A BYTE OF LIFE Friday, October 17, 2008 HOME TRUTHS FREE CIRCULATION Vol. 2 No. 199 A relative peek into the pros and 12 cons of hostels, rented flats and INDIAN paying guest accommodations FASHION WEEKS » Page 4 & 5 DEMYSTIFIED 02 ERGO Friday, October 17, 2008 Hello! A comprehensive voice training workshop will be held on October 18 and 19 at Parnasus, 192, Poonamallee High Road, Kilpauk. For details, call Namma Chennai 98401 27103 / 42858848 Bookworm’s Corner Top 10 fiction 1. Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh. Rs. 599 2. One Night @ Call Centre – Chetan Music Bhagat. Rs. 95 3. Brida – Paulo Coelho. Rs.295 4. The 3 Mistakes of my Life – Chetan Bhagat. Rs.95 5. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini. Rs.395 6. Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri. Food Rs.450 7. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini. Rs. 315 8. A Prisoner of Birth – Jeffery Archer. Rs. 270 Rock On 9. You Are Here – Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. Rs. 199 If you are a fan of this fusion rock band, 10. Five Point Someone – Chetan Bhagat. make sure you don’t miss their performance Rs. 95 in the city. Indian Ocean promise to rock Chennai with their concert performed for a cause. When: October 19 Kebab factory Where: Lady Andal School Auditorium For bookings call Vijay at 98410 15861/ Here’s a great way to indulge in sumptuous Top 10 non-fiction 98404 10462 varieties of kebabs, both vegetarian and 1. The Secret – Rhonda Byrne. Rs.550 non-vegetarian. These Mughal dishes are 2. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the served with an array of accompaniments. Business of Life – Alice Schroeder. Rs.995 When: October 13 to 31 Theatre 3. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish – Rashmi Bansal. Where: Pergola, The Accord Metropolitan Rs.125 For reservations, call 2816 1000 4. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch. Rs.295 That’s reality 5. Hot Flat & Crowded – Thomas Friedman. Too busy to catch up with any Rs. 595 entertainment in the evenings? Then, here’s 6. Business Striped Bare – Richard Branson. Cinema a play that opens even in the night. Rs.515 Theatre Y makes it debut with realitY – its 7. Execution – Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan. first public production. The play is an Rs.695 Filmy adaptation of 8. Go Kiss The World – Subroto Bagchi. Rs. The Embassy of the playwright 399 People’s Republic of Manjula 9. Empires of the Indus – Alice Albinia. China, New Delhi, and Padmanabhan’s Rs.550 The Madras Film book, Hidden Fires. 10. Guinness World Records. Rs.1460 Society are hosting a When: October 17, Courtesy: Crossword festival of 18, 19; 1 p.m., 4 Chinese films. p.m. 7 p.m. and 10 When: October 19, 21, p.m. 22, 23 and 24 Where: Alliance Where: The Film Francaise Chamber Theatre For tickets call For details, call 2495 98840 70796/ 97 8691 Sale Showbiz On the shelves Wills Lifestyle has brought out an Madhuri’s biography exquisite collection for the Autumn- She is Bollywood’s beautiful and charming Winter. Signature star. You cannot stop watching her jhatkas designer wear, and matkas. Yes? Wills classic Find out more about Madhuri Dixit’s family formal wear, Wills and friends from sport relaxed the film industry wear, Wills and what others clublife evening have to say about wear... there is a her. lot to choose When: October 17; from. 8.30 p.m. Where: Across all Where: Zoom; Wills Lifestyle Bollywood stores Biographies Friday, October 17, 2008 03 Single, no time to mingle Shaadi help! BharatMatrimony.com has launched ‘BM Privilege’, a personalised Shaadi.com has launched ‘Sapphire’ – an assisted matrimonial service service that addresses the needs of singles who do not have the with trained matchmaking assistants. Members subscribing to this time or the opportunity to search and meet potential partners service can dial 022-67752020, available daily from 10 a.m. to 7p.m. through the usual channels. Members who opt for this service will and get assistance in every single step of their matrimonial search – be assigned a personal matchmaker. from profile making to search, connect and contact. Two-day BarCamp he Knowledge Foundation will be organising the Tsecond edition of Chennai BarCamp on October 18 Gaga about RJing and October 19 at IIT - CSIR Auditorium. The event is open for innovative minds to camp out for a couple of days with WiFi and smash their brains together. The first batch of Apart from the tech topics, other topics of discus- sion include ‘Disaster Management for Chennai’ and 12 trainees ‘Safeguarding against Cyber Crime’, etc. For details, call Veena / Vignesh at 99400 57995 / graduated from the 98407 41478. formal RJ training Website: www.barcampchennai.org course V.HARIPRIYA [email protected] love talking to people and radio is the best medium to do so,” said Keerthi Val- “Ilabhan, a techie and one of the trained RJs to pass from the Rathish Babu, CEO, Access Atlantech Edutainment and Tarun RJ training course. Katial, COO, Big FM (centre) with the RJ trainees. PHOTO: R.RAVINDRAN The Binny Room at Taj Con- nemara witnessed the passing out ceremony of the first batch of the technology modules. depth understanding about RJing. formal RJ training course on Katial said that the FM has plans “Big FM offered its studio for theo- Wednesday. The six-week course to recruit more than one RJ from retical sessions such that we got a was jointly offered by Big FM and the group. “The recruitment proc- hang of the environment. We also Access Atlantech Edutainment. ess will be different for these trai- had various RJs addressing us as The 12 trainees received their nees as they do have basic visiting faculties.” certificates from Tarun Katial, knowledge in RJing.” Rathish Babu, CEO of Access At- COO of Big FM. The RJ course was Thamarai, a software engineer lantech Edutainment, said that the a training programme offering a working with an MNC in Chennai, RJ course will help a number of mix of RJ training as well as future said that the course gave him an in youngsters. ■ Mumbai of my dreams rban Stories: Collection of Graphic UEssays on the City of Mumbai by Ni- rupama Sekhar is on display at Tanger- ine. The Chennai-based artist, who lived in Mumbai working in the televi- sion industry, prior to a career in de- sign, has used diverse genres such as collage and typography, illustration and photography. It seeks to explore the myriad hues and dimensions of the culture of Mum- bai through a collection of stylised vi- sual essays. Woven around Mumbai, the graphic essays address a host of ur- ban issues from the aesthetics of colo- nial architecture to the politics of post-modern identities. Urban Stories finds its roots in the overt and untold influences of the city of Mumbai, its pace and its people on the outsider. Nirupama now works in the visual arts and enjoys pursuing in- dependent projects in illustration and graphic design. ■ Where: Tangerine; October 18 to 31 When: No 5, Murrays Gate Road For details, call 2435 5834/ 4211 0888 04 ERGO Friday, October 17, 2008 Big Story The relative ups and downs of hostels, rented flats and paying MY KINDA PLACE guest accommodations home away from home is a myth. But most of us try to make the myth a truth by living within the horrible conditions of strict curfew hours, landlords Afrom hell and cockroaches in food. There are some memories, both good and bad, that we all cherish from our days in hostels, paying guest accommodations or rented apartments. For some, hostel life is heaven. They will gulp down atrocious mass-cooked food without worrying about how it tastes and won’t disturb anyone. Others love living in rented apartments. They’ll join hands with many and are always proud of living independently. Paying guest accommodation is also voted by many for the cosiness it offers. It’s cool, comfortable and secure, they’ll say. Here’s to the pros and cons of each: Rented apartment There are many good things about a rented apart- PG accommodation ment, like, you can cook your own food, there is no curfew, etc. Girls who are bold enough to handle issues There are a lot of good things about paying will feel safe in a rented apartment even if there are no guest accommodations. The first thing is ‘guests’ special security arrangements. will get homemade food. “But not everyone can opt for it. It is better that super- Hostel There is only a remote probability that a PG sensitive people keep away from the idea,” says Teena. Hostel life is good till you reach accommodation will be overcrowded. And for Soumya, who was working with Yahoo India, a certain age, says Teena, who The security will be good as there is a family to life in a rented apartment with three other girls contin- works as team leader with Club take care of you. Bonus points if there is TV to ues to be a nightmare. Mahindra. watch. “No one was willing to take up responsibility and one The good thing about a hostel But there are irritants, too – you can’t be out till of the roommates brought a guy (whom she claimed was is that security will be good. For midnight. her cousin) to the apartment. My roommates were never students, the best option is a hos- “If you want to be self-sufficient, PG accommo- concerned about the others and disturbed everyone at tel, but it can become difficult if dation is not a wise decision. But there is a family midnight by playing music on high volume,” she said.