RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY: MADRASI’S WANT TO GO ABOUT THEIR APATHETIC WAYS

December 2015 dawned upon the city of Madras with the rain God launching a sustained attack to debilitate the city after his initial attacks during November. It really looked like Varuna Bhagwan was going all-out for the kill and was expressing his unhappiness with the city by battering it with 20 cms of rainfall in 14 hours since 8.30 am that fateful day of 1^st December 2015 which left more than half of the city marooned.

Beating the record of 108.8 cms which was set in 1918, the Meteorology office registered 119.73 cms rain in Tamil Nadu till 30^th November 2015. However, the record of maximum rainfall in a single day, 45 cms in 24 hours, is said to have been shattered later on 1st December 2015. Madras, which received 49 cm of rain and Chembarambakkam, where the reservoir surplussed about 25,000 cusecs of water into Adyar river, received 47 cms of rains in the last 24 hours that flooded the city and the suburbs, uprooting people from their homes.

Kids were the happiest of them all since they had an opportunity to play in the rains with the Tamil Nadu government announcing holidays continuously for schools and colleges from November onwards while a few factories and offices which were inundated with water were also closed during the last couple of days. In fact the weatherman on TV, Ramanan who is the spokesperson for the Meteorological Department has developed a demi-God status with kids praising Ramanan uncle as the bearer of good news. One good thing about these rains is that all school going children upon waking up in the mornings view the news on TV without fail. At least the rains have promoted the habit of getting to know the news among the children.

When southern suburbs including Velachery, Madipakkam, Tambaram and Perungalathur were fully cut off from Madras, traffic on Anna Salai, GST Road, OMR, Poonamallee High Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai was completely thrown out of gear. Roads reportedly caved in at several stretches.

Flood warnings have been issued and a few thousands have been relocated from their homes since major lakes surrounding the city were breached and thus flooded residential areas in the southern suburbs. Water from Guduvanchery, Urapakkam, Perungalathur, Padappai, Mannivakkam and Adhanur lakes had entered residential areas within a few hours of rain and by the night of 1^st December 2015, the major damage had been done.

Even before this could happen, power supply was cut-off in almost sixty percent of the city. As the water level kept on increasing, several hospitals were forced to stop functioning. The city airport was temporarily shut till 6^th December 2015 and the operations will resume only after a review meeting to assess the safety of the runways as the water from the Adyar river on one side and the Chembarambakam lake on the other has started entering the runways and parking bays. Trains coming into Madras have been stopped outside the city and trains departing from Madras have been cancelled for the next couple of days. Fixed line telephone and mobile services too have been hit and most numbers remain inaccessible.

Residents in southern suburbs were the worst affected and those who went to work on 1^st December were stranded at different points en route to their destinations after bus and train services stopped. Tambaram and Mudichur areas have been most affected with hundreds of houses completely submerged under water. Suburban railway stations were flooded with people after many who had to reach destinations south of the city could not find vehicles. Subsequently the Suburuban Train services too were discontinued as the tracks were submerged under water. The National Highway, GST road, connecting the city with the southern districts of Tamil Nadu was fully cut off from the main city and stranded vehicles were seen floating on the road by nightfall that day. In short it was total collapse of the city’s infrastructure.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has reported that “The financial loss due to the floods may exceed Rs.15,000 crores” while it was earlier reported that the State government had earlier put the total loss at Rs.8,481 crores after the first spell of rains in November 2014.

While the rain has had a devastating impact on the life of the people of the city, it has led me to contemplate on its causes and the attitude of our people which I would now like to discuss here:

