Shifting sands
From the War Memorial right down to the lighthouse by the Gandhi Statue, the Marina beautification project has been at it for the past year and more. It was supposed to have been completed by end of January this year, but I suspect it still has a bit more to run before one can declare the Marina Beach 'beautified'.
Not that the Marina needed 'beautification' in the manner determined by the Corporation of Chennai. All it needed - and continues to need - is the deployment of public amenities in large quantities, to make sure that there is no litter clogging up the beach. Of course, controlling the indiscriminate spread of makeshift stalls and other commercial ventures on the beach would also go a long way in the beautification.
But, until people realize that there is a beauty in letting things be, machines like these will keep ploughing the sand this way and that to create the artifice; they forget what John Keats said,
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