Quo Vadis?

This post is part of the Chennai Bloggers Club's CBC VIBGYOR BLOG TAG 2 where some of us will write a post on the colours of VIBGYOR each day starting 1st of May to the 7th of May, 2020. The colour theme for today's post is GREEN. To be quite honest green was not a colour that I liked in my younger days and then I grew up. In the millennium year one song happened in an epic movie that opened my eyes to this beautiful colour. The song begins with green and goes on to many more colours but the song is named green and shows how green signifies new beginnings. Green is the colour of nature and there is something soothing about it. Many childhood days have been spent looking at the passing fields and meadows from the train windows and as you grow and realize that these are the sources of our food the respect for the green fields grew in the mind. On the cricket field if we may bleed blue we are thrilled if the Men in Blue maintain their perfect record in ...

The new traffic rules and fines have cause considerable outrage and humour online.  The outrage seems to overshadow the humour as many people are upset with the new fines as they will burn a big hole in many pockets. Many are saying that these fines are unfair and should be scrapped, I disagree here. A fine exists because the person who was fined was simply not fine. Putting that poor joke aside, it is obvious that a fine will only be feared by those who plan to violate the rules. These rules were not made to satisfy anyone’s personal ego but to ensure safety for all. People want to violate these rules and then crib about the fines. In some time people will get used to these fines and things will get normal again because we forget fast. The basic question remains why do people outrage so much? Let me tell you an open secret. The common man in India is largely decent till he gets on a two wheeler and then he sinks to the depths of depravity that is unimaginable. Look around ...

Body language is such a crucial part of communication which is often ignored or not given its rightful due. This post is about few body language signals that are seen on the roads of the city and their interpretations, for easy understanding some common examples are also given. The “ my way or the high way type ”: This is when you see a motorist who decides to cut in irrespective of the traffic lights, vehicles, lanes etc. This is exhibited by a simple nod of the head with an Up Down motion. You are free to interpret as you please but the common interpretation is “I am coming in and you can do what you please”. This behaviour can be understood by remembering the VIPs in their beacon lit cars and escort vehicles who just care for nothing more than their “right of passage”. The “ I see you but I don’t ” type: This typical behaviour is when a motorist blatantly rides on the wrong side whether it is a 2-wheeler or 3-wheeler or a 4-wheeler is inconsequential. These people have slig...

Today I started for work 15 minutes earlier and what a difference it made to my day!!! On a Monday the usual commute of 10 odd kilometres takes a little more than 50 minutes if I hit the peak hour traffic after 9 AM.  Today I started just 15 minutes earlier since the newspaper came late and it was quite an interesting experience. The beautiful Chennai weather helped to elevate my mood and I started my commute. Since there was no rush I settled down and started to enjoy the ride. Driving was always therapeutic to me and years ago I used to go for night drives in Chennai to just chill out. The cool breeze on the face with the windows down (no convertibles here!!), good music (if available), empty roads make a wonderful cocktail that is savoured leisurely. Drive where the heart rather than the road leads and come back refreshed. Office commute was however devoid of all these and was a chore that got unbearable at times due to the traffic jams, idiot motorists and silly ja...

I look down upon two wheeler riders; they are probably just above the level of filth in my lexicon. Do not get me wrong I ride a scooter at times and so do my family members, so this is not a general statement. I am talking about one particular set of two wheeler riders who are a burden to planet earth and make me burst a nerve at times. Why do I get so emotional? How else do I react to those who: -           Break every rule in the book at great risk to self and to others -           Trespass or encroach upon others space and think it is their rightful due on the road -           Cause traffic jams by driving everywhere else except on the road -           Ride around with a defiant look on the face flouting every rule and yet not having the spine to look at the other person face to face - ...

What do you do when the traffic light ahead turns to red? If you are not on foot, I suppose the universal rule of law is that you stop. It is quite plain and simple and usually the above statement is non-negotiable. I say usually because in Chennai and I would like to believe in many other parts of India, the red light is subject to negotiation and even debate. These negotiations are between the driver and his / her conscience and it appears that the winner in most cases is the driver. Stopping at the signal appears to be the most difficult thing to do and for some it can be an annoying distraction when a light turns red. For some others standing behind someone waiting for the light to change can be a life altering moment and usually ends up in exaggerated outburst of road rage. Usually I get bullied by some idiots behind when I wait at a traffic light simply because it appears that there is no traffic from the adjacent lanes, forgetting for a moment that lights also p...

A recent conversation with someone made me realize that when we say two wheeler enthusiasts the usual images that come to mind are the big gangs including the big boys on the Enfield bullets but there exist a set of people who are hard core fanatics of their set of two wheels and constantly upgrade to the same model of TVS mopeds. Do not get me wrong, I do not think that it is a bad vehicle; in fact it merits the same kind of crazy, inexplicable adulation given to a Bullet by its users who swear by it despite its many shortcomings that are called as its USPs. The TVS 50 in its many avatars put many people on to the road and was their first ever motorized personal transport vehicle. People in the villages still swear by it as do the delivery boys in many grocery shops in the cities. I go back to my school days in St. Bede’s AIHS when TVS was something that excited most of us in high school. Those were the days of commuting to school by bus or cycle, days when th...

I had posted on the Chennai Autos earlier . I am delighted that the Auto fare movement has succeeded at least as far as the new fares coming in. The enforcement will be a challenge as the drivers seem to have got used to doing nothing most of the time when not asking for 300% of the fare or thereabouts for every trip which they don’t seem to be keen to make anyway. The question is why must the government fix fares? Going forward why the government must fix the fares of fuel, power and others? Each time the government gets into this, it gets into a political logjam and populism precedes common sense and we end up getting into a trap from which there seems to be no exit. The government does not fix the price of gold or real estate and there seems to be no respite for buyers of either but surprise, surprise no one complains. Water which will become another scare commodity shortly is under-valued and consequently priced at ridiculous levels. To put it into perspective 1 litre ...

There are narcissists and there are narcissists. Oh! You do not know what narcissism is? Wiki to the rescue as always:- “ Narcissism   is a term that originated with   Narcissus   in   Greek mythology   who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Currently it is used to describe a person characterized by   egotism ,   vanity ,   pride , or   selfishness . ”   By now you would have understood your typical next door narcissist. Who for boring the ear of the daughter of someone in the family or even worse the coming of age of a daughter in the family makes a huge flex print and proclaims the event to the whole world with the accompanying mug shots of the narcissists who must delight to see themselves larger than life on the roads. Then there is the narcissist who desiring to celebrate the festival of the neighbourhood deity makes a huge board and ensures that he gets enough space on the board to relegate the...

When I heard the news I was angry that nearly 30 people died on the tracks. When I read the news articles my anger increased when I heard that they were trapped between two trains without any room to escape. I was furious when I learnt that the men, women and kids were in a death trap and they were in the trap by choice . What kinds of idiots share this same sky? Promptly the enraged people burn the train, thrash the drivers and politicians jump into the fray asking for compensation and every other now expected reaction to a calamity which could have been easily avoided. What must be done to explain to people that walking on tracks is life threatening? The argument that literacy or lack of it may be a cause cannot hold water as every other day one literate idiot kills himself on the tracks in Chennai, usually the deceased will be going to or back from work. Walking on rail tracks is a crime that is punishable but the punishment is a joke in itself like every other deterre...