CHENNAI: The Corporation Council on Thursday approved rules setting down penalties for littering, spitting, bathing or urinating in public, besides fines for improper disposal of garbage or feeding animals in locations other than those set aside for such activity.

Heres a summarization of the news:

1. New rules and penalties in place for littering, spitting, bathing or urinating in public, besides fines for improper disposal of garbage or feeding animals in locations other than those set aside for such activity.
2. Those not segregating garbage can also be fined.
3. An intensive awareness campaign would be undertaken in February and March.
4. Once the system was running, the local body would take steps to reduce the number of public dustbins.
5. Effective from April 1.

We were discussing this over coffee today at my office and as usual like with any other discussion on anything on the topics of chennai, improvement, hope, government etc., the discussion soon evolved into hot debate!!! A few interesting points did come up and here they are….

• Some felt that the city’s infrastructure isn’t enough to take in these kind of laws.
• We need more public toilets/lavatories before enforcing the rule on public urination etc.
• We do not have enough dustbins on the streets to ensure that people do not throw garbage on the streets.
• We still do not have a really effective system to collect bio-degradable and non bio-degradable garbage from homes and offices.
• Either we should have more spittoons in the city or ban chewing tobacco.
• And more importantly I wonder how the authorities are going to impose this law on animals (specifically cattle and dogs) that have a free-roaming license in the city.

Should be interesting to watch the city authorities trying to impose these… Nevertheless, its a really good initiative. Atleast some people in the government are actually thinking of improving the city.

[ read original news post ]

Snaps from the Agra Cant. stop of the Azaadi Express.

The eleven coach exhibition depicts the 150 years of Indian history by way of photographs, diaroma, cutouts, scrollers and videos.

Each of the first eight coaches carries a specific epoch in the freedom movement and is titled as such. They carry exhibits under various themes; Kompany Raj; The Lightening – incidents and events related to Barrackpore and Meerut when Indian soldiers revolted against the British; Fire spreads – reflecting the spread of revolt across northern and eastern India; British takeover – showing the defeat of the revolutionary forces, revengeful British campaign against the leaders and masses who took part in the uprising; National Awakening section depicts the formation of Indian National Congress, Partition of Bengal and opposition thereto, Gandhiji’s emergence on the scene, the draconian Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh incident; Gandhiji leads – depicts the launch of Non-Cooperation Movement and Britishers ruthless repression, Civil Disobedience Movement, Dandi March; Quit India and Azadi sections show the climax of India’s freedom struggle and its culmination into Free India. Last three coaches focus on the new dawn in our national history and march forward to prosperity and the strengthening of a vibrant democracy.

It also includes various social movements like the Indigo Farmers issue, Champaran incidents, the rise of the nationalist press, patriotic literature, Bhoodan Movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave and participation of the women in the freedom struggle.

Books, cards and mementos on 1857 and freedom struggle themes will be available at special sale counters in Mobile Train Exhibition.

The themes covered are: the freedom struggle from 1857 to 1947 and the socio-economic development during 1947-2007. The concept seems novel and interesting. This train which was flagged off from Delhi on 28th September 2007.

This exhibition rake is stationed at the Platform No11 of Chennai Central Railway station. The entry is free and no platform tickets are required for this exhibition. Exhibition is on daily till Jan. 20 from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm. Try to catch it.

From the looks of it, I think these changes are also going to solve as much congestion as the traffic change in ‘Chinnamalai-alexander square’ road did. They removed all signals on that stretch and replaced those lights with human traffic police who now stand there on the road all day sweating in the sun stopping vehicles for pedestrians to cross the road. Yeah, the change did make a little difference. But, was it really worth it? Today, that change is just an excuse for autodrivers to charge you more.

En vazheee….. Thaneeeee Vazheee……

No. This is not from a Chiranjeevi starrer!!! The auto driver is coming on the wrong side of a one-way road. Inspite of repeated warnings and shoutings from onlookers as well as Policemen, AND the markings on the road, he kept on driving. Till one officer decided to stop him the ‘Rajni’ way!!!! The brave gentleman literally stopped the autorickshaw by placing his foot on the front wheel!!!

Here’s a close-up of the stunt!!! I just loved the expression and the pose!!!  If you really brighten up the photo, you can actually see the autodriver grinning!!! The nerve he has!!!

Jokes apart, I really appreciate the patience of these policemen. What made this auto driver think that the one way rule didn’t apply to him? I heard that the police had faced similar insults and disobedience from MTC drivers as well. This can happen only in India. If it were some other developed country. This autodriver would have been arrested and taken into custody from that spot itself. If it were middle east, he would have been half-beaten to death on that spot before being thrown behind the bars for a good part of his life!!!

