A great way to commute....

I took the MRTS for the first time 10 days ago. I've been wanting to do this for a few years, but didn't get around to it. So a couple of Sundays ago, I took the train from Kasturba Nagar/Madhya Kailash Station to Park Town (Central Station). Took me all of 17 minutes to get to the destination!! Fantastic! Especially knowing it takes me an hour these days to travel by car from T.Nagar to Besant Nagar in peak hour traffic!

I clicked some pictures. Interesting view of the city from an elevated platform....

View from Kotturpuram. The Adyar Bridge can be seen.

A flute-seller in one of the stations.

Passing through Mylapore...

The train travels right behind the Marina Grounds, a popular venue for cricket matches.

View of the Chepauk Palace (?)

The Cooum River....the Napier Bridge can be seen in the distance.

Probably, the most famous landmark in Chennai!!

Am amazed that the government is not doing enough to promote MRTS....this is definitely the future! The badly maintained, tourist-and-traveller-unfriendly stations hardly inspire confidence for a city that is supposed to be the gateway to the South.

Neverthless, I recommend a trip for all those who haven't tried it so far!

Mylapore!

Earlier this year I visited Mylapore, an area that predates the city of Madras itself. Of course, I keep driving past the area every few days, but it's not the same as taking time off to explore this wonderful part of the city by foot. Matter of fact, shockingly, I had never done it before! :-(

Here are some pictures that I took.

The temple tank. It was a Friday and temple wore a festive look. Luckily, I was able to walk around the tank where no one seemed to be around.


View of the temple.


I decided to walk from the temple, right up to the Santhome Cathedral via the Chitrakulam area and Kutchery Road.
This was a quaint old house on Kutchery Road surrounded by modern apartments and shops. I had driven on this road several times, but never noticed it. Amazing how much you get to see when you walk!!

Another really old building with an interesting architecture I had not noticed earlier... about 150-200 metres before the Santhome Cathedral traffic junction. Did not see a board, but painted on the archway is, presumably, the year of its construction - 1635!! A close-to-four-hundred year old building, and not too many people know about it!


The Santhome Cathedral, looks really nice with its fresh coat of paint and all.



The tomb of St. Thomas, who it is believed, is interred here. The place went through a major renovation a year or two ago. The approach is now from the basement of a building behind the Cathedral, so casual visitors interested in history can visit the tomb without disturbing regular churchgoers.

A red letter day for Indian democracy

Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling, terming the T.Nadu bandh called by the DMK and its allies as illegal, is a huge, huge step forward for Indian democracy!! This is likely to send shivers down the spines of the various state governments, particularly the communist-ruled ones, who call for a bandh, hartal etc., at the drop of a hat.

What is commendable is the determination and willingness shown by the honourable judges to convene on a Sunday to pass this landmark judgement! As many people have indicated earlier, I too feel that the judiciary is what prevents India from slipping to the levels of a banana republic, similar to the ones we see in the third world.

This morning (I decided to announce today a working day after I heard the news about Supreme Court ban yesterday afternoon), I went to office only to find that the buses were not plying, most shops closed and generally less crowd on the streets of Chennai. I guess many private organisations, having declared a holiday couldn't react in time to revert the decision and stayed closed. But the rest of what I saw seemed to go against the very ruling and observations of the Supreme Court, that all essential services should not be affected or incovenience the general public! Needless to say, the DMK party goons must have issued a covert threat to most shopkeepers and businesses. But it was sad to see the general public capitulate to this pressure in the most spineless manner. In my office complex in T.Nagar, we were the only company that was functioning apart from a local neighbourhood newspaper's office!!

I think, this time though, the wily old man of T.Nadu politics got it wrong and strayed too far from the limits of constitutional authority. It was great to see him call of his fast in a hurry and scurry back to work at the Secretariat , with his tail between his legs, after being rapped on the knuckles by the Supreme Court this morning!

I know this is going to (looks like it already has with some members of the DPA questioning the Court's judgement and "interference") intensify the tussle between the legislature and the judiciary. Which politician wants to be held accountable or kept in check? But in the meantime, let's rejoice! For these are the kind of days that prove democracy in this vibrant, but definitely flawed, nation is alive and kicking!