THINGS I DISLIKE ABOUT CHENNAI

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. 

ANAMOLIES IN INDIA

It happens in India. One-Way!

When you cancel railway ticket, you lose an appreciable amount of money. But when Railways cancels the train there is nothing they provide you.

When you are.delayed, you miss the train and lose the ticket amount. But when a train is delayed you get nothing but you end up paying more for your conveyance to home.

You can be summarily sent out from your job without any reason  as per the one-sided contract wiith the Company. But when it is a mistake committed by your Company like delayed payment to you, that's passe.

When you don't pay your electricity bill on.the due date, your power supply is cut off. But when they make you suffer during the long hours of load shedding, you don't get any compensation.

When you forget to pay road tax, you are penalised heavily. But when roads are bad and you get hurt due to that, there is nothing available from Corporation or the traffic Dept. Also if a compliant is made to Corporation about bad roads it falls on deaf ears. Unless some pressure is brought on them they do not attend to the problem.

School and College Fees once paid will not be refunded under any circumstances. Is the amount small?. It is often hard earned money. This, in spite of the fact that the seat given up does not go unfilled because greater is the demand than supply.

Since court cases take  years justice is denied.

For vote bank some sections of people are given extraordinary benefits. But the deserving citizens such as aged, downtrodden, oppressed, rural, wronged are neglected.

Parents shell out a huge sum getting their children educated in schools. Since the so called teaching in Government schools are below par, private schools are preferred. In spite of this tuitions to children run like parallel institutions. Is it overzealousness of the parents or opportunistic business ventures, one cannot say. Similarly coaching classes are conducted by some private business houses for every competitive examinatiion. The fees range from 20000 to 2 lakhs per year. Some middle class parents bleed to pay for such coaching classes. Is it then education only for the monied classes. Why should they have the edge?. Is it not inequality?. Is it not against the Right to Education?.

Even God is made highly commercial in this country. There is a special treatment to those who can afford to buy  ‘special darshan’ tickets. God is made discriminatory. Does it happen in Churches and Mosques?  

Hindu temples thrive on blatant donations from the rich. Instead of a community funding, opulence is encouraged. There is competition as to which God or temple is richer?. Is it the essence of religion?. There is even competition among godmen as to who is richer. Is it spirituality?.

WHEN RAINS LASHED CHENNAI

Incessant rains pounded the city

Beating down the ground  mercilessly

Downpour became a deluge

As if collecting the woes of the people.

Power supply was.cut off

The night came early

Bringing with it an eerie silence

As most of the houses got deserted

The ghostly houses silthouted.against darkness

Only the sound of rains can be heard

Like the footsteps made by evil spirits

Water entered every corner

Sewage water swelled and spilled outside

Bringing with it the filth and stench

Surprise that good old water.can do so much damage

So as to destroy much of the household goods

Mute witness to the wrath of nature.

Made.them wonder what they have done to.deserve this.

WRONG WITH CHENNAI

Somehow these problems with Chennai never seem to quit.

Autorickshaws are a curse on this city. Everything is wrong with them. Not only do they charge astronomical fares but there are also several vices associated with them. Standing at their stand and passing comments on people and gossiping for one. I hear they remove the sound deadner in their silencers so that they may save marginally on petrol consumption, but making the motor noicy so as to balst off the peoples ear drums. Strange, they have been living and spoiling the environment with impunity.

There is hardly a good restaurant in Chennai which is good in quality and reasonably prices. Some of the common food items such as idlis and dosas are exorbitantly priced and they defy all the economic theory. The ktichens are not neatly maintained but charged. Either there are street end dingy restaurants such as parotta stalls or costly restaurants such as Annalakshmi,Saravana Bhavan and Adyar Ananda Bhavan.

Talking of Saravana Bhavan, in my opinion, they are the root cause for spoiling the eateries scene in Tamil Nadu. In the name of taking care of their employees, they are fleecing the public. The quality they maintain is only superficial. Other restaurants do not even maintain the this quality but strangely charge almost equal to Saravana Bhavan. This can happen only in Chennai.

People here still flock to such restaurants; engage these autorickshaws without restraint; vote for parties who profess populist measures but do not govern well. Really, I am not able to understand these people.

Apollo Hospitals, which is hailed as a pioneer of Corporate hospital concept is actually the culprit who has spoiled the Health scene in this country. The practice started by them put and end to the family doctor concept, made medical treatment very expensive beyond the reach of common people. They made the doctors greedy. The medical system was made very complicated, not made world-class. This kind of Medical System is not at all suitable to our Country.

