People’s craziness over buying clothes for cheap price

                -Johnpaul, Chennai

              People went crazy as the Diwali offer opened at Suxus men’s wear.  Thousands of people flocked to a cloth-store at Annanagar near Koyambedu to buy cheaper clothes.

               

Suxus Company brought the Men’s wear store opposite to VR mall, Annanagar in August. They have stores in Coimbatore, Madurai, and Kanchipuram and now they opened it in Chennai. The shop has nearly 30 workers and 5 security guards. They have always two policemen assisting to control the crowd and watch over pickpockets.

            They sell Shirts, Jeans, T-shirts and Lowers brought from various parts of India. The clothes are dumped in cotton boxes and hungover people’s shoulders as there was not enough space to showcase them. The clothes were in good branded condition and costs from 30 to 399.

             People were crazy about collecting clothes and they were not even looking at the quality of the clothes. Everyone’s eye was first on the size and later on the price tag. “I took nearly 10 T-shirts and a few pants. It would cost me Rs.10k and here I could get it for Rs.2.4k.” said a youth who mounted all that and posed awkwardly.

           

The shop didn’t have a space to walk around and people were sweating. There were six counters at the billing and hundreds of them waiting in the row. There is a two-wheeler parking and that with a single pathway used for entry and exit. This made the crowd in no way tired of buying clothes and the crowd has not reduced from the time it was introduced.

            The shop uses social media to promote their advertisements and offers. They made a huge come back through Facebook with the quote “T-Shirt for Rs.30”. ‘This is insane and I don’t need clothes, I have enough and more, young people go crazy about buying cheap items without knowing the business tactics’ said Mr. Oxide the security guard.

        

Relief from Potholes for Poonamallee - Vanagaram travelers

-          Johnpaul, Chennai

           The relief is soon as the Highway from Poonamalle - Vanagaram is now constructed on a 1meter thickness of concrete. The Highway construction had decided to repair the road indestructibly once for all after several failures of patchworks and complaints received from people.           

The highway road connects from Bangalore to Chennai city is the only road that takes container Lorries and heavy loaded vehicles to the harbour and other factories in the city of Chennai. The other roads stop in the outskirts while this one leads straight to the heart of the city. The buses from Bangalore, Vellore and slightly east-northern parts of Tamilnadu come through this way to reach Koyambedu. Loads of vegetables and fruits from various parts of Tamilnadu are also carried through this route.

            The Highway road NH4 connects from Bangalore to Chennai had damaged due to traffic signal at Vanagaram. Huge potholes were spotted on the road that created heavy traffic and accidents. The highway authority patch worked several times and the road never turned smooth. It even got worsen to create 2kilometers of traffic and dusty that people could not breathe. The Lorry owners and people living nearby complained about the situation and the Highway authority agreed to make a concrete road.           

The authority recently started to construct a concrete road to the thickness of 1meter. They dug the previous road about one meter and leveled it. The first layer of 15cm is now being laid with concrete and the next layer would be laid even stronger concrete said the constructor. There will be soon relief for the travelers as they will be making similar roads at the signals of Velappanchavady and Nazarethpet. 

53 year old subway under Maintenance

- Tharini Magesh

One side of the subway which was constructed in 1966 that is located between Reserve Bank of India and Port Trust is under maintenance work from the 14^th of this month.

This subway is the path that is used by many people who have to reach Marina Beach, Mylapore, Adyar and other areas from parry. Even the important officials who have to move from high court to any other place would use this subway. The subway was constructed in 1956 after the construction of Sub-Urban Rail routes.

Now one side of the bridge is under construction. The side where the beach road takes commuters from Parry’s to Rajaji road is blocked for maintenance. So, the buses and commuters have to use the North Fort Road to reach Secretariat, Marina Beach and other places along the Rajaji Road.

The tracks that run above the RBI subway has to be replaced due to Safety Concerns. And so, the Southern Railways has asked the police to block one side of the road. The Chennai Corporation has taken this time to relay the road under the subway entirely. The replacement work might happen for more than a month and the commuters would have to use North Fort Road till then. Around one lakh rupees is to be spent on relaying the roads on this subway now.

