We should be able to commute by the Chennai Metro Rail in another six years, of course if the project is completed on time. It will be implemented in two corridors-- Washermanpet-Chennai Airport and Chennai Central - St Thomas Mount. The cost of this Rs 14,600 crore project will be shared equally by the Central and state governments. The project will be on a 45 km route in the city, with about 24 km of the route planned underground. Commercial spaces will be developed along the entire route, in order to make the venture profitable. The fare structure will be decided later.
After all, when you are waiting for something good, you can never wait too long.
Another happy news for Chennaivaasies. The construction of the much-awaited flyover on the busy Turnbulls Road-Cenotaph Road stretch in the city is nearing completion and it is likely to be functional from next month. The 458 metre long facility is being constructed at a cost of Rs 19 crore, at a height of nearly six metres from the ground and on 12 pillars. Rs 10 crore had been given as compensation towards land acquisition for the purpose.
A bridge across the Adyar river and a road under-bridge at Saidapet would also be completed by next month. There is more news. A flyover is to come up at Vyasarpadi, at a cost of Rs 61 crore.
Don’t tell me, new roads; new ruts!
Tamil actor Pasupathy has every reason to be happy since his second Malayalam movie Vairam is a box office hit across Kerala. And, I am a fan of his. In a recent interview he said he did not aspire to become a `star' and would rather want always to stay in the limelight. He is happy if people called him a good actor.
In Vairam, he has dubbed for his role. The actor said he was initially hesitant to dub for his role, but managed with the support of film's crew. "Even now I am not comfortable with Malayalam. When you see the film, you will understand whether I have spoken Malayalam or spoken Malayalam in Tamil. I have put in maximum effort for the dubbing," he said. He had earlier done a small role in the Malayalam film `Big B.'
Theatre continues to be his first love. Pasupathi said he was not getting enough time to do plays now. "Definitely I will do Theatre when I get a chance," he said.
I think it was Oscar Wild who said, “I love acting. It is so much more real than life!”
Finally, life’s success depends on how you overcome your disability.
Of all the disabilities, psychologically, stammering is the worst. Or al least that is what Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan thinks. "Unfortunately, it's one of those handicaps that is made fun of. Especially kids, you can't blame them but they end up being mean because it looks funny. So the childhood of a person suffering from a problem like this is pure hell...you have to go through all those little moments of hell," he says.
He is known for his impressive dialogue delivery and so it is hard to believe that Hrithik Roshan's childhood was traumatised because of stammering, a problem which plagues him even today!
Actress Lara Dutta, who has become the latest bikini babe of Bollywood with 'Blue', says that she overcame her ‘hydrophobia’ by shooting for the under water action flick. The 31-year-old actress will be seen doing underwater stunts with Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt in the film. They were sent to Ko Samui (Thailand) to become certified divers.
"You would not believe but I was a hydrophobic earlier but after Blue I can proudly say that I am a certified diver now which is a huge achievement for me." Lara says.
As somebody put it, each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too.
A survey by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, in collaboration with Population Council, New Delhi, has brought several interesting facts on the youth in Tamil Nadu. Firstly, they are not adequately prepared 'to come of age' in a globalised economy and are poorly informed on sexual and reproductive health issues, despite being better off than their counterparts in the country.
A total of 7,996 youth, aged between 15 and 24, except for married men for whom the age limit was 29, were interviewed from every single district of Tamil Nadu.
The findings said Tamil Nadu youth say no to sex education. Parents and families influence young people's lives more than anyone else, what they can and cannot do, how much they know about sexual matters - yet they tend to be forgotten in programmes intended to address the needs of young people.
"Quite a few young men and women talk to their parents about general matters, like friends or school (61-83 per cent).
Though people say sexual and reproductive health matters are best conveyed to youth by parents, the findings show that hardly any youth had stated that their parents had talked to them on reproductive processes.
"About two in four young men and one in three young women had witnessed their father beating their mother and this turned out to be an important factor underlying violence within marriage", according to the survey.
Be not the first one to quarrel, or the last to make up!
We in Tamil Nadu are used to non believers as our leaders. (I don’t want to use the word atheists.) Our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is a firm believer. When he celebrated his 77th birthday on September 26th, he was asked how he felt. The Prime Minister said he would pray to God to give him strength to serve the people well.
It is interesting to know that far from the hurly-burly of politics, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays another role at this time of the year - a priest worshipping Goddess Durga. Pranab worships the Goddess at Miriti, his ancestral village near Kirnahar in Birbhum district, 200 km from Kolkata. “The puja is around 100 years old. Pranab’s grandfather late Jangaleswar Mukherjee started the puja. After him, Kamadakinkar Mukherjee, father of Pranab Mukherjee continued it. Pranab babu does the same. Mr. Mukherjee himself performs the puja on Mahastami puja, the second day of the four day festival, with thousands of people including villagers, party workers and family members visiting Miriti.
Rich is the person who has a praying friend and rich is the nation which has a praying Minister.
The urge to make (or break) records is in every human being. In a bid to find a slot in the Guinness Book of World Records, a woman lawyer in Salem put henna tattoos continuously for 24 hours on 121 women. With 11 KG of henna paste, she started her feat of putting henna on girls, above the age of 18. Mona Raju Vipani (35), a Gujarati, is practising in Salem courts for the past ten years. Salem Gujarati Samajam extended their support for performing this feat. Mona had already entered Limca book of records in 2007 for continuously putting henna tattoos for 12 hours.
‘You think it, I ink it.’
Recently read: James I of England (from 1603 to 1625), who was also James VI of Scotland (from 1567 to 1625) said, “He was a bold man who first swallowed an oyster.”