This is an archive of past discussions about Chennai. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Featured

Congrats to everyone, this article gained FA status on 15-Aug-2005, a really auspicious day in India. =Nichalp «Talk»= 07:35, August 15, 2005 (UTC)

Wow, great. Also, good to know that the flag of India was on the main page on August 14. Congrats to everyone. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 04:08, August 16, 2005 (UTC)

Nice to learn. Also it can be a DYK? as it is the only city that was bombed during the Great War. Idleguy 05:05, August 16, 2005 (UTC)

It can't be on DYK, because DYK needs to be on an article created in the last 72 hours or so. See Wikipedia:Did you know#The Rules. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 05:10, August 16, 2005 (UTC)

"Chennai formerly known as Madras..." and similar statements are pure brainwashing. Whatever the city is called in Tamil, in the English language it will still be known as Madras to the vast majority of speakers. Who takes it upon themselves to make statements like that, or to try to pretend that English is something other that what it is? There is no reason to accept that the language can be redefined at the whim of some local politician trying to do something for his image. Would any of you dream of telling a German that Milan has to be called Milano and not Mailand or a Frenchman that it's London and not Londres? Your proposal would be rejected with contempt, of course. Every language finds its own names for familiar foreign cities by the most natural process in the world. This lack of objectivity and intrusion of political correctness is a sad departure from the high standards which have been achieved by Wikipedia.

What you say may suit for Trivandrum and Thiruvananthapuram or Ooty and Udagamandalam, but Chennai and Madras is a different issue altogether Doctor Bruno 18:49, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

This issue has been settled by a poll about an year back! -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 10:22, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

History

The History section states that the railways connected Chennai to Bombay and Calcutta. That was the name of those cities at the time but obviously they have since been changed. Would it perhaps be better to use Mumbai and Kolkata? Perhaps the contemporaneous names could be included like so: "(then known as Bombay and Calcutta)" --DominicSayers 14:38, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

The history section also says the railways were built in the late 18th century. Surely that should be 19th century (1800s). -- JohnAsher 20 December 2005

Chennai's Birthday & Pollution

A NewIndPress article puts Chennai as 366, [1] and HT says 367 [2]. There's more info about the initial settlement and the so called "Fathers" of Chennai.

Should we tone down the Air Pollution sentence now that chennai is the least polluted city [3]? - Bnitin 20:27, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes. Please go ahead and fix them. Thanks. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 04:20, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Infobox details

I don't think we need to mention the Mayor in the infobox - unlike other countries like the US, a Mayor here does not have much authority. The Chief Minister would be more appropriate.

But, the Chief Minister's role spans across the state with no special jurisdiction for Chennai. The Mayor, and not the CM, is the head of the city. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:28, August 28, 2005 (UTC)

We should also mention Languages spoken.

Isn't the district just Chennai District? How's Kanchi and Thiruvallur included? -- Bnitin 23:04, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

This is the article about Chennai, the city, which extends across these districts. Chennai district would focus on the district per se. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:28, August 28, 2005 (UTC)

Photos offer

G V Balasubramanian has offered to give photos taken by him related to Chennai with acknowledgement. I can give his e-mail on demand to anyone interested.

-- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:21, August 29, 2005 (UTC)

Text of e-mail from him

Sub:Wikipedia

Dear Sundar

This is Balasubramanian G V from Chennai. I saw your message in www.skyscraperciti.com about your requirements of Chennai Photos. I have many Chennai Photos in my photostream at www.flickr.com Please follow the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/balu/ . Tonight I will create a set of Chennai Photos and provide you the address. I permit you to use the photos in wikipedia with acknowledgement/ copyright to Velachery Balu ( that is me). Glad to learn about the article on Chennai in wikipedia .

Best Wishes

G V Balasubramanian <e-mail snipped>

His edit here as an anon:

Sundar and others

I have created a photo set of images taken in Madras / Chennai. I am giving the link below :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/balu/sets/833719/

G V Balasubramanian

I think we can use a few of your images here and in other articles, some of which in Tamil Wikipedia. However, it would be advisable to release the image under some GFDL-compliant license. If you want to be attributed, you can always use {{cc-by-sa}}. You can also consider registering here as a user and upload it yourself so that your contribution is clearly established. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 18:26, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

If you could indicate me the images i will create a license under Creative Commons - G V B

Most of your photos seem to be useful. Particularly useful will be the lighthouse, Santhome Church, Kapaleeshwarar temple etc., I like this photo the most. Really great. Perhaps, we can use that for Ponniyin Selvan. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:04, September 1, 2005 (UTC)

Sundar, I have added CC with SA for the photos mentioned by you in flickr.