The police are trying really hard to solve the traffic conditions. And failing miserably. I wonder how long it is before they realize that infrastructural solutions will not solve traffic problems in the long run. Driving discipline and following rules will.

Why is the whole world driving on the wrong side??? Or is it me who is on the wrong side??????

This gentleman here is endangering his life as well as the lives of the two kids by driving in the opposite direction in a one-way road. What was he thinking? “The whole world can follow rules. But, those rules are not for me!! If I can save Rupee 1.00 worth of petrol, then I will even risk killing the kids!!!! To hell with dumbos who follow the rules.”

In the first snap you can see another moron in a yellow bike, following this guy on the wrong side. Hey, I can break the law as long as I am not the only one doing it!!!!

Chaos in front of Udayam Theatre

So, with the new traffic rules, all vehicles going to Vadapalani and 10th Avenue have to touch this junction. This junction is mostly crowded with people entering and exiting Udayam theatre. The snap is a typical scene. See all those people standing there discussing, chatting, gossiping with their vehicles parked on the road. This idle crowd has taken up almost half of the road. And Of course, there are a lot of Vehicles trying to break out of the traffic flow and enter Udayam theatre and other business establishments on that side!!!

They told me not to talk while driving

Yeah! They told me not drive and talk on a cell phone. They didn’t tell me that I cannot stop in the middle of the road, forcing the rest of world drive around me while I converse at my own ease!!! This is called freedom!!! Where else in this world can you stop your vehicle in the middle of the road for a personal reason!!!!????????

A typical interchange

Having interchanges is a bad idea in a world which doesn’t understand indicators (blinkers).  On Indian roads, No one respects each others right of the way. It’s your road and your own. You keep on driving the way you want. If others value their life they should be careful!!!

Aah.. the ‘kolams’ by the traffic department

I wonder how many recognize this pattern on the ground. You can see them at all the junctions. These patterns are actually the spaces where vehicles from the right-most lane can move the left most lane in one go or vice-versa. The problem is with chennai’s traffic population, this small stretch of land doesn’t serve the purpose of allowing a driver to move from one extreme end to the other. Especially since other drivers attach no meaning to your blinkers/indicators blinking like crazy!!!!

The Oneth, Twoeth, Threeth… No, it’s not Shakespearean language 

How pathetic that no one in the traffic department actually checked these boards before putting them up. Or did they actually check and found no issues with it? Let me think… At which grade (standard) do you learn to say 1st-first, 2nd – second, 3rd-third,  4th-fourth…… aahh, what’s the point anyway. This board was read by many driver as 11th instead of 1st. And I really don’t think the drivers are to be blamed here. The traffic changes almost every month. Why can’t the road layouts change as well?

This Diwali too like all the ones before was filled with crackers and sweets. However, I did notice the change in the kind of crackers that people use at homes. During my childhood, we had what I remember calling vishnu chakra, flowerpot, mathaappu, vedigundu, snake(remember that?), the toy gun(this used to be around for  months even after diwali), the infamous 1000 gundu and sometimes a few rockets.

This diwali, I saw the skies light up with so many elaborate fireworks, rockets, parachutes, designer crackers than before. Such elaborate fireworks used to be the forte of organizations with huge budgets and specially skilled people (fireworks experts) to light those fireworks and execute those caution and safety. As kids, we used to gather around on housetops and open grounds to watch these fireworks up in the sky. Today, such fireworks have become available and affordable for everyone. Kids and teenagers fire them with as much ease and caution as those ‘fireworks experts’ of my childhood.

Now, amidst all these celebrations, I also did see a lot of really careless characters having their cracker fun on the roads. I saw crackers bursting almost everywhere. Even grown ups (i would say common sense-impaired grown ups) alone or accompanying kids to fire crackers up in places like.. the mount road during traffic time, inside covered car parks, closed corridors in flats, apartment balcony, on the tops of autorickshaws, in front of Apollo Clinics (that too ones specializing in Heart/Chest).

Some geniuses due to the lack of space inside their homes were out on the streets setting out 10 feet long chains of crackers on the road blocking the traffic for a few minutes. Something worth mentioning is everyone’s patience towards such stupid acts of public nuisance. Two wheeler drivers were proving to be dare devils by riding at break-neck speeds through streets with crackers bursting on all sides. They were dodging the crackers and moving on while the not-so-blessed four-wheeler drivers/three-wheeler-drivers stopped waited around for the crackers to finish bursting.

But then, hey… It’s festive season. Who cares about safety, public convenience, other’s health… Atleast till the next day when stories of cracker mishaps and diwali accidents start turning up in the newspapers.

