A desperate ‘art installation’ by residents of an apartment in Chennai

Where buildings are packed together with each featuring multiple dwelling units, a criss-cross of drop cables usually mars the facade. Nobody notices it, let alone whine about it. But at Giriappa Road in Drivers Colony, T, Nagar, a tangle of cables invites more than a second look: it piques curiosity which usually extends into an amused request for information. It is not so much the cables as their location that forces one to suspend every activity, no matter how life-redefining, and stand gawking at this spectacle. Ramanathan Stalin, secretary of the Sreenivasam Flats association, says the ornamental planter bed was not always enhanced by this “art installation” and it was a desperate attempt to keep tipplers away from the planter bed. He elaborates, “At night, outside vehicles are parked in front of the apartment close to the grille enclosure, and that provides just the screen for some outsiders to consume alcohol, sometimes sitting in the planter bed and throwing the bottles right there. The cables are meant to keep tipplers and bottles out of the planter bed.”