graphite holder, fresh off the flame. The petals look like they are blooming upwards inside the glass. “We call it the implosion technique — creating a lens effect, it’s been very popular for the past 20-30 years,” says Radhika.
She shows us how it’s done, gathering a sphere of glass on one end and flattening it to give it a semi-hemispherical shape. She exposes the base to a light flame simultaneously etching patterns on it with a coloured glass pen. The surface of the sphere is then heated further so that it gathers below the design, lifting it up inside and giving the impression that the design has been frozen in glass mid-implosion.
“The glassmakers of Murano used this technique a lot. It used to be their trade secret once,” says Radhika.
In her other workshops, she teaches her students how to cut and reuse old glass bottles. “You have to give the bottle a thermal shock. It’s basically creating a fault line, heating it along that line and then dunking it in ice cold water to break it,” she explains.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Radhika sources all her glass by going to the various pubs and bars along ECR, sack in tow. She recycles most of the glass in her studio, throwing away only the unusable pieces.
When she came to Chennai, she was surprised at the lack of a ‘glass community’ in the city. A ‘full-time mom’, as she calls herself, she then decided to run her own studio. “Glass, as a medium, is very exciting and challenging. You only have so much time to finish one piece. It’s not like painting, where you can take a break, come back and paint again. It’s a one-shot thing and if you go wrong, you just have to start all over again,” she says.
And then of course, there is the captivating beauty of glass, its translucence. Radhika wants people to not think of glass as intimidating. She recently participated in the Glass Conference 2018 at Murano, where designers showcased outfits made majorly out of glass. She fashioned a black V-neck top with icicle-like frills of glass hanging from it. The outfit was completed with a glass necklace and a gajra made of glass flowers that had been sewn together. Says Radhika, “I want to experiment further with glass in traditional Indian clothing. People see glass as this fragile thing. But I want to make it fun!”
K Radhika can be contacted at 9566105313.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Sweta Akundi / July 11th, 2018
It is time to reshape the role of the honorary consulates of Denmark in India and to build the business-to-business relationship between the two countries, Danish Ambassador to India, Peter Taksoe-Jensen said.
He was speaking at a reception marking the appointment of Vijay Sankar, Deputy Chairman, Sanmar Group, as the Honorary Consul General of the Royal Danish Consulate in Chennai.
Mr. Sankar will be in charge of operations for South India.
Mr. Taksoe-Jensen presented a citation from the Queen of Denmark to Mr. Sankar on the occasion.
The Danish Ambassador said with the relationship between India and Denmark improving now after nearly seven years, it was time to “board the train” to the market of 1.3 billion people.
Archiving records
The Danish Embassy and the Danish National Archives department hope to digitise almost 70 metres of Danish archival records that are in Tamil Nadu.
The embassy is hoping to get funding from private enterprises in Denmark for the venture.
Efforts would also be made to maintain the Governor’s House in Tranquebar by raising funds, the Ambassador said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – July 05th, 2018
Chennai Metro Rail has been awarded the SKOCH Order of Merit for its efforts in developing a mass transit system on a par with international standards.
SKOCH Smart Governance Award is an initiative to recognise top performing government organisation and those working with government agencies and following best practices and models of governance.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) presented before a panel of experts the various features and facilities it has built in the 45km phase-1 project that is nearing completion.
CMRL showed the technologies it adopted to operate the service including energy saving systems and other green initiatives.
Officials said the award was also to recognise CMRL’s ability to adapt to future challenges and its efforts in transforming urban infrastructure through implementation of its ambitious 107.55km phase-2 project.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Chennai News / by U. Tejonmayan / TNN / June 28th, 2018
Sithannavasal rock cave in Pudukottai district is one among the places to be documented online. | Photo Credit: M_Moorthy
‘This project will help domestic and international tourists’
The Tourism department has embarked upon a project to document all heritage, historic and popular tourist spots and monuments in the State, including Tiruchi and Pudukottai districts, so as to lure both domestic and foreign travellers through online campaign.
Collection of rare pictures, taking latest pictures and writing description are part of the project, which will be uploaded in the official website of Union Ministry of Tourism, which is projecting the tourism hotspots of the country to international tourists under the tag of “Incredible India”.
The Rockfort temple in Tiruchi, Sri Ranganathar temple in Srirangam, Sri Akilandeswari-Jambukeswarar temple in Thiruvanaikoil, Butterfly park at Melur in Srirangam, Erumbeeswarar temple in Tiruverumbur are among the temples, monuments and places to be documented in Tiruchi district.
