The omnipresent attitude across India and the often cited blame for India’s poor state of affairs is its ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude. Now even restaurants seem to have imbibed the attitude, especially after the concept of dining emerged. Now one dines at a restaurant, one does not go there for just the food. When it was the latter the emphasis was on the food, now its more on ambience and atmosphere.
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Naval Exercise by Indian Navy took place at Chennai on December 16, 2007. I present some images shot during the exercise in this slide show

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(I could not get an image of the ships that passed through the Chennai Coast as there was a large turnout for the event and I could not go near the seashore)

I just stumbled across this site of CMDA. It seems, they do have a plan for Chennai and related development activities. I was really surprised to see that they have plans till 2026. Wow! I didn’t know India was that far-sighted. In the society around us we see so much confusion and chaos that we often lose track of the future. We see the *system* failing miserably at every instance of life here.

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

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With increasing vehicle population at Chennai, it is a long wait at the Chennai Traffic Signals. What do you do when you are in such a situation ? When I have camera with me, I take photos. I present few images shot at the Chennai Signals

At Poonamalle High Road on a Sunday Morning two weeks back
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The Vintage Car Rally called My TVS Heritage Motor Rally was flagged off by Letika Saran, Commissioner of Police, Chennai, at Don Bosco School, Casa Major Road, Egmore.
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The National Art Gallery in the Museum complex is located in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Chennai.
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Yesterday’s papers carried the news of the restoration to former glory, of the Connemara Public Library.
So, a colleague and I decided we’d check it out and see for ourselves how good the restoration was.
So, skipping lunch and my daily coffee at Saravana Bhavan, the two of us went to the Museum complex on Pantheon Road, which’s where the library is.

But first, a little history. The ever trustful Wikipedia says:

The Library’s beginnings go back to 1861, when hundreds of books were found surplus in the libraries of Haileybury College (where Indian Civilians were trained in England). These books were sent to the Madras Government, which in turn handed them over to the Madras Museum. Conceived on the lines of the British Museum Library, it was part of the Madras Museum till 1890, when the need for ‘a free public library’ prompted the then Governor of Madras, Lord Connemara, to lay the foundation on 22nd March, 1890.

The library was as part of a cultural complex that grew in the grounds of what was once called ‘The Pantheon’. The entire complex now boasts buildings that reflect architectural unity, even while demonstrating the various stages of Indo-Saracenic development, from Gothic-Byzantine to Rajput Mughal and Southern Hindu Deccani.

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Tomorrow it will be officially open for business. But the business of books has already begun at Crossword, T Nagar. Situated on the first floor of the new Kuppu Arcade, Venkatnarayana Road (somewhat opposite Panagal Park), the first of the book chains to enter T Nagar has found a good spot.

The ambience is very inviting, plenty of seating to make oneself comfortable, a biro coffeeshop adjacent for refreshments and an absence of the hurry that characterizes the shopping district of Chennai.

The books are still being unpacked but a reasonable collection is on display already. Given the proximity of several IT companies, the Business and Management books section is well-stocked and occupies an entire wall. This branch is much bigger than the one in Shopper’s Stop and seems all set to become a stopper’s spot.

That is the tag line of the women’s fashion jewellery shop Jhillmill in Pondy Bazaar. The shop is at one end of Pondy Bazaar in T Nagar, opposite to the pondy Bazaar Police Station. They have obscenely priced (compared to what is available in the platform shops outside) fashion accessories and jewelleries and designer wear too. But what they have which others don’t is parking space. They have a huge parking lot behind the shop that opens on to the next road, making it far easier and attractive. If you have shopped in Pondy Bazaar you know how difficult it is to get parking space. So that was a smart move by this shop, which is part of Sri Kumaran Silks group. Try it next time you are there.

Update: Here is a review by Metblog author Lavanya, with more details.

So far I have not tried Video, thinking that I need a Video Camera to shoot one. After seeing Keerthivasan’s short video on Stunt Party, I was tempted to make a video in my Nikon 4300. While proceeding to Nelson Manickam Road to visit a friend Rajkumar, from Velachery via T Nagar, I shot some at T Nagar which will be released in August. After lunch when i looked down from the balcony, I saw some kids playing football with a lone spectator, the pet dog sitting comfortably in the chair and the other one being myself from the balcony. Camera was handy and I captured the Football being played at Nelson Court for posting in Metroblogging Chennai.