Festival Kerala & Bandh TN

Chennai played host to two Kerala festivals yesterday - a Kerala fest at Royapettah with a lot of stalls selling a variety of stuff and Aavanipoovarangu at St. George's school, Chetpet opposite the Pachaiyappa's college. The latter was a belated effort at an Onam celebration for all Chennai Malayalis, bringing in the Thrissur pooram element too with 12 elephants (not real, but almost real since they could move their ears thanks to springs inside though not their trunks).

And today is one of the rare bandhs/hartals in the city and in the State. A DMK-sponsored bandh to protest the Centre's stalling of the controversial Sethusamudram project, a pet project of the DMK govt in the State. The Chief Minister is also observing a day-long hunger strike because the Supreme Court said the so-called hartal seemed like a bandh (which is illegal now) since it was claimed to bring life to a standstill. The Sangh Parivar is aiming for the CM's head because he said Lord Rama is an imaginary character and hence dredging the Adam's Bridge or Ram Setu (beleived to have been built by Ram to cross to Lanka to save his wife Sita abducted by Ravana) for the shipping canal project shouldnt be given relivious overtones.

Well, life wasnt exactly standstill like hartals in Kerala where even a cyclist wont dare to ply on the roads. There were no MTC buses on the roads, but share autos and private vehicles were all on the roads. I didnt venture to try the autos today, because they are sure to charge double their normal fares (which itself is double the actual meter rates) and got my dear hubby to drop me, with the two lil brats seatbelted on one seat (since there is no babysitter now). Everyone of my colleagues had got a lift to work or rode their own vehicles. The Railways is not in the strike, so trains were running.

Once in a while, life gets interesting in Chennai. :)