ExpertDabbler

I was walking on Velachery Main Road this morning and could not help but notice the route number boards in our MTC buses.

The first bus was  some 21 series. 21H if I remember correctly. On the left hand side of the board was written ‘Broadway’ and on the right it had ‘Madipakkam’. I was confused until I realized the bus was going towards Guindy from Vijaynagar terminus. Which means in all probability it’s proceeding from Madipakkam to Broadway. I could figure this out since I am very much a Chennai vasi and I know the directions and locations of  well-known suburbs. I bet someone new to the city would’ve got into the bus thinking it would go to Madipakkam.

I got more curious and started to notice all the other buses which passed through namely in the next 5 minutes -  D70, 5A to name a few.

From what I observed today morning and previously, I think there are 3 types of boards - One with destinations written on left/right style one with destinations written on top/bottom  and lastly, some cut services which will have just a ‘TO’ Destination which is cearly struck off to indicate its a cut service.

All said and done, the best way for the boards is to display only the TO destination along with the route in much bigger font. To my mind, there is no use for ‘FROM’. But the ideas of the MTC folks seem to be funny, at best.

Except for those hailing from middle-east, the rest of the junta read from left to right. So if at all one wants the ‘FROM’ it makes sense to have it on the left and ‘TO’ on the right.

Alternatively, we can have the ‘FROM’ on the top of the board and ‘TO’ below.

Worse, we can assume all of us are from middle east and reverse it, uniformly!

But what the MTC folks have is the worst possible option - there are all types of boards with total disregard for consistency. One bus has the ‘FROM’ on the left while the rest have it on the right. I bet even those who can read Tamil and who is very much a chennai vasi will get coufused once in a while if he or she is not aware of the locations of the suburbs.

The less said about the plight of those new to the city and language, the better. Add our ‘friendly’ autrorickshaws to the equation and their ordeal looks scary enough for them to decide never to visit Chennai again in their lifetime.

I am basically a ‘tubelight’, if it can strike me, it can strike anyone whose voice matter in MTC. But then mysterious are the ways of MTC!

Sometime last week I had, shall we say the pleasure, of taking the much talked about IT Highway to the Prathyangara Devi Temple in Shozhinganallur. To be honest, the road is really cool from Madhya Kailash to SRP Tools. Never mind the fact that it took them ages to complete that 2-3 km stretch.
But the deal, or rather the ordeal, begins after that point. Regular commuters on that road will agree if I say it has become progressively worse what it was 1.5 years ago.

Certain landmarks remain intact even while new others have cropped up. For eg, I checked out the spot bang opposite CTS in Thoraipakkam, the swimming pool was intact even 2 weeks after the last drop of rain. IT Highway? Oh yeah!

Keerthi once mentioned, “Andha road la bus shock absorber ku epdi behave panradhu ne therila PK. Front right wheel and rear left wheel um kuzhi la irukkum. Mitha rendu wheelum periya kal mela irukkum” It may sound impossible, but does well to communicate the true state of the road.

Perhaps the Government might think now that anyway the road is due for major facelift upto Siruseri, why spend time and money on repairing?

But I can assure you no software engineer worth his backache will live long enough to see the improved version, if the present roads are any indication.

As if this experience was not enough, I took the Perungudi - Pallavaram bypass while returning. Ah, how I wish better sense had prevailed.

What I kinda knew was, the stretch between Perungudi and Kamakshi Hospital is the dumping yard for South Chennai. What I did not know was the fact that one lane of the road being usurped by the dump yard (Infrastructure development?).

It’s almost impossible to breathe. I say almost, because I guess i somehow did and survived to write this. That was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Yeah, never again that road in my lifetime!

And what is the latest I hear? Our esteemed IT majors  has decided to build one of their IT parks exactly at that very auspicious place. Talk about strategic positioning.
And oh yeah, there are a couple of huge residential apartments and it’s rumored they sell about 2000 per sqft!

Read the title again.

Recently, I entered the Sify Iway in Kasturibhai Nagar, Adyar

As soon as I entered, a lady asked me if i was a member. I nodded yes. She promptly asked me to fill in my details in a register. “Oh! Security” I told myself.

