City: Chennai

Translated by Sandhya Raju "நாங்கள் படும் கஷ்டத்தை நினைத்தாலே அழுகை வருகிறது," என தன் நிலையை வெளிப்படுத்துகிறார் சென்னை பெரும்பாக்கம் காலனியில் வசிக்கும் மேரி. சமீபத்திய வெள்ளம் மிகுந்த கடினத்தை இவர்களுக்கு அளித்துள்ளது. "தண்ணீர், மின்சாரம், உணவு என எதுவுமே இல்லை. அரசு அதிகாரிகள் எதுவும் செய்யவில்லை.". இவரைப் போலவே, இந்த காலனி முழுவதும் இது போன்ற குரலே ஓங்கி ஒலிக்கின்றது. மற்ற பகுதிகள் போல், தரைத்தள வீடுகளில் மட்டும் தண்ணீர் புகவில்லை. "தரக்குறைவான கட்டுமானத்தால், மாடி வீடுகளில் கூரைகள் ஒழுகின," என அங்கு வசிக்கும் மகா கூறினார். எங்கிருந்து ஒழுகுகிறது என சில பேர் தேடும் வீடியோக்களை நம்மிடம் காண்பித்தனர். மழை மேகம் விலகியதும் இந்த குடியிருப்பின் நிலை மேலும் தெளிவாக தெரிந்தன. காலனி முழுவதும் உள்ள சுவர்களின் ஓதம், கழிவு நீர் கலந்த தண்ணீர் சொட்டு சொட்டாக இந்த சுவர்களில் உள்ள பைப் மூலம் சொட்டின. தரை…

“People in Chennai have almost forgotten what it is like to have an elected representative from their wards,” jokes Charu Govindan, coordinator of Chennai-based citizen's group, Voice of People. Charu was referring to how the city has gone without an elected local body council for an entire term since 2016. Although the official website of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) still states that the administrative set up includes a council of 200 councillors, headed by a Mayor, that hasn’t been the case in the past five years. Local body elections have not been held since the term of the last…

First cases of Omicron detected in the city A traveller from Nigeria who arrived at the Chennai International airport was confirmed to be the first person infected with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus in the city. Subsequently, seven of the individual family members and a fellow passenger who arrived on the same flight also tested positive. Genomic sequencing of their samples is underway. All the passengers displayed only mild symptoms. The primary contact  is also double vaccinated.  The state has amped up screening for the new variant. Passengers from all countries will be subjected to tests at the airport…

Perambur railway station is one of the important stations in the Chennai Suburban Railway network. In terms of commuter traffic, it is the fifth largest station in Chennai, after Chennai Central, Egmore, Tambaram and Mambalam. All of the suburban trains passing through this station, except one or two, halt here, and many of the long-distance trains also have a stoppage at this station. Perambur Railway Station is also the second oldest in the city after Royapuram railway station. The station was originally built in the 1860s to cater to employees at Southern Railway's locomotive, carriage, wagon and coach-building workshops.  The…

“The idea is to make Chennai, a welcoming city, as far as all genders are concerned,” says Raj Cherubal, CEO of Chennai Smart Limited. He was talking about the ‘Gender Lab’ initiative of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), which is aimed at improving the safety of women and other gender minorities in public spaces and ensure easy accessibility for all, in these spaces. In the words of Raj, it aims to make public places in Chennai more “gender sensitive”.  On September 30th this year, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank had formally approved a $150-million programme to…

Nothing fills me with greater sadness than to present you with this visual record of how a heritage street has declined to ruin. My oldest is a 1919 photograph of St Thomas’ Street in Fort St George – you see a long line of buildings on the left, each fronted by a verandah, thereby indicating that the street retained its residential character of buildings even then. True they were all offices, but the structures remained. St Thomas Street, photographed in 1919, courtesy Sarmaya India. My Old is a sketch of the same street from 1945, done by Ismena Warren for…

In October 2017, 22-year-old Naren Baratwaj was walking near Hindustan College in Kelambakkam at around 8 pm when his phone was snatched by a couple of men on a bike. But imagine, for a second, a situation where police are present at the site of snatching even before the thugs arrive and are in fact poised and prepared to catch them in the act. No, this scene is not part of a far-fetched movie plot, but could well be possible according to recent criminology research. Researchers, including those who have been studying crime in Chennai and the incidence of snatching cases,…

Pallikaranai gets eco-park A new eco-park has been inaugurated at the Pallikaranai marshland. Chief Minister MK Stalin opened the park to the public through video conferencing. The eco-park has a walking path, greenery and boards displaying the details of flora and fauna, including the many migratory birds that make the marshland their home. The eco-park was created at a cost of Rs 20 crores.  A few other measures have been taken to protect the ecosystem such as the building of a wall along Tambaram-Velachery in order to prevent encroachments. A proposal has also been sent to the Union Government to…

Imagine you’re about to go to bed after a long and tiring day’s work. And at that very moment, you hear the dreaded sound of those heavy drilling machines from a house next to yours, as part of some work that looks likely to continue late into the night. Or imagine having to deal with the constant menace of dust pollution in your homes and locality because of some building activity in the neighbourhood. Perhaps not so difficult to imagine, given that it is a common issue that residents of India’s metro cities, including Chennai, have been facing for years:…

The past month has been a whirlwind for most residents of Jawahar Nagar. Our streets made headlines and featured in news snippets, a scenario many of us didn't imagine possible. It was due to the heavy downpour that the city experienced during the northeast monsoon. For many of us, this was reminiscent of the floods of 2015. The downpour left our streets waterlogged and residents had to scramble to reach higher ground and save their belongings. Jawahar Nagar during the rains On November 6th, we received an unprecedented amount of rainfall from 10 pm to 3.30 am. This led to…