A school hall - late evening !

 

Light is the lifeline and the very definition of  photography—

 

You need light but just that of what is required and nothing more.  Without light -  there is no image, no story, no emotion.  

 

A picture taken sometime back in late evening  at a School hall – low light, no flash photography !  - likely you all know this place too.

Kathipara Junction

 

For a first time visitor to a Metropolis there are some things bemusing and some threatening,  more so, if you are driving a vehicle, looking out for directions .. .. when it reopened after changes in 2008, even to Chennaite motorists it was puzzling to say the least !!

 

Kathipara Junction is one of the most critical, iconic transit hubs in Chennai, famously known for housing the largest cloverleaf flyover in South Asia. Located in Alandur, it sits right at the crucial intersection of major arterial lifelines: Grand Southern Trunk Road (NH 45), Inner Ring Road, Anna Salai, and Mount-Poonamallee Road. Over the last few years, the space directly beneath this massive architectural marvel has been transformed into a buzzing city hotspot.   

                     Kathipara flyover is closer to Alandur Metro hub where two metro lines merge.   Alandur is a place linked to development from a rural area to a modern city hub, influenced by 18th century Anglo-French wars, and the Bengali regiments stationed over there – to a market at MKN Road (Muthu Kumarasami Naicker !)  

The main Kathipara flyover in Chennai was officially inaugurated and opened to the public on October 26, 2008.  Before the brilliant and confusing - cloverleaf flyover was built, the junction was a large, signal-controlled roundabout – and there was a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru releasing a dove.     

The Congress Party in Tamil Nadu must be appreciated for its pragmatism and not politicizing this …..  as the statue of Jawaharlal Nehru  was removed from its place to give way for the flyover and now stands forlorn in the roundabout from airport towards Porur beneath the bridge. It has some added significance as on that fateful day in May 1991 –on a election campaign, Rajiv Gandhji landed up at Madras, met the press, stopped at Kathipara Junction at around 0915 pm to garland Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue …… reached Sriperumpudur, garlanded the statue of Indira Gandhi and took that fateful step at around 10.20 pm at Sriperumpudur… makes a sad reading. 

Regards – S Sampathkumar
3.6.2026
PS : edited photo

Court summons a dog ....... 9 month old charged with attempted murder ....

In legal parlance,  a summon is a legal document issued by a court (a judicial summons) or by an administrative agency of government (an administrative summons) for various purposes.  A Summons is a process initiated  by a Court, calling upon a person to appear before a Magistrate. It is used for the purpose of notifying an individual of his legal obligation to appear before the Magistrate as a response to a violation of the law. It is addressed to a defendant in a legal proceeding. Typically, the summons will announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a file has been started in the court records. The summons announces a date and time on which the person must appear in court. A person who is summoned is legally bound to appear before the court on the given date and time.  Wilful disobedience is liable to be punished under Section 174 of IPC. It is a ground for contempt of court.

There can be some funny situations too..... in Apr 2014, a baby was charged with attempted murder, threatening Police and interfering with State affairs – he was not alone, in the company of father and grandfather as part of a mob protesting against gas cuts and price increases; the mob stoned police and gas company workers out to collect overdue bills.  It was in Lahore that the baby cried while his fingerprints were taken by a court official. Internet was ripe on news of the incident and photos of the baby calmly sitting on his grandfather’s lap, drinking bottle of milk after being given bail.   Later, a Pakistani Court threw out  charges of attempted murder against the  nine-month-old baby, in a case that highlighted endemic flaws in the country's legal system and provoked widespread ridicule.

There are stray dogs and there are pet dogs – given great care and spent so much – for some a dog is closer to a member of the family – but in the incident reported widely in US Press, the dog is also a member of the jury.  Going by the reports, New Jersey resident IV Griner probably would not have been too thrilled to receive a jury duty letter – if she were to be human. IV (pronounced Ivy) is a five-year-old German shepherd brought up by the family of Barrett Griner IV and his wife in Bridgetown. Mr Griner named his black and tan pup the name IV Griner as a play on his own name, Barrett Griner the fourth, which he writes using Roman numerals.  He is quoted as saying ‘She’s a female, so I named her “IV” without the “Y” as sort of a play on words.