“This subway is important because it separates traffic from those who want to reach Beach and Anna Salai but because of this everybody has to use the same road which causes a lot of traffic” says Mani, An auto-rickshaw driver.

“In the morning the traffic becomes worse near High Court bus depot as many commuters are using this road.” Says a bike commuter.

Historical Background of the subway:

• The Name of this subway is K.Kamaraj Subway but it was forgotten by many and the then Chief Minister M. Bhakthavatsalam inaugurated it.
• This subway was inaugurated on April 29^th, 1966, making this subway 53 years old now. The subway was built with a cost of Rs.60 Lakhs at that time.
• At first an overhead bridge was proposed to ease the traffic as there would have been a need to block the road 100 times a day because of level crossing for the trains to reach Beach Station, But, then the project was changed into a subway.
• For some time, the subway was with Highway department then after 30 years, it was given to Chennai Corporation.
• The modern art that is present in the median of the subway was painted just a year ago.

Chennai and Ganesh Chaturthi

Chennai and Ganesh Chaturthi

'Military Pillaiyar'- center.

Vinayaka Chaturthi was celebrated across Tamil Nadu on Monday with religious fervour as packs of devotees went to various Ganesha temples to offer special prayers. Ganesha is known by many names including Vinayaga and Pillaiyar. Devotees went to market places early in the morning to buy Vinayaga idols made of clay to perform 'puja' at their residences for Ganesha, believed to be the remover of obstacles and provider of knowledge.

               Idols of Lord Ganesha have been installed in many places across the state for people to offer prayers. They will be later immersed in water bodies including the Bay of BIn Chennai, police have identified designated spots for immersion of idols.

             

The ganesh statue made out of Conch at Kolathur.

              Pudupet, a place in Chennai had an idol of ganesha in the form of a military personnel. They even called it the ‘Military Pillayar’. The notable instance in this idol is that the roads leading to this statue had atleast eight to ten giant idols of Ganesha which was ultimately followed by ‘Military Pillaiyar’. Even though this can be accepted to a certain level, these types of activities cause traffic congestions as the roads in Pudupet are already small.

               Meanwhile, kolathur had its display of ganesh idol made up of conches. The speciality is that every year they build an idol of ganesha using different products. Last year they made it with watermelon.

              Rally of Ganesha’s idol happened at different parts of the city.

TRUTHFULNESS and TENDERNESS changed the life of Elanir ISMAEL

- 23 July, Chennai

 “I believe in truthfulness in my work and kindness to the people which makes my life beautiful.” says Elanir Ismael who sells tender coconuts for Rs.20. Elanir Ismael started selling tender coconuts using tricycle in Ashok Nagar and today he is one of the biggest distributors of tender coconuts in the city.

        In Chennai city we can get a tender coconut not less than Rs.40. Although the famous seller Mr.Jayakumar, Owner of Chennai Elanir sold tender coconuts for Rs.18 they moved to Rs.28 due to the high demand. But Ismaeel continues to sell tender coconuts for Rs.20

          When I asked how he could sell Tender coconuts for a cheaper price, He said, “I buy coconuts from the gardens of Pondicherry, Pollachi and Theni. I don’t want to make more money using the high demand in summer and so sell it cheap for the happiness of people.”

           Today he holds a small market plaza at Nerkundram selling coconuts and Tender coconuts at a wholesale price. People regularly come and pick up tender coconuts for their family.

         The boy who worked at the shop cut and gave me a tender coconut saying, “Drink with your mouth so that you can feel the tenderness and the full taste of it.” It actually worked; I could have delicious coconut water and eat the sweetest pieces of tender coconut.

           Ismael’s father had started this tender coconut business at Ashok Nagar and Ismael handed it over to his son Anwar. This counts to the third generation working on the same business.

          The doctors advise to drink tender coconuts to prevent and heal sicknesses. Tender coconut also keeps our body cool and hydrated. But it is hard to find such genuine persons selling tender coconuts at a cheap price.

-          Johnpaul

MJ Online Media, UNOM