Tag Archives: Chennai
Cyclone Biparjoy and Chennai
When is a natural disaster a natural disaster? It began raining in Chennai last evening and hasn’t stopped as of this morning. But it’s been intermittent, with highly variable intensity. In my area, the wind has been feeble. I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Chennai, Chennai rains, climate crisis, Cyclone Biparjoy, natural disaster, Sattur Ramachandran, Sustainable Development Goals, urban dysfunction
Comments Off on Cyclone Biparjoy and Chennai
India – where repairing a bad road could make life worse
There is a long road that runs from Mantri Mall to Sankey Road, in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, called Sampige Road. There are eighteen smaller roads that branch off from it on either side (straightforwardly numbered one through 18), and both the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged asphalt road, Bengaluru, Chennai, concrete road, Pondy Bazaar, rain, Sampige Road, stormwater drains
Comments Off on India – where repairing a bad road could make life worse
A Brahmin wedding
I was at a wedding this weekend. It had a distinct Omelas-like quality throughout. For most of the elders present, it was an oru naal koothu — a single-day celebration that has been many weeks in the making. But the … Continue reading
Groundwater extinction
In a report published on June 14, 2018, NITI Aayog, a policy think-tank established by the Government of India, claimed that 21 Indian cities would run out of their supply of groundwater by 2020. The report, especially this statistic, went … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged Chennai, groundwater, groundwater contamination, Joanna Slater, NITI Aayog, Tamil Nadu, The Washington Post, water crisis, World Bank
Comments Off on Groundwater extinction
Happy new year!
2017 was a blast. Lots of things happened. The world became a shittier place in many ways and better in a few. Mostly, Earth just went around the Sun once more, and from what we know, it’s going to be … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged anxiety, blogging, Chennai, depression, science journalism
Comments Off on Happy new year!
The marching coloumns
Every day is a swing between highs and lows, and in the last two months that I’ve experienced them, they’ve never been periodic. Setting off the work, the mood depends on the weather: cloudy is good, buoyant, rain is more … Continue reading