Sister act

A few days ago, about 14,000 km away from Chennai, a mile above sea level, history was made. A lady urged her supporters to transfer their allegiance to her one-time challenger, a man hoping to be the first African-American to rule USA; she came on pretty strongly, asking her party to make sure that the man is allowed to make history, something that she will now have to wait for her chance (if there can be one more) to do. One hopes that Hillary Clinton's call for party unity will help Barack Obama have a fair go at John McCain without worrying about saboteurs from within the ranks.

A similar display of unity was what was probably in mind when a city from the USSR became Chennai's first sister city. That was in 1966, when the Mayors of Stalingrad and Madras signed the Protocol of Friendship, establishing their sisterly ties. Since then, both cities have changed their names; Stalingrad is now Volgograd and Madras has moved on to be called Chennai. The second sister took a while in coming - it was in 1984 that Madras established a second sister city partnership. Today, Chennai has four sister cities, the two most recent being Frankfurt, Germany, in 2005 and San Antonio, Texas, USA, in February 2008. It was surprising to read that San Antonio had actually "outgunned Houston in securing a sister city agreement" with Chennai; I can't recall anything significant that has come out of the earlier sister city agreements. In fact, most of the cities appear fairly reticent about their siblings. The Corporation of Chennai website does not have any mention about its sisters; a search of the Alamo city's homepage throws up a couple of press releases about its Indian sister; Volgograd's website remains stuck in the past, continuing to show Karate Thiagarajan as the Mayor of Chennai. Frankfurt is like Chennai - no mention of sister cities on Frankfurt city's website.

Denver, Colorado, USA, where history was made on Thursday, is no exception; the city's website shows a 'City of Madras' Park. But thanks to a friend, I understand that action on the ground need not always get tom-tommed - the photograph that he sent me shows that the sign has been changed as 'City of Chennai Park'. So maybe there is a lot that is being done through the Sister City relationships that we don't get to see - and I hope we'll be able to find out what the benefits have been!

Today is 'Theme Day' for the City Daily Photo folks; there are 147 other 'sister cities' taking part in September's Theme Day. Click here to view thumbnails of all participants. Click'>http://www.citydailyphoto.com/portal/themes_archive.php?tid=7">Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Heavenly tableau

According to Hindu mythology, the Holy Trinity is the Trimurthi of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer). Having finished the business of creation, Brahma reportedly takes little interest in matters relating to day-to-day living and He is therefore very rarely invoked by devotees seeking solutions to their difficulties. That load is borne by the other two; therefore any public celebration will see Shiva and Vishnu being depicted in forms that are traditionally associated with them; Brahma gets to be seen very rarely, if at all.

These deities are regarded as having their primary abodes in very specific locations. Shiva's seat is Mount Kailas (which is probably the only Himalayan peak that has not been climbed in deference to Hindu, as well as Tibetan and Buddhist, beliefs). Vishnu on the other hand lives in the Paalazhi (Kshira Sagar in Hindi), the infinite ocean of milk, lying on the coils of Anantha, the thousand-hooded Sesha Nag (divine serpent). Brahma is content to live on a lotus that grows out of Vishnu's navel. It would be considerably difficult if you had to see the three of them together - that panorama should stretch from the high reaches of the Himalayas to the ocean of milk and then again to the lofty heights where the lotus blooms.

Not for the next few days, though. All you have to do is to go down Theyagaraya Road, towards Pondy Bazaar from Mount Road. You would have to have a will of iron to keep your eyes on the road - every passerby turns to take a quick glance at this representation of the Gods in residence!

Sheets on the street

Why at this place? As far as I can remember, this end of Musiri Subramanian Road did not have anything to do with traditional dhobies (washermen). There is no evident water source nearby and I haven't actually seen anyone doing the laundry out in the open here. These bamboo poles are festooned with various clothes at any time of the day; as they are inside a fenced area, it is reasonable to assume that they are the laundry from the hostel of Vivekananda College.

If so, why is it that every time I pass by, the laundry is dominated by white sheets? Have the hostel authorities deemed that such public display is allowed only for white sheets? And why this particular spot? Can't the sheets be sun-dried on the terraces of the hostel buildings? Musiri Subramanian Road is not exactly a sleepy little side-street, even if it is not a main traffic artery; it is very likely these white sheets would be tainted by the dust and exhaust churned around by traffic. And yet, it does not seem to affect them, these sheets remain untarnished for days.

Whatever be the reasons, it is good to see one more of the surprising reminders of something that was commonplace a couple of decades ago - even if it does not cater to the general populace!

Bar-Stool Bus-Stop

Alliteration is so much a part of life in Chennai, so I couldn't help but doing it when I saw this strip of concrete with the mushroom like contraptions on them. It is evident that it is a waiting area of some kind; but my experience of Chennai has led me to believe that folks waiting for a bus to arrive would have some kind of shelter overhead. And then I remembered all those bus-stops in the 'mofusil' areas; they are bus stops because a couple of generations have grown up putting their hand out for the bus to stop there. There are no concrete structures, no signs, nothing. Just a convenient tamarind tree by the side of the road to protect the waiting passengers from the skies above.

