Good morning, Chennai!
☀️ Today’s weather: High: 33 ℃ | Low: 22 ℃ | Clear and sunny skies for today.
🧐 Did you know? The Chennai City FC football club was originally called the Nethaji Sports Club in 1946. Also, while it’s called Chennai City, they’re based in Coimbatore.
⚽ Futsal League
Season 3 of the Indian Futsal League kicked off in the city with corporate teams.
What’s it about? The Indian Futsal League season 3 began at Ramanujan Intellion Park. Apart from teams, the league welcomed freestyle footballer Tanisha Gupta to showcase her skills.
- The top teams are from companies like Amazon, Google, Pepsi, GSK, etc. The event also welcomes players from Chennaiyin FC, playing against the Amazon team.
- The league will take place till the end of the week. Tata Realty aims to showcase football as a corporate sport across four parks in Chennai, Mumbai, Gurugram, and Bengaluru.
Sustainability initiatives: The league has taken the sustainability route with medals made of coconut shells, non-biodegradable flex branding, and minimal plastic usage.
🧺 Recycling tailoring waste
Mamta Jain took it upon herself to see how much fabric waste Chennai generates.
What’s it about? The former IT professional began a one-woman collection drive of tailoring cloth in 2019. She realised that there’s no system to process tailoring waste in the city. Through an informal study, she found that one tailoring unit produces about 3kg of waste daily. There are about 45,000 such units in the city.
- There’s no data on the amount of textile waste generated. However, dump yards have mountains of waste fabric. Materials like polyester, acrylic, and nylon are non-biodegradable. It can take decades to decompose.
- Synthetic nonbiodegradable fabric has flooded the local market. Oh Scrap! Madras, a group that upcycles tailoring waste, said that about 50% of the material they get is non-biodegradable.
What can be done? The first step is to map the number of tailoring units in Chennai. Urban local bodies should regularly collect waste from consumers with separate collection bins for textile waste. Synthetic fibres should also be slowly phased out. Consumers should also be encouraged to change their buying patterns.
📽️ Goodbye Udhayam theatre
The Udhayam theatre will be demolished to make way for a residential complex.
What’s its history? The Udhayam Theatre was one of Chennai’s first multiplexes. It was built on land bought from the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) under a conditional sale deed in 1983. The complex also has Mini Udhayam, Suriyan, and Chandran theatres.
- While standalone theatres like Udhayam are in prime locations, they’re now running on losses. The owners decide to sell them to real estate developers.
- Since the Floor Space Index (FSI) is now higher, multi-storied buildings can be built in place of the complex.
State-wide phenomenon: It’s bad news for movie buffs since almost 300 theatres across the state are struggling financially. Some aren’t able to pay their power bills. A surge in OTT platforms has led to lower footfalls.
🛑 Dethrone Road Rajas
The Chennai Traffic Police have begun an initiative to minimise traffic violations.
What’s it about? Across the city, banners and posters have begun sprouting up with the slogan, “Neenga Road Rajava” (are you the king of the road?). It’s the latest initiative from the traffic police to curb wrong-side driving and other violations.
- Those who spot someone driving in the wrong direction or committing a traffic violation can post a photo of the vehicle on social media with #roadraja.
- The social media team will monitor posts under the hashtag and action will be taken. Last year, the police registered over 60,000 cases of wrong-side driving.
Awareness videos: The traffic police also released awareness videos directed by filmmaker Vignesh Shivan to highlight the importance of following road rules.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Gear up for shopping and festivities at the Midtown Night Market this weekend.
- Conscious fashion takes centre stage at New Beginnings this weekend.
- Theatre Nisha presents a unique 3-hour immersive and experiential event this Sunday.
- Nam Arumai Pudhumaipithan showcases selected short stories this Saturday.
- All things comics come together at Chennai’s first Comic Con this weekend.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I have visited a farm: 40.0%
- I’ve never visited a farm: 60.0% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What music would you listen to on a long commute/journey?
Suchi: “Old Tamil Film songs”
Shiva: “Something that keeps me awake while at the same time keeps me chill. Neither melody nor metal/rock. Shuffled genre”
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!