Tree

Tree, originally uploaded by Harish's eyes.

This huge tree near the Madhya Kailas stop lost its life last week along with all his friends who were residing in Sardar Patel road. A very bad move by whichever authority who did this. SP road has lost its charm now. These trees at SP road formed the major chunk of greenery in the city. The trees in Gandhi Mandapam road, Kotturpuram also are victims of the axe. Just imagine how long it would have taken for this tree to grow this big. All is now gone in a day. This tree never caused any harm. Its low lying branches were cut to make way for the buses. Trimming the branches that were low would have been a better solution than cutting it. I feel most of the people will agree with me. And those who travel from this stop regularly are really going to miss it :(.

Thirsty Crow

Thirsty Crow, originally uploaded by harishkrishnan.

When summer sets in Chennai (Northies in Chennai will say it is always summer in Chennai) it always gets bad. As I saw this crow quenching (this is the word they use in newspaper always) his thirst, I felt nobody is spared.

On seeing this, I was reminded of the age old intelligent crow story, where the crow puts pebbles inside the pot, so that the low water level rises. Unfortunately there was no pot and pebbles here. Else I would have posted the same story with some original pictures

Anyway let us quickly move into some serious issue. Though nature never wanted to take revenge on its own species, the human beings, by heating the earth this way, it is all the result of the human activities. Though there are many contributors to this, one reason that quickly comes to my mind is the large number of air conditioners that are being used nowadays. (Irony is I am writing this post from my air conditioned office.)

Now the air conditioners prices have gone down and are available for many of the public. I won’t be surprised if ManMohan Singh’s government comes up with an AC for ‘Aam Admi’ or Karunanidhi giving away air conditioners as a bonus along with the Colour TV sets he has given away.

In scientific terms there is something called global warming (I passed Science exam with great difficulty and I think I left the chapter on global warming in choice) and lots of meetings and convention to discuss on this topic has been held by the scientific and the political community, the results of which are never known to the general public.

Creating awareness among the public and planting a tree will help a lot in preserving the environment for the further generations to come.

Tide(l) Park

For all those engineers in Chennai be him from whatever branch, Tidel park is a known destination.

Seems its name in English had changed for some unknown reason. The 'L' in Tidel had jus disappeared while the tamil version loyally showed the old name itself. I took this picture in the morning, when i was on my way to the office. No idea when the name was restored, but when i passed the same building the next day morning, it was the same old name.

Marina, originally uploaded by harishkrishnan.

Marina beach, claimed to be the second longest beach in the world (claimed because of an article in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Beach) taken from the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) train.

Since the same suburban train runs in MRTS too, one can enjoy a good sea breeze as the train crosses this section. As the train passes the beach for few minutes, the salt air deposits a different feeling in our face. If the train was a closed one with big glass windows for viewing, it would not have been great (Though I agree that the trains used now can be kept more cleanly).

Mask Seller, originally uploaded by harishkrishnan.

On this Sunday evening, I was returning from some place (no idea where I went), and saw this mask seller. I had seen a mask seller after a very long time and I automatically took my phone and clicked this snap. Our country has been associated with masks from a very early time.

Indian masks have always been an important part of Indian culture. This ancient tradition has been carried down through the years and Indian masks are still made today.

Decorating the Indian masks was a very important part of mask making. Eyes and eyebrows were usually painted black, the hair was made of straw and often feathers were used to decorate the mask. Masks were often made to resemble certain animals and represented certain characteristics.

The masks are still popular at the dance drama festival of Bhagvad Mela at Melattur, TamilNadu, the Dassera celebration in Northern India and also in Kathakali, the famous traditional dance of Kerala.

Apart from the above said they are mostly viewed as pieces of art and sold as wall decorations in many galleries.