“My earliest memories of Chennai are when I used to cycle around places in north Madras as a schoolboy in the early 1970s. I later settled down in the city when I was deputed as the senior observer in the Regional Meteorological Centre in 1984.
During the April thunderstorms in 1970s, I observed black-coloured rainwater seeping through the roofs of houses in Vyasarpadi and Basin Bridge due to coal dust particles that had accumulated on the houses. I later realised easterly winds brought them from Basin Bridge thermal power station. The areas were relieved of the pollution after 1985 when the plant was submerged in floods and replaced by Gas Turbine power station in 1996.
