City: Chennai

On a humid Thursday afternoon, a group of students, with torn maroon uniforms and bruises on their malnourished bodies, make their way out from the primary school in Perumbakkam resettlement colony.  Bunking the first class after the lunch break, students are busy making plans for the day. While one student suggests fishing in a swamp opposite the settlement, another wants to play cricket. The teacher-in-charge at the primary school turns a blind eye to the mass bunking, perhaps because it would take the load off her shoulders. It is only the noise made by the kids that could give you a…

“Silambam is inseparable from me — I swing whenever I’m overwhelmed and also when I’m gloomy; it completes me,” says Kowshik Palanisamy who won the third World Silambam Championships held in China on February 20, 2018.  Kowshik moved to Chennai three years ago to pursue undergraduation in Bio-mining at the College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG). Citizen Matters caught up with him in the vast campus of CEG to find out more about his passion and the route to the top. This was the first time that Kowshik contended in the world-level championship and came out on top, outperforming competitors from…

There is a new concrete road built on the bund of Adyar River, in violation of key environmental laws. While roads are a welcome development normally, this one is not good news, as mud bunds along estuaries play a key role in preventing flooding. One can see piles of concrete material and the neatly laid road on the Adyar River bund at Lock Street of Kottur. The road connects two vacant plots, belonging to a real estate agency in the locality. Escapes authorities' attention The Public Works Department (PWD), which is the nodal agency for protection and maintenance of water…

While a majority of residents of Chennai are grappling with the task of segregating waste before disposal, here is ward 173 that has reinstalled a biogas plant which supplies fuel to the Amma canteen located in the same premises. The food and fruit/vegetable waste from hotels in the vicinity is collected and used for generating the gas. “To my knowledge, the biogas plant was installed in 2014 and was inactive over the last three to four years. It feels good to have a change-agent among us, as Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) Sathish Kumar has taken active steps to restore the plant,”…

On February 17, 2018, around 30 people gathered at the Chromepet bus stand to protest against the opening of a proposed new Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC) outlet cum bar. The shop is set to be established on a narrow lane by the foot-over bridge on Grand Southern Trunk (GST) road. The locality is surrounded by a thickly-populated, commercial and residential area, thronged by lakhs of people every day. In addition, the shop is in the vicinity of several educational institutions, the Chromepet bus stand and a foot-over bridge that leads to the railway station. Given the scenario,…

How many of us remember our 10th and 12th board exam marks? Do they really matter now? Do we know how successful those rankers are, who ceremoniously gave interviews year after year, purporting to become world class doctors to serve the needy? If the parents of all kids, who are about to take the supposedly life-deciding board exams, pause for a second to ponder these questions, we can not only move away from rote learning towards nurturing a knowledge-driven society, but also perhaps ensure a happier, more holistic development of these young minds. Year after year, we focus on the number…

Rarely perhaps does one see the police distributing chocolates and people bursting crackers upon the award of capital punishment by a judge. But such was the scene following the initial applause at the Chengalpet Court where the killer of seven-year-old Hasini was sentenced to death. While the judiciary and the police congratulate each other for delivering justice to the girl within a year of the brutal rape and murder that shocked Chennai, there are at least 328 such Hasinis in the Chengalpet Court alone, waiting for their turns to be heard. Dozens of more such miserable victims await justice in…

Step into the lush green campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and students pedaling away on their bicycles is a common sight. The eco-friendly mode of commute within the precincts of the campus received a special boost when the management of IIT Madras initiated a pilot project on bicycle sharing in December 2017. “For the last 3-4 years, several General Secretaries of the student bodies and Hostel Affairs Secretaries had included ‘cycle-sharing’ in their manifestos but had not been able to implement it. During this term, the Committee for Monitoring General Facilities For Students (CMGFS) jointly took…

There has been an uproar in the state, after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on February 16th in the centuries-long water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the latest, the apex court bench has ordered Karnataka to release 177.25 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu, as opposed to 192 tmcft awarded in the earlier Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. Expectedly, farmers from the districts, where groundwater is already running low, are worried that agricultural produce will take a big hit following the reduction of the Cauvery share. But will the verdict also affect those living in Chennai? The problem…

What are we leaving behind for the next generation? If our grandchildren were to question us on the kind of water, river or environment that we have created for them and if that was how we had received it from our previous generations, would you be guilt-ridden? These were some of the questions that hung over the audience, as the Waterman of India, Dr Rajendra Singh, questioned the interest levels of Chennaiites in restoring the city’s river bodies. Dr Rajendra Singh was in the city to talk on Community and River Rejuvenation as part of the DAMned ART festival organised…