Madrasapattinam: Alive and Friendly

My next venture was to travel on Rajiv Gandhi Salai aka OMR, home away from home for many American and Indian Blue Chip companies including PayPal, CTS, Infosys, TCS, etc. From my residence in Alwarpet it is a triathlon race to get to work: 8 mins walk to Mandaveli station, 12 mins ride train ride to Thiruvanmiyur and the 15 minute final leg on a share auto along with other techies to my office. I always end up arriving at work drenched in sweat and spend the next 15 minutes freshening up that includes changing my shirt and drying the wet hanky at my desk, that flutters like a peace flag. Was it any different yesterday?

I tried to catch the 8.30 am train, but managed to arrive 3 mins late and ended up taking the 8.45 am train, which wasn't that crowded. While at the ticket counter, I was miffed when a woman cut the queue. Since I was on the phone with a friend, I didn't yell at her, but ended up berating her to my friend with a hope that she would have heard my strong disapproval. I received the confirmation when she turned around and gave me a look as though she came in the lineage of Kannagi. Indians and Italians both has similar traits when it comes to queuing up and that is one of the reasons why I refer to Italians as the Indians of Europe.

Mandaveli station still looks the same, but this time the escalator is functioning, and there is a digital clock that displays time without having passengers to check on their mobiles to calculate their delay to reach work. A two-way train tickets still cost the same, Rs10 and hasn't been hiked in two years. This is probably the cheapest leg of my journey. 

And after traveling on Paris metro for over 2.5 years, I still prefer the triathlon race for two simple reasons; people are smiling and friendly and women don't assault you with their handbags. Undoubtedly, Paris is the world capital for facial constipation and rudeness. 

Do you want to watch the Masai Mara migration? Come to Thiruvanmiyur OMR junction during peak hours and you will find techies abruptly bringing speeding motorist and killer busses to a grinding halt and leaving the traffic police scratching his head. Despite many accidents, the Police, Public and Mayor of Chennai haven't asked for a foot bridge from the train station to get across the junction.

OMR continues to be a death trap for pedestrians. The side walk is treated like a national highway by share autos and bikers to get ahead of cars and public and company busses. May be soon google maps should also start highlighting traffic congestion on sidewalks?

Share Auto, continues to be the most important modes of transport ion on OMR and on the days of Bandh, the road and side-walks look orderly and calm, but the techies are left with a sad look on their faces.

When I reached the Share Auto stop, I was recognized and welcomed by the driver who used to ferry me to work three years ago. With a big smile, he offered me a seat next to him and enquired about my return from seemai (overseas) and if I were back for good. During the 20 minute ride, I enquired about his family, views on local politics and liquor prohibition. 

Don't dismiss the Share Auto drivers as simple auto guys, they command a lot of respect and power on this side of the town. Specially, one can see the arrogant North Indian boys dearly address them as " Anna" and behave in a respectable way. May be we should send some of our Anna's to Delhi to teach these guys some manners? 

OMR commute can be a great leveler: it makes men and women, rich and poor and local and overseas return sit next to each other. But women continue to worry about their complexion and cover their arms and faces from fiery Chennai Sun. Driver to passenger ratio is 1:9, much better than teacher:student ratio in schools, nurse:patient in hospitals and manager:team members at work places.

Btw, MRTS has recently added 9 coaches to accommodate peak hour rush and every train continues to have a ladies coach, guarded by a woman police force. But that doesn't prevent women from traveling on other coaches and complaining about men being a menace.

Should share autos also have ladies special? City Mayor must flag off ladies special share autos for next Women's Day and Rajinikanth must also add a scene in his upcoming movie.  This should help the Mayor come back to power and Rajnikanth get some visibility for his upcoming movie. 

Most co-passengers on the share auto are friendly. Since they are mostly techies you can trade work related stories and also enquire about appraisal raises, policies and potential job openings. On the ride today, I had a co-passenger working for TCS and another one for Mitsubishi. They were curious to know about life in Paris and the stark differences. Though our conversation was interesting they were watchful, offered me water and reminded the auto driver to make a stop at my destination. Finally, they wanted to know what time I usually take the share auto in the mornings, to continue our conversation from today and keep growing it everyday. 

As soon as I got out of the auto, I wiped the sweat across my forehead and I fished out for my ID card that will be a noose around me neck for next 9 hours. I jumped over the median, ducked onward vehicles to get across to my office quickly leaving behind my memories from the morning commute and switching over to meeting mode. 

Despite 376 years old, Chennai continues to be a town of small villages and there is still so much kindness that flows alongside Coovam in this city. The 45 minute triathlon is never boring and tiring as long as you are willing to connect with co-passengers and have some fun.