Be a part of civic campaigns

Thank you N. Ram for setting an example.
Don't be surprised if you get to meet a bunch of people in unique gear sharing their positive sentiments at the November Music Fest later this month.
Ram followed up on what he, as Chief Editor preaches at 'The Hindu'.
He politely declined the sponsorship of a company which has been at the heart of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
Dow was one of the key sponsors of the annual music fest that the newspaper hosts in our city.
It has been targeted by activists all over the world for its response to the world's biggest disaster. So, when some of them based in our city learnt that the company was an integral part of the fest, they acted fast.
A slew of letters, faxes and e-mails flew into the offices of the 'The Hindu'. In less than 24 hours, Ram responded.
A positive campaign had made its impact.
It requires a bunch of alert, dedicated and determined people to run a campaign and ensure goodness comes out of it.
Are you one of them?
The monsoon is with us. Our roads are flooded. Our drains are overflowing. Our common spaces are pools of water.
Can we help our local officers do a better job of what they should be doing?
Take a walk around your colony and SMS them a list of the streets where water has been stagnating for days, where Corporation school children must negotiate slush and where trees have been uprooted.
If action is not forthcoming in a reasonable period of time, push that button again.
Else, email the civic body.
Copy that mail to the local or city newspaper.
You have a cell phone, you have a Net connected PC, you have a fax machine, you have a post card.
Use them to get involved in issues that affect us all.
These acts are simple and straight. And they can bear good fruit. Especially when you act on behalf of the community.

Madras Monsoon

Where were you when the monsoon broke out this past week?
Caught in a traffic jam?
Locked in your office behind Saint Gobain glass-sheets?
Or welcoming the gathering clouds on the beachfront?

I guess you must be the creative or the free-spirited sort if the monsoon is to excite you.
Or does it really matter?

I felt a new season had just begun the morning after. There are two huge trees down the road where I live and I often look up at them because their seasonal flowers (names don’t matter) which are spiky and reed-thin in off white colour are stunning in their fragrance.

And they seem so delicate. When the monsoon bearing clouds shake their ears before they empty themselves, dozens of these flowers drop on to the road. So there is a carpet of them after a steady shower.

This carpet greeted me when the monsoon broke out. . . was it on Wednesday last? And it felt a bit delicate when our feet trampled on them.

Monsoons do not create pleasant sights in our neighbourhoods. Floodwater, dangerous ditches, hanging cables and potholed roads.

But if you stop and look around you the sights are pleasant to our eyes - after a summer of 35 degrees plus that refused to slip away in October.

The trees and hedges are all green, truly green. The birds are on song in the mornings. Rain drops keep dripping in slow motion. And, creatures we have not seen for some time seem to come alive. Like the crazy frogs that come to inhabit the swathe of water that collects in our local playground.

So there are little things to enjoy even in our concrete neighbourhoods.

If the rains have renewed you, write and tell us about your experience. We can post them in the Letters column.

For now, we can give the mails on stinking garbage and dead streetlights a skip and post your experiences.

You can be poetic in your mails.
But limit the verses.
I am not planning to cut an album on the Madras Monsoon.

Young Journos

I am grateful to you for kindling my interest in journalism.
But for you, I would not have had the exposure to this medium that I received.
Thank you very much for that!
Pranathi Diwakar’s e-mail could not have come at a better time. Or maybe, some young people just cannot forget the memories of one special November.
For it is in November that our newspapers dedicate some time and effort to encourage young people who wish to write for the newspapers we run.
Pranathi was a tad apologetic. For this Bala Vidya Mandir student had not contributed to us for a long time. There was a reason for this silence. She is in Class 12 now and being the Head Girl of the school calls for additional responsibility.
‘Between being buried in my books, and coping with the duties of a Head Girl, I have also been trying to decide what to do next at college. I am keeping my options open, but hope to eventually take up journalism.
Pranathi Diwakar attended one of the training programmes a few summers ago and went on to be an active reporter-writer through the year. And she made sure she contributed to the November specials too.
Though she limited herself to working on assignments in her backyard she kept to deadlines and we suppose this experience has done her well.
The November specials are now a tradition at our newspapers. Started over a decade ago as our Children’s Day dedication, the formats have taken on different avatars. We began by featuring all the contributions that children made in one or two issues. Later, we chose to publish them as and when the reports were filed.
We encourage senior school students to go around their neighbourhood and campuses, to locate news story ideas, develop them and file reports. I distinctly remember one contributor convincing a Police Inspector to grant him permission to accompany the local night patrol team. Those were the days when the state had not received the fancy Hyundai Accents and the rounds had to be done in rickety jeeps.
In recent times, the enthusiasm among students for such wonderful opportunities like working for the local newspaper has waned. Parents do not encourage their wards to subscribe to the experience - they are content to ensure that the kids stick to schoolwork.
Also, no attempt is made to encourage young people to explore, investigate, question, experience in their backyard which is rich with colourful people and active communities, varied developments and lively issues.
We can only create the space. You have to bring your pens and pads along.
November will be with us soon.