Om Namah Shivaya

Om Namah Shivaya

I'll be grateful if you...

Oct 30, 2012

WHISPERS: Love, Destiny and Death


I have been very busy for these few months on my work front as well as I was not in the proper frame of mind due to some personal tragedy, in recent times, to actually sit down and write some of my thoughts and Haiku. But then the Indiblogger event happened which reminded me that there is always some time to do things that you are passionate about so got me to write these Haiku and verses. So you see a lot of pent-up emotions are here to explode and now all those thoughts and feelings are rushing back to surface... hope you could relate to it all.


Pain leaves traces of what
It was; Love, what it would be
In drifting apart
___

Destiny is thread
That weaves the tapestry of
Life, in broken hearts
___
Love is clear mirror
Of soul; unveiled beyond dust of
Memories and lust
___


DEATH
_____________
Every sound of silence
In its solitude
Reverberates through
A whole life - unlived

All that a flower
Springs forth, in flowering,
Is the beauty of the fall.

Remember, a day soon will dawn
When even the memories
Will not stay behind
To mourn
__________________
Shashi @ Oct 2012
नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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Cherry Blossoms

Up, Close & Personal : Indiblogger Meet At ITC Grand Chola

Indiblogger meet is always fun and when they organised the first of it's kind, meet as Anup from Indiblogger informed, - a preview of hotel, in the same hotel, it was bound to be fun. And when it's for one of the most grand Hotel in Chennai, ITC Grand Chola, the seats were bound to fall short and the registration for the event were full even before half of the bloggers from Chennai got to know about it. It was good that Indiblogger increased at the last moment the number of seats from 70 to 75 and I got to be in the most beautiful event so far from Indiblogger "TreatsForTweets".... 



But before I go further with the fun part of the event, let me give you some interesting facts about the most beautiful hotel in town. 

A Sustainable Design:

Opened as the world's largest LEED-certified platinum (Highest in the category) green hotel, is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy. It recycles all its water and generates sustainable energy, through wind farms in Salem (Tamil Nadu – India), for the whole of its electricity needs.





The Architecture:

ITC Grand Chola is themed after traditional Hindu architecture of the Chola Dynasty. This architectural theme is reinforced with 462 pillars, most of them with hand-carved design work. The hotel has over 1 million square feet of marble with 57 varieties of the stone. The intricate stonework in the building was created by 4,000 artisans from Mamallapuram who worked on site.




The hotel is comprised of 600 rooms, which include 522 rooms and 78 serviced apartments. The hotel has a total of 10 food and beverage destinations, including the Peshawri, which serves cuisine from the Northwest Frontier, and The Royal Vega, a vegetarian restaurant. Others include Madras Pavilion, Cafe Mercara, Nutmeg, Cheroot Lounge, Pan Asian, Modo Mio, The Pub and Tranquebar. The Leisure facilities will include a 23,000-sq-ft Kaya Kalp Spa, outdoor pools, gyms for each of the three wings, and a shopping area.





Now coming back to the event... The huge hall, where the event was happening was stunning and the arrangement of seats gave us lots of room to move around. Now I could understand the reason for less number of people invited as the ITC Grand wanted to give us lots of room to move about and not to cramp our Indiblogging style... 


This was proved to be true as later on Anup got us to make the biggest blogger train and chug along the whole hall...
The event started, right on time IST and we have had great presentations from GM and other dignitaries of ITC Grand and then it was time for our usual 60 seconds of fame..



This time atleast I got a chance to talk, unlike my last Indiblogger meet at Hyatt. Anyways, once every one has had his/her share of limelight, Anup got into his grove with clarion call of hurr... and pump-ed up the jam with getting every one to form a human train...  Once every one has hitched on to it and settled, we were asked for a repeat performance of UN Chief -  Ban Ki-Moon. Yes! do the gangnum style and here is the result...


But that was not the end of the story, for our master of ceremony - Anup. He dangled some great treats from the ITC Grand Team and masterfully guided us to one of the biggest musical chair that I have had ever seen....

After all the fun and frolic we were all treated to an amazing array of tea, coffee and snacks and then the ITC Team has arranged for us a grand tour of the Grand Hotel. The Indibloggers were divided the team into groups of ten and assigned a Host/Hostess to escort us as well as enhance the Grand Chola Experience. 



My group was assigned smiling Ms. Neelam, who were thoroughly patient with our exhuberance and unceasing question and comments. 



Here are some images from the tour...


The Haiku Gang...



A beautiful concept of iPad to control all your electrical
and electronics in a well appointed room
Iconic Egg Chair and a Haiku team member...
Get.. Set.... Click
Dashing... 


The perfect pose....
The ITC Grand Chola ....

Souvik - our another host
Juke Box - An interesting addition



An exhaust traditionally hidden in a kollam/ rangoli like
structure in one of the restaurants...
I was thrilled to find this M F Hussain Painting
from the Old Chola Sheraton - This is now valued
at Rs 10 Million
And the beautiful decor...
It was a pleasure to interact with the ITC Grand Chola team...



...  attentive to all our questions and queries.

Finally we were back to our hall and waiting for the results of our tweets... and the winner are ...
The Poonam Pandaya Gang..
And from our Team Haiku...
Siraj
But no one was left out... ITC Team gave each one of coupons for a dinner for two, any time till the new year... So in the end folks, it was a great pleasure and FUN-tastik time. Kudo's to Indiblogger Team, Renie and Anup for making this Chennai Bloggers Meet so memorable for all of us as well as giving us the opportunity to appreciate, what an amazing ITC Grand Chola is - Sustainability with Responsible Luxury.

