Fork in the flyover

It didn't seem like much when it was being built, but the LB Road / Sardar Patel Road flyover has quite eased a significant part of the bottlenecking on those roads.

Of wet chains and broken links

The Government of Sri Lanka is right now in the middle of one of its most sustained offensives against the LTTE in the past two decades. It appears that the Sri Lankan army has the upper hand currently and are pressing home their advantage. The fierce fighting in the island has forced many to cross the Palk Straits, bringing with them their tales of atrocities by the soldiers. Some of the more hardline Tamizh political parties have been quick to pounce on this as a cause - and the Tamil Nadu government decided to nullify that political advantage by throwing its weight behind the cause, too.

To 'highlight' the sufferings faced by people in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north-eastern regions, a human chain was to be formed in Chennai, stretching through the city into the suburbs. It was scheduled for October 22, but the rains on Tuesday led the organizers to reschedule it for today. One can't blame them if they were in a self-congratulatory mood at 2 pm, about an hour before the chain was to form. But it certainly says something that in a matter of 15 minutes or so, the skies darkened up and let loose one of the most sustained spells of heavy rain that had large sections of the human chain break away; much of the rest had to move to the middle of the road, because the rainwater flowing along the road shoulders did not allow them to stay to a side.

Recipe for disaster? Of course! Traffic was completely paralyzed in many places; one driver estimated a traffic jam stretching for about 12 km through the city. I know that we managed to do about 3 km on Mount Road / Sardar Patel in an hour before we aborted our trip and turned back - just at the right time, thankfully. The return took us 7 minutes. The traffic behind this section of the human chain remained stationary for well over an hour!

Every end is a beginning

One of the most undisturbed areas within Chennai city is the contiguous stretch of scrub forest that runs across quite a bit of the Guindy area. On the northern side of Sardar Patel Road, the forest land has been carved up into small bits; with further landscaping, the character of the greenery has changed completely and makes for nice viewing through the PWD offices, the Anna University and the CLRI. On the southern side, however, a large part of the forest land was protected by it having been made a National Park. And with only two other institutions (the IIT Madras and the Raj Bhavan) on either side of it, the Guindy National Park (GNP) continues to be part of the great green lung of Chennai.

Not everyone gets to go into the GNP; it is actually somewhat wild and it is quite easy to get lost inside! However, a small part of the Park is given over to the Children's Park (set aside under instructions from Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister) and the Snake Park (which was the birthplace of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust - a bit more about that here). Both these are very popular - not all the criticism they get is justified, though they can be run much better - and are therefore crowded almost every day. And in the company of excited kids, adults might also turn adventurous and go through gates without realizing where they lead to. This sign, next to a gate opening out from the Children's Park into the 'wild' part of the GNP, helps to warn off such well-meaning but ill-equipped adverturers!

Ready for a ride

Some cities feature them as a tourist attraction. I remember reading about them waiting to take tourists around Central Park in New York City and I am sure some of the other great cities have them too. They probably serve as a reminder of the time when these vehicles were the swankiest transport available. Some other places have them as a viable transport alternative - fuelled by the tourist traffic, but not necessarily an attraction in themselves (think Agra, for example).

Chennai is neither here nor there; horse carriages as taxis probably did not last long enough for folks to start getting nostalgic about them. They were however used by a quite a few - the rich had their own chariot-like pieces, and the common man would share the cramped, roofed carriage. Today, in Chennai as in many other places, horse carriages are used for special occasions - typically, wedding processions. I passed by this one and then pulled over to wait for it; with new upholstery and the horses looking recently groomed, I am sure they had an engagement for the evening.

Neither the horses nor the carriage-man gave me a second glance. But then, none of the other passers-by, either on foot or in vehicles, cared to show any interest in this not-so-usual fellow traveller!