CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Are you a Chennaiite negotiating the busy roads of the city almost daily? Have you noticed the sidewalks being dug up on your way to Anna library or EA Mall or Chennai Central in recent times? Did you wonder why these roads are being dug up all of a sudden throughout the city?  Of floods and droughts Chennai has seen the worst of nature's fury several times in the recent past, with the frequency of floods and droughts having increased drastically. Post the historic floods in 2015, Cyclone Vardah devastated the city once again in 2016. However, as the monsoon…

There is a conscious effort by many Chennaites to go green. One sees an increasing trend of people trying to move to a zero-waste lifestyle by eliminating plastic from their lives, segregating and composting waste religiously and likewise.  But how easy is it to follow the same steps in an office space, especially when it involves motivating all employees to switch to eco-friendly lifestyles? When your mind is constantly keeping tabs on your employees’ efficiency, the profit-loss margin and the end goals? Going green at work seemed like an impossible task, until we set up a new office for Skylark,…

"You ain’t gonna miss your water until your well runs dry": Bob Marley Why did Indo-Aryans move towards Indus Valley and then to the Ganges Plain? Why did Dravidians settle near rivers? There may be several reasons. But, with the water crisis we are facing, I think we now know the answer - water. Civilisations flourished where water was available. The clock is ticking, and we need to do what is vital for our survival - save water. According to news reports, our city may turn uninhabitable in the next few years due to rapidly-depleting groundwater levels. Rainwater harvesting (RWH)…

This September 1st, revised penalties for traffic violations under the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, came into effect. Parliament had passed the law in July, at its budget session. The law has provisions for licensing cab aggregators, making contractors liable for faulty road design, changing license renewal rules, and so on. But what has caught the attention of citizens is the stringent penalties for road traffic violations. Citizens have taken to social media to voice their vexation on fines that add up to amounts they've never imagined paying. I was a bit taken aback by all the outrage about…

On 7th September 2017, a 7-year-old school-going child was run over by a school bus while he was trying to cross Old Madras road (OMR). He was rushed to the hospital in an auto-rickshaw. The doctors examined the boy, and proclaimed that he suffered severe head injuries and had died on the way to the hospital. On 14th March 2017, a male pedestrian, 45, was hit and run by an unknown vehicle near Battarahalli junction on OMR when he tried to cross the road. He too sustained serious injuries and died on the way to the hospital. In another three…

“In your opinion, what is the most prevalent problem faced by the residents of your area?” three of us from the non-profit IT for Change, asked the youth of Old Baiyappanahalli a few months ago. It didn’t take long for the youth to unanimously respond – the traffic at the railway gate, which had been the bane of their existence. “It’s becoming impossible by the day!” they said in exasperation. Further discussions revealed that Baiyappanahalli road was underserved by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). This stretch connects Swami Vivekananda Road metro station (along Old Madras Road), to Maruti Seva…

One of the older and more populous neighbourhoods, T Nagar is at the focus of several initiatives under the smart cities mission in the city, with many of smart city projects dedicated to its improvement. However, in a case of what is called missing the forest for the trees, a skywalk proposed to decongest the busy Ranganathan street may merely end up creating new infrastructure that most residents deem unnecessary. A  safety hazard in the making When one talks of encroachment of public places, T Nagar stands as a prime example. Ranganathan Street which is a 30-feet road, has been…

Madras week has not only been a celebration of heritage but also of the people who made the city. Over the years, many who called the city home have achieved remarkable feats in various fields to put Madras on the global map. One among  them is the mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan – The Man Who Knew Infinity. A walk through the Ramanujan Museum was organised this Madras Week by Rajith Nair a travel curator who regularly organizes heritage and cultural trips in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The walk was a celebration of the life and times of Ramanujan, who…

Is ‘culture’ and its representation through art galleries ‘public’? This question came to my mind when I recently dropped by the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) Bengaluru after a gap of 6-7 months. When I attempted to walk in, a security guard stopped me at the gate, and asked me to buy a ticket. Surprised, I enquired if the gallery had started charging a parking fee, and pointed out that I was on foot. He said, “No, no, it’s entry fee. Everyone entering the compound has to pay.” Though he replied promptly, he seemed a bit annoyed. Perhaps other…

Did you know Crazy Mohan and Kamal Haasan met for the first time in a cemetery at St Mary's Road?  Can you even imagine that the Tamil Nadu capital had freezing temperatures during summer in 1815 due to weather changes that happened after Mount Tambora erupted in distant Indonesia? Only five localities in Chennai have a conducive environment for sparrows.  An establishment in Ebrahim Sahib street prints the cardboard tickets once used for travel and they are shutting down soon.  These are just the some of the facts around which questions were posed to participants in a quiz conducted recently…