Friday, October 28, 2005

puyale puyale...

Have I ever seen raining like this in Chennai…? Probably no! Atleast I do not remember. It has been raining for almost 3-4 days but the rains were sporadic and not very heavy. It all started on Wednesday evening when the temperature dropped to 22, by night it was pouring and I wake up Thursday morning only to hear the rains pouring. They say it rained 19cms in just 5 hours. Now that is too much of rain for Chennai to withstand.

Though I knew many wouldn't come to office I took an auto to reach there( din want to waste a leave). Gosh the moment auto took left at kathipara junction and hit 100 feet road, it was like a lake. I was wondering will the auto ever make it. Just as I thought the auto stopped and you know what, even my legs were on the seat as water was inside the auto almost 3-4 cms from the floor.

The driver was desperate, each time he tried starting the auto I could only hear blup blup blup…. The water had entered the silencer as it was well below the water level. The guy said he will catch me another auto, I was in now way prepared to step into knee-deep water. Luckily his last try and auto started… god knows how?

Though I have been against auto drivers in Chennai, yesterday these people were in demand and were very special. They were charging at least 1.5 times the normal outrageous charge but still they were driving. This guy was a peculiar guy who was not at all worried about the rains. He was worried of two things:

  1. Some one had started the rumor that there was a crocodile in T.Nagar doraisamy subway ( adapaaavingala unga naala summa iruku mudiyadha?)
  2. Sivakasi (vijay's new movie is scheduled to release today and he had 75 tickets to distribute - he says thalai padam puyalae vandhaalum parkanum (rumba mukiyum ippo natuku)

When I got off in front of the office, one that he told me that touched my heart was… veetiku seekirom po sar… velai nalliki kuda parthukalam odumbu dhaan mukiyam. Hmm… would this happen in US or AUS… I don't even consider US after the Katrina riots… time when people should be helping each other they were looting…!!!

Having seen the rain… I would definitely say that, many things could not be avoided. I understand that the roads were bad, but then with such a down pour the water logging will be there at least for a day.

SUN TV was ready with the camera blaming the govt. Yes! A lot of improvement is needed, but for gods sake don't give us mock interviews. I am just fed up with the high drama interviews that it shows… for me most of the them look pre planned. Like the one yesterday one guy in the railway station is blaming that the electric train is not in time… and literally shouting on the camera that he was late to office. The tracks were submerged and anywhere in the world, trains don't run when the tracks are submerged and on top of that it is electric train, which needs electricity. The council had promptly shut down the power supply, just in case if some short circuit happens. SUN TV, you are always the first to blame people you get real thumbs down. (me not supporting jaya tv in any case)

Today morning it was totally different, the water is not even 5% of what it was yesterday… it is simply amazing. Life back to normal and what else do you need.

Chennai : lesson learnt – There are some wonderful people out there.

The storm drainage system that was built indeed works.

The life gets back to normal in matter of hours.

As the saying goes "vazha vandha vargalai vazha veikum Chennai ku jai"

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

chennai is completely dried today...so now u like auto wallas?

Saravana said...

T.Nagarla Super Croc irukku machi, be careful when you go that way :))

SunTV and Jaya TV newsellam konjam overdhaan ... If I get hold of that guy who was polambifying for being late to office, he would definitely get a good dose of kicks.

after the storms have cleared there is peace, you should be enjoying the climate there ... even bangalore is damn cool now da

senthil natarajan said...

@saravanan: yes da...even i am looking for the person who was polambifying. It was like well rehearsed.
@anon:atleast now i know that you are in chennai...all it takes is it to leave your name.

NaiKutti said...

but def. chennai has handled better than all the other metros... NDTV and headlines today had a word of praise for the TN government...

the crocodile rumor was funny :-)

Deepak said...

Sun News is total CRAP...I guess they conveniently forgot that there was flooding when KK was in power too..

senthil natarajan said...

@karthik (naikutty) : yeah! anyone who was in chennai will agree with the NDTV. just overnight chennai transformed.
@deepak : s da! now a days, when i watch the news i feel that i am watching some movie...too much of drama...

Anonymous said...

@vee-jay: you are right! and thanks for the wishes.. diwali wishes to you too