Long back when I was in Japan, I read a sticker on one of the six lifts in a Hotel in Tokyo: ‘This elevator will not work between 2 pm and 2.02 pm on next Thursday, in view of servicing’
In Chennai, I have wondered on several occasions if it is the Electricity Board or the Power-cut Board! Without any kind of warning, power goes off. Is there a remedy? Well, a co-sufferer moved the High Court, charging the Tamil Nadu Government with failure to ensure un-interrupted supply of electricity and at a reasonable rate and lack of drive to take any concrete effort or vision to avert the severe power shortage! Of course, when the petition came up for hearing, the First Bench said the better course would be for the petitioner V C Sankaranarayanan to make a representation before the state energy department and dismissed the petition as 'withdrawn' after the petitioner sought to withdraw it. 'We are sure that the respondents (energy department and Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) will definitely look into the representation and respond to the same', the Judges said.
If they don’t plan in advance for power generation, generations to come will be powerless.
TV is an indispensable feature for everyone, irrespective of age. The present day youth and children are being exposed to 'mind pollution' by television programmes and advertisements. 'Mind pollution' is worse than all other types of pollution. Psychologists all over the world have been cautioning that exposure to media violence and sex had a damaging impact on children, minors and youth. Parents are worried and feel helpless and frustrated that their right to bring up their children in a 'mind pollution free atmosphere' was being snatched away.
This is the gist of a PIL filed in the Madras High Court by Father Pancras M Raja and three others. The court has ordered issue of notice to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Prasar Bharati and Central Board of Film Certification. The petitioners have also sought a direction to regulate and prohibit the exhibition of indecent dramas, serials and dances by private TV channels.
Let’s hope the petitioners and of course all of us will benefit from their efforts. After all, faith will move mountains.
While on the subject of suits, let us confess that our civil justice system is slow and costly. The British Minister for Justice Lord W S G Bach, who was in Chennai recently said the British government, over the last decade, had transformed the system “to one that is both more efficient and of better quality." There are two reasons. Firstly, an excessive delay in the progress of many cases, partly caused by procedural complexity and partly by the parties’ own delaying tactics and secondly the excessive cost in bringing or defending a legal action in proportion to the value or importance of the claim.
He made another valid point. People need access to justice but not every dispute or problem needs to be resolved by a judge, he said. The best way to deal with problems "is at an early stage to avoid them ever coming to court," he said. When a problem could not be resolved by early advice the people should resolve their disputes effectively and proportionately. "So we are increasing opportunities for disputes to be resolved out of court," he said.
You might have heard this: At court there are many hands, but few hearts.
It is with deep sorrow that I read about the suicide of two school girls in the Tiruvannamalai district. They jumped into a farm well out of frustration, as their Head Master sent them out of school for having come late to school! Vendamani (14), Jayalakshmi (11) and Divya (12) of Pudur Kollaikottai village near Mel Chengam were late to school. The Head Master allegedly reprimanded them and turned them back home asking them to come with their parents. Dejected, Jayalakshmi and Divya jumped into a farm well on their way home. On seeing this, Vendamani jumped out of an urge to save them. People in the vicinity rushed to the well; but they could rescue only Vendamani.
The first thing we should teach our youngsters is: Never say die.
Temple is supposed to be a place where you should be able to offer your prayer in peace. At times loud-speakers in temples produce such high decibels that you are not able to communicate with God. Recently, loud-speakers used by make shift shops on the ‘girivalam’ path around the Tiruvannamalai temple, during full moon day to lure devotees were seized. The District Collector had ordered that no noise pollution should be allowed. The police seized four loud speakers and five fake hundials.
God speaks in the silence of the heart!
Chennaionline has completed one more year of useful service to hundreds of thousands of our readers like you, under the able leadership of our ever-green Founder CEO, L Ravichandran. I am sure you will join me in wishing Chennaionline many happy returns of the day. And, what we see today is not the fruit of chance but a fruit from seeds planted twelve years back. On the occasion of Chennaionline’s anniversary and the Teachers’ Day, ‘Open Mentor’, a revolutionary free e-teaching model has been launched. Hope tens of thousands will benefit.
Genius without education is like silver in the mine!
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Nancy Astor, the first woman to serve as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons in 1919, said, “The first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on women.”