Incidently, talking about accidents, I didn’t notice many such reports in the news or the papers. So, I guess this Diwali has been more safe and healthy than the ones before. Good for all of us! :) Now, lets put Diwali behind us and prepare ourselves for the next festival. Is it Karthika or is there anything in between?

The saidapet bridge and the partially submerged slums

The railway bridge and the guindy industrial estate bridge in the background. The bridge is background is almost on the verge of submerging.

One a sidenote: Now that the rain waters are filling up the streets, all the waste and sewages are flowing out of the drainages. Everytime you step out on to the streets remember to wash my feet with dettol. One can see animal wastes floating in the water and its absolutely disgusting. Also, one can notice that a lot more pot holes have surfaced in the roads since day before yesterday. All the patch up works done by the PWD workers seem to be washed away by the rain waters. I wonder how long we will have to wait before the roads are repaired again.

They are calling this plan – SECOND MASTER PLAN. The pessimist in me wonders what happened to the First Master Plan. Wonder if it was fully executed.

Vision 2026 is to make Chennai a prime metropolis which will be more livable, economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable and with better assets for the future generations.

Excerpt from the Introduction document

TOC of Second Master Plan

I found more interesting stuff on the site. Some of these stuff actually gives us hope to continue living in Chennai. Checkout the following links for what you can probably expect in the coming years.

1. KOYAMBEDU WHOLESALE MARKET
2. DEVELOPMENT OF WHOLESALE FOODGRAINS MARKET
3. TEXTILE MARKET
4. BIO-METHANATION POWER PLANT PROJECT
5. SATHANGADU IRON & STEEL MARKET
6. DEVELOPMENT OF SATELLITE TOWN AT MARAIMALAINAGAR
7. MADHAVARAM BUS AND TRUCK TERMINAL
8. CHENNAI MUFUSSIL BUS TERMINAL (CMBT) AT KOYAMBEDU
9. CHENNAI CONTRACT CARRIAGE BUS TERMINUS
10. MULTI-LEVEL CAR PARKING COMPLEXES
11. MRTS
12. AIR SPACE EXPLOITATION OVER MRTS  STATIONS  IN PHASE-II
13. OUTER RING ROAD
14. TAMILNADU URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT –III
15. LOCAL BODIES ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME
16. COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

I am really glad that atleast the plans exist. It’s of course an entirely different issue whether anybody is looking at those plans and acting by it.

The name Madras is derived from Madraspatnam, the site chosen by the British East India Company for a permanent settlement in 1639. The Madrasa or the Islam’s religious schools patronozied by the Arcot Nawabs gave the city Madras its name. The Nawab of Arcot, a former vassal of the Nizam of Hyderabad, built a huge palace, the Amir Mahal, still inhabited by descendants.

The region was often called by different names as madrapupatnam, madras kuppam, madraspatnam, and madirazpatnam as adopted by locals. Another small town, Chennapatnam, lay to the south of it. This place was named so by Damarla Venkatadri Nayakudu, Nayak of Wandiwash in remembrance of his father Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu.He was the local governor for the last Raja of Chandragiri, Sri Ranga Raya VI of Vijayanagar Empire. The first Grant of Damarla Venkatadri Nayakudu makes mention of the village of Madraspatnam. In all records of the times, a difference is made between the original village of Madraspatnam and the new town growing round the Fort. Thus it is probable that the village of Madraspatnam existed under that name, prior to the English settlement of 1639-40 and the site of Chennapatnam was that of modern Fort St. George. The original village of Madraspatnam lay to the north of the site of the Fort and within a few years of the founding of Fort St. George the new town which grew up round the Fort was commonly known to the Indians as Chennapatnam, either in deference to the wishes of Damarla Venkatadri or because the site originally bore that name. The intervening space between the northern Madraspatnam and the Southern Chennapatnam came to be built over rapidly so that the two villages became virtually one town. The English preferred to call the two united towns by the name of Madraspatnam with which they had become familiar with while the Indians chose to give it the name of Chennapatnam. In course of time the exact original locations of Madraspatnam and Chennapatnam came to be confused. Madras was regarded as the site of the Fort and Chennapatnam as the Indian town to the north.

The city was renamed Chennai in August 1996.

LIC donates tri-cycle
As part of ‘Insurance Week’ celebrations, the Pudukottai branch of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) donated a tri-cycle to K. Karpagam, a Plus Two student of Raniar Government Higher Secondary School in Pudukottai, recently. The Senior Divisional Manager, LIC, Thanjavur Division, K. Rajivan Nair, gave away the tri-cycle in the presence of LIC officials.

[ Source: The Hindu ]

An interesting conversation
The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said “Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars.”

Hanuman with all humility spoke “Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now.”

Ram spoke “Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more money on construction. ”

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said “Why not we go down and present our case?”

