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| MADRA(IN)S--2 |
| Wednesday, December 07, 2005 |
This is my second post about the dec 4 chennai rains.For the first one,about the october 27 version,just scroll down till you see a title same as that of this post.
"Vangakadalil..........kuraindha.............kaatrazhutha...........taazhvu.........
nilai......uruvaagiyullathu.Idhanaal.........tamizhagathin ........kadalora maavattangal...........thootukudi,........pudukottai.......tanjavur............nagapattinam......cuddalore............vizhupuram.........tiruvallur........chennai...............matrum........kanchipurathil...........idiyudan koodiya mazhai........peyya........koodum."So says the head of the chennai weather station with umpteen pauses in between that before he could actually complete his statement you could travel to bangalore and forth.His statements are unique in that none of them have actually become true.A cyclone predicted beforehand turns into a depression,a foreseen heavy rain turns into hot weather by some magic or curse.The weather dept is poised to become the butt of jokes in future and it's now vying with sourav ganguly for a place in the elite 10.
The situation this time was no different.Subways resembled storage tanks,shops along narrow streets looked like aquariums and the worst--rivers overflowed their banks.Once again the southern fringes of the city, namely adyar and beyond,were the least affected.One guy was surprised to find a bucket floating on the floodwater that had entered the backyard of his house.
On dec 4 I was in no mood to go home after the training session at ennore foundries.I changed my mind onl after reaching central.I bought a ticket to tiruvallur and boarded the arakkonam-bound electric train.Again a change of mind and I got down at avadi itself.Headed straight to the bus stand and I was undecided on where to go when I noticed a glittering piece of metal come into the terminus.It was a brand new bus on route no 70.I decided to go on a trip to tambaram.Coming back to the rains!As the bus rambled along,I caught sigh of the Arapath lake that runs extends from ambattur to avadi for about 6 kms.This lake,I read in Tamizh murasu,had inundated adjoining ambattur and tirumullaivoyal(between amb and avd).
There was no flooding from ambattur estate to west anna nagar.After that between koyambedu and vadapalani,traffic police were seen using public address system to announce motorists of waist deep water,caused due to breach of a causeway(a low bridge)near MMDA.Only heavy vehicles were permitted and two wheelers and cars were told to turn back.True as it turned out to be,there was not waist but face-deep water.Excess water from the adyar river and the nerkundram lake had jointly flooded the stretch of Inner ring Road from koyambedu to vadapalani.
After that the bus got stranded in the K.K Nagar junction near ashok pillar."Another roadroko against relief distribution",I thought.The bus moved inch by inch and after 15 minutes,reached the adyar river bridge at ekkaduthangal.I was horrifed to see the adyar river in spate.The water level was so high that you could touch it from above the bridge.Adjoining colonies in jafferkhanpet were marooned ad while the residents were having a tough time movig out of the place,some picnickers were watching the river flow,like pattikkaattaan mittaai kada.
Not much activity thereafter upto tambaram.I boarded the beach-bound train to go to saidapet.The train was moving slowly after guindy.Very unusual this was and the obvious reason was the river in spate.It took a whopping 10 minutes to reach saidapet.Once I was out of the station onto mount road,it was a similar scene on the bridge at saidapet.For the first time ever I caught sight of a news correspondent.It was the NDTV reporter with a camera before him.On seeing a 21G bus going via adyar it became very apparent that kotturpuram was cut off.At night I checked out the adyar bridge near Malar Hospitals only to find a similar scene.For once Cooum,at the other end of the city, wasnt stinking.
Velachery--This place opened itself to real estate after IT firms started coming up on OMR,particularly Tidel.It was poised to become an extremely posh locality next only to nungambakkam and besantnagar.Little did the people,who purchased houses there,realise that their apartments stand on a lake bed.The velachery lake is completely out of sight now.Only the marsh remains.As a result these apartments,or rather encroachments got the treatment they deserved.Same is the case of the madipakkam and medavakkam lakes.These two had joined themselves and after having their fill,passed on the "excess" to the velachery lake.
The best thing about chennai's suburbs is that there are a good number of lakes which act as natural floodwater carriers.Name any place in the two neighbouring districts(kanchi and tiruvallur) and it will have a lake.There are lakes in korattur,kolathur,pattabiram,urapakkam,maraimalai nagar,pammal,porur and chengalpet whose banks and beds have given way to construction activity.Problem of real-estate.The moral--think twice before you buy apartments in the suburbs of any city,be it chennai or mumbai.
Some lighter vein.If this doesnt infuse even a smile in your faces,sue me(not applicable to natural gigglers). Vinu Chakkravathi takes over as head of the Met Dept.Predicts heavy rain.The TV journo asks "Sir,idhuvaraikkum sonnathu nadanthathey illa.Neenga unmaiya thaan solreengala?"
VC--Adi seruppaala naaye!Ennudiya irupathanju varusha service-la enna yaarum ippadi kelvi kettathilla.Nee kettuttae.Ippovae unna panchayat-la kootikittu poyi enna panraen paaru.
J--Sir sir sir,yaen sir kochukareenga.
VC--Pinna.Alaipayuthey padam paathu velila poyi alai paayum-nu sonnaen.Paanjuthu illa alai,dec 26 annikki.Naan sonna adhu nadakkum,lae.Adhaan-lae varghese-u.
J--Appo mazha varum-nu solreenga?
VC--Adichu solraen.Naalikki madras-la puyal-oda mazha varum.Idhu enga ooru panchayattu mela sathiyam,sathiyam,santham,subham,devi paradise-u.
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The infrastucture has taken a beating after the rains but it will soon be normal as long as jayalalitha is there.Meanwhile check out THE PRIDE OF BANGALORE. |
Property of Sheks @ 10:14 pm   |
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Name: Sheks
Home: Madras, TamilNadu, India
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