Kick Start Coimbatore

Back to the blog....

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:32:00 +0000

Ikarvus Zoombee stood on the bridge at sunset. The radiance of the sun made him smile, as it had a million times before. After a few moments of searching, he had found burried in his head, the location of his target. His clothes felt strangely uncomofrtable and heavy, it was beyond him how these beings lived in such an atire, but he adored them nevertheless. He made his way down to the long curvy road and started walking towards a place they called Manchester towers.

Zoombee couldn't stop smiling, his face was more radiant than the stars. His entire body was shaking with excitement, like a little boy in the greatest toy store. He was walking on the middle of the road, observing the lake that stood by its side, it was dense and dirty. A truck turned into the road and came towards him at a menacing speed. Zoombee froze at the sight of it and realised what it was. The internal combusion engine he thought to himself. The truck driver started honking , but instead of getting out of the way, Zoombee moved towards it, hit by adoration. He had only seen pictures and vidoes of this legendary off spring of science, but now it was coming to him,and he wanted to embrace it as if it were a beautiful child.

The truck driver honked even more and Zoombee was suddenly released from his trance, he qucikly jumped out of the way, realising the danger. The truck passed him by. Strewn on the ground, he watched the truck move away sadly, as if it were his lover, running away from him, leaving him to the mercy of solitude. Odah feared that this would eventually happen, that he would be carried away by this land and all that it contained.

Zoombee cleared his mind and focused on his goal, to find Hanzel. He walked down the road, guided by the make shift map that resided in his mind. He turned back and looked at the bridge for a moment. By sun set tommorow he had to be on it with Hanzel.

Droollllllllll - Pet Carnival 3

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:02:00 +0000

There were close to two hundred people waiting in a line to enter the "3rd Pet Carnival " held at Ramalingam Chettiar Higher Sec School, Saibaba Colony. We were amongst them, tired and tanned under the cruel sun. The organisers did a decent job, but it could have been better. Two hundred people was a bit too much for us, so we set off in search of an alternate entry point. Not only did we get ahead of the crowd, but we even avioded paying the thirty rupee entry fee. A small opening was left un gaurded near a " Bajje and Bonda " stall, and we walked in.

For a second the entire venue resembeled a poultry farm, there were chicken everywhere,some even offered on plates, at 20 Rs a serving, they tasted all right. Four stalls showcasing goats, atleast thats what they called them. To us they were mutated versions of goats, crossed with the ugliest of basset hounds. But shockingly these aninmals had a name, " Jamuna Bari ", and they could be sold at anywhere from forty thousand to four lakh rupees ! You could spot dozens of horses and other barn yard animals. One stall show cased persian cats that were on sale for ten thousand rupees.

Next we came across " Clothin Puppy", a brand that designed casual clothing for dogs. The stall was beyond crowded, dozens of visitors patiently waited to accesorise their furry friends. Shirts, neck ties, sweaters, gowns and more, all designed for doggies. The stall helpers dressed up the animals without any compliactions, that was until an owner walked in with a horse like "great dane". But surprisngly the stall owners had approprite clothing boxed away in the back, my photogrpaher was too shocked to click a pciture. You can find these products at select pet stores across the city, and they cost only a few hundreds or so. Check out the video in the corner if your curious as to how these fur balls are dressed. These costumes can make your ugly mut look like a CK model, but they have their own cons. Your pet would never enjoying easing himself ever again and the outfits get dirty easily.

The rest of the dog show was pretty standard. As expected there were many breeds, and tons of prizes given away. I expected to see an army of pugs dominating the crowds, but surprisngly there were very few of them. Instead there were great danes all over. The old hutch adverts had glorified the Pug breed, prices had gone up by a hundred percent, but later owners realised that they were very hard to maintain. There were dozens of Labradors all over. There were even a few Jack Russell Terrier's and Rotwilers. But the most unique breed we spotted was the French Bull Dog. We could go blah and blah about more breeds, but then you've heard that before.

One sad fact was that many of the animals in stalls were housed in a savage manner, caged like animals ready to be butchered, deprived and dehydrated like ten year old cows that were born for one purpose, to taste steel. That was a bit too much, but the you get the point folks. It was ironic that the "Humane Treatment of Animals Society" had put up a stall next to some these cages. But then irony goes hand in hand with reality, like lovers reunited after an eon. All in all, the Pet Carnival was jolly little event for the entire family. Ho ho ho !

New eateries hitting CBE soon.....

