CHENNAI: Karan Praveen is a city-based guitarist. He started playing a guitar at 18 to impress a girl. Though the girl left him, the guitar stayed and that’s taken him places. He has performed at various college culturals, shows and gigs, including Geoffrey’s, Star Rock (now Hoppipola), Unwind, IIT Saarang, SRM Milan, MOP Vaishnav’s Jhankar, NIT Trichy, Women’s Christian College, Anna University, etc. Karan, who is the lead guitarist of the city-based neo-Carnatic band Yazhi, has also played with other bands like Amalgam, Third Eye and Fortified Destruction.
What’s your Chennai connect?
I have my roots in Kerala but having been born and raised here, I think I’ve become one with the place.
One thing about namma ooru that you fancy?
The fact that the people, culture and ideals are as diverse and fluctuating as the weather.
A city-based celeb you would like to go out with?
It has to be Kamal Hassan.
Three things here that can’t be found in any part of the world?
Beach sundal, Margazhi concerts, Madras baashai.
Your favourite hangout spot?
Besant Nagar beach.
Three stereotypes about the city and the people that make you roll your eyes?
We are conservative, we refuse to speak or understand Hindi, and that we don’t know how to party.
Where would you take a person who is new to the city?
I would definitely take them for a first day first show of any mass hero movie.
What would you do to prove to someone that you are a true Chennai vasi?
Switch over to the raw and rustic Madras slang and give them a flurry of Tamil words.
Two Madras baashai words that you would teach a newbie?
Nachinnu irikku, Erangi kuthhu
Two things from Chennai that you would take to any place you travel.
Filter coffee and, if I could, I would parcel the salty beach air.
If you had to draw a comparison between Chennai and any other city...what would it be?
The only place that would even come close to Madras is Garden of Eden for the beauty she is.
What is the craziest thing you have ever wanted to do in the city? And where?
My friends and I have visited the most haunted places in the city. Spent the next two weeks in temples, mosques and churches praying.
If you would like to install another statue in Marina beach, what or who would it be about?
Definitely a statue of an Alanganallur bull.
Describe the city in your own words and style!
Symphony in cacophony.