In the Journey of life

Am not native of Chennai,but i should admit i had fallen in love with this city.Had spent almost 8 years here,my marriage happened here and the husband is native of chennai,guess this is all enough to fall in love with this city.

 I have a special love for this place “Parrys corner”.For many,shopping or roaming out in Parrys corner may not appeal,but i simply love this place,for  everything that it has. I have been to this place for shopping lot many times, i did a shopping for my wedding card here with my FIL.

Parry corner is also famous for its old flame “Kothavaal savadi”(a vegetable market) ,i would probably love to shop from this kinda place instead of picking apples from a reliance mart.

Good old memories of shopping in NSC bose road,M.A Jacob’s,the Khadi craft,Godown street(  textile),kasi chetty for all those stationery and a good lunch either at Ramakrishna or Saravana Bhavan.Or just a evening visit there and getting your hands on some dessert from Nandhinee. There will be a mad rush during festival times and you would get your hands dusted there,very narrowed streets and most of them named after some chetty.

Heavy rush,Small bargains,fresh vegetables,tons of papers and note books,beautiful and cheap crockery stuff,all these could define the memory of the parrys corner what i saw.

I have not visited it in the last three years,but gladly the little sistah does some shopping there and in Washermenpet for clothes.I would love to shop in this kind of setting than a jazzy mall,artificially beautified.But living here in this country you have only limited choice to shop outside of Hypermarkets.Even in India these days Mall culture is fast spreading and i have been to the latest mall opened in Chennai with tight security just to watch Endhiran movie.

I remember this book, ” The last juror” by John grisham,where he explains how malls destroyed the local market. Having raised up in a small town TN,am only used to buy vegetables from “weekly sandhai”(local market which opens only once in a week) and monthly groceries from a big naataan kadai( grocery stores by a certain sect in TN) and daily or urgent needs from small naataan kadai and for stationeries from only a partiuclar shop and for jewellery a trusted jeweller known to the family.Now i could see Reliance freh mart and the like ones in my own town and people prefer going there instead of local market.

Yesterday been to the dining district here(Adliya) and was taken back to nostalgia of good old parrys corner.This district has lot of carpet and handicraft and flower shops,where you can get down and bargain just lurk around enjoying  individuality of each shop. Also i love the market here in Isa town souq, which just reminds us of any local market, with varied items and the little dust and rush which i wish to go with every shopping.

P.S : Tried to link up kothavaal savadi link in wikipedia,and found nothing,surprising..

After two disturbing post this one comes as a light read,just for heartening.One more year had passed in the tamizh calendar,Tamilnadu welcomed this new year  with higher voting percentage,which sets a smiley curve on face,yet this doubting mind thinks will it be the manifold increase in phony votes,well lets think only good.

And strangely in this new year,i have decided to play the role of Major sundarrajan,for  Ambuli to benefit from language.

Before coming to office,watched a debate in Sun TV and had a good laugh.Prepared almost  the same dishes i have done here. Vadai batter is sitting in fridge for me,and appalams and vadams are pending,will have them hot for lunch.Unlike last year,i would not go beyond my limits in bingeing and would indulge less.Oops,tomorrow awaits for another feast,yes vishu is on April 15th.

Had a  call yesterday evening and i should say it is an wonderful start for a new year.Hope this new year brings all of us,peace,health and Happiness.Wishes to everyone out there.

Another article i read today,which is a brutal CSA.

In one of the villages of TN,a 11 year old had been raped and killed by slitting her throat using a beer bottle.This proves that world is becoming a very unsafe place to live.Father and Mother both daily wagers and this girl on her way to Grandma has been abducted and killed. The girl has been tried with small tricks earlier and one day they fulfilled their lust and not to let the truth come out,they had murdered her in a brutal way.This incident sends a shiver through spine.

Not sure how this case will proceed,will money power play part,will the victims escape and the parents are to live with heavy heart for rest of the life ? What should be the punishment for this crime?

When we worry about our kids who are relatively safe,yet potential danger for moderate assault exists,what is the state of kids in villages,kids roaming in streets,kids who work as child labors,kids who are abandoned and kids under the trap of phony orphanages,kids who are being sold to foreigners without any proper documentation and abused later.

CSA is a very very wide chapter,under which every abuse from physical,mental and brutal comes in.In India,with huge diverse population CSA exists under various forms and ways and under all sects.Urban,rural,poor and privileged every kid is under a potential danger.

Recollecting the little news i have read,i could  remember more than handful incidents which involve CSA,one includes even 2.5 yrs old, raped and murdered.Most of the times its the rage against adults/parents directed towards  their kids.As mentioned in the previous post,the one incident which shook TN was the murder of two kids in Coimbatore and the accused is murdered in encounter.I dont have any clue on rest of the cases.

So what is in our legislation for crimes against kids? The truth is there is no separate legislation,the laws for crimes against women is applied for kids and it is an absolute misfit.There needs to be an initiative to bring up separate legislation which would fit for CSA,including all different possibilities,never leaving a loophole. Read about the laws we have against child abuse here,note that in any case the accused will not be imprisoned for more than 12 years and in most cases it is confined to 7 years.

And what are we going to do about those small degree of assault performed mainly by family and friends circle,which will have a long effect on the kid ? Definitely we parents should stand up against it and protest,how close they may be.

As mentioned in the comment of previous post by CSAA,we need to maintain a separate registry of crimes against children,this would be very helpful to assess the degree of CSA impact in our society.

And hats off to CSAA team for bring up this issue to light and creating a widespread awareness.This is one of the serious issue which needs immediate attention.