Chennai

Chennai /ˈtʃɛnnaɪ/ (formerly known as Madras ⁱ/məˈdrɑːs/ or /-ˈdræs/) is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major cultural, economic and educational centre. Chennai is known as the "Detroit of India" for its automobile industry. It is the fourth-largest city and fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country and 36th-largest urban area in the world.

The city is host to the third-largest expatriate population in India after Mumbai and Delhi, with 35,000 in 2009 and steadily climbing to 82,790, in 2011. Tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. Chennai has also been named in the "hottest" cities to live in for 2015 by BBC among global cities with a mixture of both modern and traditional values. National Geographic ranked Chennai as world's 2nd best food city and Chennai was the only Indian city to feature in the list. Chennai was also named as the 9th-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet.

Catherine Tresa

Catherine Tresa is an Indian film actress and model, who appears in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil films.

Early life

Catherine was born to Malayali Roman Catholic parents Frank Mario Alexander and Tresa Alexander in Dubai. She said, "I don’t speak fluent Malayalam, it’s mostly English that we speak at home. I speak decent Hindi though and now I’m taking lessons in Telugu". She did her Grade Twelve in Dubai and moved to Bangalore for higher education. She studied for two years in St. Joseph's College, Bangalore.

While studying, she pursued extra-curricular activities. She learnt to play piano, and got trained in singing, dancing, ice skating and debating, stating that she believes that she is "good at anything I put my mind to". In Dubai, Catherine was an Emirates Environment volunteer. At the age of 14, Catherine did some amateur modelling for fashion design graduate students. After coming to India, she modeled for Nalli Silks, Chennai Silks, Fast Track, Josco Jewellers and Deccan Chronicle. She has also shot for Srikantadatta Wodeyar's Maharaja Calendar and had participated with Prasad Bidapa in many ramp shows in many cities.

Chennai Central railway station

Chennai Central, erstwhile Madras Central, is the main railway terminus in the city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras. It lies adjacent to the current headquarters of the Southern Railway, as well as the Ripon Building, and is one of the most important railway hubs in South India. The other major railway hub stations in the city are Chennai Egmore and Tambaram. Chennai Central connects the city to New Delhi and prominent cities of India such as Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Varanasi, Thiruvananthapuram, and so forth. The 142-year-old building of the railway station, one of the most prominent landmarks of Chennai, was designed by architect George Harding. Along with Chennai Beach, the station is also a main hub for the Chennai Suburban Railway system.

Chennai Central serves as a symbolic landmark for people in South India as this station served as the main gateway for all people who travelled to South India during the British times. About 350,000 passengers use the terminus every day.Chennai Egmore, Coimbatore Junction and Chennai Central are the most profitable stations of Southern Railways. As per a report published in 2007 by the Indian Railways, Chennai Central and Secunderabad were awarded 183 points out of a maximum of 300 for cleanliness, the highest in the country.

Santhosh Narayanan

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Santhosh Narayanan (born 15 May 1983) is an Indian film composer and musician in the Tamil film industry. Santhosh Narayanan made his debut as a film composer in the 2012 Tamil film Attakathi.

Early life

Santhosh Narayanan did his schooling in RSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappalli and college in J. J. College of Engineering and Technology, Tiruchirapalli. After completing his education, he briefly worked as an assistant to composer A. R. Rahman. He worked as a recording engineer, before beginning to produce independent music and compose background score for films. He scored the music including two songs for the acclaimed short film Advaitham, and produced the score for the Telugu thriller film Nenu Meeku Telusa along with another Rahman protege, Sakti. He was also part of the contemporary folk music band La Pongal with whom he performed in a few shows in 2009.

Career

2012 - 2013:Debut success

Madras Bashai

Madras Bashai is a Cockney of Tamil language spoken in the city of Chennai (previously known as Madras) in Tamil Nadu, India. The word bashai derives from the Sanskrit word bhasha, meaning "language". Madras Bashai is a loose polyglot blend of Tamil with Indian English, Telugu and Hindustani language. Madras bashai has been largely popularized by autorickshaw drivers and fishermen from the northern parts of the city.

Madras Bashai evolved largely during the past three centuries. It grew in parallel with the growth of cosmpolitan Madras. After Madras Bashai became somewhat common in Madras, it became a source of satire for early Tamil films from the 1950s, in the form of puns and double entendres. Subsequent generations in Chennai identified with it and absorbed English constructs into the dialect, making it what it is today.

Due to immigration and cultural exchange, terms from Madras Bashai are also used sometimes in other cities and towns of South India.

Evolution

Madras Bashai evolved largely during the past three centuries. Madras was founded in 1640 by the British East India Company, and with its emergence as an important city in the British Empire and as the capital of Madras Presidency, contact with the western world increased and a number of English words crept into the vocabulary. Many of these words were introduced by educated, middle class Tamil migrants to the city who borrowed freely from English for their daily usage. Due to the presence of a considerable population of Hindustani-speakers, especially, the Gujaratis, Marwaris and some Muslim communities, some Hindi words, too, became a part of Madras Bashai. At the turn of the 20th century, the Tamil spoken by the Brahmins of Madras city was considered to be standard spoken Tamil. Though preferences have since shifted in favor of the Central and Madurai Tamil dialects, the English words introduced during the early 20th century have been retained.