Chennai Corner

Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, caught between a rock and a hard place, hasspawned a rash of fake sympathy among politicians in TN. The latest wasViduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan who went on a"fast unto death" to press for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, but happilyaccepted fruit juice from another fake sympathizer, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)founder Dr S Ramadoss, four days later while his cadre went on a rampage burningbuses. All that TN Tamils got out of all that fire and brimstone from themilitant Dalit leader is inconvenience.

AIADMK leader Jayalalitha played her own political game challenging CMKarunanidhi to make the VCK foot the bill for damage to public property.However, there was a grain of truth in her statement, "The fast neither ledto a ceasefire in Sri Lanka nor offered any solution to the problem. It onlycaused damage to public property and created a fear psychosis among thepeople".

Well, if it's publicity he was after, Thirumavalavan got reams of it. EvenRamadoss milked a photo-op out of it, fishing out his stethoscope to play doctorto a fasting Thiruma. 

Jayalalitha called the fast a "drama", the same label she gave toKarunanidhi's act of getting all his MPs to resign over the same issue lastOctober. Then there was MDMK's Vaiko who threatened to lead from the front in awar with the Sri Lankan army, got arrested and had his 15 minutes of fame.

So, in the last three months, political callisthenics have been plenty but theground situation for the Tamils in the island has not changed. Nearly 2.5 lakhTamils in the emerald isle continue to be desperate -- some 100 have managed toflee to refugee camps here -- while rumours swirl that LTTE chief Prabhakaranhas left his air-conditioned bunker with his wife and two sons for foreignshores.

Bull in a China Shop

An annual ritual that spawned much media coverage is jalikattu (the taming ofthe bulls) that precedes and succeeds Pongal. Many people died -- one estimateis 20 all over the state -- from being gored by angry bulls and in the stampedein the stands when the scared animal ran amuck this year. Last year jallikattucame close to being banned by the court till a plea that the sport was inherentto TN's culture -- it's been held for centuries -- rescued tradition but nothapless people from the sharpened horns of an angry -- and probably hurting --quadruped.

The Supreme Court had laid down guidelines including obtaining permission atleast three days before the event, twin barricades separating visitors fromparticipants, and a stability certificate (on the condition of the barricadesand viewing galleries) from the Public Works Department, the presence ofambulances and medical teams at the venue and that bull tamers should be between18 and 40. The court also said that a medical check of the bulls an hour beforethe event should be carried out so that they have no chilly powder in the eyesor alcohol in the system, both of which make them angry enough to charge at thetamers. The fact that so many deaths took place is evidence enough thatguidelines were brushed aside.

But Thanjavur's collector M S Shanmugham claimed, "Some onlookers jumpedover the barricades at Mathakottai village and were attacked by the bulls."In Ponnamaravathy village near Pudukottai, two groups of villagers clashed overthe conduct of the sport leading to police firing in the air when lobbingteargas shells did not quell them.

Jallikattu as Part of Incredible TN
When jalikattu is put on the itinerary of a foreign tourist, the AnimalWelfare Board, which has approached the court seeking a ban, can only wring itshands in frustration. More than 130 tourists from eight countries were taken toAlanganallur -- the 'it' place to go to for jallikattu -- to witness the sport.Some of the foreigners gave their stamp of approval to the sport. In the wordsof Neil Mcallister from the United Kingdom, "The only ones facing dangerinside the arena are the bull fighters and they are inside voluntarily. This isa rural tradition that has survived hundreds of years and must be allowed."Jim Levesque of Canada said that he preferred jallikattu over the Spanishbullfight in which the matadors kill the animal in the end apart from cruellyspiking it till it bleeds so that rage will make it charge. "Here, it ismore humane. Besides, the event itself is breathtaking," he said. The manmay have a point because bull-fighting -- that I unfortunately got dragged to inToledo, Spain many years ago -- is gory, stomach churning and cruel.

One More Heritage Structure Faces the Axe
Old is not gold in Chennai -- last year the stately Admiralty House vanished andthe heritage Gokhale Hall had the sledgehammer treatment till the court steppedin and now what is left of it is being saved. This week it is the 172-year-oldCentral Prison that is being turned into rubble. The 14.3 acre land, on whichthe prison was, will partly be given to the General Hospital for its expansionproject and partly for the construction of a station for the proposed Rs 10,000crore Metro rail project. DGP (Prisons) R Natraj says there are "no regretsthat it is going to be brought down because it is being put to some other publicuse."  

The prison is steeped in history -- it used to be a transit prison for thoseeventually taken to other prisons, especially the Cellular Jail in Andamans andtherefore has had among its "guests", greats like Veer Savarkar.Situated in the heart of the city, the sprawling campus even had the likes ofprominent politicians like former chief ministers Annadurai, Karunanidhi andJayalalithaa spending time here. Even the notorious auto Shankar was here.

"But the one incident that remains etched in my memory is the 1999 prisonriots in which 16 people were killed, including jailor Jayakumar and wardenNatarajan," recounted Andrews, a retired head constable, during a last tourof the precinct this week.

Hanging of death row convicts had been stopped here in the seventies and theprison itself was shifted to Puzhal after the old structure started to turnderelict.

Show stopper
A snake has given new meaning to the phrase serpentine queues on TTK road atAlwarpet by slithering down a tree every now and then for a "darshan"causing traffic to stop on this busy road. Normally traffic snarls are a commonoccurrence on this arterial road, but in the past few days, the over five footlong serpent, crawls out of a hole in the tree, to coil itself around thebranches, causing horror sometimes, and fascination at other times among roadusers. The attraction seems to be a nest made by a pair of parrots, or it couldbe just a case of no way out. The traffic policemen have had to do overtimebecause of the rush. Some days ago, the fire department came and tried to flush(animal activists, please note) out the snake with a jet of water, but the snakejust coiled up in its abode. But the strange thing is that the ChennaiCorporation has not thought it fit to call a snake catcher to rescue the reptileand consequently the traffic.