Here I am signing off from our Team Haiku...




 ____________
Shashi
 नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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The Tata Grande Indiblogger meet

Design Street: ITC Grand Chola Hotel – A Sustainable Design and Hospitality with Smile

Last Saturday, I was invited by the Indiblogger team to preview The ITC Grand Chola Hotel. This is one of the latest Grand additions to the hospitality sector of fast developing Chennai, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu few months ago. Being in the profession of Interior Designs and Projects, It was a pleasure to spend a day in this beautifully crafted hotel, with exquisite artifacts and accessories highlighting the vast expanse of its interiors. 

IMG: Indiblogger
The tagline ‘Responsible luxury’ of ITC Grand Hotel is a statement true to the vision of ITC, which presents ‘First on Earth – The greenest Luxury Hotel Chain in the world, where every hotel is LEED Platinum rated.

A Sustainable Design:


Opened as the world's largest LEED-certified platinum (Highest in the category) green hotel, is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy. It recycles all its water and generates sustainable energy, through wind farms in Salem (Tamil Nadu – India), for the whole of its electricity needs. The building is designed by Singapore-based SRSS Architects, (Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart) who are equally committed to sustainability and incorporate in their designs, a broad spectrum of energy conservation, water use efficiency, indoor environmental air quality and material sourcing.

The Architecture:


ITC Grand Chola is themed after traditional Hindu architecture of the Chola Dynasty. This architectural theme is reinforced with 462 pillars, most of them with hand-carved design work. The hotel has over 1 million square feet of marble with 57 varieties of the stone. The intricate stonework in the building was created by 4,000 artisans from Mamallapuram who worked on site. The hotel, built on 1,600,000 sq ft, is dubbed the largest stand-alone hotel in the country and will have the largest convention centre in the country built on 100,000 sq ft with a pillar less 30,000-sq ft ballroom.

Hospitality with Smile:

After circumventing the entire expanse of the Hotel, we arrived at a grand porch of the hotel. Our hostess for the day, Ms. Neelam, with a big welcome smile, explained that the roundabout access to the porch, is in line with the tradition of Chola Temple Architecture, where custom is to do Parikrama(Going around the temple). According to her, this concept of access is incorporated first time in the hotel industry of India. Apart from the tradition, I personally feel, it also serves a good purpose in orienting the guests to the huge expanse of the building. 

As you enter, the first thing that one notices is the smile on the faces of the entire welcoming staff, including the security personnel and then the spectacular entrance lobby welcomes you with open arms. The entire lobby is made with Italian marble, hand crafted by thousands of artisans from nearby Mamallapuram, gives a feeling of being inside of a temple.

The hotel is comprised of 600 rooms, which include 522 rooms and 78 serviced apartments. The rooms are divided into 326 Executive Club rooms, 31 Eva rooms, 132 Towers rooms, 48 ITC One rooms, 14 Deluxe Suites each measuring 1,164 sq ft, a presidential suite named the Karikalan Suite and a six-bay grand presidential suite named the Rajaraja Chola Suite spread over 4,380 sq ft. 

IMG: ITC

The single rooms occupy an area of 615 sq ft (one of the largest in hotel industry) with exclusive lounge and private butler. There is a distinct wing, Eva wing, for female guests spanning the entire wing of the second floor. The hotel has three wings: the first or primary wing houses all Executive Club rooms, and the second wing contains ITC One rooms, Towers rooms and all the Suites. The third wing has been constructed exclusively for the Residences, offering the luxury accommodation.

The rooms are fully equipped with everything the technology has to offer in terms of hospitality and entertainment, starting with an iPad that can control almost everything electronic and electrical in the room. The most delightful feature of the iPad control was the facility to actually see who is on the other side of the door, ringing your doorbell and if required, one can open the door from the same. I have had great time exploring the well appointed room. The choice of restful arrays of pillows and the unique ITC Rest Kit, which has different types of oils, creams, etc. to give you that perfect sleep and relaxation. According to our hostess Ms. Neelam, it is proving to be  very popular among the guests.

Img ITC
The hotel has a total of 10 food and beverage destinations, including the Peshawri, which serves cuisine from the Northwest Frontier, and The Royal Vega, a vegetarian restaurant. Others include Madras Pavilion, Cafe Mercara, Nutmeg, Cheroot Lounge, Pan Asian, Modo Mio, The Pub and Tranquebar. The food in the various restaurants is authentic in taste, and a delight to savor.  Each restaurant is thoughtfully decorated, keeping in mind the tradition as well as the theme of that particular restaurant.

An interesting touch is a jukebox where one can play the song of one’s choice. I was told that this is a first in any Indian Hotel. It was a surprise to find the iconic Egg Chair in one of the lounges. I was thrilled to find the beautiful paintings of M F Hussein, specially the one from the old Chola Sheraton, which is currently priced at Rs. 10 Million.

Going forward, the Leisure facilities will include a 23,000-sq-ft Kaya Kalp. There are beautiful Spa, outdoor pools, gyms for each of the three wings, and a shopping area.

Over all, the experience in the ITC Grand Chola was exquisite - a day well spent. The soft tone interiors and the grandeur of the hotel, slowly grows on you and the attentiveness of the entire staff, with smiling faces, remains with one for a long time...


Curtsy: Info from ITC Chola Staff as well as from Wikipedia
IMG: All images, except as mentioned, is personal

 ____________
Shashi
नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

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A Note on Good Design

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