K. Ilangovan, Tourism Officer, Pudukottai, told The Hindu that expert photographers had been hired to take pictures of historic places and monuments. Avudaiyar temple, Viralimalai, Thirumayam Fort, Sithannavasal paintings, Brahathambal temple, cave temple in Malaiadipatti, Kundrathar temple, Muthukuda beach on East Coast Road were among the places to be documented online from Pudukottai district. They would be uploaded in the websites of Tamil Nadu Tourism and Union Ministry of Tourism with the participation of National Informatics Centre (NIC). The task would be completed within two weeks.
He said that websites and online booking had become an important tool for disseminating information of the country’s rich heritage, arts, culture and tourist places worldwide.
The project would help domestic and international tourists to know the treasures of the country.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchrapalli / by C. Jaishankar / Tiruchirapalli – June 25th, 2018
I Support Farming strives to make agriculture a profitable business option
The floods that rampaged Chennai and several regions on the Coromandel coast in 2015 transformed Vasanth Kumar Mani’s life. A marketing professional with an IT firm, he had gone to Cuddalore for relief work. “I saw how peoplefrom other parts of the State donated food and clothes,” recalls Vasanth. “But they were just dropped off at the centre of the city. A lot of them didn’t reach those in need.” Vasanth saw how there was a huge gap between those willing to do something for society, and those who actually need it. “This is the case with farming,” he says.
“A farmer requires ₹1,000 to plough half an acre of land,” he says. This amount may not be a big amount to a salaried city-dweller. “But for a marginal farmer, this is a big deal.” What if they and those with a heart and the capacity to give, are connected? This is the idea behind I Support Farming, a company that Vasanth and his brother Vijayakumar Mani founded in 2016. Vijay quit his HR job to take the plunge.
“We enable the partnership of the two,” says Vasanth, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. According to him, this business partnership is a win-win for all those who are involved. The “investment” made by a city-dweller, goes into buying seeds, fertilizers, and renting tractors (the company has its own). “We facilitate all of this,” he adds.
The company has a team of 14 on-field technical officers who oversee work on the land. “The profit is split among the three of us — a major portion goes to the farmer, and the rest for the investor and our company,” he explains.
Vasanth says that investing in farming can give better returns than say, opening a Fixed Deposit account. “It’s not as risky as the share market too.” I Support Farming, for their part, does most of the ground work — it evaluates the land before opening it out to investors and also provides technical support to farmers. “We connect with local agricultural research stations to give scientific inputs,” says Vasanth.
Vijay adds that they hope to scale up their company like a mutual fund investment. With an office at the TIDEL Park, Vasanth and Vijay are now working towards opening a line of retail outlets in the city from where people can directly pick-up farmers’ produce.
All this required plenty of work though. “The most difficult part was convincing farmers to come on board,” says Vijay. But they managed to do so. The trick, they realised, was to talk to the most influential farmer in the village.
The first farmer to open up to their initiative was Dhanasekar from Anumandai village in Viluppuram, who convinced several others to join him. Vijay and Vasanth want to do away with the impression that farming is a loss-making venture. Says Vasanth, “With the right approach, we can bring about change.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Akila Kannadasan / June 20th, 2018
Chocolatier Janani Kannan | Photo Credit: R Ravindran
Chennai-based chocolatier Janani Kannan is playing with flavours like sweet pongal, matcha and wasabi for her new brand Zitter
Despite the sweltering summer, Janani Kannan is thankful for having on an extra layer in the form of her apron, along with a pair of gloves, hygiene cap and socks. It’s 16° Celsius inside her kitchen. “That’s the temperature I require when I am making my chocolates,” says Kannan, adding, “But given the soaring mercury levels here, it’s sometimes hard to maintain the temperature.”
The founder of chocolate brand Zitter has stacked her working area with large packets of couverture, and sits surrounded by around 70 moulds in 25 different designs. She’s filling the paisley-shaped ones with mango and chilli-flavoured pralines, while the petal-shaped mould is used only for chakkara pongalchocolate, one of her most popular creations. Bite into it and you get the refreshing taste of edible camphor. She’s secretive about what goes into making it, and only reveals, “The recipe includes everything that goes into sweet pongal, except dal and rice.”