I entered my name, address, mobile number, email id, the in-time and signed near the right.

“Eludhiteengala? ” she asked.

I nodded again.

“Security” she called looking at the middle aged man in uniform.

“Ivar details elllam check pannunga” she ordered him.

That guy started his scrutiny. I was already feeling a bit uneasy about writing down all these details for the sake of print out.

“Sir, ungalukku photo Id irukka?”

I showed him my company ID card. But clearly exasperated by now. It occured to me that getting through the main gates in IIT Bombay even as a stranger was easier.

“Hm. Licence irukka?”

I showed him my laminated licence copy.

“Licence oda number eludhunga. ”

Thats it.

I decided i’ve had enough.

“Irukattum nga. unga browsing center neengale vechukonga!. naan vera edam poikaren”

For a brief moment, I was thinking if I’d entered some Tamil Nadu Government run browsing center by mistake.

For all this information collection, how do I ensure that the guys will not misuse my personal information?

The beauty is, I went to another Sify Iway in velachery and they hardly ever bothered to look at me. Who is following rules and who is overdoing it?

It is one thing to be cautious and alert and another thing to take this opportunity to be bureaucratic! I wish people were sensible enough to understand that.

Quite a few people have commented about my previous post.

Some of the ‘top itams’ are as under

1. That I’m mixing up issues. The issues allegedly mixed up are ‘development’ and ‘compensation’.

Now, if only things were so simple in this country!

To avoid this so called mix-up I have to assume that the government will pay ‘market value’ leave alone ‘150% of market value’ of the property as compensation.
When the government has made no such announcement that I know of, there is no reason for me to ‘assume’ that. If that’s a proposal let the government announce that.

2. Airport need be expanded, no doubt

For now, let me not even get into the politican’s land angle.

Is there any law which states that Chennai can have only one airport and that too only in Meenambakkam?? How come Bangalore is constructing its own international airport which is a good distance from the city?? Who the hell stops the Tatas, Birlas and our own Maran family from forming a consortium with some foreign developer and build a new airport in govt. land in some far away place??

Won’t the flights land and take off from there?? Do you guys forsee any vasthu issues??

I’d say the govt. can even think about some area in North Chennai. That would bring in some development in there. This would also mean some punniya aathmas who have lived in South Chennai all their lives can leave their foot prints in North Chennai due to which that area may get vimochanam and see some real development.

3. Filing PIL.

Its like saying someone will come and take my property and then I have to file a PIL to get the sale proceeds from him. That means by default I’m plundered, but I have to file a PIL and run behind courts to make it look like a sale.

And ladies and gentlemen, PILs are like masala dosas - u ask now, u will be given in 10 minutes flat, yep thats how fast the courts work. Sigh!

4. Boat club matter

I sincerely apologize. I should’ve realized that boat club area alone is too small. I should’ve included areas like adyar, kotturpuram, alwarpet, abhiramapuram etc to stress my point.

Sarcasm apart, the point I was trying to make was that any area has the potential to be ‘developed’ for some purpose or the other. But no ultra rich has never ever been affected by any ‘development’ to the best of my knowledge.

5. There is always a cost to development.

That’s only half the sentence, the other half reads “and that cost is never borne by the rich and almost always by the middle and lower classes in this country”.

6. I should’ve simply mentioned about compensation

I deliberately did not mention that because a house has got a lot of senti value to those who have only one property and who have lived there all their life. I am nobody to suggest a price for that.

If there are no options (thats a big IF) then the govt. which wants their land so badly has to take the initiatve and come up with a decent proposal to the PAP (project affected people).

My advance apologies for suggesting an offer price, but say, if the govt. comes up with an offer of 10-15 lakh per ground and a job asssurance to the affected people who need a job in their family then I think the number of agitators would be far less than what it is now.

But as I said earlier, it’s for the government to come up with a decent offer. A house is like a loved one in a family. Just because our loved one’s lives are insured for X amount does not mean that’s the value of their life and that we would kill our loved one if only we get that X amount.

6. Am I a Communist?

No. Its just that the people who control the market forces in the country would do well to have some conscience and a sense of right and wrong.

7. What I write is bullshit.

Good! It has taken 700 posts of mine for people to understand that.