A Vow... and other 'rubbish' things

Someone on the web, some unknown faceless blogger picqued me (I wasn't the intended recipient of it) with a comment on how 'Indians' are so obsessed with movies and how more than half the content on the Indi-blog scene is related to cinema. Can't speak for all Indian bloggers but I sadly admit that cinema has had very high coverage in my blog (even if my previous post was on Indian Astronomy).

So, on this day, the 11th of July of 2005, I make a vow that I shall not write about cinema (and anything related to it) for one month. One whole month. No cinema, whatsoever.

*And the air rings with cries of all the Devas claiming me 'Bhishma' for my brave vow*

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I was shocked when I read this in The Hindu this morning. (You can take a Tam Bram away from India but not The Hindu from him)

It was about the garbage disposal system in Chennai and how it is touted as the model for other cities in India. While I have been away from Chennai for a long time and am not aware of improvements in garbage disposal (telephone conversations with home were limited to more noble things - like Rajini's daughter marrying Dhanush - Oh! my GOD!!! or AnandhaVikatan's review on Anniyan), I have some early days 'graphic images' of Chennai rubbish in my mind.

Foremost of these vivid pictures is the ragpicker who used to salvage everything that is anything from the concrete cylinders that were rubbish bins. (To think recycling is just that - in a more refined, more organised, much larger scale: ellam times of India).

The second image is of the housemaid flinging the plastic cover (full of yucky stuff) like a National Basketball champion. Believe it or not, 8 times of ten she used to get them perfectly outside the bin. It was another story that the bin was divinely inaccessible; what with a fortress of impregnable waste (thrown by other wannabe basketball champ housemaids) complete with a moat of urine.

Images of the reeking garbage lorry which distributed the wastes throughout the street as it travelled and the cartoons in AnandhaVikatan (or Kumudham) about it were dark humour at its blackest.

The subsequent images are less repelling - thanks to ONYX and their glow-in-the-dark uniforms.

Taking care of the environment is not a matter of choice anymore - it is an abso-bloody-lute necessity. I am glad that Chennai is on its way to fulfilling its dream of a 'Singara Chennai', if it is! (Chennaivaasigal comment seyga).

I hope we would also become 'Green' Chennai. The pollution levels in the city as I remember it were itchingly high.

Singara Chennai - here I come. In 88 days.