Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/15-17 Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/18-20 Publication: 15th & 28th of every month Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • Clive’s Library • Sruti – the surprise • Burmese repatriates • Women’s fitness coach Vol. XXVII No. 19 MUSINGS January 16-31, 2018 Nature sees the New Year out... & in Ooty Golf Course (left) all frosted up saw the New Year out and “Super Moon” over the Marina (above) greeted the New Year in. VIJAY SRIRAM adds that the moon picture was taken “using a 300 mm lens”. City’s open spaces need better use (By A Special Correspondent) hennai may never become a super metro or a smart city, whatever those two Cterms may mean or imply, but it is fast becoming one of the most built-up cities of India. The value of open space is fast being forgotten and Government and private parties alike view all such areas only as places where buildings can be put up. You name the precinct – colleges, University, the High Court, the stations, administrative headquarters – everywhere the trend is the same. More and more buildings are coming up. No thought is being given to alternative campuses in other parts of the city, and as a result, congestion is on the rise. It is high time the administration thinks of preserving what little open space it possesses and puts it to good, creative, alternative use. And in this it would appear that a more congested city than ours, namely Kolkata, can show the way. The South Park Street Cemetery there is one of the oldest such facilities in that The sad state of Bharat Insurance building where the LIC ignores the High Court’s orders. city. It is a city of the dead, with streets laid out between vaults, obelisks, monu- (Picture: Shantanu Krishnan.) (See page 3.) ments and funerary statuary. For long neglected, it was in the 1990s rescued from oblivion and cleaned up. Entry was regu- Market the Metro with attractive pricing lated with a watch and ward staff ensuring discipline was here is disturbing news G by A Cost Analyst localised. In travelling, people maintained. In a rare display of Tcasting a cloud of delay and do move from one zone to an- cooperation, the church, the uncertainty over the sanction of has raised this concern in an of 7.76 lakh per day in the other. Therefore, without a full administration and the media Phase 2 of Chennai Metro. The earlier issue (MM, September project report for a 45 km line connectivity network it is diffi- worked on making the place Ministry of Housing and Urban 16th) pleading for imaginative has been proportionately re- cult to test the adoption rate. well known and it is now one of Affairs has questioned the vi- pricing and promotional strate- duced to an expectation of 4.5 The typical example is of the the city’s tourist attractions ability of Phase 2, expressing gies. lakh per day for the 28 km of reluctance of passengers to take though it cannot be said it is a concern over a poor patronage The Ministry’s calculation of line, completed so far. The ex- the Metro to Central station popular spot. But then you of Phase 1 of only 30,000 per pro rata ridership threshold for pectation that each section or even though a feeder service is don’t expect a cemetery to be a day. The Ministry cannot be financial viability based on portion thereof, on completion, provided connecting Nehru picnic space. blamed for raising this issue, as completed mileage of track is, should result in a proportionate Park station to Central. The in- the low usage is a fact and a however, questionable and is footfall would be right only if convenience of changing from (Continued on page 7) matter of concern. This journal unrealistic. The forecast usage typical travel habits were highly (Continued on page 2) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS January 16-31, 2018 Attract with The underbelly of a flyover here was a time when, as least to MMM’s eyes, appeared lay public and when not so oc- pricing TThe Man from Madras to be an upturned broom with cupied, paying obeisance to Musings remembers only too baskets festooned all along its the late lamented duo, one the well, our city had one flyover – handle. On these receptacles creator and the other the pre- (Continued from page 1) large potential market that is at the Gemini intersection. reposed some rubber tyres. server of the party. there for the asking. It has been Thereafter, sometime in the What this ensemble was sup- Son rise party too has much one mode to another, although estimated that a monthly travel 1990s, we broke out into a posed to mean was beyond to rejoice. Truth, they feel, has the Metro price includes con- cost per motor cycle user is Rs. rash of them and they continue MMM but, then, much of mod- been upheld in the matter of nectivity, is a dampener. The 1,474 which is his/her Metro to dominate Chennai’s skyline. ern art is that way. It was the great scam over which at Some are straight, others bruited about that a very large least two of their leaders were assumption in evaluating the affordability threshold. The curve, while yet others branch sum had been spent on the art- likely to come to grief. A whole project by the experience present cost of Metro is Rs. 2,158 off into confusing branches work and the rest. Daniel come unto justice, cry of one partial segment is faulty. and needs to be brought down by and loops, the last being All was well for a couple of their posters, what with the Habituating to Metro use Rs. 684. That reduction may ap- named four-leaf clovers per- weeks. And then the vagrants Judge letting off the two lead- calls for a cultural change gov- pear large but even after reduc- haps in commemoration of the came back. They missed their ers and declaring them pure as erning travel habits. It also tion the rate is still nearly Rs. 2 green cover they displaced. All home, but it was worth it, for, driven snow. In this connec- takes time for people to realise per km higher than the then of them, however, have one in the month or two’s absence, tion MMM notes that the the values of timeliness to work, Delhi price. problem in common – namely someone had redecorated their posters in Chennai only laud time saving, travel comfort pro- the space underneath. And all demesne at someone else’s ex- the distaff of the two accused. Increasing traffic volume the bleaching powders and dis- pense. And now all was well. What of the so-called kingpin? tected from heat and pollution, and filling the bogies results in infectants of Arabia will not The police tried their best to Why is he not feted? That is a joy of a dependable time of re- large contribution to fixed cost sweeten that little land, to evict the settlers, but soon lost mystery. MMM assumes post- turn to the family at day’s end and could lead to a surplus; at paraphrase Lady Macbeth. interest. They even became ers in his praise are up at his and, above all, to be willing to the worst, it would cut losses The most practical solution pally with them. The tyres were (king’s) native village. pay a little extra for it all. compared to the option of keep- In project cost estimation, it ing prices high. The surge in to- was not safe to have assumed tal revenue, when fare is low- that when all those values are ered, is bound to be high as SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY offered, and that too in people are likely to respond sectional instalments, people massively to lower affordable would rush in. Unless the cost prices. was affordable, compared to The initial phases of the is to convert them into park- removed from the baskets and Also in celebratory mood is current cost, people were not project offer an excellent op- ing spaces. After all, these the children of the vagrants Truly Troublesome Victor, going to take it. Times are hard portunity to experiment with flyovers did come into exist- (the numbers had multiplied who having contested elec- and every rupee had to be bold pricing and promotional ence chiefly to cater to the ve- while on holiday) played tions in a pressure cooker of a saved. And, more so, consider- methods. At a later stage, entic- hicular population of Chennai around with them. The vast situation has emerged like a jet ing that it is not the car travel- ing prices cannot be tried as and so we might as well go the open space became a conve- of steam from aforesaid lers who are the target users but raising them then would meet whole hog. And that has hap- nient spot to lie down and cooker, complete with three auto and motorised two- pened under many flyovers. watch traffic go by. Last seen, triumphant whistles. Posters with stiff user resistance backed Not so in the case of the one the tyres had vanished and the laud him as the deity of char- wheeler users. by citizen bodies and civil soci- The State government can- on RK Salai.