The CBC TABLOG 2: One aspect of Chennai that I would like to change

August 28, 2014

This Post is part of the CBC Tablog 2. The Chennai Bloggers Club, who are a 270 member strong blogging community have come together to celebrate this city by what they do the best - blogging. Here is a blog tag where 25 odd people each blogs on one aspect they want to change in namma Chennai and pass on the tag to another for everyday of August.

I thank Aravind Kumar for passing the baton to me, Aravind who is a food politician, blogs about both food and politics. He is a cool dude whose post are also inspired by his travels. His take on one aspect that i would like to change is found here

There are actually two parts to this post one is a different take on what others have mentioned earlier like no proper waste disposal, absence of dump sites or bins and futile storm water drains and lack of trees and garden.

Waste Segregation - yes to separate stuff that can be decomposed and that which cannot be. Organic waste amounts to 40 - 50% of all solid waste, if we tackle this waste ouselves, its reduced by fifty percent in the dump site. Now you may ask whats the point anyway the garbage guy will not take it as separated waste but dumps them together. Thats definitely a setback, the solution is simple, compost it ourselves. You might be thinking I'm going nuts, who has got the time and energy to let alone segregate it but also compost it? The goodnews is gone are days when the stench is unbearable and its yucky, today we have trendy compost pots, stench free and no non-sense, most importantly affordable, a set of 5 cost u Rs.1000. and all u have to do is you have to do is separate the waste and keep filling the pot and once its filled completely you leave it closed for 40 days, while fill the others, end of which you get manure to have your own kitchen garden or atleast a potted plant! This year has been announced as the year of Family Farming by the UN. Yes it may all sound difficult, but what is not in the beginning? Its an extra mile to secure this planet for the future generations. Now you may wonder what has it got to do with one aspect, I know it can be done in any city or town but I want Chennai to be the pioneer in such an effort.

The other part of the post is this city is both young and old, meaning its got years behind it but all the same changing and evolving with time and the people and keeping itself young. Im sure there are landmarks to showcase its youth, but what about the old? This city is historically important but the remnants of the past are few and fading fast. The olden style houses are fast vanishing and we see only high rises to occupy the growing population. At this rate only Dakshinchithra will be there to show our younger generations this is how our dwellings used to look! I ve heard that in the Netherlands the row houses by the canal were all built in the 1600s and the government gives them some maintainence money to repair and maintain them. The people even though they own it, have no right to demolish it or redo it, its part of the keeping the heritage alive. I know a lot of it is lost here but the government can start now, creating history.