City: Chennai

In April 2015, news portal thenewsminute.com reported that a Kerala couple had shut down a Facebook page, titled "Kochu Sundarikal” (little beauties), after it was found to be a platform for paedophiles. The page creators had shrewdly circumvented Facebook's nudity clause by posting pictures of young girls and actresses fully clothed. However, comments revealed the nature of the page and the intention behind it. Subsequently, news of another Tamil Facebook page was unveiled by the same portal. This one, titled “Chinna ponnu veriyargal” (Crazy about small girls), used the same tactic of posting fully clothed pictures of young girls, and…

Chennai-based Dr Ruffles is extremely popular with children. His treatment has helped several non-verbal children with autism to speak up, aided those with attention deficit disorder and other learning disabilities to improve their performance in school, and even resolved complex behavioural issues in many of his little patients. Quite incredibly, though, the good doctor has accomplished all this without so much as uttering a single word or writing out a prescription. Indeed, he has become the hugely successful therapist he is by simply being himself – a non-judgmental, attentive and very affectionate dog! Ruffles is the resident ‘doctor’ at the…

It is hard to miss the election talk that has permeated through every thread of the society. At the corner shop, during the auto ride to the market, at the school gates, waiting in line to buy milk, paying off the parking guy at the beach – the elections and what it means to Chennai life is the 'trending' topic now. So what do the people of Chennai want from their leaders? There is a general air of discontentment that is widely prevalent, a feeling of “meh! As if anything's going to change!” that is common to Chennaivasis from across…

Those who care to pause and observe would have perceived many interesting political developments in Tamil Nadu in the last few years. Of these, one of the most recent has been the student protests in support of investigating war crimes in Sri Lanka. Going by the reactions that one normally sees in the mass media, different events are perceived in isolation in the Indian media, resulting in some degree of empathy, some sympathy, but mostly dismissal, if not disparaging reactions, about the position of the state and how it has forced the foreign policy initiatives and so on. However, like…

   Around mid August this year, 21 volunteers from 14 countries arrived in southern India to work and learn from marginalized communities about their challenges pertinent to health and sanitation. They were part of "Health on Stage", a six week project where they learnt to use forum theatre to initiate simultaneous dialogues on public health in low income areas of Bangalore, Mysore and Chennai. And on 30th September, the 3 groups of participants, their trainers and faciliators gathered in Bangalore to share their experiences with healthcare professionals, media persons and theatre artists.It is well known that water related illnesses are…

Karnataka is fielding the second largest contingent after hosts Tamil Nadu, of girls and boys totaling 23 in the Billiards & Snooker Nationals at Chennai. The team, name "Jubiliant Juniors" will represent the State in the tournamen which started on July 18th and will go on till Augus 9th. The Juniors including defending champions Mundir Sherazi (Billiards), Varsha Sanjeev (Billiards) who have trained hard at Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA) for the last one year are being fine tuned by Dronocharya Arvind Savur and Coach M K Sharma.Along with the Juniors, Chitra Magimairaj and Uma Devi in women's section with…