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‘Best of Chennai – Volume I’ captures the essence of the city through articles and photographs
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Photo: R. Ravindran
Word power Writer Sivasankari speaking at the launch
It opens with the glossy picture of a kolam and closes with one of a paal abhishekam of a Rajnikant poster. Best of Chennai – Volume 1, a hard-bound coffee table book recently launched in the city, attempts to capture the essence of Chennai through a series of articles and photographs. It is the third Indian publication in the international ‘Best of’ series of business atlases by Global Village Publications (GVP), following Best of Goa and Best of Bangalore.
“I’m a 100, 200 per cent Chennaiite who was born and brought up here, but even to me, this book offered new information,” said writer Sivasankari, who along with His Excellency Aminur Rahman, Consul-General of Australia for South India, launched the book at Taj Coromandel. “Ours is one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world, and a book like this exposes people to it.”
The book showcases the success stories of 33 organisations in the city, such as TVS and Nalli, MIOT and Dr. Acharya’s clinic, Hindustan University, Udavum Karangal and more. It also features contributions from high-profile artistes in various fields such as Sivasankari herself, Kamal Haasan, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, T.N. Seshagopalan, Chitra Visweswaran, Achuthan Kudallur and P.C. Ramakrishna.
“The ‘Best of’ series is a unique concept in this sort of publishing, and I must say, Best of Chennai beats both the Bangalore and the Goa editions,” said Rahman. “I wish I’d had a book like this two years ago when I moved here!”
Priced at a whopping Rs. 1,500, the book has 212 gorgeously-shot pictures, many specially commissioned. Not all is perfect yet though, as Sivasankari gently pointed out. “It says right in the start that the monsoon in Chennai is from June to September,” she said. “I wish that were true; it would be a lot cooler now if it was!”
What was introduced as a ‘theatrical presentation’ on the book by Chennai’s own Evam also turned out to be less than perfect, ending up instead as a rather rambling reading from the book by Sunil Vishnu K. Still, it did bring to light some interesting facts from the book, such as the city’s colonial link with breweries and beer, and included a fun discussion on the three best things about Chennai (dosai, ‘talaivar’, auto guys and kaapi were some suggestions).
Best of Chennai – Volume 1 is the 26th book in the series internationally, with other cities covered including Brussels, Casablanca, Santiago and Sydney. “The book beautifully captures all landmarks that contribute to the essence of this city,” said N. Prakash, General Manager, Taj Coromandel, speaking at the launch. Added Sandhya Mendonca, CEO and editor-in-chief of GVP India, “Best of Chennai is an important milestone in the ‘Best of’ series.”
DIVYA KUMAR
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