G V B

Thanks a lot, GVB. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 05:12, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Sundar I have released 2 more photos under Creative Commons as requested by you - Regards, G V B

Thanks GVB. I've used one of them at Madras High Court and Manuneedhi Cholan. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 13:34, September 5, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Sundar, for uploading the photos. Look at the following link for Siva Thandavam - Poses of Cosmic Dance of Shiva. I will add CC with SA. If found useful you can use in wikipedia

http://www.flickr.com/photos/balu/sets/881676/

Best Wishes

G V Balasubramanian

Questions (sorry don't know how to add new subject

What does tondai as in tondai nadu or tondai mandalam means? --24.223.241.81 19:08, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

One denotation for thondai is throat. I don't know if that has anything to do with thondai nadu etc., I remember the name of a king as Thondaimaan. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:33, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Longest Beach

Question concerning the beach In many tourist guides, the Marina beach is refered to as the longest, or one of the largest beaches in the world. It sure is wide, but the lenght of 12 km is not impressive at all. Look at some detailed maps of other countries (I think of Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain) and you'll see that it's not so big. I think it's wrong unnecessary and not unbiased to refer to Marina beach as "one of the longest beaches in the world". Can anyone tell me where this rating is based on?

I think it's based on hearsay, boosterism and a sentiment summed up in a phrase often heard that something is "world famous in India." I think Wikipedia should qualify this statement. Ideally, someone should write (and post the evidence for) a state like this: "Although many locals claim this is the world's longest beach, in fact it is shorter than A [ref] and B [ref]."

One common source not of "world's x-est" but of "the 2nd most x in the world" is when people believe they have the superlative instance of something but then find in, say, The Guinness Book of World Records that the true superlative is elsewhere. Then people will take that as irrefutable evidence that they actually have the "2nd most x" when of course it might actually be the 22nd or 2000 or whatever. I"ve been to or known people from a number of cities who insisted there's was "the 2nd most polluted" since they all had heard Mexico City was #1 and therefore just assumed they were next in line: Bangkok, New Delhi, Seoul, Beijing. Interlingua

Yes, I'm tired of hearing this "2nd longest beach" bit without any proof whatsoever. Look at the Marina Beach article which claims, in the first paragraph, that it's the 2nd largest "after Copacabana beach in Rio De Janiero". That article's talk page says that Copacabana is 4km long. Also see the Beach article which has a list of beaches "which are claimed to be the "World's longest"", and neither Marina nor Copacabana are on that list. rabin 06:51, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

More Pictures

I have uploaded a few pics taken in Sep.

Image:ChennaiCentral2.JPG
Image:ChennaiCentralClose.JPG
Image:Cooum.JPG
Image:Cooum2.JPG
Image:GovernmentHospitalChennai.JPG
Image:SuburbanBldg.JPG

one from me --Planemad 11:08, 30 October 2005 (UTC) Aerial view of MAA airport[4]

Intend to add under Para Transport after third para.

Tram services

Rather it will be funny to imagine that there was another mode of transport, i.e. Trams in Chennai (old Madras), between Ports and other places. This could carry lot of head loads. This ended in about 1950.

Power supply for trams

These were run on Direct Current Power supply from Over Head lines. The power for these were being supplied by Madras Electricity System, from their own Thermal Power Station at Basins Bridge, generating AC power. They were converting it to Direct Current power by Mercury Arc Convertor stations located at different parts of Chennai. As this Power Co. was also supplying to domestic consumers in Chennai, the house supplies were also Direct Current. Therefore, even the fans, radios etc. were also meant for Direct current operation at that time.

Incidentally it is seen that in the article Trams in India no mention is made of these trams in Chennai. It mentions Bombay where also it does not exist now. Is it not worth mentioning about Chennai?

--Dore chakravarty 23:22, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

The trams should be not be mentioned on this page, it should be mentioned in Trams in India and a few lines can be devoted in the History of Chennai. =Nichalp «Talk»= 04:29, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Links added-Editing Talk:Chennai (comment)

Tram services

Rather it will be funny to imagine that there was another mode of Transport, i.e. Trams in Chennai (old Madras), between Ports and other places. This could carry lot of head loads. This ended in about 1950. [edit]

Power_supply for trams

These were run on Direct-current Power_supply from Over Head lines. The power for these were being supplied by Madras Electricity System, from their own Thermal Power_station at Basins Bridge, generating Ac_power. They were converting it to Direct-current power by Mercury_arc_rectifier (Convertor) stations located at different parts of Chennai. As this Power Company was also supplying power to residential dwellings in Chennai, the house supplies were also Direct-current. Therefore, even the fans, radios etc. were also meant for Direct-current operation at that time.

