Reg. No. TN/PMG (CCR) /814/06-08 Licence No. WPP 506/06-08 Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI R.N. 53640/91 INSIDE Cleaner waterways MADRAS 100 years of Sanskrit teaching Adoption: Patience needed An online universe MUSINGS Rs. 5 per copy Vol. XV No. 21 February 16-28, 2006 (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) Community fests can do without A more enlightened attitude hindrance to public space needed (By Sriram V.) With this one, you wont have to (By Vincent D Souza) few days after the Mylapore Festival had, despite the odds, worry about any junk SMS! Aproved successful, the Editor of this journal wrote in his DELETE he 2006 edition of the Finance, to court. That too, on column in The Hindu, Madras Miscellany, Im delighted the Preferably unread Tannual Sundaram Finance the eve of the festival. And Mylapore Festival has this year inspired Triplicane to make a small but successful beginning. Like the Mylapore Festival, Im For years, exasperated citizens Mylapore Festival is slowly though the judge encouraged sure the Triplicane Festival will grow with the enthusiastic have flung piles of unwanted achieving what it has set out to the fest to go on, with restric- participation of the citizenry. The example of these two festivals, junk-mail into protesting do bring communities to heri- tions the hurdles upset the wastepaper baskets, cursing Im also sure, will inspire other localised festivals in the city. I can tage zones for a celebration of preparations for the fest. see Royapuram following before long and perhaps Vadapalani freely over this misuse of paper art, culture and tradition. How- and their own time. The main events on Day and TNagar. While that unfortunate situa- ever, this year, the fest was chal- One were delayed by 100 min- A couple of years after the Mylapore Festival began, a tion continues unabated, an- lenged by some local business utes, stalls put up to present the corporate federation planned a Chennai Festival which, it hoped, other nuisance, more in tune houses who just did not want food fest and the handicrafts it could slowly turn into a major tourist attraction, like the Dubai with the techno-age, has been such an event on the Mada Festival. But with the corporate membership not prepared to sale presented by self-help devote time to organisation, the festival flopped during the two making its presence felt for a Streets of Mylapore. groups, had to be closed down while now... the dreaded un- Two leading local shops, years it was attempted. Perhaps the way to go is for major wanted SMS. midway because the court did corporates in the city to each adopt the festival in one area of the Radha Silks and NAC Jewel- not permit one main street to be city like Sundaram Finance has done the Mylapore Festival Picture this. The cell-phone lers, took the organisers, pings. used as the open venue. Yet, then link them through the federation, and slowly develop a Great, you have a message. Mylapore Times, the city police Mylaporeans and their guests, Chennai Festival. Glowing with the comfort of and the sponsor, Sundaram young and old, enjoyed this fes- A Chennai Festival offering all the entertainment of these knowing you havent been tival held over four days in local festivals, together with the Music Festival and substantial completely forgotten, you, af- spaces around Sri Kapali discounts on food, clothing, jewellery and travel and entertain- ment tickets in the festival areas of the city, could be turned into ter a couple of misses, access Temple. the message. And find yourself A reminder to a substantial attraction during the Christmas-New Year-Pongal reading a missive riddled with The fest is growing. Street season. capitals and exclamation our readers décor has improved with simple Apparently, some business houses do not think along these marks, sent by a stranger obvi- lines. They dont seem to see the business potential of such l It’s that time of the year again. With street lamps in designer lamp- ously in a state of feverish ex- the Madras Musings year coming shades. The Art Street over- Festivals. Yet such festivals in many parts of the world drive citement. to an end, it is time to remind sub- flows as Fine Arts students from business and urban economies. Ooo, guess what?! You can scribers to renew their subscrip- Stella Maris College set up The attitude of a couple of business houses in the Mylapore download the latest misguided area that attempted to dampen the enthusiasm the festival had tions (Rs. 100 a year) and readers street stalls creating bags, creation of the flavour-of-the- who have not yet sent in their sub- generated was truly surprising. month music maestro... scriptions to do so. The annual sub- jewellery, greeting cards, de- The festival was being held in a