chennai+traffic=chaos

Manikkam street in West Mambalam has these lorries parked nearly any time of the day. Somehow invisible to the police patrols!

Don’t be confused by the date and time. I could not correct the same. The clips were shot between 14th and 21st of October 2009.

The autos notorious for their rule breakings create nuisance even when they park. They invariably have their stands at the corner of a street, sometimes parked two abreast. Our narrow roads already narrower by pedestrians walking on road due to lack of platform are further made dangerous by these authroised(by whom?!) anarchies.

The autos at the corners make vehicles blind about other vehicles turning or pedestrians walking, trying to cross, smoking, chatting with friends seen after a long time(!), young cyclists who are taught to turn right by moving to the right of the road they are turning from, and others(etc).

Even when they don’t stop at stands they manage to occupy some space on the left or/and right side of any road they feel may fetch them ‘savaari’, again narrowing the width of the road which is narrow, already.

Our people are the most accommodative when it comes to sharing the public space! If it is free occupy is the motto. But they will call anyone meddling with this motto a ‘porambokku’! When will they ever get a sense of ‘each for everyone’ than the ‘each for himself’ prevailing now!?