Incidentally it is seen that in the article Trams in India no mention is made of these Trams in Chennai. It mentions Bombay Mumbai where also it does not exist now.

Is it not worth mentioning about Chennai?

--Dore chakravarty 06:08, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Talk:Chennai

Thanks very much. Noted the suggestions.

--Dore chakravarty 06:17, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Today's Featured Article

The text to be displayed for Today's Featured Article on Chennai seems funny. Is there a way to edit it? Things that could be included to make it more appropriate on the main page are:

Nicknamed Detroit of India
Bill Gates visited Chennai in December 2005

I completely disagree with the above suggestion because Bill Gates' visit is a single temporal event and doesn't merit mention in an encyclopedic article prominently. Wikipedia is not a newspaper. Similarly, per Wikipedia:Summary style, trivia like nicknames (this being not well known) shouldn't be mentioned in a main article. However, you can suggest any other changes here. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Comparison aids comprehension - Economy

great article, but the section regarding the Economy could be improved. the paragraph regarding Chennai's motor industry is superb. starting with, "Chennai is the base for over forty percent of India's automotive industry." this leaves the reader understanding chennai's key role in india's motor industry. the paragraph on "software development and business process outsourcing" isn't as informative. as these are "major areas in the city's economy", it seems strange that only Nokia is mentioned as an example of a global player with a base in chennai. is this because there are no others? how does chennai compare to other cities in india, & elsewhere in the world, regarding software development and business process outsourcing industries? if chennai is number 8 of top centres for IT in india, then that should be stated, shamelessly. are the various industries mentioned in any order? it could be useful to mention them in order of importance to chennai's economy. perhaps greater structure could be added by the use of subheadings for standard industry pigeon-holing. for example, the Financial Times[5] uses 13 categories;

Aerospace & defence / Autos / Basic industries / Consumer industries / Drugs & healthcare / Energy Utilities Mining / Financial services / IT / Media & internet / Property / Retailing & leisure / Telecoms / Transport.

For the paragraph regarding "banking & finance", i liked the addition of "the World Bank have located their back office operations in the city". However, this was the only example of an organisation given. again, comparisons with other cites would improve understanding. i hope you have time to make some changes. Veej 22:29, 18 December 2005 (UTC)...

Thumbs

The thumbnail sizes on this page are all off kilter. This page is harder than yesterday's featured article since it has a an image that's 240px and another that's 280px... so it won't work well for those with thumbnail size 300px. It's also harder since there are more images in some sections. However, can we agree on putting both images in "Geography" at the same thumbnail size? Since they're right next to each other they shouldn't be different. I'm not sure exactly how to do it but... it should look a little more tidy since it's a featured article. gren グレン 03:55, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I've attempted to fix it. Please check out. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 07:05, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Looks good :) I just didn't want to barge into a featured article when it was on the main page. Thanks. gren グレン 15:35, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

"40% of auto industry"

from what i gather, the source for the statement "with around forty percent of the automobile industry having a base there" in the article is this quote from this report in The Hindu].

Shivkumar, Chief Managing Director of Alpump Private Limited, did a quick analysis of the city's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. "The city's port is the second largest loading hub of India. About 40 per cent of automotive components of India are made in Chennai, ...".

i don't think the quote substantiates the statement in the article. Auto components is only a part of the auto industry, and especially now, a big(?) chunk of auto components is sourced from abroad, as knocked-down kits which are assembled locally. plus there is the assembly segment of the auto industry. so i don't think 40% of indian-made components makes 40% of auto industry. Doldrums 09:21, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

The 40% of auto industry is correct. The knocked down kits story mentioned above may have been true ten years ago, but the Indian auto components industry today is world class exporting to several countries.

Chennai zone map

I just made a map of chennai based on the cmda masterplan and corporation zone map. Looks like Chennai city now has 10 zones. could somebody correct the article and include the map? [6] --PlaneMad 13:30, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

My suggestions...

Hi,

I am also an ardent Chennai Fan and want to change the preception of Chennai.How about adding the photos of the New highrise residential complexes and gardens and the National park,planetarium.Pictures of IIT is also welcome,which is a reserved forest area.Chennai has shown its talent in the industries but people must understand that chennai too have god spots other than the beach and its a very livable place.Can anyone around Chennai help in getting the photos for the same.It would be very help ful.

We can also add the photos of the entertainment options available in Chennai,one of the best in India.We can list the multiplexes,malls,shopping streets,bowling alleys,Karting and the race trackin sriperumbudur.

We can also tell about the number of engineering colleges in and around Chennai and the variety of courses in them under the Educational institutions.

We have to add a separate list under the heading of the heritage monuments in Chennai,which includes a large number of religious places.

