The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : What Chennai means to them

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Sunday, Feb 10, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

What Chennai means to them

Ananth Krishnan

Celebrities and Chennaiites on the plus and minus points of the city

— Photo: R.Ragu

speaking their mind: Kapil Dev, writer Shobhaa De, N. Kumar, vice-chairman, Sanmar Group, G.R.K. Reddy, chairman, MARG Group and Gopal Srinivasan, director, TVS Electronics, at a panel discussion organised by MARG in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: What is it about Chennai that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside? Is it the walk on the Marina, the music season, or the roadside filter coffee that has you hooked? Or, is it nothing at all? Are you completely out of love with the city, exasperated by the lack of infrastructure and the chaotic traffic that drives you to death?

On Saturday morning, a group of actors, sports icons, industrialists and journalists from Chennai and across the country – including Kapil Dev, journalist Vir Sanghvi, writer Shobhaa De and actor Revathy – came together to learn what Chennaiites thought about their city.

The group shared with a sizeable audience of a few hundred citizens their love-hate relationships with the places where they live, and they asked the locals what Chennai meant to them.

The answers they got were varied, to say the least, but a common theme for the morning’s discussion was frustration about poor infrastructure, broken pavements, unmanageable traffic and a growing disconnect with the city’s rich cultural past.

“My memory of Chennai is being challenged today,” complained Gopal Srinivasan, Director of TVS Electronics. “Chennai used to evoke memories of friends, coffee and Carnatic music. But now, it’s all about traffic.”

Ms. Shobhaa De, a “passionate Mumbaikar,” drew a parallel with her long relationship with Mumbai. “The character and profile of the city has changed and that is its tragedy,” she said. “We are handing over responsibility of the city to people who have no stake in it… [We have] a government we don’t deserve, and an indifferent and ignorant municipal corporation.”

Judging by the loud applause she got, the Chennai audience identified with her diagnosis. There were many complaints, both from the audience and the panel, that civic problems and poor infrastructure were souring their love-affair with the city.

The discussion quickly became an unofficial town-hall meeting. “We’ve heard the intellectuals today speak about the problems of cities, but where’s any action plan,” asked Aruna, a local resident.

The panel couldn’t offer a solution, but were ready with sympathy and hope. “Yes, there are a lot of economic, infrastructural and political issues,” actor Ms. Revathy said. “But in the end, any city is what we make it out to be. This city has such an amazing mixture of modernisation and a culture steeped in history you cannot find anywhere else.”

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