Rest In Peace

 Dear Friends,

Many of you may know the passing of our friend Dr P. Ragunath on Feb 26th, 2014. I was fortunate enough to know him in medical college and he was a good friend. It was such a pleasure to connect with him when he attended the reunion. He leaves behind his wife Dr Gunapriya and 2 sons.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Prabhakar

Cooum on my mind

Cooum has always been on my mind, having studied in various institutions near its banks -  MCCHS, Loyola college and a short year at Pachiappa's before KMC took me far away from the Cooum's banks.

The stop/start cleanup job is hitting the start button again. This expert from The Hindu talks about waterfalls, board walk , walkpath. Sounds exciting , cant wait till 2023.

Prabhakar

The Hindu

Cooum and Adyar rivers and Buckingham Canal to be part of river restoration

The Cooum river gets yet another shot at a clean-up and about Rs. 10,000 crore to do just that.

Various agencies such as the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust, Chennai Corporation, Metrowater, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and the Public Works Department met with municipal administration and water supply officials on Wednesday to finalise the contours of the Chennai Waterways Rehabilitation Programme.

The State government is mulling the option of spending Rs. 10,000 crore over a period of 10 years to clean Chennai’s waterways, including the Adyar river and Buckingham Canal. The Cooum will be the central focus of the rehabilitation programme.

More than 700 sewage outfalls in the Cooum were identified a few years ago. But they are yet to be plugged. The number of illegal outfalls has increased considerably.

The rehabilitation programme will cover planning, preventative and intervention measures to protect the health of the city’s waterways and their surroundings.

Designing a sewage treatment system that is sympathetic to the waterway environment is likely to be the priority.

Officials point to the need for at least 12 more sewage treatment plants to cope with the problem of illegal sewage outfalls in the Cooum.

Proposals for sewage treatment in other areas of the metropolitan area will be submitted shortly.

Soft engineering solutions to prevent further degradation of the waterway will be implemented based on studies to assess impact of present and future stream flow, waterway form, and bed and bank condition.

The CRRT, a few years ago, estimated works covering Rs. 2,222 crore for Cooum river rehabilitation. Many projects including boardwalk along the Cooum and eco-park along waterways such as the Adyar are likely to gain momentum. These will based on assessment of flora and fauna along the waterways.

When modifying natural waterways or designing modified waterways to mimic natural ones, attempts will be made to retain the local character by incorporating geomorphic elements.

More than 10 suggestions were made over the past 100 years to help tidal flushing and prevent stagnation of the Cooum. But the 72-km river that starts as a freshwater source in Cooum village turns out to be an eyesore beyond Poonamallee.

The government’s new proposal will enable civic infrastructure to prevent raw sewage from entering the city’s waterways by 2023.

Some good news - Malala

P

Girl Shot by Pakistani Taliban Is Discharged From Hospital

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, 

Malala Yousafzai leaving Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, on Friday. Doctors said that she had made "excellent progress."

By DECLAN WALSH

 

The release was a promising turn for the teenage activist. Her shooting brought global condemnation of the Pakistani Taliban, whose fighters killed six female aid workers this week in the same region in northwestern Pakistan where Ms. Yousafzai was shot.

The article was from the new york times 1/4 /2013

Hope Malala cont her recovery and attains her dream of becoming a physician

Prabhakar  

New Year 2013 - ? Happy

No matter how the past year has been , we put on our smiley face and look forward to the New year .  The whole world shows signs of optimism and wish for better times, no mistakes of the past year and Christians wish each other,  peace on earth.

For me in the eve of 2012 it looks quite bleak and not sure if 2013 is going to be any different. Particularly the shooting of school children in Connecticut in the US and now the horrendous rape and death of the young woman in New Delhi makes me so sad and angry.

 I am with all the protesters in New Delhi and India  fighting for justice. But what good is it to the woman who died/?What good is to the parents who lost the young child? What good is it to the brother who lost his sister.


Prabhakar

Tree of Life - KMC

Hello Friends,

This image came through Facebook -  Save the banyan tree at KMC, probably forwarded by Raghu or Ravi.

I was a little late in signing the petition, but brought back memories. I was not a regular under the tree, seem to be reserved for some special couples. Nonetheless its special to me when I think of KMC. If anything symbolizes KMC in my memory its this tree of life. Hope it survives.

prabhakar devavaram

Add caption

Save our banyan tre

Hyderabad : Manja makers of old city face hard times

The following article in The Hindu brought back such fond memories for me. Back when I was young and had black hair every few months before Deepavalli , it was kite season in Madras. We would walk with our eyes in the sky looking for that imaginary kite floating in the air which could be claimed by anyone who can get their hands in it. Never turned  into  reality , but we would run after kites in any case.

In 1975 or 76 after a kite thread killed a motorist the ban on kites started and in time the kite season died a slow death. But kites are still thriving in the rest of India. Spent a great week in Jaipur during their Kite Festival season.

Kites also remind me of Lawrence from my street in Madras then , a master kite flier who past away in his 20s. Rest in Peace Lawrence.

prabhakar


Now the article-

The four months beginning September and ending December meant good tidings for the family of Jaweed, a manja maker from the old city. This period guaranteed them good returns for the laborious and painstaking work they put in to make the specialised twine (manja) used to fly kites during Sankranti, for generations.

However, things are not the same for them now. Thanks to the preference of people for Chinese-made varieties of manja as opposed to traditional varieties of the stuff, most families in the vocation face a bleak future.

Ritualistic chore

It was a ritualistic chore for the male members of the family to prepare a mixture of gum, glass and rice in the mornings.

The pulp was rubbed against regular thread to give a fine and ‘cutting edge’ character. But the men don’t it anymore.

“As there are no orders we now practice it as a weekly vocation and work at different places to earn some money,” says Mohammed Jaweed Khan, a third generation manja maker.

There are about 100 families in Dabeerpura and Dhoolpet involved in manjamaking for the past many decades. And most of them spend between six and eight months preparing the sharp thread. Nevertheless, the spots where they performed the job remain deserted in this part of the year.

Poor returns

“We not only face problems of limited orders but also of poor returns as shopkeepers are not ready to increase our charges. We are paid between Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 for converting a plain thread bundle of 2,000 metres into manja. How can this paltry sum be sufficient in these times,” asks Jahangir Ali, who now drives an autorickshaw to support his family.

Most of the men from these families have switched to other trades and take up the job of preparing the manja only on Sundays and holidays. “If I employ labour I have to pay them wages for a full day which is not possible, so I gather my family members on Sundays and we share the money we get through it,” adds Jaweed Bhai. Uncertain future in such vocations comes as a warning to parents and most of them now want their children to study and take up decent jobs.

Leave Gandhi Alone

Kristen Stewart turns to Gandhi for solace- Times of  India 24/8/2012




With the Olympics over , it's back to rest of the news. This news item caught my attention about an American actress who found solace in Gandhi's writings to help with her love problems.

LEAVE GANDHI ALONE , AND LET ME INCLUDE EVERYONE.

Gandhi's teachings are increasingly used for everything,  particularly in advertisments.  Mont blanc pens, Swisscom blackberry ads are some examples.  Maybe in a few years David Beckam will be able to become the global brand he wants to become. But till then let's not take Gandhi's teachings in vain.

Let me leave you with a Gandhi quote-  We must be the change we wish to see.

Prabhakar devavaram