It had all the elements and the structure of a good drama. A good plot: Hogenakkal issue. A theme: the ownership or title over the place. Dialogue: Yeddyurayappa, Karunanidhi, S M Krishna, Audience: the citizens of TamilNadu and Karnataka. Focus: drinking water scheme. Tension: at the border. Mood: ever changing. Roles: mostly double roles. Exposition: Yeddyurayappa and company landing at Hogenakkal. Rising action: T R Balu and S M Krishna meeting the PM. Confrontation: Karunanidhi�s utterance; SM Krishna terming it provocative and Karunanidhi�s denial. Climax: TamilNadu Assembly passing a resolution; show of solidarity by Tamil film actors and actresses. Anticlimax: Karunanidhi�s call to put the issue on hold till the Karnataka elections are over. Now, we will have to patiently await the final resolution of the plot.

The Tamil Film Industry�s day-long fast in support of the Hogenakkal Drinking Water Scheme naturally attracted the attention of the Chennaiites. The actors were seated in the shade of a Pandal, whereas their fans were found standing all day under the scorching sun. Police had to use the lathis to regulate the surging crowd. Rajnikanth, hailing from Karnataka condemned his native state and its leaders. Some of the actors, notably Sathyaraj did cross the limits of decency in attacking Karnataka.

There are judgments and judgments. Some are unique. Some are down to earth. Some are landmark decisions. Some are out of the ordinary. One such was delivered by the Madras High Court last week. The �C� Form Licence of a Cinema Theatre of Thirukoilur was suspended for ten days for violation of one of the conditions stipulated in the licence. The matter came up before the High Court, which directed it to pay Rs. 36,000, being its profit for nine days � it had been closed for one day � to two charitable institutions run for the blind. That is a good decision, milord!!!!

The Hindu had carried some hitherto unpublished Letters to the Editor penned by Mahakavi Subramania Bharati in the 1910s. A Hindu reader T S Pattabhiraman from Coimbatore has written to the paper that 'many would be surprised to know that Bharati was the editor of Bala Bharati, an English monthly, founded by the renowned Dr. Nanjunda Rao. Bharati�s mastery over English is nothing surprising, as he was inspired by P.B. Shelly, John Keats and Walt Whitman, and he called himself Shelly Dasan. In 1902, he created a Shelly fans club in Chennai.'

Srinivasa Kalyanam, organised by the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam in Chennai on Sundy drew a crowd of over a lakh. Hope, many of you would have watched the live web- cast of the Celestial Wedding in Chennaionline. For those of you who missed it, Chennaionline is trying to carry a video-link.

The one way traffic regulation, introduced a month ago, on and around TTK Road and C.P. Ramasamy Road has been lifted. According to the police, the implementation of the system required further study to bring about improvements and hence it has been decided to revert back to the old system. The Police could have carried out a detailed study before coming out with such traffic changes.

Tailpiece: �The export Licence of Krishna traders have been temporarily suspended and the goods from our Mumbai, Kolkatta and Jaipur office which are to be exported to the countries like Germany, Japan had been cancelled. Because of this, we are not in a position to pay our dues in the market and also not in a position to pay salary to our staff. To clear our dues without further delay we have decided to sell these goods at a very low price without considering the loss we are going to incur (sic).� So ran a quarter page ad in the local English and Tamil papers on Sunday announcing the sales of imitation jewellery worth Rupees One Crore in Chennai.

H.Ramakrishnan