One aspect of Chennai that I would like to change

This post is part of the blog tag titled, The CBC Tablog - 2, where CBC stands for Chennai Bloggers Club. About 30 bloggers from Chennai are participating in this blog tag where everyone will write about their favourite city Chennai and what aspect of the city that they would like to change. So here's my post for the CBC tablog - 2 titled, 'What Aspect of Chennai that I Would Like to Change.'


Every city has its own charms and challenges and Chennai (Madras) is not an exception. As much as I like the city, there are many aspects of it that I would like to change. One unchangeable aspect is the weather, of course but in this post, I wouldn't waste me time discussing the unchangeable.

I would like to change the lack of green lungs in the city. As the city is expanding and accommodating a diverse range of people from various states and countries, it is losing out on green spaces which provide a certain calm to the eyes and also a healthier environment to the residents. Summer along with perspiration and fatigue, which is a constant in this part of the world is at its peak between April and August and if the city has parks and garden spread out in different strategic places, the residents will be able to cool off and socialise in the shade of the trees and the space of a park. Chennai does have some parks dotted in some places but that alone isn't enough for the ever-growing population.

The Municipal Corporation should identify many such places where people can gather together and find some fresh air to breathe and space to spend time without having to think of power failures and aircons. People who like reading books should be able to pack some food and park themselves on a bench and enjoy their book along with occasional sights and sounds of the surroundings.

The parks could also have small kiosks selling juices, icecreams. coffee and sandwiches. I'm sure people would flock to buy themselves a small snack while they socialise and enjoy their books or solitude.

The garden/park culture should catch up in the city and become a vital aspect of the city's map. I hope this dream of mine comes to pass in the near future.


This post will be succeeded by Kaushik Govindaswamy's post. Kaushik blogs at Words & Lines and is quite a sensitive and creative young man. The logo for this Tablog was designed by him and one look at his sketches and designs will sure leave you interjecting in appreciation. He recently successfully completed the A-Z challenge in Blogging with a wide range of interesting posts. I wish Kaushik all the best for his blog and his drawing.

There is comfort in routine

When I finally got hold of a real computer (not internet on my wee but smart phone), a thousand ideas for posts came rushing in from various crevices in my mind. I had great difficulty in taming them lest they confuse me thus leaving me with no tangible post. I realised that my earlier routine was to post atleast two to three posts per week but now I have no choice but to post either once in two weeks, or sometimes even once in three weeks. The reason: I have adjusted my routine without computer or internet and so getting ready to go out to the browsing center seems a shift in the daily routine. Of course, I have the eternal tug-of-war between the mind and the body; my mind nudges me everyday to leave home and go to the browsing parlour but I conveniently ignore my mind's nudge. The mild nudge slowly becomes a powerful sounding order to which also I turn a deaf ear. It seems unbelievable to think that life was quite different three months ago.

Inspite of welcoming change and newness, there is a certain comfort in routine. I agree that the safe zone of routine becomes stifling at some point, but still routine is something that makes me feel just fine. But this routine was a change before three months  . . . perhaps there is no routine without change! But why does everyone choose to blame routine? How long does it take to make the change into a routine? I (and many others around me) crib about the same old routine but we don't realise that this routine is a result of a change that came upon us after we decided to end a routine. The routine which is now mine was unthought of before three months and at that time if anyone mentioned, How would life be without internet? I would have said, No way. But here I am sitting smug in a routine that has made me so lazy that I refuse to leave the house to do something that I most enjoy doing! Phew! As I write this, I realise that inspite of not welcoming the change, the change came and inspite of resisting the change, I have made it my comfort zone.

Well, this hide-and-seek game of change and routine lies close to each other and it does not take long to make the change into a routine. After all, humans are adaptive to anything and no matter what the change, a routine is sure to follow. Perhaps, it is wiser to introduce change before the routine sets in but how is that plausible.

So, how goes your routine? Any changes needed!?!?

Image: Internet

How long?!?!?

The day someone advised me to save water (now, this is a very long long time ago), I started using water judiciously. Inspite of sometimes spending that extra little time gambolling in water, my guilty inner mind quickly makes me come away. Somehow the thought, "What if the water table depletes and invariably my action was one reason for the depletion" causes me to save water in whichever way I can. But I cannot help thinking, How do I know that my small actions of saving water are indeed useful? Am I validated in my saving water? How long should I do this? While pondering over these questions, I don't seem to get any plausible answers.

