For people in the central districts, the dry bed of the Cauvery River spells trouble during the summer. While the river is the lifeline for farmers in the delta, for residents of the city it is the primary source for quenching their thirst. Whenever the river goes dry, the water table across the city goes down immediately. With no flow in the river for nearly four months now, the water table has hit a low in most parts of the city. Borewells in many places are going dry while the water level in open wells has also gone down. While the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation is scraping the river bed to tide over the summer, residents in some parts of the city have already started facing problems on the drinking water front.
In places such as Ariyamangalam and a few other suburbs, public water fountains are seen crowded with scores of people joining the queue. Some enterprising youth have also started carrying water in pots from the public taps in fish carts and even vans to sell them to residents for a fee of Rs.2 to Rs.5. With a long summer ahead, they hope to make a quick buck cashing in on the demand.
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For the students of SASTRA University who were expecting former Indian wicket keeper S. M. H. Kirmani, chief guest at the annual sports day, to enthral them with his playing days and achievements, his speech turned out to be a highly motivational one.
On the role models of youngsters, Kirmani said that children and youth alike say their sporting role model is Sachin Tendulkar and they would prefer to be like him.
“Why should you be only on par with Sachin Tendulkar, N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Limited, or Azim Hashim Premji of Wipro? Why should not you all better their performances,” he said . While distributing prizes, he said ‘congratulations to the winners’ and ‘double congratulations to the runners-up’.
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And he went on to explain that but for the runners up, the winner would not be able to bring his best .