1. In the name of growth and development we are tampering with the forces of nature by polluting and altering the elements. However, we are not prepared to face the backlash of the so called growth and development.
2. Historically, Madras as a township developed only to its North, since the southern borders of the city was surrounded by lakes, tanks and low lying areas which served to replenish the groundwater levels of the city. The population explosion and the urban migration created a demand for land which unscrupulous elements exploited by managing to convert these areas into housing plots by bribing the government and its officials thereby making a fast buck without worrying about future implications. These greedy people who bribed the city officials to obtain building permissions to build on dry lake beds and low lying feeder areas which were not originally meant for human habitation have caused flooding and also have ensured that the city’s water supply runs dry as soon as it turns summer since the rain flood water does not recharge the ground water but only runs into the sea.
3. The people who settled in these low level areas are now suffering and lamenting without realizing that they are the victims of their own actions. I was surprised to watch local News Channels wherein the public of Madras were blaming everyone and everything else except themselves for the flooding of the city. Wake up Madras. Don’t fool yourself. We blame the Government for the effects of nature and blame nature for the effects of corrupt governance.
4. This disaster has revealed the character of the city and while a few citizens have come forward to help and aid the victims of the rain and floods a majority of the citizens are only interested in making hay when the sun does not shine. When thousands of stranded citizens in the city suburbs were fleeced by opportune share autos, private vans and auto rickshaws to commute late on 1^st December night, state run buses refused to ply and many Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses were parked on the roadsides in bus depots near Tambaram, Pallavaram and Vadapalani. Right from the auto and cab drivers who want to charge Rs.300 to Rs.500 for a 3 to 4 km ride to the grocers who hike up the prices of vegetables and groceries to the guys who supply milk at 3 times its actual cost, everybody wants to make hay when the sun does not shine.
5. While there is a huge hue and cry from the people and the politicians on the way my beloved city has suffered, I do not expect any tangible and positive results of this outburst for all this hullabaloo will die down within a few days when news of some scandal or the other breaks on the media and we will remain unprepared until yet another cyclone or flood makes us wake up and make a lot of noise before we go back to sleep once again. In short, I am trying to say that we will never learn from the past and our preparedness or handling of disasters will be the same; just plain inefficient

On the fateful day of 1^st December, I witnessed a sight which for me symbolised the true spirit of Madras. I was returning by an auto-rickshaw from office and the road outside my colony had rain water flowing while a man facing a wall was pissing into the flowing water and the people nearby nonchalantly waded through the piss mingled water. Three cheers for Suchhu Bharat!!!

We people just don’t care and remain apathetic irrespective of whatever happens to our city; and they say there are more rains expected but who cares???

THE MEAN FEAT OF DRIVING IN MADRAS

During a recent discussion with a few friends the subject veered to the nature of road traffic in Madras when one friend exclaimed, “If you can drive in Madras, you can drive anywhere”. While all my friends were in agreement with him, I differed for driving in Madras cannot be ever treated as a qualification.

If someone were to come and tell me that he was well experienced in driving on the roads of Madras, I would frown down upon him and label him as a chaos creator. You may wonder why I say this but if you have ever driven or witnessed traffic in Madras you will understand what I mean by this.

A good driver who meticulously follows the rules of the road will never fit into the traffic in Madras. It is only those who don’t bother about signals, those who never hesitate to go the wrong way on a one way street, those who never hesitate to overtake on the wrong side and cut abruptly into your path, those who don’t know the meaning of yellow median lines or white zebra crossings and those who will resort to anything to get their way who can survive on the roads of Madras.

Therefore I wish to warn all those who consider their experience of driving on the roads and streets of Madras as an accomplishment not to ever proclaim it so for a Madrasi driver will only cause chaos by his driving habits wherever he may go for his mind is conditioned to driving so…

Before I finish, let me warn you that I too have been driving on the roads of Madras for about forty years now and every day is a nightmare which I am not proud about. To prove my point I must conclude that driving in Madras has only helped me develop hypertension

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE ‘Q’ AS FOUND IN THE LACK OF IT IN AN INDIAN QUEUE

We Indians are notorious for the usage of the ‘Q’. In fact we always fail to understand the implications and the connotations of the ‘Q’. ‘Q’ for us is just another letter in the English alphabet. We fail to understand that ‘Q’ stands for Quality though we understand the word Quantity which in terms of the population, we have in plenty. We use the ‘Q’ without any respect for the rigours of self discipline and the values that it entails. In fact at times we even substitute ‘Q’ for ‘I’ which shows our own selfishness and lack of empathy to others. For those of you who still do not understand the ‘Q’ I am referring to, I must clarify that the ‘Q’ I am referring to is the English word ‘Queue’.

In this connection I must share with you all a news item that I read recently which claimed the popular TV show 'Satyameva Jayate is all fake and humbug’ and that Amir Khan the host of the show who claims he is trying to change the nation for the better; doesn't himself follow rules and regulations as posted by a Chennai resident Shyamala Ashok on her Facebook page. The post immediately went viral on most social networks.

She says "I was in the queue to scan my baggage at Chennai Airport. Aamir Khan of Satyamev Jayate just breaks the line followed by his escorts and a few others.... If these guys do not have a simple concern that many others have been waiting in line and that they should also obey rules, why the hell are they associated with programs such as Satamev Jayate etc. - It's all fake and humbug."

