Shobha Menon, Founder, Nizhal, a Chennai-based environmental organisation
Everything is special about Chennai because it is our city, the one we live in.
The city is also one we must protect and safeguard.
Celebrating Chennai must be the norm, and I believe this must happen every day, not just for a day, week or month.
It is the everyday life of the city, its people, its neighbourhoods and its natural spaces that make it special.
While it is certainly good to see community engagement through neighbourhood heritage walks and talks this month, I deeply feel it is time we also encouraged and facilitated such engagement in simple but proactive citizen actions that can bring about changes in their own neighbourhoods. After all, it is when people feel connected to their neighbourhoods and take an interest in what happens around them that real change can begin.
I believe that great changes can be brought about through sustained and diligent local action and give us cleaner, safer, greener streets. With genuine support networks within communities, we can catalyse win-win connections all around. That, I think, is the need of the hour, and that, I would call, a true celebration of Chennai.
(As told to Geetha Srimathi)
Published – August 17, 2026 04:27 am IST
