Are you a student who loves to cycle down to your school but find the city roads too difficult to navigate through?
How about exclusive bicycle tracks on the roads?
Yes, Chennai city is soon to get bicycle lanes. Chennai Corporation is planning to create cycle tracks on select roads.

These tracks will be created on roads where schools are located or on those roads leading to educational institutions.

As a pilot project the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Avenues and 100 ft Road in Anna Nagar will get cycle tracks.

Not just cycle tracks, the Corporation has also plans for walkways, drainage, designated parking areas, streetscaping,  landscaping and space for utilities to be created under this project.

"The pedestrian paths are occupied by vendors and extension of the shops. We get a very narrow path to walk at the end,"  says Manish, a student who walks to school.
"Cycling is very good for health and use of motorised vehicles will be minimised resulting in clean air and environment," opines Kavya who uses private van service to go to school now.
"If separate cycle tracks come to being, my parents would allow me to use my bicycle to school. My home is just two kilometres away from school," she is excited about the idea of bike lanes.

On the other hand, Sukanya, a mother of two school-going kids says that she is scared to see the traffic around the school just before and after the school hours and does not want the children to use their bicycles for this reason. "Otherwise, I love cycling and I want my kids to enjoy cycling. The bike lane idea, if implemented in the city, will be a dream come true, for me!" she says.

The corporation expects to receive the details of study and plans within three months after which the work on bicycle tracks will begin.

About 50 roads in Chennai city named after Britishers and other Europeans will be renamed soon. The Chennai Corporation has planned to rename the roads after Tamil scholars who have contributed to the language.

Some of the major roads identified for renaming include Greams Road, Eldams Road, Montieth Road, Pantheon Road, Sterling Road, Harrington Road and Madley Road.

A few street names like Adams Street and Erran Street are also in the list.

The announcement about renamimg of roads with colonial names came ahead of the World Tamil Conference hosted by the Tamil Nadu Government in Coimbatore from June 23 to 27.

The other well-known roads that are are in the list of roads to be renamed include Anderson Road, Haddows Road, Ormes Road, Halls Road, Landons Road, Jones Road, Burkit Road, Casa Major Road, Binny Road, Patullos Road, Whites Road, De Silva Road and New Boag Road.

Chennai Corporation has said that only roads that merely commemorate the foreigners would be renamed and roads like Ellis Road would not be renamed since the road is named after the person who had translated Thirukkural.

The corporation has been consulting historians and the residents of these streets on renaming. Historian opine that the roads named after foreigners who have contributed to the city and the society in various ways should remain and only those roads named after poeple who owned huge properties on the road or just named after the foreign officers without any history behind them should be renamed.

While the world keenly watches the FIFA World Cup-2010, a small neighbourhood in Chennai celebrates it like a festival with sweets and fireworks.

Referred to as Chennai's Brazil, Vyasarpadi in north Chennai is decked up for their favourite game football. The football fans painted their faces with images of popular football players, they even cut a cake designed in the shape of Jabulani (the official ball for FIFA World Cup 2010).

Slum Children Sports Talent and Education Development Society (SCSTEDS), which is supported by NGOs have organised a 40-inch LCD TV at the playground on the Chennai School premises in the neighbourhood to watch the games. Young and the old gather at the ground to watch the matches.

SCSTEDS is acitively involved in liberating the slum children from social evils and directs them towards a productive path through sports.

SCSTEDS operates from 227, 'B' . Kalyanapuram, Vyasarpady, Chennai-600039.
Website: http://www.scsteds.org

Mathematics and dance. Have absolutely nothing in common, right?
Wrong. This lec-dem at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, CIT Campus, Adyar on June 19, was based on the connection between the two.

The programme marked the 5th anniversary of the legendary Math educator, professor P.K.Srinivasan, affectionately called PKS.

The function began with the lighting of the lamp, followed by a speech by Mrs.Sumitra Gowtham, an associate of P.K.S and the coordinator of Outreach (The Krishnamurthy foundation). She brought back memories of P.K.S who she said was a supreme master of mathematics, and explained how he removed the fear of it among the children. Institute of Mathematical Sciences Professor, K. Srinivasa explained the various methods and different approaches used by P.K.S to help young children learn maths.

P.K.S was a Gandhian all his life and often quoted"Students are not dull, they are dulled by us." He has also written many books and was the first biographer of the great mathematican Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Then came the real confluence of arts and math. Senior dancers and musicians M.V. Narasimhachari and his wife Vasanthalakshmi presented a recital showing the connection between math and dance along with their three students. Rhythm, logic, symmetry, coordination and harmony are all dance in math. These were the views of the dance guru M.V.Narasimhachari. The performance was lively and entertaining throwing light about math in dance.

The family of P.K.S also introduced a family who had come all the way from Ooty and their son Master.Vibhu Vignesh, a 11 year prodigy who answered questions to any 2digit multiplications in a matter of seconds without a pencil or paper.

Lastly Mr.Kannan P.Srinivasan and Smt. Nirmala Raman, children of P.K.S delivered the vote of thanks.

The play 2020 Unifying India, based on the dream of Dr.Kalaam witnessed yet another memorable success while being staged for the 10th time in the city on May 1, 2010 in the over packed Top Storey of Alliance Francaise.

The play was put together by Alchemy Kids. A group of 20 children aged 4-14 took part in the play. It was not only the dream of Dr.Kalam but also the play pointed out the mistakes made by many of the Indian citizens.

The play started with a City Corporation Sweeper, who blows out her anger on the citizens who do not respect their motherland.

Ramu, (as the character Ramaswamy is referred to) a second hand book seller enters the scene and defined India from being a land of high rise valleys, big mountains to an ever-progressing technological hub spreads the message about the Indian Culture. Ramu describes himself and about the people who disrespect their country. “Uyirum Neeyi, Ulagam Neeyi, Uravum Neeyi, Thayai”…….a popular Tamil Song touched the heart of the audience. 

The first half of the play was presented with a lot of humour occurred during the counter arguments between Ramu-Suzy and Suzy-Kamala. However the second half which engaged the audience was the strong thoughts of India by the character Ramu who expressed his passion for the motherland with a combination of hard hitting dialogues and a terrific Vande Mataram song during the climax encouraging all irrespective of their caste and class to feel one with India. It was amazing to see the audience who joined Ramu in singing Vande Mataram and giving a big applause.

The touching scenes brought wetness in the eyes of the audience. Mr.Vijay Vishwanathan,director of Alchemy Kids says, "Children have a strong ability to convey the truth in the most genuine and innocent way. The show was graced with educationists Mr. R. Janardhanan, Chairman Kaligi group of Schools and Mrs. K R Maalathi, Education Consultant.

Alchemy Kids operates from 16/15, 3rd Floor, 3rd Cross Street, Kasturibai Nagar, Adyar, Chennai- 600 020. Phone: 65121119, 9841047620