She gives an Indian twist to pralines, enrobed chocolates and truffles, with flavours likemasalachai, sheer korma, gajar halwa, lassi, kulfi and paan. Then there are other varieties like lychee rose, salted caramel, salt and cranberry, peanut butter, coffee, passion fruit…40 flavours on the whole.
“I have a diploma in French Patisserie from Cordon Bleu in Kuala Lumpur. I also stayed in Singapore for a while and worked at a pastry store there. When I returned to India last year and took part in a few pop ups, I noticed people are crazy about any flavours they see on MasterChef. They enjoy new flavours. I knew I could create them: it helps that I have access to ingredients as my friends get them for me every time they travel,” says the 31-year-old, who started Zitter in April this year.
The double door refrigerator occupying one end of the room holds fruit purees, boxes of experimental flavours and 35 trays, each holding 24 pieces of chocolate: all made by her. “Right from ideating and executing to hand or spray-painting them, I prefer doing it myself. When I hire someone I’ll make sure they are well-trained,” she laughs.
Almost every night by 10 pm, after her little daughter is asleep, Kannan comes into her workspace and makes chocolates till about 4.30 am. “During the day the temperature is too hot for chocolates to be made,” she says.
Kannan plans to introduce her chakka pradhaman chocolates on Onam. Ever heard of chocolate bars in potato chip, matcha or pretzel flavour? Well, expect that next, followed by a Japanese line with yuzu, rasperry and wasabi and sakura and black sesame.
A former dessert addict, Kannan says that ever since she started Zitter she’s gotten over her love for all things sweet. “I can’t even taste my own chocolates.” And that’s why it’s great to be her friend and family, as they get to try out and give feedback. “Of late, everything comes out well and my friends are disappointed that they aren’t getting to reject flavours, as that’s something they take great joy in,” she laughs.
(Zitter chocolates can be ordered on Facebook and Instagram. They are available in boxes of five, 12, 18 and 24 and are priced at ₹350, ₹750, ₹1,100 and ₹1,500.)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Food / by Priyadarshini Paitandy / June 20th, 2018
Students can visit the museum at Manjoor that has an array of equipment and photographs
The hydro-electric museum which was inaugurated recently at Manjoor, boasting more than 600 pieces of equipment and historical photographs, aims to highlight the history of hydro-electric power, and the Nilgiris’ key role in electrifying Tamil Nadu till the second half of the 20th Century.
The museum, believed to be the only one of its kind in India, has been set up to not only detail the history of the various hydro-electric projects across the State and country, but to also serve as a centre for documentation for students and researchers to delve into, and to learn about the early techniques used for dam construction, operation and maintenance.
S. Ragu, Superintending Engineer, Kundah Hydro-Electric Circle, told The Hindu the museum highlights the roles of the people responsible for introducing hydro-electric power to Tamil Nadu and India, like the first chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, V.P. Appadurai Mudaliar, who travelled to Canada and brought back expertise.
“In fact, the Sri Appadurai Collection in the museum comprises photographs and documentation brought back by the man himself after his trip to Canada,” said Mr. Ragu.
The museum also emphasises the crucial role the power stations played in fuelling the economies of the surrounding districts, including Coimbatore. Mr. Ragu pointed out that the Singara power station helped power the textile mills and other industries in Coimbatore. “We also have pictures and documentation of the now demolished, temporary power station at Glenmorgan, which used to produce around 1 megawatt of electricity for the Nilgiris,” he added.
One of the most striking exhibits at the museum is a series of 52 photographs documenting, step-by-step, the construction of the Emerald Dam. Each row contains images of the left and right banks, as well as the centre of the dam, showcasing in great detail not only the scale of the project, but also the thousands of workers engaged in the construction.
“The Kundah dam was constructed over a three-and-a-half-year period with over 10,000 workers reportedly working each day,” said Mr. Ragu.
V.R. Thimmarayappan, who joined the Kundah hydro-electric circle as Junior Engineer in 1961 shortly after its completion, and who was on a visit to the museum, said that the museum was showcasing instruments and equipment that have been in use since the early 1930s. “As the golden era of dam constructions have come to an end, college students and people interested in learning about the history of the various dams across Tamil Nadu must pay a visit to the museum,” he said.
It has taken officials more than a year to collect the items that are currently on display, including survey equipment, prepaid electricity meters, phone booths and other technical equipment that were installed in the power plants. Most of the items were rescued from scrap heap and restored to their original condition before being put on display. Mr. Ragu said the museum was open to visit by college students or of any educational institution.
