Chennai bloggers club meet is always special.The thought of meeting all the fun filled, like minded,blogger friends makes me to skip even the important meetings,and other commitments so that i could have my presence in the crowd with zeal and zest.After the Veeks and Thomas meet This time the Meet was organized in "Zha" cafe or "ழ" cafe for the CBC books exchange mela.
credits: Bragadeesh
Well when i first herd the name i thought it was "jha" cafe. And was not expecting it to be anything great or different from the usual cafe, where one thinks anything can happen over a cup of coffee.
It looks quite normal from the road and one will have to check the cafe board twice to confirm if its a coffee shop, as it is a heritage home that has been converted to a cafe. But once you step in ,the huge aiyanar statue welcomes you with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.The first tamizh cafe in chennai may be.It has a strong cultural presence.
As you enter this cafe what draws your attention is the fact that lot of creativity has gone into designing the interiors - it is very charming indeed.The entrance with its traditional doors and the ceilings with its wooden frames adds to the cultural touch.
And like any nice tea joint it offers the right amount of privacy and openness.There are rooms where in the table is in the format of a snakes and ladders game, and yet another like a boat.Each room has its own unique decor,like the pots hanging from the ceilings,.Different themed rooms, like Cinema, Snake and Ladder room, very beautiful interiors for the Hall-kinda room, and u also have seating in the Backyard (Which we used for the book exchange mela).There is also a letter box along with personalized post cards where you can drop in snail mails to your loved ones.
Gives you an "at home" and a peaceful atmosphere.A perfect place for a group meet as they even took the chairs and made us all to be seated on the floor comfortably. One room represents Kerala with seat made as a boat house, another gives an office atmosphere, another with cushions layed down where you can sit and chat with your friends and also watch TV which is present in almost all the rooms.
The games present in one room like Pallanguzhi, paramapadam, marappachi bommais, the music - everything has a strong Thamizh stamp.
The cbc meet in zha cafe with delicious pastries,yummy chocolates(brought by sanjeeta and prashanth resp), along with loads of love and warmth from the blogger friends made the day wonderful and memorable.:)
Credits:Vinod Velayudam