T.M. Krishna in conversation with Anuradha Ananth

I hastily put the hot, cheese-centered dynabite back onto the plate when TM Krishna walks into Chamier’s Eco café. He looks like he’s easily lost about 15 kgs and his closely cropped hair and new beard gives him an almost rakish look. When he settles down with a garden trio juice, he confides that he woke up one day and didn’t like the way he looked. So he went off sugar, cut down his intake of rice and voila! 15kgs fell off his person in 6 months.

“So do you think this new level of fitness makes a difference to your singing?” I ask. “It definitely does. Singing seems like a very passive activity. But its not”, he says emphatically.

Why I like Chamiers by Mansi, age 8

Mansi is 8 years old and studying in Lady Andal school. She is in grade four. Mansi plays competitive chess and has won some tournaments. She loves animals particularly dogs. Mansi swims,reads and spends time on the Net. Her favourite colour is purple.

Chamiers is one of my favourite places to shop and spend time in. It has so many big plants and the shop surrounded by a garden makes me feel happy. Its like Kiran aunty’s mini Amethyst and we don’t have to drive that long fom my home!!.

Feline Felony

He was stuck in the last few feet of traffic before the multiplex when Dev called him and told him that he and Manoj couldn’t make it to the film. There was a crisis on at office, he said, and they would probably be firefighting till midnight. “Damn!” he thought. “If they had only called before I left work, I could have headed straight home. Now do I go in or not?” Of course, he wasn’t a scared girl going alone for a movie for the first time. He had sought solitary escape in movie halls before months ago, when he was first getting over Sowmya’s breaking up with him. He was well over that now. “I don’t really need to go in,” he thought. “But I’m now in the parking lot! And there’s no escape for the next two and a half hours at least! Oh, well…”

The Squirrel Chronicles – Part 1 by Shivani Bail

Presenting another offering in our series of guest columns. This one is by Shivani Bail, who will shortly be leaving to do a Masters Programme in Government at Pune. Her view of the café at Chamiers is from a different angle…

Living in a tree can get dangerous at times. Once, at a family gathering I dozed off while being lectured by my uncle on the virtue of being able to identify superior almonds and how with such a skill I was sure to find a perfect bridegroom, when I fell off my branch and almost knocked my dad into a bowl of spaghetti. Thankfully, my uncle is shortsighted.