Good morning, Chennai!
☀️ Today’s weather: High: 35 ℃ | Low: 24 ℃ | Sunny weather for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The Contemporary Art Gallery, part of the Government Museum, was the first in the country to use Dichroic Halogen lamps and Fibre Optic lighting for certain installations.
🗣️ Puppetry for social awareness
Puppeteer M Kalaivanan uses his puppetry and storytelling skills to raise awareness about social issues.
Who is he? Born into poverty, M Kalaivanan would gather kids to host a puppet show and collect a small fee. This passion and interest in storytelling through puppetry only grew and has led to over 6,800 shows across 45 years.
- Apart from being skilled in hand puppetry, he also assembles the other elements of the show, including the stage set-up, background props, and handicraft toys.
- His shows revolve around social issues. He also doesn’t delve into devotional shows that preach about “reaching heaven after death”. He believes in individual change driving societal transformation.
Technology no barrier: Even with advancements in technology, he sees it as a boon. For example, using microphones means he no longer has to shout to make himself heard.
🌊 Saving Velachery
Residents have proposed a 4D approach to save Velachery Lake and prevent flooding.
What’s it about? Issues plaguing Velachery Lake were one of the reasons why the locality flooded last December. Residents have now proposed a 4D approach – Deflect, Drain, Desilt and Deepen to save the lake. It was based on a study initiated by the Velachery AGS Colony Residents’ Welfare Association.
- The initiative involves deflecting sewage outfalls with inlet slice gates and daily sewage with interceptors to a collection well. This is then transferred to the sewage treatment plant.
- The Velachery-Tambaram road and the Pallavaram 200-feet Radial Road are blocking the natural water flow into the Pallikaranai marsh.
State of the Velachery Lake: The lake has shrunk significantly, and its storage capacity has decreased from 19.24 Mcft to 4.82. The lake can now only hold about 4 cm of rainfall compared to its original capacity of 15 cm.
🚌 New bus routes
The MTC is hoping to increase connectivity with new bus routes.
What’s it about? The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), after increasing its fleet with 50 new buses, announced services across six new routes. It has also expanded services to industrial regions and places of interest on the city’s outskirts.
- The new routes will help create links between T Nagar, Ambattur, Tambaram, and suburban areas. One example is Route 51T, connecting T Nagar with Madurapakkam for people from Selaiyur and Tambaram.
- As the summer holidays approach, routes 19T and 19Gct will link Kovalam with T Nagar and Saidapet through Thiruvanmiyur. The MTC also reintroduced the S41 route from Avadi to the Ambedkar statue.
Additional distance: With these new routes, the MTC buses will now cover an additional distance of 4-10 km per day since some routes extend to the outskirts.
🌊 Desilting drains
The Chennai Corporation will desilt drains across the city ahead of the southwest monsoon.
What’s it about? The Chennai Corporation has floated tenders to desilt over 500 km of drains ahead of the southwest monsoon in June. With the model code of conduct expected to be announced soon, civic authorities want to accelerate some basic work.
- The contractors will remove the silt and alert officials on sewage outfall points. The areas in question include Kodambakkam, Teynampet, Vadapalani, and Perungudi.
- In commercial areas like T Nagar and Velachery, roadside eateries discard wastewater into drains. Some have even dug up pavements to let sewage flow directly into the drains.
Waterlogging fears: Last year, Nungambakkam recorded 675 mm of rainfall, and Meenambakkam recorded 847.2 mm from June 1 to September 22. Areas like KK Nagar and T Nagar suffered from waterlogged streets since the drains didn’t have enough capacity.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you still buy/collect music CDs?
- I still buy/collect music CDs.
- I don’t buy/collect music CDs.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What’s a talent you wish you had?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- A tunnel boring machine has begun work to build a tunnel underneath the Chetpet Lake.
- Fisherman Palayam N traces the history of the “ambaa paatu”, the tradition of singing while fishing.
- SRM Institute of Technology signed an MoU with Renault Nissan to advance automobile technology and education.
- The Hum Sab Sahmat exhibition at the Asian College of Journalism showcases the works of 280 artists.
- E-cigarettes have been seized across the city as doctors urge caution on their usage.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I would travel back in time: 33.3%
- I would travel to the future: 66.7% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
Which fiction novel would you want to be adapted as a movie or TV show?
Suchi: “All James Hadley Chase’s novels”
Shiva: “Sophie’s World (as a feature film, the Norwegian film with its tight budget didn’t do justice IMHO)”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!