The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reporter's Diary

The recent announcement of the Jnanapith Award for the Tamil writer, D. Jayakanthan, has rekindled fans' memories of their association with him. One such person is D.R. Santhanam, a former central government official, who arranged for the participation of Mr. Jayakanthan in a seminar organised by the Madras Film Society in 1964.

He fondly remembers that the seminar was addressed, among others, by the noted film critic, K.A. Abbas. The same day, Mr. Jayakanthan's film, "Unnaippol Oruvan," just released, was screened at the Preview Paradise in T. Nagar. Mr. Abbas was very impressed with the film, he recalls.

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Last week, a city-based hospital launched an accident insurance scheme. Well-known actors Manorama and Vivek participated. The very presence of the two comedy actors brought cheer. When they were called upon to felicitate the audience clapped and lapped up every word the two actors uttered. Both of them talked about the chaotic traffic. When his turn came, Mr. Vivek recalled a scene from one of his movies where because of the digging up of city's roads, he does not reach the venue of a job interview. The audience clapped and cheered wildly; but did the authorities get the message?

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It was a press conference to announce the launch of another Tamil satellite channel. The Tamil Thirai channel president, Bharathi Raaja, was supposed to field questions. First question: How much did you invest? `That cannot be divulged' was Bharathi Raaja's reply. He also critically replied: "Am I standing before the Income Tax department officers?" Another query was whether the channel promoters had met with the leading multisystem operator. "We have met their people and they have assured us that our channel will be in the prime band." Most of the software and content of the channel had non-Tamil titles and when questioned about this, Mr. Bharathi Raaja said: "We have started earnestly but we need to attract people and that can be done with common worlds in English. Ultimately, our objective is to have a fully Tamil channel."

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Last week, this column had showed fruit vendors blocking traffic near Tiruvanmiyur signal point. Another resident of the city says Triplicane faces the same problem.

One can find loads of second hand two-wheeler dealers occupying not only the sidewalks, but even a portion of Bells Road for `displaying' their products. This clearly hinders traffic for vehicles as also pedestrians on this congested, narrow but busy stretch.

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For some years people in the city have become used to seeking traffic signals with red, green and amber lights powered by solar panels. Now, the police have installed a directional signal with solar powered panels on the VVIP stretch of Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai (see picture).

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For the jet setting crowd, Air India now has a special Maharajah lounge at Anna International Terminal. Located near the security hold of the terminal, the swanky lounge opened recently caters exclusively to the Business and First Class passengers of Air India. It has an Internet facility, a music corner, and comfortable seating.

The highlight of the lounge is that it has a quick shower facility, as in many other international airports. Airline officials say all this will give the passenger `Maharajah status'.

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(Contributed by T. Ramakrishnan, R. Sujatha, S.R. Ashok Kumar and T.S. Shankar)

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