The same goes for saving paper, power, etc.. Somebody told me that any plug shouldn't be allowed to remain in the socket after use. I religiously follow that advice till date. When I try to pass on the information to my cousins and friends, they laugh me off. The very sight of chargers clinging to the sockets after use, drives me into a frenzy. Sometimes I wonder why I do these things so very religiously. Do I do them because I believe that my small actions will bring about a change or Do I do them because I ought to do them. But the word change in this context always petrifies me. Does the change really happen? Saving half a bucket of water -- Does it bring any change at all? I can hear many of you jumping up and saying, Ofcourse, it matters but how do you know. Maybe one should just believe that it will make a change but the word believe also means that the chances are 50-50! The words believe, trust and hope have an iota of uncertainity in them. Don't they? But still we hope, trust and believe that we saving that water would help in some way. And that disconnecting that charger after use will help in some way.

It is indeed frustrating doing things that we are unsure of but still do it anyway because it seems right and ethical. Now, how is ethics connected to saving water, I wonder.

Have elements of doubt accosted you while you were just thinking that you will spend an extra five minutes in the bath allowing yourself to enjoy the water? Please assure me that I'm not alone in thinking so.

Image 1: Internet
Image 2: Internet

Expecting changes

I have just returned from a class. The students seemed to be in a hazy state of mind and looked at me blankly when I posed a question to them. The question was: What are you expecting from this year? Save one student, all the others stared at me as if I had committed a great earth-shaking blunder. Well, I was completely amazed. One student even told me: I expect nothing. Well, here I am trying to be as normal as possible after coming back from a two-week break and putting on my best smile and trying to initiate a conversation.

Sometimes it so happens that every day passes off as something similar. A new year is not seen as something to look forward to and it passes off as boringly as the other days. I guess it's very easy to be cynical and try acting as if nothing matters. It does take an effort to expect something with the breaking of another new year. Afterall, we are getting another chance to repair the past where things weren't as favourable. Maybe everything was perfect in the bygone year and hence one does not feel the need to expect anything.

There were years when I was a cynical being. Trying to be a killjoy when someone announced a birthday or a new year wish. I completely wiped the joy that was vibrating from the individual. He/she was subject to my theories of nonsense and only after I released my dose of vitriol, would I let that person go. Now, when I look back, I regret those moments and times when cynicism took hold of me. That is precisely what happens when one reads too much of newspaper. Then one day, I stopped being cynical. I started seeing the joy that these moments bring. A new year is a gift. It is definitely an opportunity to start afresh. It is a time to again pick up those bits of us which have been neglected, overlooked and abused.

Coming back to my class. I didn't want to bore my students on the morning of my first class with them, by giving them a lecture on how to expect something from the year and making it happen. Well, they will know when they have to know. Time is a great teacher, isn't it?

So, what do you think?

Image: Internet

Unawares and stealthy: Thy name is change.

Change is quite a strange creature. It attacks you but is careful enough not to let you know. No matter how much you try to understand yourself in terms of change, you realise that all that is only theory, which exists in the crevices of your mind. Sitting smug, you imagine that you know everything about change and how it is the only constant feature in life. Just the other day, I received a mail from an old friend. The person had replied to my mail after four long years! The mail also had the mail I had written. I was quite surprised to find that I had written something like that. Well, I had changed from what I was then but the realisation was like a chuckle which escapes unconsciously.

Take another instance like trying to wake up every morning for a walk. Everyday, I say to myself that I will get up the next day for a walk but the day breaks but I don't get up for a walk. Now what is so special about that, you wonder. Well, two years ago, I could get up without any effort and bang, go for a walk but now, it is no longer possible. I have become soft in my resolute. But just because I could do that two years ago, I think that even now I can effortlessly do it. Change has crept in. I pretend to be unaware. Laziness has taken hold of me. It is change, nevertheless.

I have seen that change is defined in many ways by different people: physical, mental, intellectual. Now, which one has more importance, I cannot say. But the saddest part is when does not know that she/he has changed. I felt quite sad for myself when I realised that I had changed from a person who was quite active to a person who is gradually becoming a bit slow. I know that this is something which can be changed but then, I don't worry about it as I still cheat myself into believing that "Well, so what . . ."

Sometimes, my ability to rant gets the better of me. Let me stop. How do you see change slowly spread its wings within your heart, mind and body? Do you see when it's coming or do you wonder whether it has really come?

Image: Internet