Let us start with good news for the Chennaiites. Yes, the much needed.

North Usman Road flyover at the Kodambakkam High road and Mahalingapuram Road was thrown open to traffic on Sunday. Let us hope this would lessen traffic bottlenecks at this important road junction. It is a two way flyover. More good news. The flyover at Panagal Park near Pothys junction will be operational by July. The G N Chetty Road flyover will be ready by October. In the next two years four more flyovers will be opened to traffic.

The writer was surprised, if not shocked to see the report of three-month jail for Dinamalar Editor and its Publisher, on the front page of the Hindu on Friday. The report carried photos of R Krishnamurthy and R Lakshmipathi, both well known and respected journalists. A Magistrate Court in Egmore had awarded this simple imprisonment on them, in a defamation case filed by a retired headmaster of a government school. Shocked, because the Hindu, known for its journalistic values and ethic would not normally bestow front page treatment to such �sensational� news.

One cannot so easily forget how the Dinamalar readily extended its unsolicited support to the Hindu when the State Assembly, during Jayalalitha�s chief-ministerial term had issued arrest order against a couple of Hindu journalists. Well. It is all in the game. However, the Hindu came out with an inner-page clarification on Saturday that the Magistrate had suspended the sentence for one month. Some small consolation!!

If not for anyone else, Dhoni�s eleven should win the first edition of the IPL cup at least for the Tamil Film Industry. This was the first of the wish list that the dream-girl of the Sothern Tinsel world, Nayanthara, one of the two stellar ambassadors of the team, made at the formal launch of the team apparel of the Chennai Super Kings Cricket Team on Saturday. The other star ambassador Vijay hoped Dhoni would repeat his 20T performance for the IPL too. Dhoni, who was in the city for the first Test match, made his stage appearance on a chairlift. The extravaganza organized by the franchise owner India Cements, had a laser show and entertainment by Vasundhara Das and Reema Sen. It was a disappointment that none of the foreign players was present. The first match of the Chennai Super Kings is on April, 18 at Kolkata,while its Chennai match is on April 24. Let�s wish CSK all the best.

The first cricket Test in the city did not evoke the usual, typical Chennai response. The city was hardly in a celebration mood. Is it because of a surfeit of cricket? And the match ended expectedly in a tame draw.Or rather, an abandoned draw.





While still on the subject of journalism, the Times of India is all set for launch in Chennai. It is reported that the Chennai edition will hit the stands on April 14. Welcome to Chennai. They have already started the pre-launch publicity campaign in style.The daily will have an invitation price of One Rupee only. The maiden issue will have a hundred- page Chennai supplement. If you see newspaper-clad youngsters dancing on the road, be certain that they are cheer leaders from TOI.

Our Special Correspondent L Ravichandran (who is incidentally the MD of Chennaionline) was a special invitee at the recently concluded Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival. The portal had carried several of his brilliant dispatches from Cleveland. Though he has gotten back, he is still there in mind. The mind�s retentivity seems to be endless.

Tailpiece: I received an SMS quote the other day. "Lincoln studied in fire glow. Mozart composed music in candle light. Galileo invented things in oil lamp. �.One question � what were these guys doing in the day time?"

HR