Who rules in Democracy?

All the while, the notion was people rule in democracy. But the recent happenings at Chennai make me think otherwise. I guess the president/prime minister was visiting Chennai, and almost the whole of Chennai (the whole of mount road atleast) came to a standstill. Please see the picture taken below from Nandanam signal. The picture is not very representative, but the traffic jam ran for almost a kilometer. Well, please consider that the convoy was going to use the other side of the road!!

But bigger joke is the picture below. This (sorry for the clarity – was taken in a hurry) was taken from Porur just outside the trade center – where the “honorable” people were to visit. The biggest joke here is, you can see policemen mending the pedestrian lines in a hurry - at 9.00 AM in the morning when people were supposed to go to work. I’m sure the president or prime minister are not going to walk across the road!!! So why the hell these people do not realize that they are supposed to work for the “people” and not the authorities? Hmm… I guess drawing pedestrians on the road is part of the beatification of Chennai project.

The picture below is another candidate for the funniest moments of life award. I could notice policemen standing at a distance of about 10 feet on the whole route. None of these people carried any weapons, not even lathis. So, obviously, these people are not going to control and law and order problem. The best they are going to do is salute most religiously when the convoy passes by. So, do we need so many policemen to do that? What is going to happen to the general public then?? Should the common man always suffer in times of a damn politician wanting to take a leak??

All these questions now result in another question to me. WHO RULES I DEMOCRACY? Maybe the politicians!!

Roads or Bridges… Bane of Chennai

I had a marked in one of my previous posts that roads are constructed on top of existing roads and this is creating problems (Of Roads and Constructions…). Please see another example below. This photograph was taken from just outside my office at Guindy Industrial estate. Hmm… looks like most of my posts are around guindy itself. But looking at it form another perspective, if guindy alone can be so interesting to raise so many posts, extrapolating the whole scenario to Chennai only make me feel that not many people really give a damn to the society.

The "Real" Curse of The Black Pearl...

No... This is not about the now famous trilogy of Pirates of the Caribbean. Neither am I referring to any soccer. The black pearl here is... our own COOUM. I'm sure no one has forgotten the perils of the monsoons yet. One of my friends (Dhanasekar) got some interesting pictures he clicked near his home. I'm sure people of this locality are not going to forget this monsoons any time soon.

It rained and it poured... and when it poured.. I guess our cooum puked. We all know cooum contains more rubbish than water. So what happens if it is in spate for some reason and it decides to enter our chennai streets? This is what happens...

Mind you... this is cooum water, full of silt - in other words disease. What will happen to these people who navigate through hip high cooum waters? Well, their hard earned money is going to some doctor for sure. And what about people who want to go to work, my friend couldn’t for two days and I can’t talk about others. I honestly feel Hyderabad is much better in waste water management. I have never seen water stagnation for more than 2 hrs there despite heavier rains. Just to give you the gravity of the situation, Please see the photographs below to see how the same road looks without water...

Waster water management should be relatively easier than what catches the eye here. I just hope someday people wake up to it. It’s so frustrating when the administration announces a sum of 2000 rupees for flood affected areas. Hey, can't we just make our drainage system better. It's not about the money anymore. I want to live in a developed India. And a developed India definitely should not have these problems. Rs.2000 is no substitute for proactive policies and steps from both the administration and people alike.

Monster on Wheels...

The title is maybe misleading. This is not a monster on wheels… this is a monster on trails. And I'm not talking about one of the army tanks that parade through during republic day or Independence Day. These are trucks that are supposed to aid in construction activities. I really don’t know what this machine is.

Chennai roads are not made to even stand monsoons. So, its anybody's guess what will happen to these roads in case such monsters travel through. This is what happens... This machine is literally pealing the roads apart.

And we just go back to the "authorities" and say they are not doing a good job. Well... can the authorities follow every damn activity that is happening. If all departments had that kid of manpower, then trust me, India would never face a job crisis and we don’t ever need FDI's to run the country. The only thing that can then happen is, everyone must rise up and do what they can to protect the system they are part of. And the best way to protect it... would be to follow it. If this bloody contractor follow the system - then the roads would be saved (atleast till the next monsoons), if the contractor who laid the roads follow the system - then we would have more navigable roads, if the person responsible for such operations follows the rules, then the contractors would have their jobs cut. And it just goes on and on and on.