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:48:00 +0000

Food, the only comodity that seems constantly sell in this city, everytihng else has it ups and downs, booms and recesions. But food will always be eaten , even if it tastes like crap ( Apple Bee’s , next to Baskin Robins, Race Course,and no you do not want to eat there ). But there is a lot of good food, and more coming soon. There will be loads of new restraunts opening in the city soon. AFC will be opening on the 15th of this month, it resembles outlets like KFC and MC Donalds, but they dont boast chicken wings, but instead Chicken Slices. There are loads of new items on the menu for all you omnivores, but the cows wont find it too tempting as the Veg side of the menu is only a few lines long.Our beloved Atmos is now coming back to us at Red Fields, near Race Course on Feb 4th. You can also expect another branch of That’s Y Food at the old home of Atmos, the Vibes complex. Tasty nuts, a new joint thats opening up near PSG CAS, and no we have no clue as to what they intend to serve their customers.

Battle Of the Bands

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Battle of the Bands

The Battle of the Bands event that has been held in our awesome little city the past couple of years, had so far only fostered our growing local talent. This year we want to do it bigger and yes we have for Coimbatore is now officially on the stage,of India's raving mad band culture. So come all and be a part of the new scene. Bands from all over the country are invited to battle it out at Coimbatore's best venue GRD auditorium which has some of the best sound equipment and setting and engineers. Plus Coimbatore is just a nice, chilled out place to take a trip to, and listen to some real good music.Lots of prizes to win, and then proceeds go to the good causes of Mr.Johnson's Music Therapy Centre for Differently abled children and to the All India Anglo-Indian's Association- Coimbatore Branch Education Fund.

Some of the bands you will see at BOB2010

Timaraah and Bicycle days from Bangalore.

T.W.K.C ( Thundu beedi, Water Packet, Kutchi Ice, Curd Rice ) from Chennai

43 from Madurai

Death Prayer, Blacksmiths ,Echoes of throne( Fat B***** and Grp) from Coimby

Random bands from Erode

And many more

Tickets are available in three variants Rs 200, Rs 500 and Rs 1000

Tickets out for grabs !!
Contact for details and other enquiry :
Arjun Mohan - 9944709086
Malcolm Simmons - 9994975395
Kaarthick Senthil - 9843090001
Devanshu Gupta - 9944970668

AKASH KJ

Why so silent ????

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:48:00 +0000

Your probably wondering , dude why is it so silent, why aren't you guys doing anything, well we've been working on the site and im happy to announce that its gonna be online shortly. Now your wondering, whats the site gonna have ? Well there's gonna be a lot for you to browse through. Our objective at the moment is to connect the people of Coimbatore and enhance their social lives. We have a lot of new things on our list that your gonna be excited about. The site will cater to various interest groups, provide an interactive gallery where you can put up your literature, work of art, photos and other creations for public display. There will be many articles and reviews with our usual peppy flavor. Were even going to have the city's first EVENT board where we will list any event in the city thats worth knowing about, which means you can start sending your event details in if you want us to help you with free promotion. There's a lot more on the list and you'll learn about it soon.

Until then

Cheers

Take Care

Akash KJB

Time to move on....

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and Girls, Macha's and Machi's, Kick Start Cbe is now moving to a new platform. Its a web site, no more blogging for us, we believe the concept has has a lot of potential. We have many new additions to the team, which means there will be daily posts and more variety for you guys. These new people are super talented and kinda popular, you just might know them. We are even getting an office, nope im not kidding, like a real office and its WI FI enabled too, its at Ramnagar ! Things are going to be very exciting, our site will be be more like a magazine with lots of pretty little pictures, gorgeous layouts, even more brilliant articles all organised and co-ordinated so that you can understand and relish Coimbatore ! The launch date of the new site will be mentioned shortly, until then take care.

Akash KJB

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:21:00 +0000

ALL FOR COIMBATORE and all that jazz :

So far KickStart has only had these two crazy social-entrepreneuring boys who created it, writing and reviewing about Kaalan Carnage and Kulfi shops and what not....and quite a decent start at that *clap clap*
Time for change fellas... Calling all akkas, thangaachis (mind eeet fallows~), mommies, maamis, aunties, phigurus, chicas and all the gloriously feminine pieces of your souls. (deep.. illa?)

Come read, Come contribute, Come review, Come gossip even, Come correct us, Come talk, share and spread that famous Coimbatore kusumbu we is teh known for. Come KickStart this city up !!

Review your favorite shops, hang out joints, any thing under the sun, tell these poor boys where all the nice girls are…or pshaaaww* don’t tell them :D, tell the girls where we can get away from them and have much more fun girls’days out. Tell everyone what to do (whaata fun illa :P), where to go, where to be and what’s fun and in and do keep coming to read and find out and know it all… Coz’ hey… girls always know best ;)

………….

