MM Vol. XXI No. 17.Pmd
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Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/09-11 Registrar of Newspapers Licence to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. WPP 506/09-11 Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • Stop that pedestrian! • Berkshire’s Madras Nabobs • 150-year-old High Court • Wildlife of Chennai Vol. XXI No. 17 MUSINGS December 16-31, 2011 A High Court need – To gift its building It’s good times, Son. The NRIs will land up here like the migratory birds new life and you will have a full supply of sweet, fresh blood. It will be easy to (By The Editor) spot them with their weird, uncoordi- he High Court of Madras, one of the three nated sense of dressing and their Orange-breasted green pigeon. Dark-sided flycatcher. ‘American-Tanglish’ accents!” Tcourts of judicature established by royal charter, the other two being Calcutta and Bombay, turns 150 this year. It is a memorable milestone in the life of a ’Tis The Season landmark institution, set in a landmark campus. A year-long series of celebrations has been planned. You know it’s That Time of the Year again when you start get- The first of these was held in November with a foun- ting hyper over how dusty dust dation stone laid for the construction of a museum has become in the last one within the campus. While this is a welcome move, it year; over how mosquitoes would perhaps also be appropriate if the restoration seem to be breeding whole of the 120-year-old building, arguably one of nations in a day; or find Chennai’s best recognised heritage structures, is yourself wishing potholes and taken up on a priority basis. garbage would stop co-conspir- The High Court of Madras has always been a The whistling duck... ... and its ducklings. ing to let us down. supporter of heritage. Landmark judgements have You switch smoothly to mineral- been made in the past few years on issues concerning water-buying mode, and start historic buildings – the DGP Office on Beach Road hoarding as many bug repel- Rare sightings was saved thanks to the Court. Judgements also lants and hand sanitisers as you ildlife photographer P. Ramanan recently had two rare sightings of prevented the demolition of Bharat Insurance Build- can lay your....er... hands on. birds in Chennai. The first was on the morning of August 31st, when ing and Gokhale Hall, though these have now been W Then, slowly, you notice a slight he spotted the Orange-breasted Green Pigeon at Nanmangalam RF. This hill appealed against and these appeals are pending in the but distinct increase in last bird is usually seen only in the evergreen forests of the Western and Eastern year’s hem lines and choli (Continued on page 7) Ghats. styles flitting about the The second sighting was at around 3.30 p.m. on November 3rd in the cityscape, and realise ... (Also see page 5) backyard of his house in Shastri Nagar, Adyar. The arboreal bird sighted was Yep – they’re baaaack... The NRIs... the Dark-sided Flycatcher perched on a rain tree, busily pecking at insects. Soon, they’re everywhere... a few New roads for old “The Dark-sided Flycatcher is a long-distance migrant; it breeds in Siberia, are wearing their mosquito Mongolia and travels to the western and eastern Himalaya during winter,” bites even redder this season, – Concrete or bitumen? says Ramanan. and you can’t help feeling (By A Special Correspondent) Each of the sightings has been confirmed as a first-of-its-kind in Chennai. sorry... especially for the he recent monsoons have been as intensive as * * * younger ones. Tthose of the past six years, if not more so. And o birdwatcher Gnanaskandan’s surprise, ducks which were believed to It’s wonderful to have them over, the first casualties have been the roads of the city. Of Tbe just visitors have started breeding in Chennai. He recently spotted a no question. course, it is a matter of no surprise, given the quality pair of Fulvous Whistling Ducks with 3 ducklings (3-4 weeks old) near the Even that constant undercurrent of road-laying that is adopted. It is an open secret Sholinganallur end of Pallikaranai Marsh. The same family was spotted and of worrying – praying – viruses that not all the money allocated for such activities photographed by John Joseph around end-November. play good sports and refrain ever gets spent on what it is intended for and con- from ruining holidays; that Due to heavy rains, the Marsh was completely flooded and the ducklings you’ve remembered all the tractors need to perforce cut corners if they need to were forced into a small rainwater harvesting ditch close to the Marsh. After various food allergies; hoping make a profit. And given the steadily increasing the water in the ditch receded, the ducklings found themselves trapped in it family loose cannons traffic, these substandard roads are being put to and the parents were helpless. Gnanaskandan was on his regular patrol and don’t choose to act up on the greater pressure and very few roads manage to stand the whistling cry of the adults caught his attention. After almost an hour of night of the big dinner... is the strain. In the light of this, the new administration running in the ditch, he carefully caught the ducklings one by one and re- worth it. in the City Corporation has announced that it would leased them in water. The re-union of the family was a great sight to watch Except – in all this pursuit of per- be looking at concrete roads as the panacea. and this turned out to be his best-ever sighting so far, he claims. “I whistled fection, you could miss what The announcement was made after the usual along with the Whistlers,” he muses. –(Courtesy: Madras Naturalists’ Society matters. accusations (now customary whenever there is a Bulletin.) It all goes by so quickly... and regime change in the State) about the previous (Also see page 8) they’re gone, so soon, along regime having allowed the use of substandard mate- with all the home-food packets. rials. And it is now understood that within the next Until next year, then. Madras Musings wishes its readers five years, Rs 2500 crore will be spent on laying ‘A Very Happy New Year’ Ranjitha Ashok (Continued on page 6 ) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS December 16-31, 2011 Stop that (Not so) Musical Musings ecember is here and that another Carnatic contribution will smile at the award-recipi- Dmeans The (music) Sea- to our lexicon); a ‘sponsorer’ is ent, thoroughly mispronounce pedestrian son. The Man from Madras a sponsor who contributes to a his name, and say that it was Musings has already given in- Carnatic music event), the au- all very appropriate that so- dications of this in his last dience (even if there is only and-so was being given the few columns. And to those of one person who, as a wag put award. He will then give his you who are not musically it, qualifies thereby as an version of the musician’s bio- – if he’s using inclined (which includes the ‘audien’) and, above all, the data, also taken from Google. Chief), MMM must extend a caterer. The thanking of the Once again, it will be the heartfelt apology for harping last named is usually greeted musician alone who will be a mobile phone! (pun intended) on the sub- with great applause. listening to all this in delight. ject. But come December, Now in case you thought Then comes the principal and MMM finds it difficult to that is it, let MMM assure you event of the day – namely the ccording to a report of the some of the findings are as remain silent. He repeatedly that you have not heard the swaddling of musician and AMinistry of Road Trans- follows: clears his throat and warbles half of it. Next, the president chief guest in shawls, the con- port and Highways, Govern- i. Mobile phone users while songs that he has heard in will go on to speak on why the ferment of the award and the ment of India, the number of crossing the road are so music seasons in past. Occa- award was being conferred on handing over of citation and road accidents in the country engrossed in talking or lis- sionally he bursts forth into a particular musician. In this medallion. MMM can claim has more than quadrupled from tening to music that they a one-man chorus, only to he will recite the curriculum only hearsay knowledge of 114,100 to 484,704 during the miss salient objects and even subside to barely audible vitae of the musician and while this, for this event is witnessed period 1970-2008. Road fatali- obstructions in their envi- humming, subdued by the this is being done, the chief only by a battery of photogra- ties shot up eight-fold from ronment. stern gaze of MMM’s good guest will wake up with a ner- phers who crowd around the 14,500 to 119,860, while inju- ii. They are so lost in their con- lady, also known as She Who vous start, for he just then ‘dias’ (sorry, dais) at this cli- Must Be Obeyed. realises that the president has mactic moment. No doubt it is ries increased more than seven- versation/music that they But there is a flip side to already pinched the content of a Masonic ceremony of sorts.