Chennai Times

What greets you in Chennai? Wikitravels gives the image of the man with the horse statue in anna salai (next to gemini fly over). It is the most ironic statue, erected by the current CM in one of his earlier stints to celebrate the banning of alcohol in the state. This was consequently lifted, but the statue remains to this day. Look up http://wikitravel.org/en/Madras for a high resolution image of this Chennai irony.

Chennai can be reasonably proud of its statues in the marina, it is supposed to have inspired the late NTR to do a similar venture in the tank bund at Hyderabad. But the new age artists who seem to manage Chennai corporation and their many 'novel' ventures beat me completely! A case in point is this eyesore you cannot miss if you were to pass by the Spur Tank Road signal in Chetpet. It is cast in cement, doesn't look like anything and sits in the centre of the road with no reason at all. Why did this eyesore come up, in who's honour, for what purpose, who was the Mahatma at the corporation that decided this master piece (he must be some one related to the other eyesore monger who decided to place plastic deer and rabbits in the midst of the highly dusted green median that runs in Poonamallee High Road and Nungambakkam High Road). Some suggest the resemblance to the other occupant of the signal, the traffic police man, but, with the traffic police men rapidly changing to...

Another rush day in the Chennai traffic, mid morning, despite recent rains the August heat is oppressive. A traffic signal with red light on and all the bikers stop a few metres before the yellow line! Surprise is this Chennai, such discipline? They are all in the shade of one of the few remaining trees in the main roads of the city, it is so much better under them than to go upfront and inhale the dirt along with the heat of the road. This happens not in one junction, but, in quite a few where the trees are still left. Is there a lesson for our traffic managers? It seems such a nice way to impose the yellow line rule in the signal by providing more comforts to the motorists, like the shade of the tree (and an occasional breeze) rather than to impose it through the unfortunate cop.

Saw the Da Vinci Code yesterday... Frankly I don’t see why the movie was banned! Meaningless appeasement to assumed minority sentiments on the part of the politicians and a section of over-zealous religious bigots managed such a ban, I am sure. If anything the movie can only enhance the faith in Jesus. First the movie - I had read the book and was in a sense ready to check out the movie, I wasn't disappointed, the movie neither exaggerated nor dramatized any section of the book in the process of movie making. That was very good. A movie which has such a large section of history packed as part of the story line was rather presented innovatively, I personally liked the piece where the two central characters are entering a Cathedral and in which as the Professor narrates history, the history is played before them while they continue to walk into the cathedral as though in a virtual world. If only we had large sections of untold history spun into such stories and narrated in such innov...

Chennai had the distinction of hosting the release of the first report by a Community initiative to monitor and broadcast the ambient air quality in India recently (on the 5th June the 'World Environment Day'). It is an example of people taking control of not merely solving issues, but, doing what the regulatory bodies in India cannot do (Claude Alvares, a member of the Supreme Court Committee on Hazardous Waste Management in this meeting said that, "The Regulatory Authority in India has no way of measuring the nature of Air quality and it wont happen for another 20 years". The community testing that took place in 12 locations using a rather simple looking bucket methods went about with a simple idea to get to know the list of commonly found toxic gases in ambient air across the country. A total of 45 toxic chemicals including 13 carcinogens were found in the air samples tested. The chemicals target virtually every part of the human body - eyes, central nervous syste...

read the story of the small fishing village near chennai in GoodnewsIndia . The perseverance, conviction and strength of the ordinary people of this village and their fight against a company with a face that perhaps represents every thing we have come to recognise as inevitable evil consequences of the current system - corruption, muscle power, intimidation, high money and politics. as we enter a new year, this story of ordinary people gives much hope, strength. to hold your head high and feel proud about!!!

This was a very ironic photo in the Hindu some days ago, but as I accidentally stumbled on another blog that had already taken note of the irony of the picture, I rest with my link to this chennai based blog .