No Emission

Emission Free, Eco-friendly, Traffic Beater, No Signals … you can keep counting the enormous benefits of such a transporting idea. Missed one more, Low cost to buy & maintain than luxury sedans.

Seen at Millers Road, Kilpauk.

People, Week 36

The Priest near to Madhavaperumal Koil at Mylapore. He was on his way to the temple where he’s working early in the morning.

Polio Vaccination Day


Going away from the tradition of featuring people on Sunday’s (incidentally it’ll be there tomorrow for this time), this Blog carries the Polio Vaccination Drive by the City’s Corporation.

The efforts of various governmental agencies in defying the polio virus’s increase in the state is having its fruitful results, which saw a large decline in the Polio affected cases.

Today (7/2/10) is a Polio Vaccination day for your little ones, please head to the nearest centre to get your loved one immunised. One such Mobile van announcing the Vaccination Programme seen at Periyar E V R Road Opp Ega Theatre.

Taut

The Binding act of the India’s Tallest Flag staff at the Chennai Fort St George should have been a trick task. 26 odd Binding cables are used to hold them to the ground against any massive wind pressure (Especially because its facing the sea-shore). With the Flag post changed to Metal from Wood some years back in 1994, its should have been easier to manage the wear & tear of the post.

God Save

Every act in this country either starts with a "Aum", "Sivamayam" ( உ ), Pillayar Suzhi written by most of the Old generation Hindu’s. (Yes, i can hear the murmur, on where we write these days, except a few emails or tweets). Its quite common among the vehicle owners / drivers too start any journey with seeking the blessing of the God’s.

Here, in this case, the Mini Van owner has seeked the blessings of Lord Muruga. Seen in front of Madhavaperumal Koil, Mylapore.

Which direction to Malani?

My fetish for English is well known among the Blog Readers here :)
So this Picture of "Manali" spelt "Malani" (almost sounding like a girl’s name) is bound to be published at DailyPhoto Chennai.
Thanks to Jothi for clicking this & allowing me to use this here.

Any space there?

These Lorries (Trucks) ply in the City Road a few times without permission of the Police with load. But this lorry beats all of them, with the Load (here the hay stack) brimming till the seams.

Spotted at Poonamalle High Road, Near Aminjikarai.

We miss you

I’m not going to beat the same tune, about how it affects the environment, on how it effects the imbalance of Nature etc. when we cut the tree’s or kill the nature for our own gains. But its for every one of us to do more than our bit (as many pour water instead of milk) to the Nature and stop people from culling the trees, stopping the nature from living & thereby help ourselves for a better earth.

Feb 1st being the Theme day at CityDailyPhoto, and WOOD being the theme, i’ve resolved to do more to the Nature than just writing this Post in this Blog. Will post about my completed activities soon here.

Check the WOOD from other Participants.

People, Week 35

The Young enthusiast of Tennis, from the recent Chennai Open 2010. He had come with his friends to watch the semi-finals between Marin Cilic & Janko Tipsarevic.

Camaraderie

A bunch of kids coming back from their evening games from a nearby sports ground. These years of age are very happy and care-free and they seem to be soaking in that spirit & some juice in hands. :)

Entry?

The State Highways have started the refurbishing of Road Signs like Stop, One Way, Round Ahead, Pedestrian Crossing etc, from the Random / Adhoc colours & symbols used to the universally accepted colours/reflectors and signs in a phased manner in the city. This uniform change should help everyone access and understand the directional signs easily.

Will post the new sign soon …. Hopefully the poster boys don’t find these an easy target for pasting their advertisements.

Route Maps

MTC (aka Metropolitan Transport Corporation) Buses has been replacing their fleet with new Buses (with amenities like Low Floor for ease of access, Easy Grips to Hold, Bus Route Maps etc.). Though such amenities are a mandatory & necessity nowadays, its just showing up in the recent fleet of buses.

One such route map in a Tambaram to Parrys Corner Bus.

People, Week 34

Sureshkumar is employed in a Juice shop at Pondy Bazzar near the HP Petrol Pump (opp Holy Angels School). He’s come from a village near Cheyyar (Kanchipuram Distt.) and has been employed for about a year there.

Busy eating …

….. Banana’s with her Dad. This young kid (like many of us) should be loving to just sit idle on a Sunday morning in a temple along with her father (after worshiping the god’s in the temple). Its great fun and definitely nostalgic seeing this, as i used to go Karumari Amman Temple twice a month on Sunday’s with my Dad & Sis in Thiruverkadu. Buying Laddo’s / Adhirasam etc (after pestering my dad) at the Temple prasadham shop and having them there (obviously fighting over the share with sis) are real fun.

This scene was at Karaneeswarar Temple, Saidapet.

