Kathipara junction - Sept 2008

New Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Complex designed by German Architects

german-info.com Reports : German Architects design Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Complex

German architect GMP has won the provincial government of Tamil Nadu’s international invitation to tender for the design of the new state parliament building in Chennai. The project is due to be completed by 2010.

GMP is a united venture of Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg, who have planned and realized buildings in almost all major cities in Germany. The duo is famous worldwide for their magnificent designs in countries like Russia and China.

The design of the parliament building takes account of the state's cultural traditions as well as the urban context of the city of Chennai. With its highly visible dome, the design echoes the structural features of Dravidian temple complexes in south India.

The geometry of the complex’s structure is derived from the traditional, round chakra or mandala motif, consisting of circles of various sizes inscribed in 36 isosceles triangles. These basic shapes make up the geometrical structure of the entire design in both ground plan and elevation.

The internal plan features courtyard architecture with five round interior courts that are functionally differentiated, creating public, semi-public and also secure internal areas.

The spacious Citizens' Forum on the south side of the building is created by the largest circle in the mandala. It is both the opening towards the city and the entrance area, with public functional areas.

The three other round courtyards in the interior of the building house the Assembly Hall, the Legislative Assembly Chamber and the Convention Hall.

The state parliament rests on a battered plinth and is landscaped all round. The glass dome over the Assembly Hall marks the seat of the Tamil parliament.

Also See : The Details of current TN legislative assembly complex - THE FORT ST. GEORGE

Delhi beat Chennai by -1 runs?

Yes, thats what the IPL's official website said (at 7:40pm) about the match (delhi daredevil vs chennai super kings, 8th may), which was a thriller, won by chennai in the last ball. Even though plenty of money has been poured in this event, they couldn't maintain a decent web site. Of-course we can't except more from a politician run BCCI!





[update: only after an hour (at 8:30 pm) the website got updated correctly]

Importance of good leadership from IPL

Aril 28, 2008 - Bangalore Royal Challengers v Chennai Super Kings, IPL, Bangalore

After 15 overs,
Chennai Super Kings - 102 for 3
After 11 overs,
Bangalore Royal Challengers - 102 for 2 (way ahead of chennai's RR)

But the match result

Chennai Super Kings
178 for 5 (Dhoni 65, Hussey 47, Zaheer 3-38)
beat
Bangalore Royal Challengers
165 (Taylor 53, Jaffer 50, Gony 3-34)
by 13 runs


Its the most exiting match in the IPL and a good example to prove the importance of leadership.

Dhoni has proved his ability to be a captain. He has the right aggression, attitude, motivation and most important 'leads by example'.

Even being former national team captian Rahul Dravid, in my views, lacks the agression and leadership qualities thats most needed in cricket now-a-days.

This is the very reason why, even being the most favorable team in teh IPL with all heavy weights, Hyderabad's deccan chargers are also failing. This proves how captainancy affects the team's performance.

Only if we have right leaders, we will succeed.

No more - I know, I know, I know,

Just a month later I was reading a article in ‘the hindu’, "An enigma called Raghuvaran" and was amazed with the casual response and way that article has been done. Raghuvaran was my favorite villan. His role in Basha and his dialogue in Puriyaadha Pudhir (i know, i know, i know about u) are my favorite. He has a great potential. What ever role he does, he does it to the prefect, but not much celebrated for that.

Today in the same hindu i read:

[Hindu] Veteran actor Raghuvaran passed away in a hospital here on Wednesday morning following a brief illness. Raghuvaran, 60, is survived by his ex-wife and son.

It’s a great loss to South Indian cinema industry. It’s hard to get a person like him, who’s a storehouse of talents. God bless his soul!!!

Raghuvaran (December 11, 1948 - March 19, 2008) - RIP

Tragedy behind International Women's Day

There are lots of celebration going on for international women day across the world. Even the local politicians in chennai try to get full advantage of women vote bank. The Tamil Nadu govt. officially celebrates this day only after 2005 and also has govt. policy for that :

The statue of Avvaiyar is being garlanded on the International Women's Day, the 8^th of March every year in appreciation of the services of Avvaiyar for the cause of the feminine community

The history behind these celebrations seems to be a tragedy. This day is to commemorate the "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire" tragedy, which took death toll of 148 women and also triggered mass protect for women safety in New York City.

IPL : Is this for a game?

It's a new avatar of Indian cricket, innovated by our own people. Thanks to pawar and co. for floating out this league and selling out our sporting heroes like prostitutes.

