One night @ Jubilee Road :)

Was uploading my pics from mobile to comp after ages. Got hold of these shots while doing so. These were taken on November '08 , when chennai was reeling under heavy rains. Coupla pics of jubilee road under street light, from inside my house :)

'Gloomy Economy' !

So bad has been the economy off late, that every leading news dailies are carrying such diastrous news day after day.  Some  really intimidating/worrying ones that happened to catch my eye recently were

• 4 million job cuts, since past 4 months, in the U.S. One of the articles in 'The Hindu' carried this news under the title 'U.S economy hasnt been that bad, but worse'.  Another noteworthy point  - The retail sector, has just been waiting for the holiday season and once thats over, foresees a lota job cuts.

• As if to prove the above said news on Retail industry, the famous WoolWorth Uk closes , not 1 or 2 but around 200 stores. 

• U.S people have started using credit cards to pay back their housing loans.  If the current economic situation remains bleak for yet another year, then therez a very good chance that 'credit crunch' is going to be the  next villain , thats gonna boomerang and hit the ppl of U.S hard.  Huge questions loom over payment of credit card bills.

• Leading automotive industries including Hyundai, Maruti, Ashok leyland, TVS -cutting production and reducing their number of shifts, thereby adding to the unemployment woes.

• EU as a whole fears that this is one of the worst recessions since 1937-38, with UK facing the brunt of the situation and finally declaring Recession 'officially'. 

• People in many countries queue up for Ration and free meal, after years. Berlin seems to have gone a step above in showing concerns not only to their ppl but even to their PETS, by reopening pet food centers after a epoch !

• Zimbabwe releases 1 million dollar note in a measure to tackle inflation.

• People in haiti have started eating 'Mud Cakes'/  'Dirt Cookies'.  Spare a thought !  The current world economy and rising poverty have really amalgamated well to achieve one of their gory successess - Making people eat MUD.  Not able to  'Digest' this piece of news.

• The bailout money that is being offered to the market giants, are being misappropriated.  Looks like instead of using this bail out money to help people, some of the companies have started giving pending bonuses!!!! Now this is cruel ..
  
  
  

Well, the above said are a few that i could recollect. Most of the people that i have been talking to  refer to this as a 'slowdown' optimistically, rather than a recession.  Some even say this as a opprtunity to seize and act smart, learn from  mistakes. Whatever be it, but with the way this is progressing, looks like worse times are yet to come. Not sure when the current economy is going to reach its nadir yet, to commence a resurge, but then lets all sincerely and whole heartedly hope that its gonna happen soon.

Parking Sense @ Chennai !

A typical  dull sunday night. Was driving home form one of the popular restaurants in the city. On my way back , the roads were deserted and i was hitting 60 kmph constantly.  While i was approaching malony road, hindhi prachar sabha junction, i slowed down, as it is a relatively sharp turn.  After making the turn comfortably, i noticed a car with both its back door open, almost at the middle of the road. A young girl was getting out from one end and a oldie from the other. The car was parked precariously. More worse, the  girl was talking to someone inside the car, standing in the middle of the road, as if they were in the middle of a family outing.  Thank god this isnt a bus route anymore, with burkit road, made one way already.  The fact that it is a sunday night, makes it more dangerous coz one never knows what to expect, at a blind turning in one of the common areas in the city.

This is just one example, of the parking style that the city drivers have developed off late. I personally have been a victim of a lot of such horrible parkings, esp in and around mambalam tnagar area. These range from pretty trivial ones, where it would just take a coupla honks to get the obstructing vehicle cleared to more complicated ones, where your patience would be tested to the core.  Most often , it's the horribly parked bikes, which turn out to be the culprit, standing right royally in the center of the road. The owners would've parked it in such a fashion as if they had bought the road in a recent bidding with the govt.

A common commuter in the mambalam tnagar areas would be well aware of the  pretty narrow roads that they possess.  According to my knowledge and observation, its the kuppiah street junction and station road residents , who have been witnessing some of the nasty parking issues off late. Esp in kuppiah street, which is pretty narrow, that if a big vehicle comes at one end, the road would be almost fully occupied.  Despite knowing the width of these roads, i  often find vehicles parked there. Once it turned out to be so bad that, because of one poorly parked santro, the road was jam packed with continuous honkings and commuters had to step on the outer walls of houses, which were generous enough to hold a pair of foot, cling on to the  street lights, do a nice hip twirl and jump on to the road, just to move a few metres, ahead of the obstruction. Imagine the state of old ppl. After some 10 , 15 mins the santro owner raced outta his house,  moved his vehicle, paved way for the traffic. Once i passed that point (i was walking from office to home) , thinking myself that he would have learnt a lesson only to find that the owner parking the vehicle a few hundrd meters ahead after the jam got cleared ! I just told myself "thirundhadha janmam" and marched ahead.

One other thing that ppl can witness , esp in station road - bargaining from a car. So often i have seen women, haggling over prices with the fruit vendors on the side of the road. If a vehicle comes behind and honks, the car would move a little and so does the fruit vendor's cart. Same thing happens so many times that, by the time the sale is over, the vendor would have moved almost a hundred metres with the car. Makes one think how lazy have ppl become. Not only are they adding to the traffic woes, but losing on a chance to get a nice little walk.

Such permanent and temporary parkings are a becoming a big public nusiance off late.  I can understand that there are'nt abundant parking spaces in the city, but then a little bit of common sense while parking would help save a lota commotion and disturbances to the public. High time the drivers in the city realised this. It isnt fair to blame the city traffic police for all the utter nonsense parking style that the drivers adapt. For them its just their comfort and their vehicle's safety, none other. Surprisingly Parking fines, chaining of vehicles and more such measures , though have been implemented, doesnt seem to have taught a lesson to many. More strict measures are the need of the hour and with the increasing number of vehicles hitting the city roads, its our duty to make sure that we spare a thought on the public, when we park our vehicles.