Chennai. The cultural capital of south India. An intellectual hub with premium institutions. A city where education and academic excellence have long been part of its identity. Two old friends, nurtured by these institutions and the city’s rich cultural heritage, look beyond these familiar descriptions and ask how that wealth of knowledge, available in abundance in the city, can be channelled?
Understanding the potential of Chennaiites, Samyuktha Anand, a neuroscientist, science communicator and educator, and Barkavi Mageshkumaar, an entrepreneur and executive director of V Group of Companies, have transformed their friendship into a venture driven by a shared pursuit — the quest for knowledge.
Last October, Samyuktha was invited to give a lecture on neuroscience at Pint of View (POV), an evolving community gathering in Bengaluru. The session was held at a bar. Having familiarised themselves with this concept during their time abroad, the friends were intrigued and wanted to bring a similar set to Chennai. “Building a community around learning and interesting ideas was something both of us had already been thinking about, and experiencing Pint of View further convinced us that we wanted to create something like this for Chennai. That’s how Pint of View Chennai began,” says Samyuktha.
Bengaluru POV organisers supported Samyuktha and Barkavi in getting the chapter off the ground in terms of location, subjects to deal with, etc., particularly in the initial stages. The assistance resulted in the first chapter of Pint of View Chennai in November 2025.
Since then, twice a month, Chennaiites have been gathering either at a bar or a café on the first and third Sunday afternoon for two hours just to learn. “We wanted to find a platform where people can meet each other and continue to grow as individuals,” says Samyuktha. The lectures range from Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) to business, finance, culture, and beyond. The curators schedule and conduct sessions independently now.
Calling this their passion project, the co-curators are planning for three lectures a month going forward as they want to approach this idea by being intentional in their decision-making process. Samyuktha shares, “Pint of View’s lecture series is not just an event, but we are building a community here. We are very intentional about building this interactive community.”
The first and most intentional decision is to choose the right speaker. Barkavi notes, “The speakers who give these lectures are mixing their expertise in that subject with their own experience and bring in a very unique perspective. Our main idea is to democratise learning, give people a space to learn, and discuss about it by giving them a platform.”
While discussions are an easy way to understand how much of the subject has reached the audience, the co-curators also encourage the speakers to devise activities to further reinforce the learning. “What we’ve realised is that just listening to a lecture is not always enough for the information to sink in. Hence, we spend a lot of time working with our speakers to develop activities that they can do either during the talk or after,” explains Samyuktha.
These measures have led 20% of the audience who attend these lectures to become regulars. “They come just for the joy of learning,” adds Barkavi. A total of 70% to 80% of the attendees fall under the age group of 25 to 35. “They come with notebooks, pens, and sometimes even torch lights because of inadequate lighting at a bar to take notes,” she shares.
The lectures are in English as of now because “Chennai is multicultural and people from all walks of life attend the sessions,” explains Barkavi. On request, they can also be conducted in Tamil, marking growth. The duo is also planning to expand by bringing volunteers on board.
Currently, experts have been booked for the sessions to be held for the rest of the year. What began as two friends bringing home an idea they encountered abroad, has grown into a space where Chennaiites come together to learn simply because they want to.
The next session is on August 23, on ‘Why On Earth Did MF Husain Paint Horses — and What Does Feminist Art History Have To Do With It?’. It will be held at Bar Roc A Coe, 4-6 pm. For details, follow @pintofview.chennai on Instagram