THE NEWS AROUND TOWN :

Any of us who read those tiny little 5 line paragraphs regularly at the bottom of Metroplus and/or Expresso, will know that Atmos and Vibe, the lifestyle store… sorry, ATMOS is moving out of Race Course!! *vibe can move wherever it wants!*

Quite the cliché hang-out joint that it is, it's also home to so many memories for so many people who had nowhere else to go for a date, for a snack, for a panchayat, for a place to chill those boring afternoons away, and other velaillathagiri, randomnesses and crazy good times in dahlin' Coimbatore.

I can’t quite imagine that quaint little open air, bohemian bungalow thing that held such prominence in the surroundings of Race Course, moving into the Oxford Bookstore on Trichy Road. HOW. WHAt. WHyyYY… ? So what happens to –nobody-really-comes-here-even-though-its-nice Cha(i) bar ?

Sighing the nostalgia away, there's a new store for bizarre clothing (Yes, you read that right) being opened today (19th Nov). South Hood Ventures owned by Venkatkumar Vijayakumar and Co., call their new brand, DOPE (You read it right again). The promos, teasers, posters pique one’s interest, their marketing strategy is different and innovative..well I guess they aren’t tagging it as the “shades of the new rebel” for nothing. Actors Surya and his brother Karthi love Dope. (I couldn’t resist inviting a defamation suit right there). Surya even contributed some designs. They’re both coming to open the store this evening at 1, Club Road (behind Nilgiris). Definitely sounds worth checking out.. We’ll visit the place soon and tell you all about it unless one of you decides to do us the deed. Here's their facebook page if you want to check it out.

Going back to the news about Atmos, whether you like it moving out or not or even if you simply don’t care, they’re having a farewell bash on November 21st, at 6:30 pm, called ‘This is it’ *eyaaoow* With a buffet for Rs.75 and a band (yes! A band) called Slash Evolution playing Blues and Rock. You should go.

-Madhumitha Varadaraj
*the new akka on kickstart*

Eatery Review - CnC ( Cake and Coffee shop , Velan Coimbatore )

noreply@blogger.com (KickstartcbeRuler:P) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:35:00 +0000

Okay! Its a sunday! And being month beginning, my pocket is 'fuller'! I thought.. let Akash do the kaalan.. Ill sit in a more relaxed place and eat the lesser known delicacies (I personally consider donuts and stuffed buns staple! :D) And i bet you'll want a nice evening snack to get through the gloomy day! And what better than a warm buttery croissant? Or a golden baguette? Perhaps a cheese n onion pie, rounded with a cup of darjeeling tea or a hot frappe? I'm talking about CnC (cake and coffeeshop), at the ground floor of the Velan food park, Ram Nagar. You also get freshly made puff, sandwiches, muffins, tarts, cakes and a WHOLE variety of brilliant breads! The price is worth the quality and taste. You also get mocktails, but I'm guessing that its not the 'hot cake' of the season (wait.. is that a pun??).

Point is, its good and more pocket friendly compared to Residency's baker's corner, while dishing out greater variety.

My recommendations:
Donuts
California Brownie
Baguettes (on request)
Stollen bread(mind you, its mildly sweet)

A note on the pricing: Its all inclusive(tax/service), and for certain items(eg: donuts), a portion includes 2 donuts...

Now for the objectivity to take control:
The place: C n C, velan food park, Rajaji Street, Ram Nagar
The number: 4206666

Score Card

Quality: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience : 7/10
Quality of girls present in the area: 6/10 (but all sit at their home! :D)
Value for money : 8/10

Overall : 8/10

P.S: dinner is upstairs, and reviews will come in later!

Take Care, Warm Regards

Anirudh Ranganath!!!!

Food JOint Review - Sree Kulfi, RS Puram.

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Before mankind went crazy for Gold, diamonds, real estate, your sisters boy friend and other such luxuries, we fought for food. It played an important part in our social lives, one theory even says that counting started so as to ensure proper distribution of rice cake and beer in stone age and nomad villages.

Today we review one such food item, an ancient creamy Indian delicacy, called Kulfi. Yes your all familiar with it, most of you have eaten it, while some have seen it in north Indian weddings and have also mistaken it for “Palam on a stick “ ( My grand mom’s walking buddy said that) ,and all of you have heard of it. One can find this little establishment in RS Puram, on Ponnurangam road west, next to Zapak Gaming center and Alaghu Pharmacy, across the road from Pari’s duty free and parallel to the Bharat Petroleum Bunk.

The Kulfi shop offers amazing, rich creamy kulfi on a stick, in almost a dozen flavours at the price of a luxury condom ! That’s like 12 bucks a serving, a serving in the shape and size of your toothpaste tube or the size of your little brother, if you boys want to go ahead and exaggerate.