We should mention the exact position of Chennai in various industries,as often the national newspapers neglect Chennai ,lots of people ni Northern India doesn't even know about chennai.

We need a picture of the MRTS too .

And my last request is some one who is able to access internet daily has to have a back up of the details in the Chennai page,as frequently i find lots of details deleted by some miscreants.

Anand.

I agree with you, personally, that the city is neglected from national coverage. But these views are personal and vary from person to person. So it is not wise to put them in an encyclopaedia.
Please come up with a list of heritage monuments. That would be welcome.
Regarding photos, please feel free to do so. The article lacks some good pictures. If it is representative of the city and deserves mention, it will be included
Regarding the exact position of Chennai, please find the stats, but do not add it to the main Chennai article. Instead go to Economy of Chennai and place your data there. Thank you for the contribution.
Backups are stored on Wikipedia servers. Click on the History Tab in the article. Click on any date to see the article as it appeared at that time.

- Arjun

List heavy

This article is too list heavy. Names of companies, educational institutes and sports venues should he heavily pruned down. =Nichalp «Talk»= 10:08, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Also, can we merge the "layout" subsection into "administration" section under the heading "layout and administration" and, similarly, the "climate" subsection into its parent section "geography"? -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 12:19, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Question

The American composer Alan Hovhaness visited Madras in 1959 and wrote a composition called "Nagooran," named after a 19th century saint. Does anyone know more about this saint? I can't find anything on the Internet so I wonder if Hovhaness may have misspelled his name. Thank you for your help.

Hovhaness said the following about this:

"In 1959 when I was in Madras, India, they had a Christmas Festival around that time of Solstice--from the middle of December into early January. I think the first concert was given in December and I wrote quite a lot of music for that. The MADRAS SONATA comes out of that. In January, I wrote something for Indian instruments called NAGOORAN. I based it on the name of a saint who was familiar to all the people in Madras: a saint who lived a hundred years earlier who had been a very strong and very peaceful influence, uniting the Hindu religion and the Moslem religion. People from both religions used to consult him. He sat by the river there and went into a trance and advised people about their problems. So I selected this theme, and I went to his shrine and sort of got into the spirit of this Saint and wrote the music for an orchestra of South Indian instruments. I later planned to do something with this music but it hasn't been played since then because it was written, as I said, for Indian instruments. Badagnani 09:43, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I've heard Muslim religious songs on Nagore Andavar (literally meaning the Lord of Nagore). Nagore is a town in Tamil Nadu. You can get more info here and here. If you've some time, create an article on Nagore. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 10:06, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Revert

The article had lost most of its footers and categories. I had to revert to a version on 4/13. I have restored many changes since that version. - Ganeshk (talk) 23:07, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Also, while I appreciate the recent edits by a new user, these are making the article unduly long and deviate from the Wikipedia:Summary style. Can someone move the stuff to appropriate sister articles like History of Chennai, Chennai naming or such. I'm terribly short of time to do this myself. Someone else please? -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:12, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

Spelling

Sorry, I don't know how to add new questions, but can someone please explain why the tamil spelling of Chennai is misspelt? Is this something to do with the way fonts are encoded or somthing? ெசன்ைன is spelt as சென்னை. This spelling, in the very first line of the first article links to the tamil article on Chennai, where again the title is misspelt. How does edit article titles?

Dynesh

This is not a misspelling. It is a problem with the way your computer displays the Tamil font. Some fonts seem to display it correctly, while others don't. For example, for me, the title of the Tamil article displays incorrectly, while in the article body it's fine. -- rabin 20:46, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

This problem's with Firefox. If you're on windows, you can go to control panel->regional and language settings and then add language packs support for complex scripts. You need windows CD for that. Alternately you might have some firefox fixes. See Wikipedia:Enabling complex text support for Indic scripts. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 03:53, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

What is someone from Chennai called?

Madras:Madrasi :: Chennai:What? -- ke4roh 21:02, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Chennaiite in English. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:22, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Population

Is there a standard reference we should be using for population across all cities? In this page, there are 2 dif. numbers (Infobox vs. 1st para).

The article List of most populous cities in India shows it as 5th with a dif. number. Yet another number is found in List of most populous metropolitan areas in India. Since this refers to met. area, one would expect this to be higher.

Anyone have a way (or suggestion) for keeping track of the various entries so they can all be updated simultaneously? Skumarla 08:52, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Add sister cities?

What do people think about listing the sister cities of Chennai and other Indian cities? I know Denver is one for Chennai. See: http://www.denversistercities.org/chennai.php or a separate topic like Sister_cities_of_Denver,_Colorado Skumarla 04:10, 3 October 2006 (UTC)