Monday, March 10, 2008

*Honk* *Honk*

Of all the things that happen everyday, and don't happen, i chose to write about this, because i don't think I've ever come back home from anywhere so angry, with some sort of undying rage, ever! I have never banged the door of the lift before, or banged my fist against the car park wall, almost cracking a knuckle, or given a traffic policeman my best shot at a disgusted look despite not having my license! Well, if you don't live in Chennai, this post wouldn't make any sense at all. The NEW traffic diversions (Read : Converting every road possible into a one-way) are a waste of time, petrol, patience, and make you want to run down every person u see wearing a white shirt and khaki trousers, throwing out hand signals! Even though they're just doing their jobs, obeying somebody else's orders. And WHY would they want to make changes to some part of the city that's not suffering from this problem half as much other parts! Maybe just for fun! Or maybe because it seems like a good idea to plant "no entry", "no left turn", and "no right turn" boards all over the place! Maybe too many of those boards were rusting and had to be used urgently! Maybe the barricades were rusting too, and needed to be thrusted exactly where people like me take turns! And there we waited on the road, under the sun, Guinea pigs to their trial-and-error methods to alleviate traffic congestion, people who spent over 2 hours inside a helmet, and ended up coming back home in the worst of moods, the kind that even hot sweet tea and good music could do nothing to help!

To the people out there who are busy charting these CHANGES out on paper, considering themselves the masterminds of this destructively disorganised plan that i sincerely hope fails, and fails big, so that things can go back to how they were, a few words for you:

-->Making every road, every street a one-way DOES NOT help bigger causes! It only makes us go in circles, and see the world before we reach home! Which i can tell you, is one of the worst things when one's stomach's already growling in hunger!
-->The congestion has only become WORSE. Actually, there was no congestion before! Where one would previously take hardly 5 minutes to ride across a road, one now takes a good 20 minutes! Or even more.
-->Give the traffic policemen a break. Its YOU who should be getting the disgusted looks and the million questions from the people who ACTUALLY use those roads everyday!
-->The next time you want to do something like this, just DON'T DO IT! :D
-->You have successfully proved that you have the ability to make our lives miserable. Get over yourselves and open your eyes to this unruly mess that you've landed us innocent citizens into!
--> Lastly, if the rusting boards are the problem, sir, with no attempts to sound proud, my project currently deals with metal resistant bacteria. I could get them to eat your metal up :D :D as long as YOU own up, and tell this city what the problem is!

Hell, am i the only person who has a problem with this? Is it all just abt RESISTING CHANGE? *wonders*

But, this still sucks.

I was thinking how it would be if a whole gang of people went on strike and rode bikes the opposite way on a one-way :D *Evil Grin* Maybe i should organise it?

Yours "resisting change"ly...
Signing off...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! I can so relate to what you're saying. Seriously, traffic in chennai is such a mess. When I was working on the project at iit last winter, it used to take me almost an hour to reach the place fro besant nagar with all the new diversions into place.Thats too much time for too short a distance!
Your post had touches of humor and that made it even better!:)qusw

Anonymous said...

And sorry abt the last few letters.. was a typing error.

Anonymous said...

you know what? the traffic has reduced, atleast on TTK road.
but I think the traffic authorities get paid by these companies/shops like pothys cus they have their ads on the barriers. :D
and there will come a time when your project will be over and you'll be returning back home happy and you would enjoy the beauty of the streets which you otherwise wouldn't take but now you have to because of the traffic diversions.:D

Div said...

sementi - Someone finally understands! I've been hearing people saying its better now... wondering why i still dont think it is! And so much time for besant nagar to IIT is real bad! But riding inside the IIT campus would def make u forget all the traffic :) Its so lovely...
and i guess humour happens when am really frustrated :) thanks!

Suk - Good for u... i still think it sucks :( And ya, i noticed a lawrence n mayo board today... God how n all they get money!
and those streets suk, i've always used! but in the opposite direction! Lol...

Anonymous said...

you're looking at it from a different point of view(literally) so it'll be different :P:P
lawrence and mayo??I haven't seen that one.. everything i've seen's been pothys,speaking of which I bet the extra floors they've built is illegal

Div said...

suk - Lol yeah i am...no building's more illegal than my college man...

Anonymous said...

right lol.. well atleast it's not a huge building in the middle of already congested pondy

Div said...

suk - right. still illegal. Thats y the building's arent painted! Theres some funda... if they paint it, they'll have to pay for illegality n taxes or some crap!

:D

Aarti said...

Totallly agree with what you've written here... i swear, i get infuriated when i see all the new traffic changes they make.. hideous..

today was in CP Ramaswamy road, n the whole stretch is a one way, hop acros to St Marks road n that is one way going the other direction. wat crap.. and a bike guy was pleading with cop to let him cut across as he had to go to the building across the road. for which he had to go abt 3kms round n round.. wierdos...

1st time here.. cool blog.. :)

Anonymous said...

lol your buildings aren't painted??
and there's one more no? they haven't completed some building cus it's bad luck?

Div said...

aaarti - welcome aboard! Glad someone can finally relate to what i've been ranting abt :) And yeah, c.p.ramaswamy road is a total mess... its almost the same thing for me, to go to some shop across the street, i have to move in cricles...n to make it worse, they're still changing things! Some trial n error method...!

Suk - my dept block is not painted...just has primer! n that bad luck thing is the gate...!

Anonymous said...

what traffic change?? i din even know of it...

Div said...

vishwa - ore the changes da... vandha daan puriyum :(:(

Vinod Ramamoorthy said...

Late but latest :P

All I can say is "kuch kar guzarne ko khoon chala" !!

Anonymous said...

divs...AMEN AMEN N a DOUBLE AMEN to ur post!!!!!!!!ve controlled myself from screamin at those police bas****s...bloody nonsense...if they wanna play musical chairs they bloody well keep it to themselves..wat the hell r they doin makin it public...if ur raving to kill them too...sorry u gotta wait ur turn...cuz m on ma way already...

Anonymous said...

its like they r tryin the fastest route to reach someplace or somethin...if they wanna do tht y the hell should they ask everyone to be in wit their trail n error i donno....y dont they go in their own verhicles to diff spots thru diff routes...chk wats best n keep it to themselves n let us be??complete jackasses!!!!!!!including the sottai thalai who sits right at the top!!!

janani said...

i think the "high people" read your post......
the one way is back to two way....yahoooo...:D

Div said...

shruti - I KNOW!!!! Lol.. sadness!

Janani - Yayyy!!! :) I dont think they read my post though ;) I smield for so long when i saw that things were back to how they were before!