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45th Chennai Book Fair 2022
Every year for the last 45 years, Chennai city has hosted a mega book fair with nearly a thousand bookstalls selling all kind of books in Tamil and English. My coverage of previous year’s visits is here: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010. Check them, I have given extensive coverage with photographs of many of the books and the stalls exhibited each year. Last year 2021, I missed due to the pandemic. To compensate the loss, this year (2022) I visited three times on the same number of days, all the visits were during working days after lunch (1 PM to 5 PM) when there were less crowd. In this post, I will write…
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Grace Supermarket, Ashok Nagar, Chennai
In the last two years, due to the pandemic many small businesses, specifically neighbourhood shops and restaurants have got shut down for good. This meant countless jobs lost foverver for the young Indians, for many this would’ve been their first paying job, a steppingstone to (hopefully) bigger roles in life. Yes, the online direct to consumer apps like Swiggy, Dunzo, Amazon & others have provided some income for these people to feed themselves. This year, with the (fingers crossed) receding infections, I pray for the small shops to come back and flourish. In this context, it feels good to see new supermarkets being opened. This one, Grace supermarket was opened…
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Coffee flavoured Bread
I like it when popular brands experiment. The centuries-old (Since 1903) baker in Chennai, the McRennett has introduced a new variety of bread. Called Rich Coffee with Walnuts, it is priced at INR 65 (USD 0.9) for a loaf. Made with refined wheat flour (Maida) and palm oil, it may not be having the healthiest ingredients, but it tastes different and is good. I had a few slices toasted and with cheese slices, they were yummy. Disclosure: I write reviews about restaurants and food items that I have tried myself. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post. #breakfastitems #newflavors #chennaifoodblogger #ரொட்டி
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TexValley, a large Textile Mall in Erode
After our trip to Sankagiri Fort and then our Lunch, a friend recommended we visit one of the largest Textile Malls in the state before we go back to the hotel in Salem where we were staying. Called TexValley the malls are in Erode (Google map), about 75 minutes from Salem City and is on the National Highway 544 (Salem to Kochi). TexValley is an initiative of the local entrepreneurs in the region and supported by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and Government of Tamil Nadu. The region comprises Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode – they form the Textile Valley of Tamil Nadu, hence the name for the mall.…
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Redmi 10 Prime
I was looking for a new phone to replace a Samsung M20 which had broken down and Samsung service was quoting a repair fee of INR 7000 – more than half of the price (INR 12,990) I had paid three years ago. Till now, my experience with Samsung mobiles has been good. My wife was having a Samsung Galaxy M31s, my sister and my son were using Samsung Galaxy M30s, and I have a Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite as my second phone, which I am very happy with. But recently, apart from the problem with this one (M20), I heard from a friend about a motherboard problem he was having…
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Lily Pond Complex, Chennai
The Moore Market built around 1898 near today’s Chennai Central Railway Station was a famous shopping destination in Madras city. Unfortunately in the late 1980s, the complex was lost after a massive fire accident. In its place, the city corporation had constructed Lily Pond Complex. Lily Pond Complex (அல்லிகுளம் வணிக வளாகம்) has hundreds of small shops selling phone cases, second-hand books, textbooks, fashion jewellery, antiques, knick-knacks and more. It used to be the destination of choice for me to buy old vinyl records and comics. Unfortunately, the pandemic in the last two years and the resulting lockdowns have devastated the businesses here – today I found most of the shops…
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Apple AirPods Pro
For two years I have been using an iPad Pro 11″, and for the last year I have had an iPhone 12 Pro (I should write about it soon), but I had not bought any AirPods so far. I considered AirPods to be priced exorbitantly (which they still are) for no obvious benefits over competition other than the fruit logo that’s on top of them. Over the last few years, I have bought a ton of low to mid-priced Bluetooth headsets from manufacturers including Sony, Jabra, Soundcore, OnePlus and others (The good and the bad of the 10 Bluetooth headsets I bought). My thought was to spend Rs 2000 (USD…
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Blank compact discs
What to do with all these? I used to buy blank discs& cases from Singapore & the USA whenever I travelled, as in those decades they were expensive in India. There used to be many variants over the years: Write-once CD, Re-Writeable CD, Write-Once DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, Double-Layer DVD and so on; many required newer drives and latest OS support to work. These are now sitting on my shelf for more than a decade. I don’t want to throw them – Marie Kondo to forgive – they may come to be needed, as data written on optical discs are supposed to last for a century. Though it is unlikely we…
