On a hot day in Chennai, which is 10 months in a year, if you happen to take shelter under a tree, chances are very good that a white blob will land on you. You look up and find it is a crow dropping. But it is more possbile that a similar kind in human form may land a spit on you. I have found a strange kind of habit that people, instead of spitting away from the road near a bush, or a kerb, ( I do not approve of spitting anywhere in a public place) turn way towards the road not minding whether someone is passing through on foot, two-wheeler or a car and spew the venom. Similarly, some varieties rain spit from a moving bus so as to land on you. Uncouth by definition.
The Sewarage Department of the Corporation, in order to gain the attention of the people, plan their manholes in the middle of the road. Periodically, the workers from the Department get down into the manhole purposefully in the middle of a heavy traffic ( more to gain sympathy, I understand), and gather a huge pile of muck and filth from inside and accumulate on the road. So while travelling, one can get the aroma and also savour the filthy scene of a series of small black molehills in the centre of the road. UNAVOIDABLE. It serves another purpose to create public nuisance. Road would have been well laid. But somehow it creates sore eyes to the Corporation officials. Soon they find the need to open the manholes to clean. They leave a crater-like condition on the road which to a fast moving two wheeler can prove fatal. But do they care any?. They believe that the cause of accidents on the road are only due to the driver not carrying valid licence and vehicle registration papers.
Broad Roads in Chennai! Well, Conceptualised. But then there is a great penchant to narrow the roads by ingeniously many ways. MTC drivers stop in bus-stops only in the middle of the road. Taxi drivers, particularly Sumos, Innovas double-park, in some cases, triple-park. Shopkeepers, mainly Hardware fellows and Ceramic dealers bring out half their wares to the middle of the road.to display. You can also witness multiple parks of two-wheelers in some of the narrow roads. The thinking may be, my job is done, let others go to hell!
MTC driver would have ignored a red signal, Taxi drivers and Bikers would have cut across in front of a moving car. Many would be taking a U-turn on the cut in Median where it is prohibited. Many cabs would have put another careful driver to risk by whizzing past him and throwing him across. The traffic police would be looking at these offenses just like an onlooker. But he would be apt to stop an honest traveller just to check if he has with him the important papers and if they are not found, gives him meat to extract his mamool. Not one offender has been caught and shown the correct way. And they talk of reducing the accidents and making roads safer to travel. Is it not a good prank?.
And finally the film crazy public who are so comfortable worshipping an actor while demeaning temple worship; romeos who are mad about film heroines while speaking eloquently on righteousness; politicians of most of the parties who think politics is only about speaking while doing nothing; womenfolk who wail and shreik publicly out of ignorance but get beaten by their drunkard husbands every night, Chennai is a grand stage exemplified by roaring Shivaji G and artfully fooling Kamal.
The Sewarage Department of the Corporation, in order to gain the attention of the people, plan their manholes in the middle of the road. Periodically, the workers from the Department get down into the manhole purposefully in the middle of a heavy traffic ( more to gain sympathy, I understand), and gather a huge pile of muck and filth from inside and accumulate on the road. So while travelling, one can get the aroma and also savour the filthy scene of a series of small black molehills in the centre of the road. UNAVOIDABLE. It serves another purpose to create public nuisance. Road would have been well laid. But somehow it creates sore eyes to the Corporation officials. Soon they find the need to open the manholes to clean. They leave a crater-like condition on the road which to a fast moving two wheeler can prove fatal. But do they care any?. They believe that the cause of accidents on the road are only due to the driver not carrying valid licence and vehicle registration papers.
Broad Roads in Chennai! Well, Conceptualised. But then there is a great penchant to narrow the roads by ingeniously many ways. MTC drivers stop in bus-stops only in the middle of the road. Taxi drivers, particularly Sumos, Innovas double-park, in some cases, triple-park. Shopkeepers, mainly Hardware fellows and Ceramic dealers bring out half their wares to the middle of the road.to display. You can also witness multiple parks of two-wheelers in some of the narrow roads. The thinking may be, my job is done, let others go to hell!
MTC driver would have ignored a red signal, Taxi drivers and Bikers would have cut across in front of a moving car. Many would be taking a U-turn on the cut in Median where it is prohibited. Many cabs would have put another careful driver to risk by whizzing past him and throwing him across. The traffic police would be looking at these offenses just like an onlooker. But he would be apt to stop an honest traveller just to check if he has with him the important papers and if they are not found, gives him meat to extract his mamool. Not one offender has been caught and shown the correct way. And they talk of reducing the accidents and making roads safer to travel. Is it not a good prank?.
And finally the film crazy public who are so comfortable worshipping an actor while demeaning temple worship; romeos who are mad about film heroines while speaking eloquently on righteousness; politicians of most of the parties who think politics is only about speaking while doing nothing; womenfolk who wail and shreik publicly out of ignorance but get beaten by their drunkard husbands every night, Chennai is a grand stage exemplified by roaring Shivaji G and artfully fooling Kamal.