Santoshapuram, where I saw this, is most likely halfway house; it would like to think of itself as part of Chennai city, but hasn't yet been able to solve for all the amenties that are needed. Maybe they thought it is more important for people to take the weight off their feet - no guarantee of seats in the bus - than it is to shelter them. The budget for the bus-stop has therefore been used to provide these bar-stool like seating. Of course, people being optimists feel that it is more important to escape the sun than to rest their feet - the next bus will have enough seating, you see. And so, they find a nearby tree, wait in the shade, the bus stops there and these typewriter keyboard-like seats continue to dare you to come, sit down and feel the warmth of the sun.

Whatever it may be, there seems to be someone who is determined to make a splash of colour at this bus-stop; that orange ribbon may be eye-catching, but it certainly won't make me wish to take shelter under it!

A Retrospective

I had heard of him and there was always an intent to watch the films he had made (at least some of them) . That intent became slightly stronger after Ingmar Bergman's death last year. Not being much of a movie buff otherwise, it was rather difficult translating intent into action. This month, a Bergman retrospective began its journey to 6 cities in India; Delhi and Kolkata have been done, today is the last day at Chennai. Bangalore is next, followed by Pune and Mumbai. As usual, I got around to it fairly late; missed the first 5 days, managed to go last evening and have all intentions of going today also.

In some ways it was a slight disappointment; not the picture itself, but the whole retrospective bit. I'd imagined there would be some material about Bergman, the reason why the selection is representative of the man's work and maybe some talk about the film itself. It was however, a quick in-and-out show; fill up a form, take the pass, watch movie, return home. There were about 70 people who had turned up to watch Sommaren med Monika last evening. It was good to see people turning up to watch a film that was made 55 years ago; many of them seemed to be serious students of cinema and were bunching up together after the screening, probably discussing the nuances of the movie. It is possible that the timing of the show - 9.30 pm - didn't allow for more organized pre- or post-screening activities.

The South Indian Film Chamber Hall, where the Retrospective is being held, has given over the prime time slot of 6.30 pm to hosting a Brazilian Film Festival. I wonder if that is being handled any differently, but really don't have the inclination to sit through a screening to find out!

Skating away

Looking back at 'Western' influences of childhood, it is very difficult to think of too many that haven't grown to be part of my life today - English itself, for starters; the 'western music thing', started off by hearing The Beatles and Elvis; playing cricket on the streets; all of those laid the base for ongoing interests. "Obviously" you say, "the ones that haven't stayed on have been forgotten!": so what am I trying to prove here? Well, nothing much, if it comes to that, was trying to think of something that fascinated me as a child but did not stick on for much beyond that.

That thought was spurred when saw these children practicing hard at a skating rink at the Anna Nagar Tower Park. There were about 25 of them doing the rounds under the watchful eyes of a coach (in blue t-shirt at the right edge of the picture). In the middle was a mother, helping her child with the skates and some others who were taking a breather. Quite a nice sight, but the surprising part was that there were so many onlookers around; a few of them were the casual, nothing-better-to-do-this-evening types, but many appeared to be regulars. There were some sounds of encouragement, a discussion on the sidelines about how one of the children had improved his speed and technique. There was a feeling of a community, bound together by these evenings in the park - one of the surprising spin-offs of encouraging outdoor sports - even skating.

My attempts at roller-skating were usually on the sly upon the terrace of my grandfather's house. The rumbling of metal wheels overhead was guaranteed to get him riled up; it would have been a perfect way to wreck his mood and get him to come storming out of the house to the terrace. But the skates prevented quick getaways - the fun was to get him to chase, and never catch us!

Another day, another quiz

The contrast with a quiz that happened barely ten days ago couldn't be starker. The Landmark Quiz was held in a large auditorium, with cushioned seats, advance registration, assigned seating, coordinated lighting, visuals, slick presentations and tons of prize money. The Madras Quiz on the other hand was in a small hall tucked away inside Karpagambal Nagar, near Luz - finding the hall seemed to be an elimination round in itself, even with Google Maps. And then it was walk-in registration, find your seats, jump up to see the question on screen, have fun and fight it out to show off who knows more about Chennai - no prizes though, ladies and gentlemen, just the bragging rights.

The teams that went up on 'stage' (a makeshift platform, actually) for the finals certainly deserved their bragging rights. A tough preliminary round sorted out all those who knew only parts of the City and the teams that went up knew a lot, from the names of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, the Commissioner of the Corporation of Chennai to that of the oil tanker which played a role in resolving the fuel crisis of July 1 and the location of the PK Srinivasan Maths Research Foundation. The finals saw some stiff competition before the winning team (VV Ramanan & Ramkumar Shankar) came through with a 1-answer margin. The point however, as Vincent D'Souza, the quizmaster and one of the founders of Madras Day said, was to create an interest and appreciation of the variety that Chennai city offers.

And the variety was reflected in the events of this year's Madras Day celebrations - heritage walks, nature walks, photowalks, exhibitions, food festival, book releases, the Madras Musings lecture series - now that it is all over, I just can't wait for the next birthday party!