 When the owners opened the mail box, they were too surprised to find a letter from the Cumberland County Clerk of Courts apparently addressed to the dog  Griner summoning  to report for jury duty. The dog’s name on her vet record appears the same as it does on the summons. Later it was revealed to be a Computer glitch that was to blame in calling the German Shepherd to report for jury duty by the Cumberland County Judiciary.  It was revealed that the Court did not actually request that a dog serve on a jury,  but computer probably misread Griner's numerical suffix IV as his first name. Typically, someone getting such an erroneous jury summons can call the court offices and the error will be fixed; though Griner, 40, who works as a treatment plant operator at the local water department probably did not make one.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

2^nd Sept. 2014.

the migration of Amur falcons from Siberia to South Africa (through Nagaland)

The Amur River or Heilong Jiang  is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is  also known as the Amur tiger and its declining population has been a  cause of concern for many.  I have recently posted on Putin’s tiger defecting to China………… now this is another post with Amur connection, this time a bird.

The Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) is a fascinating bird in the size of a pigeon. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China before migrating in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in Southern Africa.  Today’s The Hindu reports that even as the first flock of Amur falcons from Mongolia have reached Pangti village in Wokha district of Nagaland to mark the advent of another migratory season, the scientific community is eagerly awaiting the arrival of ‘Naga’ and ‘Pangti’ — two Amur falcons which were satellite-tagged in Nagaland last year before the Amur falcons started their journey to South.  The report states that  ‘Naga’ and ‘Pangti’ had been tracked in inner Mongolia on Wednesday and the two satellite tagged birds were expected to arrive in Nagaland anytime in October or early November.  According to conservators,  the arrival of ‘Naga’ and ‘Pangti’ would scientifically establish the long migration route of the Amur falcons from Mongolia to South Africa via Nagaland. However, why the Amur falcons skip Nagaland on their return journey from South Africa to Mongolia will still remain a mystery.

In last Nov,  three Amur falcons — Naga, Pangti and Wokha, named after Nagaland, Pangti village and Wokha district respectively — were satellite-tagged and released in Nagaland’s Doyang forest. They reached South Africa on January 9 after flying over Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Bangladesh, Bay of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and the Arabian Sea. They started their return journey from South Africa in April third week. However, ‘Wokha’ continued to be tracked in Somalia, which probably meant that either the bird died or its satellite-tracking device got detached from its body.  Every year, from October to November, a large number of Amur falcons arrive in the northeast, especially in Nagaland for roosting, from Mongolia en route to their final destination — South Africa. The falcons travel up to 22,000 km a year — known to be one of the longest distance migration of birds.

The amur falcons were getting killed in large numbers in Nagaland and conservation of Amur falcons in Nagaland gained ground from 2012 and in 2013 after which reportedly  no killing of the migratory bird occurred or rather reported. Nagaland Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Trust (NWBCT)  conducts nature camps under its ‘Friends of the Amur falcon’ programme for building awareness on conservation of biodiversity among the children and villagers in the areas which the Amur falcons visit for the third consecutive year. The  government, and the villages of Pangti, Ashaa and Sungro, stepped in;  Nagaland's chief minister Neiphiu Rio  also threatened to stop grants to villages involved in hunting the falcons. Village councils agreed to make the hunting of the falcons illegal, and levied a fine on hunters.

This accumulation of Amur falcons is the largest aggregation of these falcons along their vast migration route from Siberia through this gap in the Himalayas all the way to Somalia, Kenya and eventually South Africa.  This amazing transoceanic flight can takes weeks and includes many long nights flying and navigating in the dark. Truly extraordinary for a  bird that weighs about 150g  still having  enough strength, stamina and bodily reserves to fly more than half way around the world. Like the migrations of Masai Mara, tens of thousands of migrating Amur falcons from Siberia stop over in Nagaland lighting  the sky thick with flying birds.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar                                                                            9^th Oct 2014

With inputs taken from The Hindu, The Indian Express;

photo credit : The Hindu (single falcon) National Geographic (falcons on wire).