Civil Society Groups in action

Some years ago, we at the ADYAR TIMES promoted a sand castle contest on Elliots Beach.
I guess we did it in the summer hols so that children could have some fun.
You rarely see moms and dads taking their little kids out to the seashore, armed with buckets, pails and little spades, to build castles out of wet sand.

Perhaps, some artistic young people of Adyar should hold Sunday camps on the beach side this summer.

Well, last weekend, some young people carved a Olive Ridley turtle on this beach. A really large one. The act was one of the many things that made up a Beach Fest hosted by the Civil Society Group.I came across this group when it became public that the city Corporation wanted to 'beautify' the beach and on its agenda were plans to put up many structures on the sands. And a few beach users were against it. They wanted to discuss the plans, involve people and then plan the project.

The Group is small; some studied at the KFI-The School or are on its campus now. There are also a few community activists and Adyarites who have lived in this region for decades.

But they seem serious. They have conducted a survey amongst beach users on what must be done on this beach. They have had meetings with the civic officials too. They have invited professionals to present alternatives and ideas. Architect Tara Murali who is also with INTACH has been one such.

And the most positive action from their side has been to move forward - so they are convincing the hawkers who sell bajjis and fried fish, who run 'shoot-the balloon' stalls and the rest not to use plastic cups and bags and not to dump waste in the sands. I hear the food hawkers are being given water cans and paper plates so they we can avoid using plastic water sachets. . .

The CSG also seems alive. So when the Corporation of Chennai began to chop down many avenue trees ( some were over 50 years old) on Sardar Patel Road, to make space for a new flyover at the Madhya Kailash junction, the start point of that smart-looking IT Corridor road, the CSG volunteers responded.

Some of them sent a flurry of e-mails in protest, some rushed out at midnight to challenge the labourers who were sawing the trunks and they organised a protest demo on the main road. ( The photos here are by C P Dhanasekar)

Though the effort is small, disconnected and lags when the issues are so severe, it needs appreciation.

That is because there are very few civil society groups who are alive to issues that affect Chennai. We do not have people of stature who stick their neck out, who sign petitions or lead a protest.
And we need stronger action in the face of unilateral, one-sided plans that are thrust on this city.

I was hoping that the IITians and the College of Engg. students would be engaged in the 'trees' campaign. It did not happen.
If you want to join this group, email to - civilsocietygroup@googlegroups.com

Season for Summer Camps!

You notice a different kind of traffic on our neighbourhood roads nowadays.
A father ferrying his son armed with a badminton racquet.
A mother carting her daughter dressed in karate uniform.
A grandpa dropping off 10-year-old Shruti at a pottery camp in the suburbs.

With schools having closed for summer holidays, it is the season for summer camps.
A random count could put them at close to 200!
There are all kinds of camps in all our neighbourhoods. And these include the 'lets-make-a-quick-buck' types too.

The pedestrian ones are the camps which promise to train the young ones in arts and crafts, music and dance.
The boring ones, to me, are the camps which extend the classroom into the holidays - the sort who promise to increase memory power, or teach Vedic math or prepare you for the Plus Two exam!

There are are some interesting ones too. Theatreperson KK (Krishna Kumar) of Masquerade is going beyond a theatre camp; he plans to also prepare the children for a production which will go on stage weeks later.

With Chennai's neighbourhoods now better defined and spread out, creative people and those in the the activity business are well prepared to promote such camps well before the annual exams are over.

You rarely hear of children talking of going on holidays to their 'native places'. Holidays to the hills, or to Bangalore or to Delhi, or to the Far East - yes, that you will hear of.
But holidays to Alapuzha or Karaikudi or Udupi . . . you hear less of 'native' places.
Those are summer holiday times of another generation.

My own summer camp, which has become an annual feature, is on the basics of journalism. The idea is to expose senior school students to this profession, encourage them to improve their writing skills and take a closer look at newspapers, radio,TV and the Net.
Seven students are attending this camp at the 'Mylapore Times' office. And their reports are posted on a blog - www.mtjclass.blogspot.com.
We wanted the kids to also use tech-tools as part of their work. Friends Satya of New Horizon Media and Revathi who runs www.yocee.in are handling that part of the workshop.

When we wind up the camp we hope to explore a landmark. Perhaps do the round of the devastated Pallikarnai marshlands ( in the suburb in the south) and then retire for a nice lunch on the East Coast Road.

In between, I hope to hop across to my native place - Mangalore!

Heritage walks and Kalathi rose milk!

For the first time perhaps, a religious festival with social overlaps, had a poster for itself.
The annual Panguni Fest of Sri Kapali Temple, Mylapore.

We at MYLAPORE TIMES seem to get sucked into everything Mylapore!
Over the years, we have brought out a little brochure on this colourful fest.

And this time, with some support from Nallis, we put out a colourfully designed ( designer - K. S. Gunasekar) poster ( which you can enjoy here)
And we put it up at all the touristy destinations, hangouts and community centres.

I believe that such festivals need better promotion in Chennai. And though I did send a poster to Irai Anbu, said to be a dynamic government secretary (now with the Tourism Dept.) we did not get an acknowledgement.
I suppose such private and small efforts rarely get recognised and reason why they do not go on to bloom!

We weren't dampened though. With gifts as prizes from www.yocee.in, we held an arts contest for kids for the fest. Kids had to sit near the temple ther (chariot), gaze at the ther and draw their own version of a chariot!
A note which 'The Hindu' put out on this contest had a devil's error! Or was it a printer's devil?!! It said the contest was at 8 pm! And we got dozens of calls wondering why the contest was so late!


But 26 kids enjoyed their fun beside the 'ther'. Some of the drawings were great, and colourful too.
It was a way to get the kids to know what a ther is all about!

We also had the adults out to enjoy the sights of the festival. They were on a heritage walk that Namma Mylapore, a local NGO for civic and heritage issues, facilitates.

Its members take turn to be guides and we normally end up having a pongal-vada breakfast at a tiled house in Pitchupillai Street and wash the food down with chilled rose milk from the famed Kalathi shop on East Mada Street.

I think if we have a small team of young people who love Chennai and its history and want to act as guides on heritage walks, then there are more walks/tours to offer not just tourists but our own people.

Last night, I got a e-mail from a writer of the recently-launched business paper, MINT. From the Hindustan Times group. She wants to write a feature on heritage walks in metros. And she located info on our walks in www.frommers.com - the world famous travel info folks.

By the way, if you have time, check out all the info on Chennai on Frommers. There are many slips.

If you have explored some great areas in the city, let us know.