“As the interest in the museum will be from a purely technical perspective, we feel that engineering students and students pursuing higher education will stand to gain the most from the visit. They are free to do so after getting permission from us,” said Mr. Ragu.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Rohan Premkumar / Udhagamandalam – June 19th, 2018
Two chefs set up the highest altitude pop-up restaurant in the world
Chennai-based Soundararajan P, Corporate Executive Chef at Mahindra Resorts and Holidays, India, and Sanjay Thakur, Chef at Etihad Airways, called their mission Project Triyagyoni (which translates to organic Nature in Sanskrit)and it was was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s highest pop-up restaurant at 5,585 metres, the first record of its kind. Set up on May 30, the pop-up was certified by the Guinness authorities on June 2. An aerial survey was done by the representatives of the Guinness World Records to assess the pop-up and its height.
“Sanjay Thakur, had already done an 80-kilometre trek up the Himalayas, and when we met at one of the Club Mahindra Resorts at Naldehra in Shimla, we took Thakur’s idea of cooking on the highest altitude on earth a step further, and Project Triyagyoni came into being,” says Soundararajan.
The pop-up was set up at Imja Tse (popularly known as Island Peak), tucked away up the Chukkung valley, flanked by the stupendous Lhotse/Nuptse South Wall to the north and Baruntse to the south, making it seem like an actual island amid the gigantic mountains. At a temperature between three and five degrees centigrade, it took the team all of eight hours to set up, and three hours to cook. The meal was served to trekkers who were scaling the Himalayas to get to Imja Tse and the higher peaks.
They reached there after a choppy and nerve-racking helicopter flight from Lukla to Kathmandu, before proceeding to climb. The chefs and their team of seven foraged the scattered Himalayan flora and fauna on their way to their destination to supplement what they had bought at Namche Bazaar, a small town in Solukhumbu district. They collected mint, oregano, small green chillies, green onions, yak cheese and Rhododendron flowers amongst other things. The fresh unadulterated ingredients heightened their experience of cooking in the Himalayas. The team ensured that it was a zero-trash project, and kept the meal, the cooking, the dining area and even the furniture eco-friendly and left nothing behind on the mountains.
Their menu included traditional Indian recipes as well as dishes borrowed from Nepalese cuisine. “We cooked a total of seven dishes, including shisno mousse with mushrooms that we had foraged locally, and basa fish with wild spinach,” says Soundararajan. They also made daal bhat arancini stuffed with nak cheese, which is made from yak’s milk. The cheese is pressed to get rid of the water and then dried over a wood fire which gives it its smoky taste. The dish is served with herbal lemon tea. And on the menu for dessert was yak milk panna cotta.
Soundararajan says he worked hard on his physical fitness before the mission. He had been practising pranayama, and also began to walk 10 kilometres a day. The pranayama helped him with his breathing in the high altitude.
Even so, he says he doesn’t clearly remember a lot of the trip, as people get forgetful, thanks to the drop in oxygen supply to the brain. It also made the cooking process more challenging: the food took longer than usual to cook.
Nepalese lore has it, that sometime in the 90s, there was once a famished Australian, by the name of James Scott, who had to wait for 43 days — lost in the Nepalese Himalayas — to be found and fed. Wouldn’t stumbling upon a pop-up like this have been heavenly for the poor man?
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Travel / by Rajashree Das / June 13th, 2018
Lekha Washington is multi-tasking — with a new Social project, installations, and a lunar-inspired artwork that she is planning to cycle with at the Burning Man festival in August
Behind the wooden doors of an ancestral property in Bandra’s quaint Ranwar village, Lekha Washington’s design space, The Upstairs Studio, is buzzing with activity. As I head to the upper storey, I find the actor-designer-entrepreneur in the middle of several works in progress. Keeping her cool in a casual-chic grey robe and strappy silver Steve Maddens, she explains that she and her team, grouped across the room, are grappling with several projects — from an upcoming test run at Bandstand, of the installation she is showcasing at this year’s Burning Man festival, to four new designs (including a moon light) for her company, Ajji. Meanwhile, Shanto, the pet cat, snoozes, curled up in one of her signature Squair chairs.