Cover the precious metal

Not everyone could afford Gold / Precious jewelery and even the one’s who could afford would need quite a bit of variety to be available with them for usage in occasions like office use, parties, ethnic wears and many such reasons and needs. There comes the utility of fashion / Fancy jewelery or famously called "Gold Covering" (as it implies its just the gold coloured covering / coating on the metal jewelery), these comes in quite an array of designs & uses and obviously at a pocket friendly price.

Doesn’t this shop’s name remind you of a famed TV Channel in South?
Off Pondy Bazaar, T Nagar.

Whose the Bride & Groom?

The marriage season has started after a lull of Margazhi ( மார்கழி, the tamil month), the important part for many of us while attending these wedding receptions (normally in the previous evenings of a marriage itself) apart from knowing the Marriage Hall’s name & Location, is the Name of either the Bride or the Groom’s name and to be spotted in the hall (as many halls are having multiple marriage halls inbuilt). Its necessary to avoid embarrassment in getting into a wrong marriage :) .

These ornate, decorative fixtures in front of the halls carry the Bride & her Groom’s name in large fonts and also near it, at a similar size, the parents names to make it easy & helpful for many guests coming for the wedding and to reach the right wedding.

Ripe age ….

…. the buildings / public utilities are yet to be Old age / Differently abled friendly to access. The ramps in the frontal of any new construction are just not enough, it should be kept in mind in the toilets, other spaces of the public buildings.

An old lady resting at a Church in Perambur.

Vanishing piece of an home

Once an important location of a home, the Thinnai (aka the front portion of an house to allow people sitting/ some times sleeping), now fast vanishing as an build item in many homes. The Thinnai (in Tamil திண்ணை) was a place where some passersby can stop by and relax from the hot & humid climates, the house owners can sit and engage in conversations with his neighbours and many more such social engagements. Now obviously vanishing, was very happy to see such an home with Thinnai in Mylapore. At a lane off Sundareswarar Street, Mylapore.

People, Week 33

Natarajan, a Goldsmith by profession. He’s doing this profession since completion of school. Hailing from a family of Goldsmith’s he’s also taken into the same profession. His shop is located at Mundakanni Amman Koil street, enroute to the Thiruvalluvar Temple.

Tower Business

The business of Towers has come a long way in this cellphone loving country. First it was just the operators who started installing towers and used only for their purposes on connectivity. Then they started sharing their towers with rivals and making some rental income out of it. Now most of the operators have either spun of the tower business separately or joined hands with rivals to form a tower company and competing individual tower infrastructure firms. Like any other business there is also consolidations and buys/sales in this too, like the recent announcement.

These towers are a visible phenomenon in the Chennai’s skylines & roof-tops, like this installation.

Influence

This was once a very famous building during my school days, as it housed the JOY ice-creams plant by Sivitha. Like bee to honey all school children were always drawn to Ice-cream places. Now the plant has given way to this new All Glass building by a Toughened Glass manufacturer. It houses a Spa & a Restaurant (designed by a famous designer) in the lower levels.

At Poonamalle High Road, Egmore junction.

Bogi

Bogi Bonfire is an essential part of the festivity, Bogi is celebrated as a thanksgiving to Lord Indiran, the rain god. Bogi bonfire is made of the unwanted things which have been removed from the home for whitewashing and the same is burnt before the Pongal day, with the help of wooden scraps & dried cow dung.

But many in the city, without the background knowledge on the actual festivity burn rubber and other pollutants. This marks (or mars) the bogi day with heavy smoke and polluting the air.

Happy Pongal (Sankaranthi, Lohri) to all.

Cable TV

The Cable TV scene in Chennai is skewed to a very few (read one or two) Master Operators who supply feed to smaller cable TV operators in any neighbourhood and who in turn connect an home with the Cable for TV channels and do the maintainence & collection of monthly fees.

Many operators indiscriminately hang / run the cables like shown above in trees and thereby harming them.This was shot at Kothari Road, Nungambakkam.

Sweet Tooth or Sweet Mouth?

Ramakrishna Ramkrishna Bhavan sweets is one of the older sweet shops in the city of Chennai. My fond memories of their products are when my father used to get their sweet boxes for Ayudha Pooja celebrations from his Factory.

Also the Central Business District was in Parry’s Corner till a few years back and now moved away from this Chennai 600001. This is also a reason for many not going all the way to Parry’s from their suburb homes to buy sweets.

Juicy Chicken

Obviously its lip smacking (except for a few grass eating vegetarians like me) for many, the chicken in full is undergoing here the transformation to light up everyone’s palate. The taste is definitely with the indian spices fully transforming the chicken to an edible & a delicacy for many.

At a fast food joint at 11th Main Road, Anna nagar.