Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 36 ℃ | Low: 27 ℃ | A bit cloudy for the day.
🧐 Did you know? Chennai’s AVM Studios is said to be one of the five studios in the world that has been functioning without a break for over 60 years.
🇯🇵 Adopting Japanese culture
From kendo schools to the anime craze, Chennaiites have been fascinated by Japanese culture.
What’s it about? The multifaceted Japanese culture has found a home in Chennai. Jonathan Faust from The Sunshine House brings to the city a festival for people to celebrate their love of Japanese culture and a home for anime lovers in Animatsuri 2.0. Thanks to more avenues to consume and engage with aspects of Japanese culture, many in the city have embraced it.
- Otaku Nadu began in 2015 as an offshoot of the One Piece India Facebook community. It was the first Tamil-specific anime community. The Chennai chapter of the Asia Culture Club hosts regular meetups and attends cultural events.
- Collecting anime figures remains a niche segment in Chennai. Nikhil Ravikumar, founder of AniSync, provides online anime fan activities, including buying official merchandise. Fake goods currently rule the market due to high import duties.
Love of anime: Japanese culture and anime are synonymous. Anime Nadu delivers anime news to people’s doorsteps and has become India’s first anime newspaper. At Chennai Comic Con this year, people had the opportunity to cosplay as their favourite anime characters, providing them a new way to express their love of anime.
🎨 Celebrating TS Narayanaswamy’s work
An exhibition showcased the varied paintings of renowned artist TS Narayanaswamy.
What’s it about? The Unicard Fuego furniture showroom was transformed into an exhibition space for “Different Strokes”, an exhibition that showcased the curated works of artist TS Narayanaswamy.
- About 50 paintings, ranging from portraits to sceneries and intricately detailed black and white caricatures, donned the walls of the furniture showroom.
- The high point of his career was giving two portraits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to him in person. He hopes to take up more commissioned work in the future.
Personal journey: TS Narayanaswamy’s artistic journey began as a child when he watched his uncle TS Sridhar, the then editor of Anandha Vikatan, write columns and draw cartoons. He ran an inter-collegiate magazine ‘Manavelam Puyal’ at AM Jain College.
🎶 Premiere of Haydn’s work
The Madras Guild of Performing Arts (MGPA) will present India’s first full premiere of composer Joseph Haydn’s work.
What’s it about? The composition of Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation” will depict the wonders of nature and how the world was created. Considered his masterpiece, the Creation was inspired by ideas of the Big Bang and the Book of Genesis.
- Previous premieres across the country chose to showcase excerpts of the piece. However, the MGPA will present The Creation in full in a two-hour performance.
- Over the past year, the MGPA and others have tweaked every string and note to present the rendition in its full form.
Components: The Creation begins in a C minor chord, also featured in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The Oratorio will be performed by a 42-member orchestra from The Gustav Mahler Society of Colombo and three soloists from Britain.
✊ Samsung workers’ token fast
Workers of the Samsung plant observed a token fast near the plant, intensifying their strike.
What’s happened so far? The strike by workers of the Samsung plant in Sriperumbudur entered its fourth week. Since September 9, over 1,000 workers at the plant have been on strike, demanding better wages, working conditions, and recognition of their union. Several rounds of talks between the labour department and the company have failed.
- The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), leading the protests, said the company has brought in temporary workers for the plant. Some CITU members staged protests in districts to garner support for the Samsung workers.
- Samsung India said many workers returned to work once a show-cause notice was issued. The company stated several attempts have been made to resolve the issue.
What’s next? The CITU will file a complaint with the Directorate of Factories for the company’s decision to hire temporary workers who aren’t trained. Another meeting with the labour department and Samsung’s representatives is planned for next week.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Calling all anime lovers: Celebrate all things Japanese anime at the Animatsuri 2.0 this Sunday.
- For the cinephiles: experience cinema at the Chennai World Cinema Festival this weekend onward.
- Fans of FRIENDS, catch the popular show beachside at FRIENDS by the Beach this Saturday.
- Music, games, and fun await at the Oktoberfest Extravaganza, this Sunday.
- Explore organic produce at the Hibiscus Farmers Market this Saturday.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I would consider buying an Electric vehicle now: 42.9%
- I would consider buying an Electric vehicle in 5 years: 57.1% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
How many times a week do you use food delivery apps?
Suchi: “2 or 3 times”
Shiva: “Zero”
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!