Chennai:travelogue

From one metro to another I didn't know there was a huge difference.

I have gone to Chennai only a few times,to see one of my relatives.I never needed to go to another place for, Kochi ,the queen of Arabian sea could satiate all necessities.


Chennai was a place where I got mad of heat.People had to carry water or get packaged water wherever they got to hot that you can't be inside a concrete building under just one fan.I had a dreamless sleepless night which comes to my mind whenever the sounds"Chennai "reach my ears.

This time I was warned "its summer,don't expect anything less than 40 degrees,drink water whenever you get near it".The journey took a break at Vellore famous for all the industries,the Vellore fort and Jalakandeswara temple.From Vellore we took a bus,it was written on the front glass "102 Express ெசனை்ன ".But the way it went was frustrating.I got a seat near the driver close to the gearbox.They way it crawled through the smooth clean zero traffic road evoked no feelings from the otherwise slogan raising public.It crawled,crawleeeeeeeeed,
cccccccrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwllllllllleeeeeddd.

Then I thought, there must be some speed governor the only possible reason.

On either side of roads,(no such beautiful smooth scratch-free pothole-free road can be found in Kochi) I saw Hyundai,Maruti,Motorola,Nokia,Saint-Gobain manufacturing units.No wonder why these people didn't come to Kerala to produce their products;constant harthals,the attitude of politicians and the people have kept them away.So much for development,hm.

The crawling like a snail thingy got us to the Chennai-the metro,big place.The heat ,the low humidity winds etc simply absorb the water content of the body.I had heard someone say that Chennai has just two seasons;hot season and very hot season.I wondered why all these people built up this place so large ,put all their industries and offices and invested in such a place where better climatic conditions prevailed to the west of the Nilgiris .



Its the people ,the government, that made this place good.It is said that inside the IIT campus the temperature drops to 20 degree Celsius,it just looks like a wild place at first glance.The flyovers all of them are marvellous.More amazing is the way they utilised the bottom of the flyovers;they use it as parking area;and effectively use them.The best ever junction I remember is the Adayar junction;of course there is a huge traffic,but the traffic lights work very sincerely for the pedestrians too.Very laudable is the government in TN,though big parties and peoples are there sometimes low-level campaigns are done,the state has always developed.The elections or party rivalry hadn't caused much to deteriorate the developmental efforts.
Hats off to them......


It'll take ages for Kochi to become something like that but since I lived in the place I love the place.But I don't mind if Kochi turns out to be a big metro of the standard.It's being called the "Chotta Mumbai"(small Mumbai),not for bad reasons.The Metro rail concept of Mumbai which is also being used in Chennai can be used in Kochi.But the authority needs some eye-catching stuff.The light rail project implemented in Delhi is an expensive one,attractive for others,but strictly speaking it was a mega-waste when you can implement the Metro rail,which is cheaper.The folks in Delhi may love it, since they have big pockets.


I didn't stop at the beach,for very hot winds were blowing.
The Asthalakshmi temple near Besant Nagar was next stop,a very nice temple,they've a free-of-cost footwear keeper.The temple had some additional idols besides all eight avatars of goddess Lakshmi.The temple priest would give a lotus to all girls and women,a usual practice in TN ,I suppose.Through narrow passages we go to the top where there is a nice view to the beach.

A rest was inevitable and an A/C room was most welcome,sleep took over me when the vessel of mineral water was drained to the last drop.