public space and not within FREE!! scription for Madras Musings is signing mehendhi, painting on their premises. The festival was attracting a large crowd rather You receive unsolicited advice Rs. 100/-. canvas. The response excited than preventing it from coming in. This would only have a on movies to see... or avoid, and All subscriptions acknowledged the students so much that they positive impact on business. on deals claiming to brighten by us from January 1, 2006 and are making plans for 2007! The area known as Mangollai, which is at the intersection of your life. subscriptions that we receive be- The kolam contests on two North and East Mada Streets, often has political meetings causing In gathering wrath, you tell your tween now and April 16th will be complete chaos in traffic (on February 14th evening, for instance) unmoved phone that you considered as annual subscriptions weekends continued to be big and putting local residents to great sufferings owing to loudspeak- didnt ask for this, being su- for the year April 16, 2006 to April hits about 150-plus participat- ers. These business houses do not appear to see those meetings as premely disinterested in the 15, 2007, Volume XVI. As for those ing each evening. Visitors sug- causing business losses. movie and the deals. who have sent in their subscrip- gested that the carpet of kolams What about the general fall in business volumes owing to As for the song ...for a brief sec- tions between April 16, 2005 and be preserved for two whole more and more people seeing Mylapore as a chaotic spot and ond, you are tempted to send December 15, 2005, please renew hours and traffic diverted, so therefore taking their custom elsewhere? Also, going by the same back a message imbued with your subscriptions as and when logic, will these business houses also ask for stoppage of the the old Aurangazeb-spirit. they fall due. Madras Musings, un- that the kolam displays are turned into an exhibition. Arupattu Moovar festival as that attracts far greater crowds and Cell-phones going off at inap- fortunately, does not have any staff, stops all traffic for far longer than any neighbourhood festival? propriate times are bad enough. but only a couple of part-time volun- The heritage tours on cycle- Finally one more issue emerges. How can a few business estab- teers to help and, hence, is in no How do you combat this del- rickshaws received a bigger re- lishments try and look at their own narrow interests at the expense uge of unwanted messages position to send you reminders. sponse foreign tourists jumped of those of the entire neighbourhood? Have the festivals not cluttering up inboxes? Can the When sending in your subscrip- techno-savvy please advise? into the queue this time. The created a positive atmosphere among the residents of the area? tion, please send it to Chennai Should their views also not be taken into consideration? You can only be thankful that Heritage together with the coupon big hit on the tour was the those who invented these little breakfast (of pongal, vadai and It is to be hoped that a better sense of cooperation will prevail that appears on page 7, duly filled in the coming years and these establishments, rather than pests had the foresight to in- in, in full. We look forward to an coffee) at the heritage house of obstruct, will become active participants and encourage the clude that very useful feature enthusiastic response from readers, Manjula and Natarajan on East the delete option. old and new. festival. But that needs a complete change of attitude towards Mada Street. public spaces. Ranjitha Ashok THE EDITOR (Continued on Page 7) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS February 16-28, 2006 Cleaner waterways Action taken under CCRCP Interceptors 59.167 km completed Pumping Station 31 Pumping Stations completed for how long? Pumping mains / Gravity mains 46.044 km completed As part of the programme to resettle 8164 slum families, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has already completed the n 2001, the National River compared to rivers like the Metrowater Supply and Sewer- construction of 3000 tenements in Okkium Thuraipakkam IConservation Authority Ganga or the Yamuna, from the age Board (CMWSSB) was the Desilting and resection of main Cooum and Adyar Rivers (NRCA) issued the statement point of pollution, they are implementing agency. Work within Chennai City Construction of flood defences and resection of drains in that All the projects of River very, very polluted. The moni- commenced in May 2001 and Chennai Metropolitan Area Action Plans in future will be toring of the waterways actu- was to be completed by March Removal of sandbar and prevention of sandbar formation at formulated in an integrated ally began in April 2005, at a 2005.