Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXV No. 18, January 1-15, 2016
Banner barriers
And so another year has ended, yielding place to new and the political class fulfils itself in many ways. The Man from Madras Musings has a number of resolutions for himself in the new year (the completion of the Chief’s assignments on time being among the first) but he also wishes that the politicos would make some resolutions, including one to that will keep the city’s pavements free of banners hailing various leaders in, it must be admitted, alliterative language but at the same time most of it qualifying to be purple prose.
As to what the reasons are for the recent explosion of banners MMM does not know, but he assumes that they are all in view of the elections looming large. If MMM is not mistaken, there is a High Court judgement against these, but then those are rarely ever implemented are they? What has therefore resulted is a rash of banners all along routes that certain VIPs in our city take when they do such mundane things as going to office, or take a flight out or return home after a short visit somewhere. MMM will not be surprised if these people have banners and posters put up even within their homes, en route from say, bedroom to kitchen or the area where they perform what are known as ablutions.
And so we are in a strange situation – the Corporation keeps building pavements, and, to give it some credit, has been reclaiming certain lost ones as well, only to have the political parties aggrandise all of them and for the sole purpose of erecting banners. Some of these have also been put up inside private properties, ostensibly with the permission of the owners. MMM spoke to at least a couple who said they protested but were informed that in case they continued resisting, they would soon see banners put up about themselves, lauding their heroism in the past tense and their pictures in the middle of two weeping eyes. Seeing the present quite tense, these people gave in, all in the interests of surviving into the future.
Someone else called MMM and asked him if he knew the whereabouts of an activist who made his name trying to regulate traffic on the streets. MMM did not know that plucky old man but he did wish others, including himself, had the same fighting spirit. He also wished that the administration displayed a greater degree of spine. After all, these were roads down which police officers, bureaucrats, the judiciary and others also travelled to and from office. Surely they would have noticed something wrong with such practices. But then not everyone relishes the idea of standing up and then being transferred to the archives or museum departments do they?
MMM would like to point out the positive side. The casuarina tree felling industry is doing well, the trucking industry that ferries these to and fro is also flourishing. So are the thugs who come and erect the banners at various places. The digital banner printing industry is booming. Ghost-writers and poets who come up with the eulogies are also now inching up the income tax slabs. Pavement work now continues unabated. Times are good for some people after all.
Reeling real estate
Those who follow these long and loquacious posts of The Man from Madras Musings (and may their tribe increase), will know that he remained holed up elsewhere during the big floods and returned only after the waters began receding. Coming back to our Ch-enice, MMM and his good lady happened to cross several flooded localities, all of them touted as prime real estate at one time. ‘Come soak in the atmosphere,’ said a large hoarding just outside what must have once been a fairly upmarket gated community. The atmosphere was pretty much soaked. Another said that the residents could view a lake no matter which side of the building they occupied. This was no false claim by the way, for the lake was really all around the edifice. ‘Ready to move in to the lap of nature’ declared a third, only nature had moved in faster and was not willing to move out. Some developers came in for considerable flak on social media, with their names and faces being put up and shamed as those who stole our waterbodies. MMM noticed that several of those uploading these details were residents of the same schemes that they were now trashing. Suddenly, the crime was someone else’s.
All this apparently, has pushed back the real estate market in our city quite a bit. MMM notices that our newspapers have indefinitely suspended publication of those attractive property supplements that sold high rise and residential schemes on lakes on the front pages and then for the sake of form threw in some small laments on the back on why we need to protect our environment and preserve our heritage. The plight of these real estate developers is even worse, MMM understands. As a great humorist wrote after a Stock Market crash, one day these men were millionaires and the next day they were selling apples on the street. He also added that several were jumping out of windows, but that MMM will not include, though in the current context, most of them did make their money building multi-storeyed structures with plenty of glass windows.
Many people who MMM knows, and who migrated to the far-flung outskirts, are now wanting to come back to the core city. That is going to cause its own set of problems but MMM will not dwell on that. What he wonders about is as to how long this wisdom will last. Consider the facts – Chennai gets a flood of this magnitude probably once in forty years. Most of our buildings last around twenty. Already there is talk that these things are but rare occurrences. So what is the guarantee that we will not be soon flooded once again, this time with advertisements, brochures, hoardings, mailers and fliers about villas in the midst of nature, gated communities boasting three bhk with own swimming pools? And, who knows, some enterprising realtors may even offer boats, or at the least life jackets, as a free add on for those buying flats.
Tailpiece
Driving down Teynampet the other day, The Man from Madras Musings saw this sign. He wondered if the temple had fallen down during the recent rains, or whether it was dedicated to a recumbent deity. On that happy note, here is wishing you all a great 2016.
-MMM