The quality is simply brilliant. I polished seven kulfi’s in an honest and sincere dedication to this article. Malai was amazing, so was Ajmeer and Pista. Chocolate was mediocre, just like rose. I tried a bunch of flavors, and most of them were pretty good. Traditional kulfi comes in pots, and you’ll find them here. But they cost more and are not user friendly as far as consumption is concerned, so stick to the sticks. The place also serves Falooda, which is not as awesome as the Kulfi, but its pretty good. The Gola (Crushed ice with multiple variations of colored syrup) was very good as always, I mean you’d have to be a complete nut to go wrong with it.

All in all the Kulfi shop was great and one of the best places to have desert at in the city. When we were done, my good friend Vignesh jumped in the air and said that the food was more satisfying than SEX, and I simply replied , “Virgin Talk !!!! “ .

Picture will be added tomorrow.

Here’s our score card

Quality of Food : 8/10

Service : 9/10

Ambience : 5/10

Quality of girls present in the area: 7/10

Value for money : 9/10

Overall : 9/10

Kaalan Carnage 09

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000

காளான் விழா 09!!

Hey there !

Join us as we comb the streets of Coimby for the best Kaalan that money can buy! Here’s how you can help. We want you to nominate your favorite Kaalan stall so that we can add it to our list. The Kaalan Carnage will begin on November 5th and we will close all entries for nominations at 00:00 Hrs on November 4th. And for all those digestive champions, those daring souls with stomachs of steel, we invite you to join us and voice your opinions as we munch down the scrumptious treat.

Please post all Nominations by commenting on the post. Nominate your stall by providing us with the exact locations , aided by dependable landmarks. And for all those who want to join in on the fun, type in "IM HUNGRY" as a comment.

Take care

Akash Kadandhavale Jagadish Bhat Rao

SeeBeyEeeee (Cbe)!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Hello Coimbatore!
Let me serve you info about namma ooru! To start with, let's be honest. We cant compare ourselves with metros!

Lets start with the 'have nots': We dont have even a single mall yet(one or two are coming up, yes), no bowling alley, no decent discs, dearth of grounds for sports, no food court(ignoring the fact that eating out options are limited, and im not talking about fast food alone), and i bet you could add more to the list.

Now about the "haves": a beautiful city that isnt as polluted as most metros, good water, decent weather, rare traffic jams, but most of all, a vibrant culture and serene get-aways close by! What better than biking away to marudamalai or annaikatti or hiking in topslip?

Point is, I'm the guy who says "Im bored. Entertain me" to everyone around me, letting my boredom influence them too! :P. So I thought why not find something new myself? And pass on the light my comrades in the kingdom of boredom!

Anirudh Ranganath Narasimhan!!!

Intro!

noreply@blogger.com (Akash) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Hello !

Hey there. First of all thanks for taking the time to visit this blog. I am not going to beat around the bush. Your immediate question is, "Dude what is this blog going to offer me"? I think thats a fair question. My answer is, Coimbatore, It’s a very nice city. But a LOT of people complain that there isn’t much to do and that they are floating in an ocean of boredom. So this little blog will help you row out of that ocean and hit the shores of an eventful and fun filled Coimbatore that you have never seen or experienced before.

Your next question

Your next question is, "Dude, How are you going to do it"? My answer is again simple. What makes a city fun and eventful ? Think about it. MALLS ,MALLS and more MALLS, that’s what we need right?. Nope, Its not the malls, the stuff there is way too expensive for any person with a brain, so they’re just eye candy, a nice place meet girls and maybe watch a movie for two hundred and fifty rupees in a theater that has a slightly bigger screen, supposedly better audio, a lot of air freshener (most of your ticket fee goes there) and very very nice toilets (I love them!). Worth it? No comments from my side, I’m going to allow you to decide. So its not the malls that make the city fun. And no its not the restaurants, or hangouts or the pubs.

What it iz ?

So what makes a city fun, I think you would have guessed it by now, It’s the people ! Its not the places or the Software Parks, it’s the people. People are the biggest and most important fun resource , I mean people all over the world had a lot fun before the advent of malls and places of fine dining. And what we're going to do in this blog is very simple. We are going to introduce you to the people, were going to do what no social networking site has ever deemed possible, we are going to get you closer to everyone around you, and not through virtual pokes and imaginary pillow fights, but through a slightly different approach

There are hundreds that share your interests, hundreds who have no interests, hundreds who are searching for interests and thousands of other people, who you just might like. And we will bring them closer to you. Your next question is again, "dude how are you going to do all this?" And my answer is: Wait for our next post! :D

Thanks for reading and trust me you’ll thank me and the rest of the team, Take care.

Yours,

Akash Kadandhavale Jagadish Bhat Rao