Three pals \u2013 Jayanth Sriniva- san, Kowshik Ganesh and Chaita- nya \u2013 joined hands in January 2008 to form the band. Though achieving heights in the \ufb01eld of music was their dream, they were also keen on helping the under- privileged. With plans starting right away in July last year, they released their \ufb01rst albumAnbu

f you thought all there was to a rock band were guitar solos, head-banging performance and hoping to a hop into the

Namma Chennai-based Radi- ance Band are here to prove that rock music can contribute to the society in non-psychadelic ways as well. Their second albumPud-

as an addition to the growing Ta- mil rock scene but will also set aside a monetary commitment, by way of a proceed of the sales of the record, to an NGO called Maatrutva, run by an enterprising young social entrepreneur, La- litha Ramesh.

The pro\ufb01ts gained through the album will be donated for the upliftment of the slums dwellers, who were shifted from Nanda-

Engineering College was their sponsor as two of the band mem- bers belonged to the institution. All through they were supported by friends in the making of the album.

The \ufb01rst album sold 600 copies. Impressed by the band perfor- mance, cinematographer Rajiv Menon\u2019s assistant Anand, along with director Karthik, offered to produce a video for the album

free of cost. Chinmaya and M.K. Balaji were the main vocalists of the album. The band won the Best Music Video Award (award- ed by Gangai Amaran and S.P.B. Charan) and also the Best Social Service Award in 2008 (awarded by Lions Club).

The band came forward to work on their second dream whe- rein Bhargavi, Priya, Divya Vivek, Lakshman Chandrasekaran and Sriraam K.C. joined the band. The album\u2019s art work was designed by Priya, composed by Jayanth and the technical sound mixing was done by Lakshman, an audio en- gineer at A.M. Studios.

They sponsored the second al- bum by themselves. It took two months for the recording and a month for the sound mixing.

\u201cWe are planning to put up stalls in IT companies to market our album. During our previous album we didn\u2019t know much about marketing, but with our ex- perience we have better plans this time and we are expecting more response and more sells,\u201d says Jayanth.

Apart from their album compo- sitions, Jayanth and Lakshman have won the second place in the title music competition for Vivel soap\u2019s Miss Chennai and Chen- nai Man\u2019s show on Vijay TV in June this year.\u25a0

Band Radiance comes out
with \u2018Pudhu Yugam\u2019, a
rock album that will not
only motivate youngsters
to face the world but also
contribute monetary
support to an NGO run by
a 21-year-old

Funskool has launched \u2018Transformer:
The Revenge of the Fallen\u2019 collection,
promising to bring more fun. The toys
are priced from Rs. 175 and available at
all leading stores.

dressed alike
groom for
their evening

A scene
spotted atop
a tree on

ou have a good business idea but have never written a business plan. Or, you are

a social entrepreneur with an enterprise which is both mar- ketable and scalable, but need mentors to guide you learn the ropes of the business.

If you fall in to either of the cat- egories here\u2019s one good reason why you should apply to become an \u201cUnreasonable Fellow\u201d with the Unreasonable Institute, Col- orado, USA.

This is a start-up founded by alumni from the University of Colorado \u2013 Daniel Epstein, Teju Ravilochan, Nikhil Dandavanti and Vlad Dubovskiy \u2013 to \u201ccreate social entrepreneurs as well as co-design better ideas with them\u201d.

Twenty-two-year-old Vlad Du- bovskiy, who is currently in Chennai to collaborate with vari- ous entrepreneurs, spoke about the institute and reason behind reaching out to India.

\u201cWe started in 2008 and our \ufb01rst informal programme had 17 entrepreneurs from 14 countries

including Pakistan, the U.S. and Sri Lanka. We had not brought the programme to India, but later we realised that the country is a happening place and we need to promote more social ideas from the region,\u201d he explains.

How to enrol to become a Fel- low? The applications go up from October 15. The short-listed 40 Fellows will have to convince a panel of investors why their busi- ness is \u201cscalable, sustainable, purposeful and replicable\u201d. \u201cBy scalable we mean an enterprise which can be taken outside the country after three years and a

sustainable business is one which can cover the cost in one year,\u201d says Dubovskiy.

Among the start-ups mentored for the 10-week programme as \u201cUnreasonable Fellows\u201d was an entrepreneur from the U.S. who manufactured a $10 bicycle, tar- geting people who made $3 a day. Another businessman from Ne- pal started a supply chain to take locally made nutritional products outside the country.

Twenty-\ufb01ve young social en- trepreneurs from across the globe will be selected for the summer institute in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cWe incubate their ideas with skill training and mentorship to provide their ideas with traction. Later, we connect our Fellows with seed capital and a global network of support, enabling their ideas to take off.\u201d

A seed funding of $10,000 will be instituted for a one-year peri- od. They also promise to bring in the best of mentors including professors from the Stans\ufb01eld School of Business and business leaders, among others.

The institute has so far part- nered with leading organisations like Ashoka, Social Edge and Tech Stars, to name a few, while Ac- umen Fund and University of Colorado are their investors.

So, are you the unreasonable Fellow? The team has derived the de\ufb01nition from George Bernard Shaw\u2019s quotation: \u201cThe reasona- ble man adapts himself to his en- vironment.

The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.\u201d\u25a0

For further details visit
www.unreasonableinstitute.org or
you could email Vlad Dubovskiy at

which can be
taken outside
the country
after three
years and a

business is
one which
can cover
the cost in
one year

Graceful Sparky has a fondness for human company, games with a ribbon and posing for the camera. To adopt her, call Ananya Ashok at 9952040339.

If you are between 20 and 30 years of age with a scalable social business
model, the Unreasonable Institute gives you a chance to become its
\u201cFellow\u201d where you receive seed grant and mentorship