Ram said “Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us to submit age proof and we don’t have either a birth certificate or school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and sometimes in bullock carts and so we don’t have a driving license either. As far as the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say.”

Hanuman: “I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge.”

Ram: “My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is accepted without documentary evidence in India. You may cough but unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that complicated. ”

Hanuman: “Lord can’t understand these historians. Over the years you have given darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth.

Hanuman: The only option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government records straight once for all.”

Lord smiled “It isn’t that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was in the forest and he said that he won’t take a chance of stepping on earth as long as Salman Khan is around.”

EMR (Electronic Medical Records), eClinics etc have taken their own sweet time to enter the Indian market. I wonder why? We are one of best markets in the world to launch any new concept or product. But, still using technology for health seems to be only within multi-speciality hospitals. Few know that the innumerous medical transcription companies thriving in India are actually doing the back office operations of clinics and hospitals in other countries that have embraced technology as the way to go.

Anyway, lets cut the idealism and get to reality. So, here’s what we have in a nutshell. Ericsson has worked out a deal with the government to provide high-speed network access to some very remote villages linking them with Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. Now doctors from Apollo Hospitals can do a first level diagnosis of a patient in the village, from their office in Chennai. Note that it’s not mere video conferencing that we are talking here. The patient actually undergoes sophisticated tests without actually traveling all the way to Chennai. Neat. Eh?

And, health industry is not the only one that Ericsson is planning to work on. They seem to have similar plans for the educational system in villages. Looks like interesting times are coming up… I just hope the governments don’t screw-up this initiative!!!

[Yeah..Right! I just can't help being the pessimistic creep!!! ;)]

VILLAGE panchayat of the sleepy coastal town of Mahabalipuram is suddenly buzzing with activity. You can t miss the middle-aged villager, with a clutch of medical ropes all over his bare torso. No doctor is in sight, but a local boy-barely out of school-seems comfortable monitoring him as he keeps an eye on the computer screen next to the bed. A villager s vital data is being beamed to multispecialty Apollo Hospital in Chennai, about 60 km away. For a fee as low as Rs 30, he is able to consult a doctor who charges Rs 250 in the hospital. And it s not plain telemedicine.

Another room in the small pan chayat office houses a class, where a specialist teacher seated far way is explaining the intricacies of physics to students in the remote village. Locals can also get a ration card or apply for a newborn s birth certificate by logging in, filling applications online. Without stepping out of the village, they can receive it by post. You could call it a bridge between broadband and medicine, education and governance. But for locals, the excitement on an average day now probably surpasses a panchayat election. It s not only work. Villagers can gather at the office to catch up with the day s news or watch a popular soap on the TV stationed there with full power back up. A pilot high-speed wireless broadband project in the remote villages of Tamil Nadu launched by Swedish equipment majorEricsson-is promising to usher in a revolution. As many as 18 villages and 15 towns in and around Chennai demonstrate the applications and benefits of highspeed broadband to provide a range of services like telemedicine, online education, egovernance, online local information, voice and video call services and live TV and entertainment.

The network for the project, named Gramjyoti Rural Broadband, has been deployed on the HSPA (high-speed packet access) technology on the existing second generation (2G) networks of GSM operators like BSNL, Bharti Airtel and Aircel. However, the pilot proj ect does need a frequency on 2.1 GHz spectrum, a 3G band, allocated to the company by the government on a trial basis. All the villages could look like this, claims the company, once the government announces the 3G policy, which enables high speed wireless broadband internet with higher bandwidth, and allocates 3G spectrum to the mobile operators. “Once the government comes out with a 3G policy, wireless broadband technology could be used to rollout the services in all the 1,00,000 villages in the country, which are currently covered by the GSM operators. The service providers can spread the technology with Ericsson partnering them for it.

The initiative would integrate rural people into the mainstream,” says P Balaji, vicepresident, marketing and strategy, Ericsson India. The idea is to demonstrate that 3G applications are not merely urban-centric and restricted to the elites. According to K Ganapathy, president, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation, which has partnered Ericsson, “Gramjyoti enables transmission of critical patient data through the HSPA network to a doctor at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. Timely medical diagnosis and emergency help for those in rural areas will be key benefits”. Though Ericsson declines to share the economics of the project, insisting that cost is not of relevance at this point, doctors confirm that the concept is not based on charity. “The operating cost can be covered by a family of four contributing just Rs 2 every day,” says a doctor. According to NGOs working with Ericsson, the money for launching the project on a countrywide scale can be allocated from the universal social obligation fund (USOF) with contributions from companies like Ericsson and hospital chains like Apollo and once it takes off, it would be self sustaining. Can technology do what several of our rural programmes have failed to do so far?