Good morning, Chennai!
🌥️ Today’s weather: High: 37 ℃ | Low: 27 ℃ | A little cloudy weather for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The Connemara Library has more than a hundred thousand rare and antique books including a Bible published in 1608 AD.
🎭 Tackling Sangam age patriarchy
The play Kongai Thee spotlights advances in modern society and its power structures.
What’s it about? Swaminathan, an actor and associate director of the live music adaptation of the play, researched Kongai Thee. It’s one of the five classical Tamil epics by Indira Parthasarathy, and Swaminathan wanted to bring it to life. This interpretation asks the uncomfortable question of whether power structures have changed even though civilisation has progressed through lifestyles and technology.
- The play spotlights the oppressive nature of gender power structures and the need to discuss its consequences. Silappadhigaaram is one of the foremost works that describes music and dance in detail.
- The production used the yazh, the first stringed instrument in Tamil land, and worked with the Uru band. They’re experts in recreating ancient Tamil musical instruments.
Contemporary relevance: The production finds relevance for today’s time. It deals with love, pain, loss, sorrow, death, and interpersonal relationships and their evolution over time.
💬 Digital tools for flood helpline
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The Chennai Corporation will partner with Meta to integrate complaints on floods and waterlogging.
What’s it about? As the city gears up for the monsoon, the Chennai Corporation is looking at new ways to handle flood and waterlogging issues. It is partnering with Meta to integrate complaints from different channels and set up flood meters, like the Mumbai Corporation.
- Complaints from social media platforms will be integrated and forwarded to zonal officers through WhatsApp. The Corporation is finalising the deal with Meta.
- The city’s 1913 toll-free helpline receives over 2 lakh calls, while only 3% come from Twitter during the latter half of the year. The Chennai Corporation also plans to install 40 flood meters that can trigger warnings.
Mapping flooded zones: Corporation engineers have noticed that locations that are now flooded vary from the 578 locations identified as flood-prone. For the past month, the civic body has undertaken street-wise mapping of flood zones.
🚙 Disposing of abandoned vehicles
The Chennai Corporation plans to hire a contractor to get rid of abandoned vehicles.
What’s it about? To keep the city’s roads free of abandoned vehicles, the Chennai Corporation has floated tenders to hire a contractor to tow them away.
- The Corporation will first get clearance from the police to see if any vehicles are connected to criminal activities. While the funding model is still being finalised, the civic body will pay the contractor for every towed vehicle.
- Vehicles seized so far are stored in the Perungudi dump yard, Sathangadu lorry shed in Manali, Mullai Nagar burial ground, and the Amma Arangam in Shenoy Nagar.
Survey: In February, the Corporation identified over 1,300 vehicles. Approximately 80% were four-wheelers. All the vehicles were spread across different regions. There were 395 in south Chennai, 271 in north Chennai, and 644 in central Chennai.
🚇 Driverless trains testing
The Chennai Metro will test its driverless trains this October.
What’s it about? The ballastless tracks at the Poonamallee depot will be ready in three months, about a month after the first driverless train arrives. The depot will likely open along with the first stretch of phase 2 next November with 10 stations.
- Once the train arrives, it will undergo tests for two months, followed by trials on the elevated corridor. Nearly 75% of the work at the Poonamallee depot is complete.
- Currently, ballastless tracks have been laid along 25% of the stretch between Porur and Poonamallee.
Doube-decker corridor: The Power House – Porur stretch has a double-decker corridor between Alwarthirunagar and Alapakkam that covers 4 km and four stations.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Catch the maestro Yuvan Shankar Raja live in concert this Saturday.
- Pianist Aman Mahajan presents a solo concert called Refuge this Saturday.
- The next generation takes charge at the Youth Speak Forum 2024 this Sunday.
- The ancient and modern come together in the Tamil play Kongai Thee this weekend.
- Catch an improv show with a performance by The Hystericals this Saturday.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I have baked a cake at home: 44.4%
- I’ve never baked a cake at home: 55.6% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
Which is your favourite bar/pub in the city?
Chitra: “Sundays in Anna Nagar”
Suchi: “Living Room”
Shiva: “Pause, Perungudi”
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!