In this respect I must tell Shyamala that "Satyameva Jayate" is just a TV Programme and is only interested in TRP ratings and not in the values it propagates.... This is typical of most of us Indians. We believe that rules are meant only for others and that we can justify our own breaking of the rules under some excuse or the other.

The Queue by its very absence in our country shows the lack of another ‘Q’ which is Quality. Most of us find ourselves in a situation where we have to compromise in the queue; I wonder how many of us really follow the queue. We in India do not like to be behind others and prefer to be one-up on the others, that is why we prefer to break the queue rather than follow the queue.

The population of our country is such that we have large numbers flocking for almost anything that is in demand. Be it the queue at the ration store or be it the queue at the petrol bunk or be it the queue at the railway station, we simply do not have the patience to wait for our turn and would rather prefer to get ahead of the others and thereby save time which we would rather spend idling at a coffee shop or at a park bench ogling the girls who go by rather that waste our time in a queue.

The following of the queue reflects on the character of the people of the country in which the queue is found. Unfortunately the queues in our country are only meant to be broken and not to be followed with self discipline.

There are many instances where I have experienced the vagaries of the Indian Queues or the lack thereof but I do not want to bore you with the details and would like to now place a ‘Q’, sorry Question before you. Why is it that we Indians do not respect the queue system? Is it sheer ignorance or plain selfishness? What do we find so bothersome about the Indian queue that we would rather break it than follow it?

While discussing the behavior of Indians in queues within India, I should not forget to mention that the same Indians, steadfastly abide by the queues while they go overseas. However, I should also mention that the same Indians when they return to their Indian soil and stand in the line at the immigration counter, immediately change colours and start breaking the queue. Are we Indians chameleons that change colour according to their environment?

While the breaking of the queues was more common in earlier times in places where the poor had to compete with the rich and had to resort to queue breaking, I find that even the rich and the so called educated are prone to breaking the queues without hesitation even in the elite stores in the posh malls and plazas of the country.

What does this reflect? Does it reflect a malady in the Indian psyche or does it merely reveal our plain selfishness and lack of concern for the others standing in the queue. Your views please….

EXPLORING THE AGE OLD CONCEPT OF DIVIDING AND RULING

I read a rather interesting piece of news today that not only amused me but also set me thinking and I therefore wanted to discuss it with you all.

A common man has filed a petition with the Government of India which claimed that the meat, fish and eggs served in hostels of premier technological institutions was luring many vegetarian students towards non-vegetarian diets, which represent western culture. Therefore, he had petitioned that there should be separate canteens and mess halls at these eminent tech schools.

Government sources said the HRD ministry had forwarded the petition to all the premier technological institutions on 15th October 2014.

Based on the prompt response of the Government it is expected that very soon India will be divided into two countries namely, Vegetarian India (VI) and Non Vegetarian India (NVI) based on their dietary habits.  Shortly thereafter we will have cricket matches played between VI and NVI.

On a side note, I wonder if eating vegetarian food has made the people so weak willed that they cannot resist the lure of non vegetarian food and can be easily swayed by the aroma of the non-veg food which was once considered sickening by my so called vegetarian friends. 

When discussing this with my friends one of my friends who does not like the smell of tobacco smoke but unfortunately has to share his work space with three chain smoking colleagues said that he would like separate offices to be built for smoking and non smoking counterparts of the same organization.

Not to be out done another friend who cannot stomach the smell of a particular brand of perfume which is widely advertised to have magnetic properties in attracting women (my friend is a male and maybe that’s why he didn’t like the perfume) suggested that those wearing such perfume must be provided separate working and living space from that of those who did not use it.

The conversation led me to share my views on how my Dad who did not share my passion for the malt had tried to restrain me from interacting with my malt imbibing friends while I was in college and how he had miserably failed at doing so.

All this bantering amongst friends reminded me of a short story I had written long ago titled “Divide and Rule” for which I am giving the link below:

http://mirrorofsocialreflections.blogspot.in/2012/05/divide-and-rule.html

It made me wonder if the current Government too is going on the path of segmenting and dividing the people to enable them to have convenience of ruling

SILVER SCREEN ROBBERY: WORSE THAN DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

During my youth, I was a movie buff. I used to regularly visit the theatres in Chennai during those days. I fact I believe I hold a few records such as having seen the same movie twenty eight times and sitting in a theatre from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in what used to be called continuous shows during those days.

