BEEP.. I like this sound!

How many of us know that this year Tamil Nadu legislative election is going to be held? If you are aware of it then you can proceed further (you can still proceed). The reason for me to ask this question is because I met a guy, who is working in one of the top 5 companies in India. He couldn’t differentiate between Lok Sabha and state legislative election! Call it ignorance, no, call it politically inert.

Now, if you are in this second paragraph, then, it is wise for me to ask “Are you ready to cast your vote in this election”, if yes, then how do you choose the person of your choice?

Are you going to choose the person by the party which he/she is going to represent or by their party ideology or by the caste of the candidate or the money which they are going to throw at you or the charisma of their respective leaders?

Good or bad there is an election manifesto published by all major political parties before the elections. Are you going to read it before you decide which one to vote? Are you going to judge the current ruling government by their election manifesto given in 2011 elections? Are you going to weigh their past performances or going to take a fresh route by choosing a new candidate (or party)?

So many factors to be considered, why? - Because these people are there to rule the government for next five years. In a utopian state, if we are going to consider all the above questions before we cast our vote, do we have we have time? I mean not our personal time; I mean the time given for campaign.

In last elections (2011) only 17 days were given for campaigning, I bet this year we might have similar schedule. So are we going to vote just by seeing the faces of the candidates (or their leaders). In an ideal state the candidates should debate in and out of the issues and the ideas, rather than throwing mud at each other.

Every time the ballot machine is pressed, there is a BEEP sound, which I like the most.

Let’s think before we leap.

CIFF - Notes from my diary

I thought not to go this time, but things didn’t turn up as expected, so I ended up in getting the pass at the last moment. For some reason, I kept self-abstaining from seeing non-Tamil-English films for past few months. There were times, when I would see 5-6 movies in a week and blog lavishly (!!!) about it. That’s like a machine, end-of-the-day I didn’t get a chance to empathize with the films I saw. Few social media interactions about the films, do fill the void, but it’s mostly a one-way communication or with no active interactions. I lost the hunger or interest. The much needed break (from seeing the films) made an impact to reboot it. Chennai International Film Festival is a place to start my innings again with a fresh guard.

Whenever someone ask me to recommend films to them, I give them few names with a word of disclaimer that I liked those films and it’s not necessary that you’ll like it as your tastes might be different. When a similar kind of discourse is seen in a film, then it is obvious that you have to like that film (assuming that I and the director\writer have the similar thought). I’m here referring to the movie- Taxi by Jafar Panahi. The crowd gave standing ovation. Jafar Panahi is a star in this year edition. The film mocks at the censorship, debates about capital punishment for petty crimes, women rights and cultural activity of pirated films. On total 82-minutes, the crowd was clapping once in 5 minutes. It’s a film which every film-lover has to see.

Swedish films aren't good only in their thrillers and psychology films, looks like they can make good black comedy films too. The title of this film created an interest in me to see it- The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. This must a European version of Forrest Gump. When I said it to an elderly film-lover the other day, he was surprised to see such a long title. I told him the story (time pass, since we were waiting for the next film to start). He felt bad that he missed the film. He said he is attending this festival for past 10 years. He asked the same question, gave me the schedule and asked to recommend good films to watch. I asked him you know Buster Keaton. He replied “who ?”.

Other notables will be Life Eternal and the biopic about Armando Reveron.

Most people felt or at least the people whom I talked felt Dheepan should have been screened in this edition. I’m sure the organizers don’t want any neighborhood political tensions to be discussed in public here. 

Venue – RKV Studio, Vadapalani is a good find. If you want to watch the film with the operator then you can head to it. People from west of Chennai can easily crash into it. Woodlands still has that creaking seats. 

RKV Studio

Rants – If people are blaming the volunteers, equally the audience should be blamed. Time and again, they are requested to silent the phones, but now-and-then an over enthusiastic business magnet’ phone rings.

Still three days left. I’ll see if I can get back with few more films.

***The heading picture is from the Bengali film, The letterbox. 50% of the crowd escaped half way through the film.

Chennai Rains\Flood - November & December 2015

Rain water has been receded. The North East monsoon is believed to be over, unless there is a sudden change in the BoB climate. Weathermen like IMD Ramanan is preparing for his retirement and Tamilnadu weathermen Pradeep John who was a household name then is slowly forgotten. We can forget everything, but the flood water mark in our walls will keep reminding us about the haunting days.

A survey done via social media crowd sourcing revels that about 60% of houses (Ground floor) were invaded by the rain\flood water at least once. Further splitting up this data revels about 24% of houses (Ground) were flooded thrice. 

Table- Number of times the rain water occupied your house (ground floor houses in Chennai) during November & December rains.

A middle class family, living in the ground floor had to spend a minimum of 5K-10K on repair or rebuying the lost things. Ramesh, my friend is residing in the ground floor had to endure the water invasion thrice (Nov 13th, Nov 22nd and Dec 1st). Water drained in one day on Nov 13th and 22nd, but on Dec 1st rain/flood it took three days to drain. 

Is Chennai so vulnerable, that its rain water drain system couldn’t handle 25 cms of rain in a day?. 

No, Ramesh’ house is not in low lying area. Their house was never flooded; he blames at  the metro road barricade (road separator) on 100 ft road and the Arumbakkam metro station which is partially built on the Virugambakkam-MMDA canal. He says the metro barricade on the road doesn’t allow the rain water to move across the road (left to right). So when one side of road is over 3 feet of water, the other side had no water logging. In total Ramesh and his family had to spend six days out of their home. He and his family had to stay in their neighbor house which is in the 1st floor. There are lakhs of people like Ramesh who got affected thrice.

December 1st – The Climax

It was once bitten, thrice shy for Chennaities. The December 1st & 2nd rains made everything\one stand still for few days. The below map will show the level (As on Dec 2nd morning) of water logging in the areas marked. Mouse over the mouse pointer will tip you the Feet (ft) – Area name (Ex – “3ft – New Avadi Road”). More information can be obtained by clicking on the location.

If you want to record your data, you can use this form - http://goo.gl/forms/KAjD2fvNyf

To access the cleaned raw data for the below map - Click here 

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** Above image and the map is by the blogger
** All data are crowd sourced via online and not verified physically. Use at your own discretion. 

Chennai Waterlogging on 2nd December