Kerala - Kochi   

Reporter's Diary

The `historic' arch, or what remained of it, at North Fort Gate in Thripunithura was unceremoniously pulled down by the municipality, ending a long suspense.

A debate is on now whether the civic body did the right thing in removing the remaining parts of the broken arch, which was knocked down by a speeding private bus some months ago.

Now the road has become smoother for traffic but the people are apprehensive over the announcement of the municipality that it would put up another arch at the place.

What the authorities have conveniently forgotten is the fact that the arch was of historical importance and was of vintage heritage value while it stood.

That it is an anachronism in the present times is completely glossed over. It takes some effort on the part of the public to din into the ears of the powers that be that real heritages are not made of brick and mortar.

To quote a local resident, "the heritage is the idea behind the physical heritage which we have to understand and improve upon and not just imitate and repeat." He points out that if a new arch is to be built in the place of the old one, a concrete structure will come up. Will a concrete arch be a heritage, is his pertinent question.

He goes on to ask whether the old arch, while it stood sentinel to the town was a real heritage. The semicircular arches were made obsolete by better and stronger peaked arch of the Gothic variety. Why bother to rebuild an obsolete inconvenience on the road, is the poser. Is anyone listening?

Is Kochi getting used to the absence of the long-cloaked Nawab Rajendran on its streets? It appeared so when the Naitika Samvadam (Ethical Dialogue), a quarterly publication by the Human Rights Forum brought out its edition on Nawab Rajendran on Monday.

Not more than 20 people were present at the courtyard of the Ernakulam Public Library. If the number of mediapersons drawn by the presence of big names like the former MP, V.M. Sudheeran, former judge of the Supreme Court, V.R. Krishna Iyer, and M.K. Sanu, critic, was to be taken off the total attendance, there was hardly any left. Surely, Nawab deserved more.

The latest edition of Naitika Samvadam adds nothing new to the legend that Nawab is. It only rewinds the memories of those who had travelled with him along the alleys of jurisprudence. Nawab was, still is, much more than those memories.

Almost all the speakers spoke about Rajendran's last wish to have a fully-equipped mortuary at the General Hospital. The untiring advocate of civic rights had donated the award money from the Manava Seva Award for this cause.

However, a district administration lost in the labyrinthine bureaucracy and callous society are obstacles enough, say those like T.A. Ramadass Menon, Rajendran's brother. They are also trying to revamp the defunct publication, Nawab that became synonymous with Rajendran.

Projects come and projects go, but there seems to be no end to the water-logging of Kochi roads once the rain comes down. The unexpected cyclonic showers that have been pouring down for the past two days have once again left the city streets deep under water.

Endless rounds of debates and discussions have taken place on how to tackle the water-logging of many `problem areas' in the city like the Kalathiparambil Road, the KSRTC Stand, the Paramara Road and many other spots.

But nothing much seems to happen, since these areas are flooded invariably during every rain.

This time, the problem was worse in many areas as many of the drains were covered with slabs, without adequate provision for water to flow into them. On many roads, heaps of granite left over from the tarring work too caused the water levels to rise.

In West Kochi, people say that the water had risen to the highest level in the past 15 years, submerging many compounds. Moreover, the overflowing drains are the breeding grounds for many a disease in the city.

Anand Haridas and

Renu Ramanath

By K. Venkiteswaran, Anand Haridas and Renu Ramanath

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