And then there were none...

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Tuesday April 26, 2050.

As Chennai gets ready to roast in 50 degree celsius (122F)   during the weeks of "Agni Nakshatram,"  in the month of May, its citizens will pay their final tributes to what was once called the Marina beach. Thanks to rising sea levels, Chennai will now relinquish her last remaining strip of public open space - the Marina beach - to the non-negotiable terms of nature. The people's place would exist no more, leaving the congested elevated freeway standing alone with their 60' high supporting pylons sunk deep onto the erstwhile Kamaraj Salai. On the night of April 25th the freeway will be  closed to accommodate thousands of Chennai'ites who would jostle for a ringside view to see the high tide from Bay of Bengal gobble up the last remaining public open space in the city for good. For those who cannot make it to the seaside expressway the event would be streamed live into their living rooms and communication equipments by every major television channel.

Between 2040 and 2050 the Tamil Nadu government put up a brave face trying to save the last remains of the beach next to Kamaraj Salai with corrosion-resistant concrete tetrapods manufactured with technological know-how from China. But the untimely low pressure depression from the Bay of Bengal during the heat of summer would finally wash away what has always been the signature open space for Chennai for more than one hundred and fifty years.

Given the relocation challenges the Tamil Nadu government had to face in the last ten years, the loss of the last twenty feet of beach land almost seemed like a non-issue. Unlike the Tsunami that hit the shores of Chennai on Dec 27, 2004  the government didn't have to be bothered by the fisherfolks this time. For in the place of fishermen's village now exists a floating luxury eco-resort constructed on pneumatic  foundations designed to  rise with sea levels and to survive cyclonic wind speeds. Besides, why would you need a fishermens village when you can order a fresh vacuum sealed pack of genetically modified and locally farmed Alaskan salmon from your neighborhood Walmart?  Walmart may be fighting another round of class action charges in the United States, but their business in India is doing better than ever. With their headquarters moved from Bentonville, Arkansas to Naypyidaw, Myanmar, they are a virtual retail monopoly in entire Asia.

The biggest political challenge the government would face in the recent years with the rising sea levels would be the relocation of the final resting places of four ex-chief chief ministers of Tami Nadu  - the tacky memorial tombs that populated the entire northern end of the beach.  The samadhis of M.Karunanidhi and his son M.K.Stalin were the first of the four memorials to be transported to higher grounds promptly followed by those of M.G.Ramachandran and C.N.Annadurai. Briefly the government considered the proposal for floating memorials put forth by the engineering conglomerate that owned the floating eco-resort, but the timing of general elections would favor a more controversial yet traditional approach to the relocation of the final remains. Earth was preferred to water. There is a lot more money to made from salt water these days and giving away prime waterfront real estate for free to dead heads-of-state did not amount to a smart strategy to fund future elections. In the name of culture and tradition, the Tamil political flock may still prefer the five yard long cotton 'Veshti" in place of western style trousers but sartorial sentimentality doesn't come in the way of cold logic required for political machinations. With the high profile memorials  transplanted to higher round, they now need to attend to official business. There is a bidding war brewing between Reliance Industries and AquaChina to grab the  memorial lands for the next generation desalination plants that would join the existing marine-industrial corridor that would extend all the way  from Eranavurkuppan in Ennore to the north to Pondicherry in the South. And bidding wars are a good thing for party and personal coffers.

In the middle of the heightened media frenzy that revolved around the the live telecast of the anticipated high tide event, the remains of one other political personality was turning in his grave - that of Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff, the governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886, who concieved and built the promenade along the beach and christened it  " The Madras Marina."