Selfie rage takes another life: Schoolboy mowed down by train in Chennai

The incident happened yesterday evening when the boy was trying to take a selfie on the railway track, but was hit by a speeding train, which led to his death.

The victim has been identified as Dena Sukumar, a class 12 student of Poonamallee Aringnar Anna government higher secondary school.

Selfie-related deaths have continued to haunt India in 2016 as three girls drowned in sea while trying to click themselves in January this year. After the incident, Mumbai police identified 16 'No Selfie Zones' in the city in a bid to discourage people from putting themselves at risk while photographing themselves.

According to study by Washington Post, India accounted for about half of 27 selfie-related deaths across the world.

Velachery flooding 2015 a manmade disaster

During the ’70s, Velachery was a small hamlet with paddy fields and a few small industries on the narrow Velachery-Tambaram road and a few stone quarries in Taramani area. 

At that time, government proposed a 100 feet bypass road from Raptakas factory to Vijayanagar bus terminus and simultaneously another 100 feet Taramani road was planned to connect Vijayanagar bus terminus to OMR.

 

The government acquired land for these two roads during 1974 after paying compensation to land owners. However, the roads could be completed only at the end of the ’90s. In the meantime, Highways department decided to widen the Velachery-Tambaram road and made it as part of IRR from MRTS Velachery station to OMR via Taramani road, which was already developed. 

 

Velachery tank lies on the northern side of the bypass road and the entire ayacut area of this tank had already been converted as housing colonies. Surplus water from this tank runs along the bypass road and Velachery-Tambaram road and crosses the IRR and the MRTS track through a culvert to enter the Pallikaranai marsh. 

 

The delay in completion of the bypass road encouraged some people to occupy the land already acquired by government and put up some illegal constructions blocking the water course.

 

In 2002, the Highway department decided to acquire additional land for widening the road leaving the already acquired land to the enjoyment of the encroachers. Due to the encroachments, surplus water course became a small storm water drain and could not carry the entire water to the Pallikaranai marsh.

 

Immediately after the 2005 floods, an engineer came up with an idea to divert the water from Vijayanagar junction to Buckingham canal through an underground drain below the Velachery-Taramani road.

 

This project was started in 2005 at an estimated cost of `35 crore. After 10 years the estimate was revised to Rs 60 crore. At this rate, it is likely to take another five to 10 years to complete the work since the remaining work is in the toughest reach and the estimated cost is also likely to go up to Rs 85 crore.

 

The crux of the matter is, after all these efforts, they are going to land up 18 inches below the bed level of the Buckingham canal and thereby creating an avenue for another engineer to come up with another brilliant idea to lower the bed level of Buckingham canal from Lattice bridge to Adyar river at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

 

When all these things were happening, another engineer suggested construction of a head regulator across the old storm water drain just in front of the Junior Kuppanna restaurant to

head up the water and divert it to Velachery-Taramani-Buckingham canal underground drain. 

 

Since the natural slope is towards Pallikaranai marsh, water will flow only towards that direction. Once you put up a head regulator with shutters which could not be opened for three days even before completing the underground drain to connect the Buckingham canal you end up in diverting the entire water from the Velachery tank into the residential area of Vijayanagar and other colonies. This is how it all happened this year.

 

Constructing a storm water drain 20 feet below the ground level at some stretches near Taramani burial ground would cost nearly Rs 80 crore as it stands now. The expected project cost for developing Buckingham canal bed level and for other improvements is Rs 100 crore. Public money of Rs 250 crore is being wasted.

 

Civil engineering is the department which creates all infrastructure where if you do work with devotion you will end up constructing dams, bridges, buildings, hospitals and educational institutions which will be remembered by the people.

New breed of online comics

The rains are here — if there’s one thing Chennaiites agree on, it’s tucking into bed with a good ol’ cuppa coffee and a laptop. Thankfully for us, the Internet is a great source of entertainment and a laugh riot, with innumerous humour channels devoted to namma ooru.

 

If you’re looking for an example, Madras Meter’s recent video Google Avatharam, is sure to tickle your funny bone. From Rahul Gandhi to Thalaivar — it hilariously shows the popular search engine Google as different people. Let’s not stop there — other channels include Enna da Rascalas, Paracetamol Paniyaram and even popular video blogs like the ones by Syed Mohsin or Saadiya Ali. 

 

So what exactly is the reason behind this new trend? Could it be that popular hotels, cafés and pubs, which have been known to host open mics and comedy skits in the past, have begun to choose well-established and prominent comedians for their shows? It could be the reason that Kanan Gill’s show in the city recently sold out! Balaji Venugopal, creative head of Madras Meter and an RJ, has mixed views about this new trend. “I love stand-up comedy and other forms of humour as well.

 

The audience today, including myself, want instant laughs. So when I got to a show, I expect a basic quality in the humour. The brand of the comedian matters — that way, more tickets are sold. Of late, a lot of newcomers are being coupled with already established people during shows — people don’t mind that. This way, you get a holistic experience of sorts — from new people as well as the popular ones,” he says, adding that the comedy circuit is getting a lot of recognition.

 

“I do a lot of shows as an RJ and actor as well, but YouTube was a revelation. I never thought I’d be doing something like Madras Meter. It gives you so many opportunities. You can use n-number of talented people for a video,” he muses. For Jaytesh Sridhar of Paracetamol Paniyaram, calling established comedians is something organisers and hosts of events have to do. 

 

We do have open mics in the city. Many of my friends have performed at a few places in the city like Lloyd’s, sometimes every week. But there is a difference in spectrum — there are a few people who encourage such acts in the city, but there are others who don’t understand comedy. We need to encourage the positive mentality. But the fact that people have started using the online medium is a great thing to have. It brings a lot of variety and new ideas to humour,” says Jaytesh. 

 

Syed Mohsin, a popular VJ and video blogger, is pretty famous for his channel, where he performs humorous skits with his sister. While he doesn’t believe that open mics in Chennai aren’t welcoming, starting a YouTube channel is well-curated medium.

 

“I’m not a regular open mic-er, but from the third person’s perspective, I think Chennai’s scene is more than welcoming. I do believe that it gives fellow newcomers and professionals a chance,” he says. He adds that starting a channel is easy, yet consistence is the challenge, but it still has a lot of plus points that attract comedians. “One is usually an ‘all in all alaguraja’ at the beginning. It’s also safer and much more curated. You screw up a video, you can do it again and take care of it in post-production,” he says in conclusion.