Chennai is the new Venice
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 5:29PM These photos are from Rangarajapuram, Chennai, where San's aunt lives.
The grandparents home in West Mambalam has water (knee to waist deep) inside the house. Luckiy they got grandpa and grandma out in time.
My dad who is 70+ years old has to wade in waist deep water to get out of the street in Mandaiveli. He tells me that the storm water drains that were installed mandatorily during JJ's time as CM, don't work because those tunnels are being used by cable TV operators as pre laid pipework for their cables!!! After they put the cables in, they apparently seal off the entry point for the the storm drains with concrete.
Sadly now, the rain water has nowhere to go! My dad says they have to get someone to clean the remaining drains that are clogged so that water can drain out faster.
He was consoling me saying "Even if you were here, you will also be wading with me in this water." Somewhere in the back of his mind, my not wading in that water is his way of giving me a better life and he is also so certain that my being there would not change anything! Do not know if it is based on the lack of confidence in his child or the absolute knowledge of a system that is doomed to fail, but that is how he justifies things internally.
For now, we go back to memories of making paper "kappals" and singing "Rain Rain go away"!
Things have a way of complicating themselves.
They also have a way to simplify themselves after reaching a critical oomplexity. Let us hope for that in this case!
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Chennai, drains, madras, rain water
Reader Comments (4)
I am seeing that Tamilnadu being economically, one of the better states in India, doesn't give it a better standard of living.
What do all the government workers and officials do to pass there time, if people have to suffer the same inconveniences year after year, for decades. Governments change, but still the sad state of affairs.
-kajan
sundar
the whole issue was being projected as the result of chembarambakkam lake overflowing...
its all pure nonsense.
The chennai metrowater sewerage board had consumed a small matter of 1200 Crores to relay the drainage system and stop the Coovum and Adyar becoming sewerage...Obviously nothing has happened.
I am being told that the new pumping stations could not pump and hence the manholes were conveniently left open as before...
I was in chindadiripet in April and the whole area + poonthamalle high road near central was flooded for a 40 minute rain at midnight...
It takes special kodupinai in last jenmam to ride a bike in knee deep drainage water.
Blog la kooda eludhina nyabagam.
This just reinstates the fact that Chennai is the worst city in India when it rains considering the amount of rain(relatively less) and the size of the city (smaller than mumbai)
Kajan, true.. except when it rains!
PK, my aunt(mothers sister) who is not usually accustomed to wadiing in knee deep and waist deep water, slipped while trying to navigate the street waters, has multiple fractures and is being operated upon as I type. Praying that she gets through this.. She has two kids, one still in school!
sometimes just want to sit in a corner and cry, then feel like going and slapping some officials (morons), then the futility of it all sinks in..
these are my people who are scared of saying the word "govenment" in public!
even if I talk on the phone, I get the "evanavadhu ottu keetu nambala gavinikka vandhuda poraan da !"
anything I say at this point will be useless..
sigh!
Kajan, true.. except when it rains!
PK, my aunt(mothers sister) who is not usually accustomed to wadiing in knee deep and waist deep water, slipped while trying to navigate the street waters, has multiple fractures and is being operated upon as I type. Praying that she gets through this.. She has two kids, one still in school!
sometimes just want to sit in a corner and cry, then feel like going and slapping some officials (morons), then the futility of it all sinks in..
these are my people who are scared of saying the word "govenment" in public!
even if I talk on the phone, I get the "evanavadhu ottu keetu nambala gavinikka vandhuda poraan da !"
anything I say at this point will be useless..
sigh!