Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 38 ℃ | Low: 27 ℃ | Mostly sunny for today.
🧐 Did you know? During the British Rule, the Poonamallee High Road was one of the two main arterial roads in the city. The other was Mount Road.
📷 Celebrating imperfection
A new photo exhibition celebrates Paralympic athletes as Greek and Italian sculptures.
What’s it about? The “Cracks and Words” exhibition at Alliance Francaise, in partnership with the French Embassy, showcases 22 photos of the athletes as Italian and Greek structures with their bodies painted in gold.
- Cracks signify bodies having visible or non-visible cracks. The photos are inspired by the Japanese Kintsugi art style about reviving broken pottery.
- Every photo is accompanied by a short poem. Among the athletes showcased are long-jumper and Paralympian Jean-Baptiste Alaize crouching in a signature Greek position with a prosthetic leg.
Origins: Artist Layla Metssitane met Alaize in 2021 and wanted to collaborate on an art project with disabled and paralympic athletes.
⚕️ Awareness about cancer
The All About Cancer event in the city provided a platform to educate and raise awareness about cancer.
What’s it about? The venue was the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School (MCC) in Chetpet where CANSTOP and Rotary District 3234 organised the event to shine a spotlight on cancer awareness. The event included competitions, skits, and stalls.
- 1,200 students from 75 schools across the city participated in the one-day event. The quiz competition and speeches underscored the importance of caring for one’s health.
- This was the 13th edition of the event and helped transform the narrative around cancer into empowerment, with musical performances and knowledge sharing.
Winners: The Overall Championship & Rolling Trophy was won by Alpha Matriculation Higher Secondary School.
🏎️ Start your engines!
Chennai is gearing up to host its first night race on a street circuit.
What’s it about? The Chennai Formula Racing Circuit (CFRC) will host a night race for the first time in India at the upcoming Indian Racing Festival (IRF) from August 30 to September 1. Under the IRF banner, the Indian Racing League (IRL) and the Formula 4 Indian Championship (F4IC) will be the two events.
- The much-anticipated night race will be held with eight teams racing for the top spot. Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata will be competing.
- The 3.5-km long circuit was built by Racing Promotions Pvt. Ltd and the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT). The track begins at Island Grounds and goes past key landmarks before returning to the starting point.
Landmark race: The night race will also mark a first for the IRF, which is the foremost event to offer a gender-neutral racing championship.
📚 Spike in library membership
The decision to lend books has been successful as memberships surged at the Anna Centenary Library.
What’s it about? Since the library decided to lend books, over 11,000 have been lent over the past four months. There has also been a spike in membership, growing to over 7,000.
- To meet the growing demand among readers and provide diverse reading materials, the library has purchased 80,000 new books for ₹3 crore.
- The management has also undertaken other measures, like corporate memberships to partner with large companies.
Varied selection: The Tamil section now has over 80,000 books for lending. There are also 10,000 books available for kids in the children’s section.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you try newly opened restaurants and cafes regularly?
- I try newly opened restaurants and cafes regularly.
- I don’t try newly opened restaurants and cafes regularly.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What hobby have you always wanted to try but never did?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Primary Healthcare Centres in the city have been asked to make space for an influx of patients with monsoon-related illnesses.
- A shift in pickup points at the Chennai airport has left passengers angry.
- Heaps of debris dumped on the Cooum by the NHAI for the Maduravoyal-Port corridor will be cleared by September.
- A White-rumped vulture, categorised as endangered, was found on a city road but didn’t make it.
- Names of Tamil poets and others have been misspelt on new street signs.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- India can host the Olympics: 69.2% 🏆
- India can’t host the Olympics: 30.8%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?
Chitra: “R.K. Laxman’s Common Man”
Suchi: “The Phantom”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!