Akila Kannadasan

Chennai

Journalist at The Hindu

Journalist. Lover of the sea and her people.

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Articles

At Manapatty, a village in Tamil Nadu, almost everyone is a wedding cook

1 week ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

A lone man is taking a nap under a tree in the deserted village square of Manapatty in Melur taluk, Madurai. He wakes up, rubbing his eyes, to introduce himself: Kalyana Sundaram, a wedding cook. It is a little past 8am when we arrive at this village, which is considered southern Tamil Nadu’s headquarters for wedding caterers. A man stops by on his way to the bus stop: he too is a cook.
Coimbatore’s Kamarajapuram was once a hub for artisanal leather footwear

1 week ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

J Parthiban is mending a pair of sandals with meditative attention. He never looks up — neither the blare of traffic on Mettupalayam Road nor his grey cat that ambles restlessly about his tiny workshop — wavers his focus. As among the last shoemakers in Kamarajapuram, he and his fellow craftsmen were once sought-after in the city and beyond. “Not any more,” he says bitterly.
Coimbatore’s Kamarajapuram was once a hub for artisanal leather footwear

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Akila Kannadasan

5 hours agoLufthansa’s flight LH752 bound for Hyderabad from Germany, made a U-turn after receiving a bomb threat. The flight departed from Frankfurt, the busiest airport in Germany, at around 2:14 local time (IST 5:44 pm) and was scheduled to land at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on …
Looking for meat-heavy breakfast options in Madurai? Try Amsavalli Bhavan

1 week ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

It is not yet 9am when a man arrives at Amsavalli carrying a steel thookuvali and a cloth bag. The hum of workers getting the parcel counter ready fills the air, and he waits patiently as uthappams and parottas are being prepared in the kitchen. It is a dinner-time ritual for people in Madurai to lug a thookuvali to a streetside parotta shop for salna. At Amsavalli though, this also happens at breakfast time.
In search of Chilika’s Irrawaddy dolphins

2 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

“Will we see the Irrawaddy dolphins?” This is the first question I ask our boatman Sanjay Das. “If we are lucky,” he replies in Odia, that our guide and in-house naturalist Karan Giri from Rambha Palace, translates. Dawn has just broken over the Chilika Lake. The boat-ride, organised for guests at the boutique hotel, takes off from Rambha in Ganjam district.
Experience life by Odisha’s Chilika Lake at the Rambha Palace, a boutique hotel with European aesthetics

3 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

A forgotten palace, with peeling walls and cobwebbed ceilings, once stood at the far end of a quaint village in Odisha. Locals called it Rani Palace. Today, it stands with its original sheen intact, as a boutique hotel, by the Chilika Lake in Rambha, a town in Ganjam district. Rambha’s streets come alive in the evenings with shops selling fresh catch off the Chilika. It is home to several families who depend on the river for a living.
Experience life by Odisha’s Chilika Lake at the Rambha Palace, a boutique hotel with European aesthetics

3 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Akila Kannadasan

1 day agoHotel Willa doubles as an art gallery displaying works by local artists and craftspeople. Hotel Willa The guest rooms feature shelves with local art, vintage-style radios, spacious walk-in showers, traditional adobe architectural details, and a color palette that mirrors the desert landscape. • Situated …
Lyricist Karthik Netha on the story behind ‘Thug Life’’s ‘Vinveli Nayaga’

4 weeks ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

‘Vinveli Nayaga’ is the song of the moment in Tamil Nadu. It is from AR Rahman’s album for the soon-to-release Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan starrer Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam. The song has some beautiful poetry by Karthik Netha, woven into its electrifying rhythm. The poet-lyricist has also written lines for the song ‘Anju Vanna Poove’ from the film. An elated Karthik says that he is happy his endeavour to bring good poetry into film songs is being received well.
Erode Amman Mess’s Coimbatore branch stays true to its Kongu roots

1 month ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

It is a sea of heads inside the recently-opened Erode Amman Mess near Hope College. Even as we enter, a small crowd has gathered at the entrance, waiting to be called inside if a free table comes up. Luckily for us, we have a table to swoop in on and quickly elbow our way past hungry diners. The restaurant, that serves a range of Kongu non-vegetarian staples, is packed through the day. Erode Amman Mess’s roots can be traced back to a small thatch-roofed eatery in the 1980s in Erode.
Palm nectar now available in bottled form in Chennai organic stores

1 month ago | thehindu.com | Akila Kannadasan

Pungent, sweet, earthy, and nutty all at once, padaneer is best had before noon off large pots attached to nungu sellers. They serve the drink in cradle-like baskets made of palm leaves, sometimes mixed with translucent chunks of the jelly-like nungu. Now that summer is here and palm nectar is in season, Pulicat-based non-profit Art & Architecture Research Development & Education (AARDE) Foundation has launched bottled padaneer.