May 09, '05

Folks like me who are the core fanatics of Chennai, would fail miserably in one topic i.e. the Chennai climate, which of late had been the "hot, hotter and hottest". The Agni nakshathiram had begun on May 4th with a squall and light drizzle preceding it. This gave faint hope of having a cooler summer and as well as raising our collar against all those who complain about the Chennai Summer to say, "After all, our Chennai weather is not so bad. you see"

But the heat on Saturday really shattered all the hopes and little did I realize that all my hope would crash and tumble with a heavier acceleration to the ground. My God, what a summer it is!!! Being in the air-conditioned rooms on most of the weekdays, did not give me the chance to meet the summer.

We had been on a trip to Chengalpattu on Saturday. The sweltering heat of Chennai summer totally diminished the car AC and I really had doubts that I shall have a pronounced dehydration or that I shall see myself melting.

Chennai is one of the most beautiful cities, which can boast of having a beautiful shoreline. It is a place where people can afford to eat a meal from five to five hundred rupees. It is a city, which nurtures many industries. After all the weather had not been so bad some 15 years back. The power cuts during peak summer was always taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, I do accept that during those years, we did have some free space for the wind to move around. But why there are so many changes in the recent years. Is it b'cos of a gross fault in city infrastructure or a dearth of city planning?? Where did we fail?

Is it the recent sprout of multi storeyed buildings or the deeper search for ground water or the sudden explosion of vehicles or the consecutive failure of monsoons the reason for such a climatic change???

All I can say to end this blog is “May God save our singara Chennai!!!!”