It was when Chennai turned 374 this year, the city saw many celebrations for a week.
Dream Madras, an initiative by United Way was conducted in Valluvar Kottam on Aug. 19 and 20. The theme for the inter-school competition was ‘Your Vision for Chennai in 2030’.
Students from different schools exhibited their ideas about their perspective of Chennai in the days to come, through any platform like in the form of a movie, video, power-point presentation, models, charts … Many schools enthusiastically participated in this colorful exhibition.
The future citizens had outstanding ideas for the betterment of Chennai. An eco-friendly and plastic free Chennai was envisioned by a set of students.
Exhibits portrayed that plastics need to be banned on a large scale and people should move towards jute and cloth bags, soon. A related exhibit also stressed that more trees and most importantly, trees of suitable kinds be planted. “Planting any tree, not knowing its characteristic could lead to soil degradation,” said the student who designed the exhibit. The importance and advantages of Solar Power were also highlighted in many of the exhibits.
Chennai is known for its authentic traditional flavours. Many of the exhibits chose one of the many cultural flavours of Chennai as their central theme. Bharatnatyam, the famous classical dance art form and Sari, the attire were the most popular among them. The Gen Next were of the opinion that our rich cultural heritage be preserved.
Marina, the second longest beach in the world, is undoubtedly the pride of Chennai. But, of late, Marina beach sees a large amount of refuse that washes ashore, a constant reminder of the pollution caused by its citizens. A couple of exhibits suggested that this longest beach in India can also become the cleanest if we take an initiative to rid marina of its dirty drapery.
The picture of Chennai painted by the students was thoughtful and colorful. The visitors hoped that something concrete will materialise from the thoughts of the future engineers and administrators.