Educational Institutions are surviving at Chennai only because there is a good demand. But the system is far from honest in providing the vision that is mentioned on the prospectus of every college here. Not only are the fees are highly unreasonable, mostly the teaching community too are not sincere.

DEFACED WALLS OF CHENNAI

The strange thing in this city is that the its walls are continuously defaced with names of partymen all over. Not a wall is left in the city without the name of some party man's name painted across really big. Each party here is vying for space. There seem to be a mad scamble for the space here with the alphabetic letters getting bigger and bigger. What purpose this gives is anybody's guess. Except that it is 'painting' a wrong image of a cultured city.

Some years back the previous Government had banned this. How the walls of the city looked clean!. Presently the hoardings on the roads had been banned presumably to avoid traffic accidents. How come then such graffiti on the walls are being allowed?. Strange are the ways of the Government.

To keep the city clean is an awareness that must be inculcated in Public mind and examples are to the shown by the Government. If the Government itself commits the sin then what to say of the public. It will only breed uncultured behaviour among the people of the city.

ELECTRICITY WOES

The Power situation at Chennai seems to be at its worst. One consolation is that the other states are also in a similar situation. There must have been a total lack of planning in the recent past about the actual energy requirements for the State. It is easy for the Government to say that the energy consumption has gone up in the past few years. Anyway excuses are plenty and people have become resigned to their fate.

Having failed once, the TNEB could have rectified the situation by planning the power cuts properly. Instead the power shutdowns have been haphazard putting people to further difficulty. Some opposition parties have raised the issues, but people have lost the will to protest. With the result there has been no pressure brought on the Department to streamline the supplies. The Industries are the worst hit. Due to the haphazard power shutdowns there has been a huge loss to the Industrial production, that too in the days when the markets are under a depression. Many of the smaller industrial units have had to close down their opertations. But how does it affect the Electricity board or the Government, which is more interested in populist measures and another country’s problems?.

But one thing must be said of the Electricity Board. They do attend to the telephone calls politely as well as attend to any breakdowns. But do not expect ‘service with a smile’. Be prepared for a resenting face with harsh replies. Become immune to them, that is the best way.

There are a lot of ways the TNEB can make it convenient for its customers. There are long queues in all the counters for the payment of bills. Though there are 4 to 5 counters and the people are dealt with faster, it still takes a person half to one hour for the payment of his bills.
This can be avoided with i) extending the hours of payment counters, and ii) by starting the system of 24 hours bill payment kiosks at strategic places. The epayment system started by TNEB, I heard, is not working properly.

The present meter reading system can be done away with as it is both cumbersome and costly. Instead the person coming for meter reading can be given an electronic billing counter and he can hand over the bill to the concerned house in a matter of minutes.

The TNEB can advertise or publicise to educate the household ways and means to conserve power which will in the state and national interest as a large part of the power is wasted presently.The transformer used presently are by and large faulty and of sub-standard quality. The Board should purchase good, standard transformers and other electricity parts to increase efficiency and avoid breakdowns. Pilferage should be controlled. Noisy loud-speakers should be discouraged. People should sing and dance to their own voices and not use electrically opearated devices. This way there is both enjoyment as well as the neighbours are not disturbed.

RAIN WATER HARVESTING

Chennai was, once upon a time, not in the distant past, a curse as far as the water problem was concerned. The initiatives taken by successive Governments were inadequate and not genuine.

But there happened one exception about 5 years ago. Rain Water Harvesting was the best thing that has happened to the city for a long time. The gentle firmness shown in the matter during the previous Government in really laudable. It was made compulsary for every house or building to implement rain water harvesting systems in their premises. Today, when Chennai is growing at a fast pace due to the IT revolution, it becomes all the more reason for real appreciation. The ground water table has considerably improved and water can be seen in the lakes and ponds around the city. It is a beautiful sight to see good amount of water in the Kapaleeshwarar temple pond. The water quality also seem to have improved. The roadside trees and plants are getting water and greenery is all around. More greenery probably brought more water in the form of rains, reduced traffic pollution and air fresh to breathe.
The water works were more than happy though it was not so for the water lorries.

But I wonder if there is any follow-up of the same nowadays. There is hardly any promotion of the concept with the public. The concerned authorities should continue the good work. We, the public, should make them implement this good activity. As individuals we must install RWH systems in our premises without fail. We must also look at options as to how the remaining ponds and lakes become filled with water. We must also not pollute the accumulated water with our waste. Let us safeguard what we have gained.