Chatting about the neighbourhood, now home for the past five years, gives me a fair idea of her easy familiarity with the people and the culture of the place. And also the fact that while Washington may not be acting at the moment, the frenetic pace of her life has not calmed in any way. “I am a dissatisfied soul. I’ll finish a great project and then feel the need to do something big in a totally different field. I need to be constantly evolving,” she says. Just this year, she teamed up with luxury vodka brand Belvedere for their artistic endeavour, Studio B — creating A drop of the universe, an artwork speckled with tiny white dots, that is at once like a disco ball apt for a launch party and an enigmatic spatial body reflective of her current style of work. She is also working on a breath installation she hopes to showcase at the Kochi Biennale (“I have not had the bandwidth to contact them yet”), and her first interior design project, Riyaaz Amlani’s soon-to-open Social in Bengaluru.
Riding in the desert
The Chennai girl, who now calls Ranwar’s hipster neighbourhood home, is no stranger to community living and alternate cultures. Washington is the only Indian artist to be given the honoraria grant for Burning Man (won after an elaborate two-step, year-long selection process) this year. Held annually in Nevada, in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, Burners (as the 70,000 attendees are known) create what the fête’s website describes as a “temporary metropolis dedicated to art and community”.
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It isn’t lunacy
The moon — larger than life but universally relatable — is a recurring motif in Washington’s art. Explaining her interest, she says, “It doesn’t belong to anybody, yet belongs to all of us, and it symbolises a lot: notions of the continual cycles of things, inherent change, lunacy, etc.” Interestingly, in keeping with the concept of change, her work, This too shall pass, has also gone trough multiple iterations since she first created it (and exhibited it at a collateral at the 2014 Kochi Biennale), the final version of which will light up the sky at Burning Man between August 26 – September 3. A self-confessed geek, technology also informs much of her work. “There is so much to explore. I feel technology is the next level when it comes to art — to make it intuitive, real, and not a gimmick, that is fascinating for me.”
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The designer, who is returning for a third time, describes how it is a unique art festival in terms of its non-commercial culture. In what looks like a set straight out of the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max: Fury Road, the vibe is quite the opposite — one of freedom of expression, free love and creativity. The week-long fair sees people from the world over, living as a community, being part of this alternate shared experience.And all this while braving the extreme weather and figuring out their own means for survival. “It’s a sort of gifting culture, outside of the capitalist system we’ve all been indoctrinated with. It’s why I like it so much; it’s incredibly refreshing to engage with a new system,” she shares.
The focus, she says, is on interactive public art that holds immediacy — reflective of life’s ephemerality — in high regard. Works, often as large as 40 feet high, are set up on location, with the help of teammates and Burners. Incidentally, it was a photograph from Black Rock City — “of an installation of a series of balloons, one tied to the other, very basic in its concept” — that inspired Washington’s moon artwork. “So, for me, it’s coming full circle to show them here,” she says. Her excitement though, is tinged with anxiety. Her helium work from last year did not fare too well in the harsh climate, where the intense dust storms ended up “sandpapering” the work.
This year, she is introducing a newer iteration, This too shall pass – Moondancer— a ginormous 12-foot helium globe modelled on the moon, designed to rotate on its axis, reflecting the changing phases of the lunar cycle. While last year saw her clambering up a stationary plane to hoist her five balloons, this year the single globe will be pivoted on a tricycle that she and two others will ride around the grounds each night, while the shape-shifting ball waxes and wanes against the desert sky.
A fine balance
Washington’s work, though large scale, has a simple idea at its core. “We’ve been trying to create work that positively affects people’s lives in terms of art,” she tells me, leading the way across the wooden floorboards to a smaller room. With Theheraav, a work in progress, one needs to lie down under a sonar sensor placed within a spangle of lights, which picks up one’s micro-movements. The light bulbs grow brighter or dimmer in reaction to levels of stress or calm and, in the process, one is forced to focus on one’s breathing
Currently the centrepiece at the studio is the 18-foot Whirling Dervish, a touch sensitive art piece being readied for Amlani’s co-working space. Both the artwork and the space are designed by Washington, who strays from the norm with a clean, whitewashed look instead of the usual brick-exposed grunge feel of most Socials. It will also include several other artworks, from textile and paintings to 3D, neo-pixel and sound interactive work — the idea being that the space resembles an artist’s incomplete studio, one that is messy and alive, quite like her own. “It is set to open next week. There will be art supplies, each table will have calligraphy pens, and we will have a library of art books and local zines,” adds the designer, who is inspired by artist Salvador Dali and architect Zaha Hadid.
