Chennai Times

I have come across a new racket that seems to be going on in Chennai. Have heard of two instances in two days, enough to assume that there are more of the same happening. The modus operandi goes thus: 1. A young sales person approaches a sub-urban household and introduces himself as representing a retail shop selling electrical and electronic goods in the other end of the city. He/ She says that they are setting up a new show room in the neighbourhood and as an introductory offer would like to give the housewife an unbelievable offer of domestic appliances at throw away prices. This is done by issuing a token to the housewife with a specific number in it. They take the name of the housewife and provide her with a printed sheet with a phone number hand written in it. The address of the shop in the other end of the city is also given with its name. The housewife is asked to call the mobile number written by that evening to get to know whether she is one of the lucky winners who will get

this evening as i crossed the signal at sterling road, nungambakkam high road junction heading towards the chetpet bridge saw an elderly gentleman scoot across the road from the college road side to the other... with the policemen not always present and people waiting to zoom in 4 corners of the road it seemed suicidal! then it struck me that there was no zebra crossing anywhere in this junction. chennai has long since stopped bothering about those who cycle or walk in the roads now that it is fully concentrated to making the roads as good 'driving experience' for car drivers, it is really unfortunate that there is hardly any walk way worth talking about, except the beach road there probably is none. worse is the nungambakkam high road, the platform is almost a feet and half high from the ground and one has to a few dozen such hurdles in which one is supposed to walk if one dares to walk in the footpath, the alternative is to walk in the road (as most people do) with the zoomin

There is a recent report that the first billion dollar home in the world will be that of an Indian in India . Nothing can more contrast the situation and prove the inequality in India than the fate of thousands of homeless and people living in poor conditions. The urban poor are the worst that way, they live in apalling conditions and most of them service the elite where they get to see the riches manifest in many ways. The condition of urban poor in terms of choice of habitat is limited by their affordability. Chennai real estate having hit its craziest best (Sri. Krishnamurthy a long time observer of real estate prices recently told me that those who were demanding price in lakhs till a few months back now talk only in crores, 'aniyayamga!' as he summarized it), the fate of the poor is even worse. No one, not even the government wants them in prime city property any longer, so, plans are afoot to displace slums into distant pheripheral areas through various means. Those who c