Chennai Corner

Dying For A Walk
Several years ago, as a reporter in Bombay, I would walk everywhere, not only because journalist salaries made one scrimp and scrounge but for the sheer pleasure of catching the buzz of the city. Many of the books in my collection came off the pavement book shops in addition to clothes and many other odds and ends. For four years, I even walked home from work – how many people in Bombay can boast of that luxury? – all the way from VT to Colaba bus station, chatting with a friend about life, philosophy, food, films, anything. Even today the Fort to VT is a pleasurable walk, of course only if it is after sunset, because most of this stretch has been converted into a pedestrian plaza. I did a bit of walking in Madras too – as it was known 17 years ago when I lived here. One could do it because there was not much traffic, no flyovers and certainly because the roads had pavements.But not anymore. As a senior citizen, who used to walk from Spencer's on Anna Salai, to his house in T'Nagar about 20 years ago, grumbles:"I don't even walk to the grocery store". And that's the fate of most Chennaites who are dying to walk. The well-heeled hit the gym/dancing schools, some go to neighbourhood parks for their morning constitutional and the rest, even if they are desperate to walk,choose not to hit the road and risk getting killed because there is no pavement towalk in.

Life In A Metro
Greening a city is a noble objective and Chennai has a clutch of organizations whichare trying to engage the corporation into letting the denizens of this metro havesome lung space. But they are up in arms when pavements are taken over and converted into parks. One estimate puts such "pavement parks" at 300. "In the name of greening andbeautification, they are taking away space that is meant for pedestrians," says Karen Coelho of the Madras Institute of Development Studies."There is no other option but to build these parks because people often use pavements as urinals and dumping yards," says Susila Gopalkrishnan, a councilor, who had a roadside park built in her constituency of West Mambalam. Taking her cue, resident associations in some posh areas have also enclosed their pavements and thrown in greenery there, not because theyloved greening more but because they loved garbage, which is chucked wherever on Chennai's streets, less. 

A Walkathon For Walkers' Rights
Harrington Road, one of the upscale areas of the city which is dotted by eight schools along its long and broad stretch, is one of the most dangerous roads in the city today. This is the finding of Harrington Road Residents' Association and Walking Classes Unite (WCU) which did an audit of this road recently. Schoolchildren walking or cycling to their respective schools have to run a hurdle race over encroachments such as teashops, vendors selling "tuck" to schoolchildren, police booths, construction debris and material in the form of large slabs that are stacked on the pavement. Then a private hospital on this road has appropriated the pavement outside by making a park.  

The pedestrians are forced to walk on the road even as traffic whizzes by. "Fifty per cent of all deaths in road accidents are of pedestrians and cyclists. Over 44 lakh passengers are forced to squeeze themselves in a mere 3,085 buses everyday, while more than 450 new cars and two-wheelers are introduced to the already crowded roads," says Karen Coelho. But it must be said that Harrington Road residents would be part of the contributory statistic for the burgeoning cars on the road. Also, drivers of cars bringing kids to school, who sometimes double park are also responsible for many city roads turning into a nightmare when they come to pick them up.

The WCU, a research collective lobbying for pedestrian rights, organized a 6 km-long walkathon last Sunday at the Marina Beach to change the mindset of city fathers "whose plans for city development focus on the elite and ignore those who want to walk."

Celeb Coverage
Some months ago, a prominent private hospital was adding a nephrology wing. The function got up for the inauguration included many speeches by the founder, his wife, by the doctor who was going to head the new wing, and a medical lecture by a foreign doctor. But that was not all. Lunch was catered in the shamiana nearby for an auditorium full of guests. Journos claimed that the folder they were given included a hefty packet of cash and therefore, having partaken of the lunch and hospitality, they decided not to write. But with the prominent head of a big newspaper being invited as a chief guest, there was huge coverage in that daily the next day. It hardly created a ripple that the rest of the media boycotted it on moral grounds.

I was reminded of that when Bharatiraja Speciality Hospitals celebrated its second anniversary recently. They preferred to call it "760 days". They released ads including a full page ad in one of the daily newspapers. Most of the media chose to forget that Palani Ravichandran, currently in jail, for carrying out over 500 surgeries on poor kidney donors – and making crores from the rich by giving it to them – had conducted many of the operations at Bharathiraja. Soon after"Dr dread's" arrest last October, C. Natesan, managing director of the hospital, had denied his hospital's involvement, saying, "Dr Ravichandran used to hire our operation theatre for surgeries and used to move his patients within a day or two."

But why did Bharatiraja get so much coverage recently? Because it invited celebs as chief guests. "My name is more popular today because of this hospital and not because of my standing as a director," said Bharatiraja, prominent Tamil film director, who was one of the guests. Talk of humility! Poet Vairamuthu went further and called the founder of the hospital and his wife as "hero" and "heroine".

Even Apollo hospital, which celebrated its silver jubilee recently, roped in the golden couple of Kollywood – Surya and his wife, Jyothikaa (who has temporarily given up the arc lights to play mother to one-year-old Diya – for its Rose Day celebration. All the ingredients to tug at your heart were there because the couple were spending time with children undergoing treatment for cancer. There was a publicity blitz the next day.

Don't Take My Name In Vain
AIDMK chief J Jayalalitha refers to Arcot Veeraswami as the "powercut" minister, a moniker he seems to have earned in many quarters thanks to the frequent load-shedding in the city and the many hours of powerlessness in other parts of the state. When Veeraswamy was told of his nickname, his smart alec response was:"It's because she likes me that she takes my name everyday. I have no problem, I am happy."