This would not be the first time that Washington’s personal and professional worlds collide. She believes her work, be it art or acting, revolves “around ideas and creativity”, and hence is actually all the same thing. “My work is a sort of reflection of myself”, even when the “nature of the medium” is slightly different.
Lights, camera, action
For someone who walked away from an acting career in an industry that reeks of “patriarchy and nepotism”, she has seen herself grow alongside her company. “The change for me has been much more personal. I’m very comfortable in my own skin and I now have the financial wherewithal to have a freedom of choice: I’m creating exactly what I want to create.” Her studio, she thinks, is an extension of her need to nurture creative expression of all kinds. So it hosts poetry readings, film screenings and experimental plays. “Educationally, creativity is not very nurtured. Academics is, industry is, but thinking out of the box is not. This is what I’m trying to do with this space.” Of course, the access to her space is conditional and open to only “those I like”, she mentions as an afterthought.
Washington is also making a return to cinema, and she hopes the industry post her sabbatical of half a decade is “less insular”, thanks to corporatisation and the influx of online platforms like Netflix or Amazon. This time, in addition to acting (and penning lyrics for Vishal Bhradwaj for Rangoon), she is collaborating on a script.
Taking a stand
Straddling multiple careers has proven to be quite an uphill task, though. She often finds herself in conflict with things beyond her control. From non-existent patenting laws to a basic lack of confidence in one’s talent, she feels India is living in a “design shadow”. As proof, she narrates an incident where her chair, The Pink Sink, was replicated by a German artist just six months after she showed it at the 2014 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. The artist in question ended up winning a Red Dot award! Earlier this year, she also spotted an iteration of The Dot chair at the Salone del Mobile Milano. “The Indian design community needs to come together and make an impact. In isolation, individual designers can’t fight it,” she says.
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Burning Man checklist
Dust goggles: Because it is “extremely hot and dusty”
Spirit of adventure: “You must be willing to say yes to anything that comes your way”
Minimal yet outlandishclothing:“It’s all about radical self expression. I get to be as ridiculous as possible and there’s no one to judge me,” says Washington, who will also be carrying a red gown to wear while riding the tricycle.
Food and water: She will be putting together enough for a team of 20-odd people, friends from various parts of the world, who will be joining her as co-campers. “I will also be carrying tiny bottles of Old Monk rum to gift people, because it is a gifting culture.”
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Her plate full, she is not exactly complaining. But she is always open to collaborations — earlier ones include works with couture embroiderer Jean-François Lesage and designer Pinakin Patel. “I like the variety, hence the performance, the writing, the art. I just need to find people who are also pushing boundaries,” says Washington, who takes this joie de vivre into her travels, too — deep sea diving, sky diving and “engaging with life” everywhere. And along the way, if she claims to look a tad frazzled, one can nod in (false) agreement. Meanwhile, Shanto, now awake, disappears beneath the dervish, even as her team bustles around.
— With inputs from Surya Praphulla Kumar
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Tejal Pandey with input from Surya Praphulla Kumar / June 08th, 2018
T.T. Jaganathan, Chairman of TTK Group signing the book ‘Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Company’ at IIT Madras on Thursday. Co-author Sandhya Mendonca is also in the picture. | Photo Credit: R_Ragu
Times are changing dramatically where world will be owned only by people who innovate, said T.T. Jaganathan, chairman, TTK Group.
He was speaking at the launch of the book ‘Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Company’ held on the IIT-Madras campus on Thursday.
The book dwells into the success of the TTK group which at one point was failing in its business before rising like a phoenix after the liberalisation of the economy in 1991.
The book has been written by Mr. Jaganathan and Sandhya Mendonca, a journalist-turned-media entrepreneur. Mr. Jaganathan said that his aim was to become an academician and reluctantly entered into the family business. “I still miss the IIT campus and the labs,” he said.
Mr. Jaganthan is an alumnus of IIT-Madras and holds a gold medal in Mechanical Engineering. He also has a Master’s in Operations Research from Cornell University, USA.
The TTK Group, started in 1928, is the second largest manufacturer of pressure cooker in the world and according to Mr. Jaganathan, the company has business plans to become the world’s largest by 2022.
Recounting the time when smart cooker failed and the group staring at bankruptcy, he attributed the success thereafter to the family members particularly his mother Padma Narasimhan.
Ms. Sandhya, co-author of the book, said normally the story of the TTK Group needs to be taken to the people for gaining business skills. She said the information for the book has been collected through personal interviews with family members and friends, and materials taken from other sources.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – June 08th, 2018
