There are several events of historical and cultural significance happening in Madras.

Aug 19-20: Exhibition of photos
Aug 19 – 23: Exhibitions of paintings and lithographs
Aug 20: Quiz and art competition

For more information, refer to the Hindu article.

Here I present 2 collages of Sunrise and Sunset shot in and around Chennai.

Sunrise

Sunset

Great actor and comedian artist Nagesh (Real name: Gunddu Rao) passed away on Saturday morning in Chennai.

The great and endearing actor was 76 and has worked in 500 films. He is survived by three sons.

His vintage and memorable comedy scenes are still alive in my mind. Be it in Thiruvilayadal, Server Sundaram, Thillana Mohanambal, the storyteller in Kadhalikka Neramillai and also as a corpse in Magalir Mattum. He recently acted in Kamal Hassan’s film Dasavatharam. He acted along with great actors; be it in MGR-Sivaji era or Rajni-Kamal era. No one can replace him and will be Tamil cinema’s pride.

Joshi

Image via manoramaonline.com

We see/hear atleast thrice in two days an ambulance siren and also the vehicle trying to flee through the busy roads and traffic. And being in Chennai, where traffic is mounting day by day and having 10lakh vehicles per day would be very difficult for the ambulance to passby.

The ambulance driver will find the best way to pass through the roads in the same time he has many lives in his hand, his own, people on road and also patient in ambulance. Since there is no seperate way or route for the ambulance to pass through we try to hornk and make people to give way for ambulance. What best we can do from our side when we have the ambulance behind is just move in a way where the vehicle can cut through the traffic and move faster. But our chennai people! wow! heights of stupidity! Most of the bikers and cyclist and even cars! sometime run behind the ambulance and aheading to the destination faster!. Running behind the ambulance might be of great risk. What if the driver puts a break when he cannot find a way or he has to make a sudden turn. He can be cautious while driving but not the people who are following the ambulance from behind to reach faster at their destination.

I happend to see similar accident this morining at saidapet corner. You can imagine how busy that road would be and how the traffic would flow in peak hour morning times.

If Chennai is really reading/seeing and listening to this issue/concern. Pl keep in mind that there is a life in do or die situation and we have to pray or  make way to make him reach the hospital at the earliest.

We might also join hands to print notice or public message to make this a success.

My first post here ! Thanks Metblogs.

No plans for weekend ??? Then check this site here.

They call it Chennai This Weekend. Events (say Movies or a Sale) happening in and around the city are put together. Its updated every Friday. Right now you might find the schedule for the past weekend.

The Tamil Nadu Police, no no, Chennai metropolitan area traffic police are real tamilians. They have tamil in their blood, because they practice the belief of ‘kupakarai vizhandhulaum, meesai la maan ottalai’. This roughly translates to even if they fall face first, they don’t have sand sticking to their moustache. Of course the new age mosaic and non sand flooring surfaces are to be ignored.

How else does one explain the reversal from the new traffic arrangement to the old one along C P Ramaswamy Road and T T K road? If nair chaaya shop talk is to be believed (and it seldom is wrong) it mentions that the entire new arrangement was because Stalin found the traffic on TTK road a hassle, he wished to have free flowing traffic on TTK road, and the system, the nair chaaya shop informs me was promptly changed.

Viola, a month of chaos and confusion was there. The residents in the area of course hated the arrangement for it made their life terrible. And so a month later the system went back to the old one. The police of course today insist the change was because they found it hard to maintain traffic with the new system.
The nair chaaya shop goes onto add that Papa had to prevail over heir apparent that with elections coming up soon, pissing off the electorate is not a good idea, considering their dismal performance in their peetai of Chennai in the 2006 state elections. But the police even today according to the nair chaaya shop insist that they changed the system because it was too hard to maintain traffic (considering they had less to do under the new system with fewer junctions this excuse seems a farce).

Last week I had gone to the movie Anjaathey at Seasons in Sathyam complex. Before the movie there was a slide asking the viewers to stand up for singing the national anthem. This was something new, I didn’t see this happening last month when I went to some other movie at the same complex.

SPB came on screen and sung a beautiful version of Jana Gana Mana composed by AR Rahman, with the mannerisms of a concert vocalist. The problem was, it wasn’t the tune we are taught since our school days and used too. So the entire audience stood in silence.

A few questions. Why this sudden move by Sathyam? Does it really make you patriotic to hear the national anthem prior to a movie?

Related discussion in Chennai Metblogs last August.

All of us have at one time or other bitched about road conditions and accidents in Chennai. The Government statistics too seem to agree with us. Last month there was a question in Lok Sabha about road accidents in the country.

In the annexure to the question, the Government gives city wise break up of the number of road accidents in metros. Chennai stands second, with only Delhi worse than us.

NUMBER OF CASES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS DURING 2004-2006 IN METRO CITIES:

CITIES 2004 2005 2006

CHENNAI 4873 7875 7359

DELHI 8218 8531 8385

KOLKATA 2164 2366 2379

MUMBAI 3340 4360 4151

TOTAL 18595 23132 22274

Look carefully. Of all the cities, Chennai’s road accidents have increased dramatically from 2004 to 2005. Is this due to (ironically) the increased number of road works all over the city? Or due to the expanded Greater Chennai Police limits? Or plain increase in number of bad drivers?

Whatever it is, be careful while on the road.

Lok Sabha Question
Annexure to the Question

Chennai based ophthalmologist Dr Gayathri Sreekanth has hit a gold mine that every Tamil film fan would give an arm and a leg for…. Turning the official biographer of Superstar Rajnikant. Her book “The name is Rajnikanth” was released last week..
She looks like a college kid when I meet her at her residence in T Nagar, but she tells me she is a mother of two. From prescriptions to penning Rajni’s official bio is a bit of a change in script I tell her, and she laughs.

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Yesterday I dropped by Lalit Kala Akademi to check Positives ’08, the annual Graphics and Photography exhibition of the students of Visual Communications, M.O.P Vaishnav college for Women. I am very impressed by their creativity and imagination. Some of the works by the students are very gripping.

The exhibition is happening right now at Lalit Kala Akademi and ends this Sunday, 2nd March 2008. So go ahead and catch this fresh breath of imagination.

This artwork of a lady has been done only using leaves.
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