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Thursday,February26,2009
ABYTE OF LIFE
FOUR LEGS GOOD
Two professionals recall some timewell spent at an animal home
FREE CIRCULATION
Vol. 3No. 37
FIRST BLOOD
Kiwis come up trumps in first T20 contest
0602
Oru clue tharaamo
The peppy, livelyand “non-stop”host of
FTQ
fame completes10 years inthe televisionindustry.Rekha Menonon her journeyso far.
RX RESURRECTION
The Yamaha RX series ishot property in the second-hand market in the city 
»
PAGE 08
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PAGE 03
 
ERGO
Thursday, February 26, 2009
NAMMA CHENNAI
02
D
o you love to play with children? Are yougood at art? Have you always wanted topaint a room? Do you want to have fun andget messy at the same time? Are you apeople’s person? Here’s an opportunity foryou.Involve, a monthly volunteering initiative byiVolunteer, a not-for-profit organisationworking in the social sector, is creatingawareness on community development atKannagi Nagar Community inThoraipakkam.How you can play a role? You need tovolunteer for around three hours, whereyou will be required to clean up thekindergarten rooms, add some colour to theclassroom by putting up posters and paint aclassroom with creative art works.This will be followed by a general awarenesssession on the community by theprogramme coordinator of The HopeFoundation Nursery and Primary School forthe Kannagi Nagar Community. You cancome in as groups and be part of thiscommunity programme.
 T
hough I love pets, the bache-lor accommodation I stay inisn’t conducive for keeping one. After reading about AWPT in Er-go last week, my friend Dhara-nikar Kona and I decided tovisit them. With some difficulty  we located the house and weregreeted by lots of cute cats that were lazing around. Most of thecats we find on the street areafraid of strangers and won’t let you pet them, but these cats were extremely friendly.Mr. Narasimhamoorthy greeted us and showed usaround. The all white Mongo-lian cat, Bush, was the mostadorable one while another one was called Laptop because it jumps up and sits on people’slaps. Several dogs and cats livedin harmony with Mrs. Padma-vathi and Narasimhamoorthy  who have been treating theseabandoned pets as their ownchildren. The few hours wespent in the company of theseanimals were well worth it.
(The writer is a business analyst with Satyam Computer Services and blogs at enidhi.net)
Two business analysts took time off to visit an old couple and provide some much- needed cheer to the four-legged residents at their shelter 
SHRINIDHI HANDE
enidhi@gmail.com
Book launch
Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan will play host to the launchof
Inkheart 
by Cornelia Funke. The book will be released todayat 6 p.m. For details call 2833 1314/ 0645.
There are some new faces at AWPT this week. A few kittens and puppies including the ones inthese pictures are available for adoption. All of them are in good health and are ready to begiven to nice owners free of cost. Call 22781381 or 99629-68265 for details.
 Time well spent
TAKE ME HOME
Do you care tospare some timeand thought?
What, when, where
What: Community workWhen: February 28; 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.Where: 5/8, Bharathiyar Street,Saravanbhava Nagar,Mootaikaranchavadi, Thoraipakkam,OMR, Chennai – 97To confirm your participation call98414 87984 or emailanusha@ivolunteer.in
 
Thursday, February 26, 2009
03
H
er colleagues tease her forgoing “bak-bak” through-out the day and againtalking non-stop on tele-vision in the evenings. But quizenthusiasts loved her witty jab-ber – in fact, the more the mer-rier as that would only take themcloser to the correct answers.The FabIndia
kurtas,
 which shedotingly wore for every show (some borrowed), almost be-came a fashion statement inKerala.Like her, hate her, there is nodenying the fact that Rekha Me-non made quizzing more fun with her inimitable style –
valu-nad 
accent, clues (
oru clue tha-raamo
!) and the lively talk. Frommaking her debut as host for thepenultimate episode of 
 Mafatlal Tele Quiz 
(it was luck by chanceas the original host couldn’tmake it) in 1999, Rekha hascome a long way.This year marks her 10th anni-versary in the television indus-try. Quite an achievement forthis corporate communicationsmanager with UST Global inChennai, one of the many rolesshe juggles. She hops fromChennai to Kerala for her ongo-ing show on Amrita TV, shooting for which she schedules on wee-kends and on a monthly basis.Plus, she translates books forchildren.
The communicator
“It was during my three-month project in MavoorRayons, where I had to use my charm to get work done, that Irecognised the communicatorin me,” recalls Rekha, who is aPost Graduate in EnvironmentalScience.Her first stint was with Asia-net, where she worked in theproduction unit. “Seeing an-chors come and go I used to wonder
namakku yogam illalo
,”she laughs.Destiny smiled during herstint as associate consultant with Venture Management As-sociates, Trivandrum.
Family Tele Quiz 
made the quizzer-cum-researcher’s quick and wit-ty style a household name inKerala.The show extended from 13 to26 to 52 to 1,000 episodes. Theresponse grew with
QuestionTime 
, which replaced prime-time Malayalam soaps with alive quiz show – the first in a Ma-layalam channel.
Showtime
“Quizzing won me a lot of fans. I had a caller who wantedto send me a packet of prawnsfor helping him get five answerscorrect,” she laughs. Rekha’sstreak continued with India Vi-sion, where she hosted 52 epi-sodes of 
Sancheri,
a travel show.“In fact, this made me a pro-fessional anchor. I picked up allthe nuances of production,” shesays, with due credit to her cor-porate exposure. A children’s show on AmritaTV,
Kelivadil 
, followed. Nowa-days, it is
Thirakkil Alpam Ne-ram
on Amrita which is taking her to a new high.“It is a very walk-the-talk for-mat where I interview personal-ities from different walks of life,making them open up on ques-tions they generally wouldn’t,”says Rekha, in her mid-30s, whois looking for a longer innings ontelevision.From Ranji Panikkar to Oom-men Chandy to Prakash Raj, shesays it is the warmth she shares with the interviewee that makesher show click.This March, the show will beairing its 50th episode, which isa must-watch.“Actor Thilakan is slated forthe 50th episode and I am toldhe generally doesn’t smile dur-ing interviews, which I managedto change,” she says.
■
Malayalees will not forget RekhaMenon easily, at least for the non- stop banter on ‘Quiz Time’. Thetelevision anchor celebrates 10 yearsin the industry this year 
LIFFY THOMAS
liffythomas@goergo.in
‘‘
Quizzingwon me alot of fans. I hada caller whowanted to sendme a packet ofprawns forhelping him getfive answerscorrect
Oru clue tharaamo
Inviting business plans
The Chennai Fund, started by Charter members of TiE Chennai Chapter, invitesbusiness plans from early stage entrepreneurs. Applications must be sent beforeFebruary 27 to bizplan@chennai.tie.org and bizplan@energeate.com.For details call Sharon at 98842 84578/ 65154900. Website:chennaifund.com
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