The Sports Ministry has come to the All-India Football
Federation\u2019s rescue, sanctioning Rs. 10 crore for the junior
team. But a cash-strapped federation is still crying foul.

A bunch of techies came together to form band
Paadhai. While their \ufb01rst album proved a hit,
they are now working on taking Ranam Sugam
\u2013 Pain is Good, their second music album,
beyond their IT friends

Tanishq has announced its exchange offer,
22 k = 23 k. The initiative allows one to
gain one karat on exchange of old gold
jewellery of any karatage. The offer is
open on all Tanishq outlets till August.

Bike and Barrel at The
Residency is
organising a western
karaoke nite every
Tuesday. The event
promises to be an
evening of fun and
music with all-time
English hits being
played. The evening
will be hosted by
Swapna Abraham.
For details call 2815

time with commoners
participating in the show.
Watch out for its \ufb01rst
episode where Salman
Khan takes on
homemaker Priyanka
Shukla and milkman Sunil
Mishra in the game. Tune
in to Sony on July 25.

July 26 is the 10th
anniversary of Kargil war.
On this occasion tune in
to listen to the brave
stories of Capt. Anuj
Nayyar, Lt. Vijayant
Thapar, Vikram Batra and
Capt. Haneefudddin \u2013 all
who laid their lives to
save the nations integrity.
Tune in to IBN7, Zindagi
Live at 8 p.m.

Theatre Y is starting its
next batch of \u2018Act One,
Voice One, and StorY\u2019, its
acting voice training and
scriptwriting course, this
weekend. The
introductory class will be
held on July 24 from 6 to
8 p.m. at StudYo, No 25,
Mandavelli Street.
For details call

Chennai gets one more bookstore. Full Circle bookstore will open at
# 85, Chamiers Road on July 26. The store will stock all genres
including \ufb01ction, non-\ufb01ction and a wide range of art books.

he echoes of vendors and honking from two-wheelers are the only sounds visiting

this semi-residential locality tucked inside Periyar Nagar Ex- tension in Madipakkam. But on Friday evenings En\ufb01eld Avenue wakes up to the strumming of guitars, beats of drums and notes from the piano. The music that starts at 6.30 p.m. goes on till Sunday evening, with occasional breaks in between.

Ten youngsters, all between 20 and 26, gather at this villa every weekend to play and practise mu- sic under the band name Paadhai (Tamil for \u2018path\u2019).

Paadhai is two and half years old, with multi-talented profes- sionals from Cognizant and Wi-

pro forming the group. It is love for music that binds them togeth- er, and every weekend they \u201ccook, sleep and play\u201d till they have played enough music to last them till their next meeting.

Its lead members are: Sham- meer M., Suresh G. and Sivaku- mar S., all vocalists. They are joined by Sridhar S. (rhythm), Di- neshkumar M. (rhythm), Deepak S. (guitar), Manigandan V. and Balakrishnan M.U. (video edit- ing) and Narendhiran E. (visual effects). Together the nine write, rewrite lyrics, compose, sing, mix, remix and perform all the tech-

nical nuances until it\u2019s ready for recording. Interestingly, Sivaku- mar, who works with Wipro (Ban- galore), comes every weekend to contribute his mite as vocalist and piano artiste.

Siva and Shameer were bench mates at Prince Matriculation Higher Secondary School where they shared eight years of \u201ccon- stant \ufb01ghts\u201d which continue till today and it\u2019s only the piano that binds them together. Suresh joined the band two years ago af-

ter he won a singing competition at CTS, where Shameer was his team mate. Since then the trio\u2019s journey into music has always been together. \u201cMusic was initia- lly our hobby but now it has changed into passion and we proudly say that we own a band,\u201d says Siva.

Paadhai is inspired by the lines from the famous American mo- vie, Forrest Gump (1994). \u201cIn the movie, the (mamma) always says, one can tell a lot about a person by their shoe \u2013 where they go and

where they have been. Thus, we named it Paadhai, meaning \u2018path\u2019,\u201d they say.

Shameer elaborates, \u201cNothing in this world is new. A few things just exist; they don\u2019t change for years, like the endless path.\u201d

Told by my Feet) was their \ufb01rst album. \u201cWe felt that we should start from the scratch of life. Only people and their journey change, the path being the same. Our \ufb01rst album is about the journey of life,\u201d says Suresh.

The group spent almost a year in making the album, which has 10 tracks. While all the trials for the album were done at their Ma- dipakkam villa during weekends, the recording was completed at Carnatica\u2019s Studio - Sounds of Si- lence in Kodambakkam.

sponse. \u201cWe \ufb01rst promoted the album in our respective compa- nies and later in other companies through friends,\u201d says Shameer, talking about extending its pro- motion further. \u201cWe are not here to rede\ufb01ne music. We try to give people a taste of the original and simple. It\u2019s an idea of using in- struments in a different mix of styles.\u201d

The band is not resting with the launch of its debut album; they have started work on the second. \u201cOur next album, Ranam Sugam \u2013 Pain is Good, will have seven tracks with \u2018love\u2019 as the theme,\u201d they conclude, keeping the guitar and piano in sync.\u25a0

\u2018Payanam\u2019, band
Paadhai\u2019s \ufb01rst
album, proved a
hit among the
techie crowd. Now
they are working
on taking \u2018Ranam

second music
album, beyond
their IT friends