NE Monsoon diary: from a motorhome in Chennai, P. Periannaswami completes his first assignment

Periannaswami, a resident of Villupuram district is living in this “motorhome”. There is nothing fancy about it: his life in the rough is not being documented and televised. Periannaswami is among a faceless set of people, drawn from the districts and placed on inundation watch in Chennai, assisted in their work by tractors fitted out with suction pipes. Along with the tractors entrusted to them, they are on standby mode at spots known to retain water more on the surface of the earth than under it.  It is October 16, 2025, and only the previous day, the presence of Periannaswami and the tractor had made a difference. Usually, moderate downpour of the kind witnessed in the morning of October 15 would be sufficient to turn a section of Anna Street (near the gates of Kalakshetra Foundation’s craft centre) into a filled bath tub.