Have you been to the Karadi Tales Chennai office? It's the creative powerhouse of Karadi Tales - and it's where pretty much everything happens. It's in a lovely part of the city called Gandhinagar and is very close to the Adyar River on one side and the Bay of Bengal at the other. Situated on the third floor, our office overlooks a bustling street and has a variety of great eateries close by.
Here are some photographs of our pretty office!
That's the entrance to the office. Walk in and say hi to our receptionist. Take a comfortable seat in one of our colourful chairs, browse through our products and say hello to us as we walk by!
On some days, if you're lucky, you might even see Karadi wandering about our office, searching for stories. He loves people, so don't be afraid to say hello to him if you see him!
The long corridor leads to the cubicles and desks of the publishing team at the Chennai office. Filled with lovely plants and beautiful paintings, it's a cheerful area. The corridor has a small library of folk tales and picture books at the far end.
Lovely brick pillars add to the earthy decor of our office and gently complement the warm red Chettinad tile flooring. The wooden cubicles and desks are inviting and the ambience is generally friendly. Each desk has a bright orange notice board with tiny yellow polka dots on it. At different desks, you'll see different things on the notice board - some have posters and pictures, some have memos and calendars. Each desk is filled with objects that make it unique and special.
The circular room at the far end is our director's cabin. It overlooks the bustling city and plays host to several important meetings. The charming frame you see in the background is filled with the beautiful sketches of Gandhi's life that were created by Thota Tharani for our audiobook,
The story of my experiments with truth.
And as always, the room is brightened up by plants! You can even see a lovely money plant creeping up at the end of the window.
At the far end, right in front of the large window that faces the streets of Chennai, is our modest library of children's books from around the world. We're all big readers at our office and you'll find books piled up on every desk and inside every cabin!
The glass doors and walls, offset by the wooden panels, make for great ventilation, lighting and an all-round cheerful effect. Of course, the office is filled with people all day long and you'll never see it quite as empty as in these pictures! It's noisy too - with music from the stereo, ring tones from various phones and people jabbering away constantly about something or the other.
In one little corner, you'll find a giant handmade black book. That's the Karadi Tales 'Idea Book'. When anyone in our team has an idea for a book or a product, all they have to do is write it down in the idea book. The idea book is reviewed by the editorial department on a regular basis - and there's always room for more ideas in Karadi Tales!
The largest cabin is the conference room. Airy and well-equipped with fancy projectors and other complicated apparatus that many of us simply cannot fathom, the conference room doubles up as a general meeting point for a quick snack as well! The kettle by the window is useful for making a quick cup of tea or coffee on a drowsy day.
Every morning, our elusive chai-wallah pops into the office, inevitably late, and twenty sleepy faces look up joyfully at him. 'Why late today, Vinod?' we ask. He simply smiles his sage smile, hands over our ceramic cups of chai / kaapi and disappears as suddenly as he arrived.
You should know that food and drink are extremely popular at our office. If you bring us food, we'll love you forever. Yes, forever.
So the next time you're in the area, feel free to pop into our Chennai office to pick up a book or a DVD from us and say hello to our team! We won't say no if you pass around some samosas and cake either!
More pictures
here!
* Photographs taken by our bright intern from NIFT Delhi, Isha Nagar
