Madras - Calcutta : Memory link - trams

This day that year is one of my favourite columns in The Hindu. It tells you about an interesting event that happened fifty years back.
Here's one that happened 55 years ago in Chennai - 1953 April 12: Madras trams stop operating.
I came across this accidentally when I was searching for a science related info on NCSTC.
I have heard about tramways in Chennai. My dad used to narrate the experience of travelling on it, just to spend the day when he was in Madras on job search. The very thought of a 'train' on rails in the middle of a road was beyond my imagination till I happened to see one in Calcutta. (We saw it on the day we stooped over while travelling to Madras from Patna in 1992!)
The bell, the overhead wires, the slow movement that any fit person could easily jump into it while it was on the move were part of dad's stories.The side story was that the buses ran on charcoal power, at that time and a very few preferred to travel by buses! Trams ran on electric power!
When I googled for more info on Madras trams, I stumbled upon this article of nice memories by R. Ganapathy. You will also surely enjoy it.

My first video post!

I love to explore any new gadget or a widget online. But, the videos on YouTube or GoogleVidoes took a lot of time to penetrate through my interests for reasons unknown.

But when I was part of a team to explore possibilities and ways to host videos online, I tried out one, to make sure that the video works online. The first and simple one was YouTube, then the Flash movie and then Google videos.
The test video is posted below.
I liked it. The chitraveena player loved it!

The Hindu - Then and now!

A year ago, The Hindu introduced the epaper edition.Registered users could access the paper for a month for free.
During Feb. 2007, the epaper announced subscription rates.

After a year, from Feb. 1, 2008 the subscription rates are revised.
Reduced from Rs. 400 a month to Rs. 150 a month! No explanations, no assigning reasons!

The reasons can be many - increased online advertisements takes care of the cost or the newspaper is aiming at more readers / subscribers or could have realised that the rates are on the higher side . . .

Indian broadsheets are on the spree of driving their subscriptions. On their print editions.
Deccan Chronicle came at Re.1 a day. Now monthly subscriptions at Rs. 50
Business Standard launched a campaign in Chennai.
Now Times of India at Rs. 350 half a year with freebies.
Should The Hindu too send out its marketing team out now?

But world over the newspapers have broken down the subscription module. The Washington Post came out for free. Why did they 'tear down that wall?'

In my personal opinion reading a newspaper online that too the e-replica is a pain. Reading the content in plain html format serves the purpose and less strain to the eyes. I get to see a few newspapers and magazines offer web extras online.
Even the Business Line from the The Hindu Group of Publications!
So, decide now to be or not to be in the subscribers' list!

Thyagaraja Aradhana - Adyar, Chennai

I am personally amused by the idea of paying tribute to Thyagaraja, one of the great composers of Carnatic music on every Sunday after the aradhana at his Samadhi in Tiruvaiyaru is over.
(Leave alone the aradhana or the tribute at Tiruvaiyaru that has become a show off these days and displays no sanctity.)

This continues till April and travels to the USA and Australia.

I see the musicians hopping across to all the sabhas hosting the aradhana week after week. Some even sit for one Pancharatna kriti in one sabha and move on to the other if there are more than one aradhana on the same day.
After all they have to show their faces and offer their namaskarams to the organisers more than paying tribute to the composer!



You are a lucky one if you had been to this place on a day other than the aradhana!

Sit on the cemented slabs on the banks of the river Cauvery, sit inside the mandapa where the composer's samadhi is situated, if you can, sing a song and pay your tribute, walk down the quiet streets of the village, have a look at the cement and mortar building that is coming up at the site where house of Thyagaraja once stood!

Tell me, if you make a trip after reading this post!

Picture caption: Aradhana held at the Karpaga Vinayakar temple in Karpagam Garden, Adyar on Fen. 3, 2008

Nature and kids

One of the treasures of this city is its beaches.
The Marina and the Elliots have different features and the visitors to these beaches are also different.
What kids and adults do at the Marina is different from what happens at the Elliots.

But our beaches do not have those trees we find on the beaches of Kerala.
So what?
Prakriti Foundation recently held the The Tree of Life festival in Chennai and kids were also part of it.


They created the trees on the Elliots beach. For the contest titled 'Nature and I'.
Many created the Fort. And a few created all the elements of nature - Sun, plants, volcanoes, rivers.
On the plots allotted to them for the evening.
I could see all-kids teams, family teams, school teams and a band of friends, a few of them were college students.
But they all were concerned about the nature.
A kid was telling me about the climate change in the North. Cold waves and avalanches unusual to our country bothered him .
A good sign of awareness.