Chennai Coastal clean-up 2

“When the going gets good, the good gets going.” True to these words, Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) conducted its second Chennai Coastal clean-up campaign on Jan 9, 2011, cleaning up the entire Chennai Coastal line from Marina beach to Injambakkam with more than 500 volunteers, covering 15km of beach, and collecting more than 800 garbage bags. The purpose of this campaign was to spread environmental awareness – again – to the general public and to preserve our natural resources. Volunteers assembled around 5am on Sunday at 11 locations across Chennai city and were transported to 15 different beach zones where CTC organizers coordinated 15 different groups during the cleanup operation between 6 and 9am.

After the cleanup operation the volunteers were dropped back to their respective assembly points.
There were volunteers from all walks of life -- students, NSS volunteers, professionals and our very own fishermen – assisting CTC in this massive event. 55 NSS volunteers from Anna University, 150 employees from Nokia, 45 software professionals from HP, 72 NSS volunteers from Coromandel, 14 students from the Anna Violet College and a few members of the Tree Bank joined hands with about 200 CTC volunteers, collecting 800 garbage bags in two hours. Event sponsors BioTec Bags and Madras Cements Ltd provided with bio-degradable garbage bags and gloves respectively.

More than 8 months ago, on May 16th 2010 CTC conducted the first-of-the-kind Chennai coastal clean-up campaign covering the same 15km stretch from Marina till Injambakkam. In spite of the tremendous environmental awareness it created with general public, a reconnaissance mission by the members of the CTC in December found the Chennai coasts badly in want of another massive clean-up effort. So when the idea was put forth to the members of CTC for a second campaign, the volunteer count quickly touched 300 in just two weeks. Buoyed by this response, the organizing committee -- already armed with experience – went into overdrive to plan and execute this campaign in little less than a month’s time. Considering the scale of the entire operation including people management, logistics, official clearances, this campaign is no mean feat – even for the 10000-member strong Chennai Trekking Club.

When asked about the need for such an initiative, Hari Balasubramaniam, CTC member and one of the official photographers of the event, opined, “most of us live in an oblivion world that simply does not care about Mother Nature and more importantly, one of the most important ecosystems offering livelihood to a few million people in the city of Chennai…so the need for another herculean effort, to get the conservative Chennaite awake on a sober Sunday morning to clean the backyard of one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the world.”

In addition to the large-scale coastal clean-up campaigns, CTC also conducts clean-up campaigns targeting specific beach stretches with 30-50 volunteers every few weeks. The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is one of the largest and most active trekking clubs in South India (10.000 members). It's a non-profit group run by volunteers who organize treks across India during nearly all weekends of the year. CTC also engages in social treks taking out underprivileged children on 1 day treks. More information can be found at www.chennaitrekkers.org.

Second news paper article!

My Second Newspaper article on September 4, 2010 edition of NxG, The Hindu. This one is on Save Tada-2 campaign organized  by CTC.

CTC’s SAVE TADA campaign on 8th August

Photo Courtesy: ChennaiTrekkers.org

Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is organizing a massive clean-up activity “Save Tada - 2” at Tada waterfalls on August 8th 2010. Tada is at a 2 hour drive to the north from Chennai city and is a favorite spot for families and trekkers. However, rampant pollution due to plastics and alcohol bottles has severely dented the beauty of this once pristine jungle. Also, Tada bas become an abode for anti-social elements. Visitors have been perpetually harassed by drunkards, who find Tada to be a safe haven for alcohol consumption and gang robbery.

CTC is planning to clean-up the entire Tada stream, including an 800m intensely polluted stretch. CTC is also collaborating with Forest Department officials to find a permanent solution to the problems created by pollution and anti-social elements. As of now, more than 250 individuals have registered to volunteer for this massive clean-up activity. CTC will provide garbage busting gloves and bags for volunteers to enable safe collection and disposal of wastes.

Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is a 7000+ member non-profit group of trekking enthusiasts. The club is run by several passionate volunteers who organize various outdoor activities such as treks, biking, cycling, and environmental awareness campaigns. It has completed more than 230 treks, both within and outside South India.

Save Tada campaign is one among the series of environmental awareness initiatives undertaken by CTC. The first Save Tada campaign was on November 1st 2009. More than 230 CTC volunteers spent the entire Sunday collecting more than 2 tons of garbage. CTC also ran an online petition to curb the pollution and unsocial activities happening at Tada and collected more than 1200 signatures which were presented to the forest officials. CTC has also organized a massive beach clean-up activity on May 16th 2010 covering a 15 km stretch from Marina to Injambakkam. More than 900 volunteers collected approximately 5 tons of garbage in a span of four hours. Small scale beach-clean up activity has also been happening every weekend at a predetermined beach involving both CTC volunteers and public.

If you interested in registering for this event, please visit CTC’s website at http://www.chennaitrekkers.org to find additional details about this campaign.

Whose Name Is It Anyway?

Ross: Muriel. Why would he call you Muriel? Oh my God! Chandler M. Bing? It’s not just an M, your middle name is Muriel!
Chandler: Shh! It's a family name!
Ross: Chandler Muriel Bing. Boy, your parents never gave you a chance, did they?
(From F.R.I.E.N.D.S)

Sometimes, a name is much more than an identity; It defines the person. Really, how many of us have picked up on our friends calling names on their names. And God help them if their names rhymes with many items. I genuinely feel that a name adds to a character and behavior of a person. I can't imagine whether David Beckham would be the kind of person he is if he had a name say,..Paul Wiener! Or Micheal Jackson as a Dick Banger! Or, well, our very own James Bond as Arthur Twinbuckle. "Twinbuckle, Arthur Twinbuckle." Sheeee!

For as long as I could remember, my bro was at odds with my parents about his name. He has already changed the name once (just a few spellings), but he has come close to change his name on so many occasions. And its not just him, I have seen so many people who are unhappy with their names. More importantly, they think that they are not being taken seriously among their colleagues because of their names. Sounds silly, but it a sad true fact.

So I thought, why can't a child choose what name he wants for the rest of his life. Of course, you got to give a name to child as soon as he or she is born because you can't allow him or her to spend the kinder-garden as "specimen FGH143123." But at such a tender age, would a kid be able to understand the significance of a name? I say, write names on chits and let the child choose one. And you can always pass the blame onto your kid if he ever asks you why the hell you chose that specific name for him. But he has every right to kick you if you happen to put a "Quick Gun Murugan" in the lot :D

Finally, I leave with you a small poem. Even though Riaz is a hard name to pick on (not many things that rhymes with zzz), but still a genius friend of mine managed to do something with it when I was in 5th grade.
"Riazuddin,
Godebuddin, (no idea what it means, i know gode = horse...perhaps horse crap??)
Maare duski se (gonna hit u)
Saade theen" (at half past 3)

Till my next post, c ya :-)