Golden Jubilee Gift

The function to mark the 50 th anniversary of Mk's tenure in the legislative assembly passed off peacefully, much to the relief of Chennai. The city was under siege with thousands of buses swarming the city from early afternoon and gridlocking OMR(Old mahabalipuram Rd), ECR and GST road. I had to visit a friend in Thiruvanmiyur and was bracing myself for the worst.

All the IT companies thought they were smart in asking their employess to leave by 3 since the function was to begin at 6. But, the real problem started with them as thier buses combined with those carrying the DMK men in throwing traffic completely out of gear. The trip from Sholiganallur to Thiruvanmiyur depot that normally takes 20 mins took me an hour and a half. Imagine the plight of those who had to reach Parrys.. You had the DMK buses lined all along from the LB road junction till Uthandi on ECR. Their men were atop buses( when the seats inside were empty) hooting and howling. The drivers had contempt for traffic rules and were just honking their way. Well, that could be attributed to cadre enthusiasm and would'nt have been any different had it been a function to felicitate JJ. But, this does not justify their unruly behaviour.

I stayed put at my friend's place till the function started and started at 7.30 wanting to beat the return traffic. But the traffic was no better in the Thiruvanmiyur area. It was still overflowing with buses. It was a nightmare till SardarPatel road. But once past SP road, the traffic was very smooth and well regulated. That motorists and IT company buses chose not to ply at this time greatly contributed. This was the story on the ECR side. But I am told things were much worse on the GST road side with VVIP convoy movement. With the grade separator work in progress at Kathipara, the last thing motorists wanted was a VVIP convoy movement during the evening peak hour. I am told Wallajah Road was closed to traffic. Thank god, I was not anywhere near Kamaraj Salai Or Anna Salai.

There was also a report in The Hindu that the DMK men had a brawl with the owners of an Adyar restaurant and ransacked it(the restaurant was not named).Long Live Democracy.