There's no doubts that BCCI is getting richer because of this IPL, but there are certain things that come up in my mind

1) Is IPL over-hyped, as done before by its contender ICL
2) Are Indian people ready for soccer league type of sports
3) Why BCCI has floated this type of league, only after rival ICL
4) Is BCCI really concerned about the game or it's only on the money
5) Why Lalit Modi, chairman of IPL, partied with King Khan the day before the auction
6) Why players like Ricky Pointing and Shoaib Aktar are sold to king khan for cheaper rates
7) Is Dhoni worth for 6 cores
8) Why Chennai IPL team copied the 'Super' from the ICL team (Super kings from Super Stars)
9) Why can't Chennai IPL team choose a good title/ name (Super Kings sounds like Filter Kings cigars)
10) Will IPL make way to more betting and match fixing

It's clear that, more than the game, its money and media power that rules.

Ippadikku Rose : Hats off to Vijay TV

As always innovation is the mantra of success for star vijay tv. After successful programs like 'Super Singers', 'Jodi No.1', 'Coffee with Suchi(Anu)', 'Jillunu oru joodi', 'kadai alla nijam' and daily sops like 'kana kanum kalankal', 'madurai', they once again break thru the barriers for an wonderful initiative through the show Ippadikku Rose.

Even though many of its prime time shows are ditto copies of their sister channels in star network, this i think is only one of its kind. First time in Indian media a transgender person is anchoring a TV show. Imagine a Transgender person anchoring a show exclusively for the so called conservative and very reserved type of society, the Tamil speaking people. Good to know that, at-least now they get recognized in some way.

Hats off to vijay tv to take such an initiative. As quoted in New York Times, Pradeep Milroy Peter, who leads programming, says its very experimental.

“We don’t know how much acceptance there will be,” “We are crossing our fingers. The market has a craving for talk shows, but this one comes with a difference. It’s very experimental.”

It's true, that acceptance of people like rose is more difficult, even in our modern society. The article quotes that reality

Hijras appear in positive roles in Indian mythology, but modern society has tended to be less tolerant. A majority are shunned by their families. Many find it impossible to obtain conventional jobs and turn instead to begging and sex work for a living.

But, Rose (used to be known as Ramesh Venkatesan) was so confident

“Transgenders in India are seen as immoral and evil,” “I will break that image by being articulate, intelligent and a bit like the girl next door.”

Hope this show gets all the attention it needs to get.

Related Blog Post : Ram Viswanathan

[Video News] Traffic Blockage at Anna Nagar

18-1-2008 : Its morning 9'o clock, the traffic was heavy asusual near thirumangalam signal (anna nagar). Suddenly a autoricksaw was drove into the traffic (diagonally) as if blocking the road. I can see a traffic police man being seated inside the first auto and it was pushed by the drivers. Following that 3 other autos joined in one by one, which made the whole road blocked for nearly 15 mins.





Later some traffic police officials came to spot and cleared the traffic (in the video). The reason being the traffic police man was demanding bribe from the autos being parked near thirumangalam bus stop and the drivers were protesting that.

[Photo News] GPS Tracking Device in MTC Buses

Recently i was traveling in MTC bus 70 route. i noticed something sticked to the front glass shield of the bus. I could easily judge it as most recent govt initiative of GPS tracking of MTC buses.



When i asked the driver he was saying "Ithu meyla irukirathoda (satellite) connect panni irrukanga... vandi enga pooguthunu TV'la watch pannitu irrpanga. enna perunu theriyala"

[Cover Story] MTC travel costing a rupee more

Now, traveling in MTC is costing more for me

As a regular passenger of chennai's MTC , now a days i am spending more for the ticket fare. The reason is not a hike in ticket fare but the addition of different types of bus services . For my daily commute to my office in guindy I usually take the 170c bus service from anna nagar west, which used to be a white board costing Rs.4/- between anna nagar and guindy. Now i am wondering why the ticket fare is a rupee extra (Rs 5/-) for the same distance.

Many of us can think what matters if the ticket is just one rupee extra, but that 2 rupee extra for to and fro ticket adds up to Rs. 50/- monthly, which really concerns people who travel regularly. Anyway i was very curious to know why the ticket is costlier now. The MTC website shows up a different service called "M" service, which has flat rates of 3,5,7 and 9 which i think is the reason for this. The next day i could notice just a letter "M" added in the white board as "M170c". This is really clever that most people wouldn't notice this letter added, as usually people board the bus looking at the color of the board and they have to pay a rupee extra.

Adding up new services is surly a good move, but they shouldn't have reduced the regular services. I could see more yellow line and blue line buses, which costs double than the regular service. Making these services more frequent in peak hour would obviously make more profit to MTC, but puts the burden on the common man.

Instead of directly hiking the ticket fares they have reduced the regular service and made our traveling costlier.