Thousands of people gathered at a party office in Koyambedu recently to bid a final farewell to their beloved actor and politician, Vijayakant. Eyes of many welled up with tears as they mourned the leader’s passing. Meanwhile, a leader of his political party began to praise the deceased as a great philanthropist who never let anyone go hungry. The crowd, however, could not help but break into laughter when he said, “Our leader died so soon, while the corrupt are living hale and hearty right in front of our eyes.”
Father of Tamil Nadu
Considering the havoc wreaked by Cyclone Michaung in Chennai recently, one would have expected last Friday’s corporation council session to be filled with heated moments. However, the councillors were on their best behaviour. Ward 12 councillor Kavi Ganesan’s never-ending speech was the highlight. He began to wax lyrical about the state government’s efforts to tackle the floods. Ganesan even went on to dub Chief Minister M K Stalin as the ‘Father of Tamil Nadu’. In the end, Deputy Mayor M Mahesh Kumar had to intervene and ask the councillor to cut his speech short. The hall erupted with laughter as the deputy mayor said, “Ganesan would soon be featured in the list of star speakers of the DMK.”
Bitter realisation
Coromandel International’s fertiliser factory in Ennore was initially established as a unit of EID Parry Limited in the 1960s. Since EID Parry is in the sugar business, people from nearby villages believed that the facility was used to manufacture sweeteners and chocolates. To this day, some people express a sense of deceit when informed that it is a fertiliser plant, which has impacted living conditions in the area since it was started. One such villager, who believed that the unit started as a chocolate factory, was shocked to see documents stating that the facility had manufactured fertilisers from the start.
(Contributed by Mohan, Sinduja Jane and Subhashini Vijayakumar; compiled by Alen Moni Mathews and Srijith R)