Wednesday 21 August 2024

22 August: Chennai (Madras)

Madras Day commemorates the founding of the city which is now known as Chennai. 10 facts about it:

  1. The city started life as a small fishing village called Madraspatnam, from which its old name, Madras, is thought to be derived. The city was officially renamed Chennai in 1996.

  2. The name Chennai was derived from the name of Chennappa Nayaka, a general under Venkata Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire from whom the British East India Company acquired the town in 1639.

  3. Chennai is the capital city of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.

  4. The population in 2022 was 11,981,478 making it the 30th most populous city in the world.

  5. Madras, as it was then known, was the only city in India to be attacked during World War One. A German light cruiser shelled an oil depot as it raided shipping lanes in the Bay of Bengal.

  6. Chennai is home to the longest natural urban beach in India and the second-longest natural urban beach in the world. Marina Beach is 13km (8 miles) long, and 437 metres (1,434 ft) wide.

  7. Chennai is a major hub of car manufacturing which has earned it the nickname “The Detroit of India”.

  8. Incorporated in 1688, the Greater Chennai Corporation is the oldest municipal corporation in India and the second oldest in the world after London.

  9. Chennai Central prison is the oldest jail in India.

  10. Chennai is the only place in India to have a Lighthouse within its city limits.


The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.


The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.





No comments:

Post a Comment