 I remember even having visited theatres where they screened two movies back to back for just a rupee and the best part was that they used to allow us to smoke inside while watching the movie. However times have now changed and the movies have now really moved on.

 With the advent of the multiplexes with multiple screens I gradually withdrew from watching movies on the big screen since a common man like me could not afford the high priced tickets and I therefore stuck to watching movies on television and on video. It is quite some time now since I last saw a movie on the big screen and when my daughter who has of late been feeling the pressures of work wanted to relax herself this weekend, we decided to take in a movie and she being a Tamil movie buff she booked tickets for the entire family online for a recent release which none of us had seen.

 The movie like all Tamil movies did not have the story quality that I would want in a movie but that is not the purpose of this post. This post is not to whine about the quality of Indian movies or the price of the tickets but in fact to share my gripe about the price of snacks being served at these multiplexes. All my three kids are voracious eaters and whenever they visit a movie hall they require the inevitable pop-corm and soft drinks.

 With the arrival of the multiplexes the age old tradition of taking snacks from home to the theatres and opening out bags and boxes of snacks and enjoying them while watching the movies did come to an end. As a result most of us who like to nibble at some snacks while watching a movie are being held to ransom by these multiplexes.

 In fact a box of popcorn is as costly if not more as the price of a movie ticket just as much as a watered down fountain Coke or Pepsi or Fanta is. The same popcorn would hardly cost one fifth of the price which they charge in the theatre if purchased form a store outside. I really don’t understand the rational of the high pricing at these theatres and wonder if we could petition the civic authority to prevent this daylight nay silver screen robbery.

 Needless to say that the movie outing cost me so much that I could have very well taken my family to dinner at a five star hotel and ended up paying less than what I spent on the movies.  

THE ETYMOLOGY OF “DURAI”

I have always been fascinated by my surname and what it implies. My surname also contains the word ‘Durai’ which is now being used in my family for the fourth generation. I therefore started seeking the meaning of the word ‘Durai’  and found that ancient Tamil works had always denoted ‘Durai’  as "Chief" or "Leader" but in more recent history especially after the advent of the British rule in India ‘Durai’  was used to denote a white skinned person of European origin; Something akin to ‘Sahib’ or ‘Saab’ in Hindi. 

So much for the history of the word. I would now like to get into the specifics of its usage in my family. My grandfather was called ‘Durairaj or as I like to put it ‘The King of the Durais'. He had four sons; something which we don’t get to see often and something which in Indian society is considered a great asset. 

He named his first son ‘Chelladurai’ and as you may all know ‘Chella’ or ‘Chellam’ is a term of endearment and affection. Naturally my grandfather showered his affection on his first born and therefore called him so. 

Shortly thereafter, a second son was born to him and my grandfather who was a school teacher at that point of time realized the importance of money and the financial constraints placed upon him as his brood increased in strength. He therefore named his second born ‘Ponnudurai’. As those of you who know Tamil may understand ‘Ponnu’ stands for gold or in other words wealth. My grandfather who was feeling the crunch of raising two boys obviously needed wealth and therefore called his second born ‘Ponnudurai’. 

Soon after, my grandfather brought forth into this world his third born; my beloved father whom he called ‘Mangaladurai’. Once again those of you who know Tamil will know that ‘Mangalam’ in Tamil stands for auspicious things and is normally used to denote an auspicious end. I can very well understand the state of mind in which my grandfather must have been on the arrival of his third born and obviously he wanted to put a full stop to his reproductive efforts and that is why he called him Mangaladurai’ but unfortunately or fortunately the mind is a funny thing and has its own ideas and desires. 

As a result he could not stop with three children and soon thereafter he was blessed with his fourth born yet another son whom he called ‘Gnanadurai’. Those of you who know Tamil will also understand that ‘Gnana’ denotes wisdom and finally wisdom dawned upon my grandfather who concluded with his fourth born Gnanadurai’. 

As a young boy I had composed a ditty on the above much to the chagrin of my grandmother and though the exact lines of the ditty have been long forgotten I thought I must share the substance therein and hence this post. The King of the ‘Durai’s gave birth to four ‘Durais’ whose children adopted their respective surnames with great pride and frankly I am proud to be a Mangaladurai’. 

As a mark of respect for my grandfather I have now called my only son as Steve Durairaj Swamy and hopefully he will continue the ‘Durai’ tradition long after I am gone; though I am sure he will not require to go through the process of birthing four ‘Durais’ before wisdom dawns on him. 

(Please note that this post was not meant to hurt the sentiments of any of the “Durais”)