Off the cuff: Participants of TVK Vijay's rally in Puducherry requested to be anonymous during media coverage
TVK president Vijay made his first public appearance since the Karur stampede at a rally in Puducherry on Tuesday. Official permission was for 5,000 people; more than twice that number turned up. Interestingly, the crowd was made up less of party cadres and more of Vijay’s fans, drawn from across political affiliations. Many concealed their faces with shawls in TVK colours and carefully avoided media cameras, while party functionaries readily stepped forward for photographs. At one point, a branch-level functionary of a Communist party was seen requesting journalists not to publish her pictures after being photographed. In Puducherry, enthusiasm clearly outpaced political clarity.
Bagalavan Perier B
Seat with a story
Ahead of the chief minister’s event to mark the expansion of the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam, the state PR department thoughtfully asked every news organisations to nominate two women journalists, ostensibly to ensure “proper arrangements”. Expectations rose accordingly. At the venue, every sofa proudly bore the name of a celebrity or VIP. Reporters scanned the rows, finding none with their names. After a search, an official offered a practical fix: occupy a fourth-row sofa designated for someone else. Grateful for the furniture, the journalists obliged. The peace was short-lived. Soon, the rightful occupant arrived, and this reporter was politely asked to vacate. The seat, however, had already acquired importance, and this reporter’s resistance eventually prevailed.
Binita Jaiswal
The throwaway problem
The idea of a community-maintained public space is met with polite scepticism rather than enthusiasm in Chennai’s Thiruvanmiyur. Shared responsibility, many residents feel, is far more demanding than shared space. One local summed it up with a simple example. “This won’t work here,” he said, pointing to how waste is treated: a cup is aimed at the bin, misses, and is left where it falls. In other countries, he observed, the cup would be picked up. Here, the effort ends with the throw. It is a quiet reminder that community projects rarely collapse dramatically; they wither instead, undone by small, repeated acts of indifference.
Gautham Selvarajan
Compiled by Dinesh Jefferson E