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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Chennai Beaches in the mornings are full of fitness conscious Chennai residents, walking, jogging, exercising, practicing yoga / meditation, playing frizbee and so on.The images you see here are captured one Sunday morning in November 07.

If you go to flickr and view in original size, you will be able to see a lot of activity going on in the seashore.
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Live-Connections is conducting a special job fair this weekend for the differently enabled. Called LivEnable ‘08, it will feature companies in the IT, ITES and Banking sectors. Personally, I think it is a good idea.

In the words of Muralikrishna, who’s behind LiveConnections,

LivEnable ‘08, a non-profit initiative that focuses on identifying resources among the Differently Enabled & Physically Challenged. They are conducting a job fair this weekend for the differently. It not only provides an opportunity to recruit candidates of employer’s interest, but also highlights the eminence of the company that provides equal opportunities.

The fair is on the 2nd February, 2008 at the MCC School grounds, in Chetpet. If you are interested in taking part in the fair, call 044 4391 1622 or check out LiveEnable ‘08.

P.S. I know I have to respond to two questions on Madras Trivia I asked earlier. Will do so soon, with photographic evidence.

One of the state’s best known painters, K.M. Adimoolam, died at his home at the Cholamandalam Artists Village on Tuesday evening. He was 70 and is survived by his wife and two sons.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on the painter known for his portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and some of the Tamil literary world’s best known writers, past and present.
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ICR on ECR, the biggest Annual International Cycle race in the country, is back again this year and is happening on January 31st, 2008. The main purpose of the race, inaugurated last year, is to spread awareness about providing quality education to the Indian people. It is being organized by Schools for India, a non-profit charitable organization, involved in providing education to the rural people in India.

The race is divided into several categories: Amateur - Men (140 km), Amateur - Women (70 km), College Race (12 km) and School Race (5 km). For those with a stomach only for spirit and not competition, there’s also a non-competitive corporate rally spanning 5 km. Details of time, venue etc can be found at their website.

You can register for the race by emailing the organizers at icr@schoolsforindia.org and submitting filled registration forms by the 26th of January, 2008.

For any information or enquiry contact:

Venkatesh - 99400 74889
Archana - 98410 56596

In June 2007, Lines of Grey was registered as an NGO in India.
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