The Nisha Effect

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.” Said Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

 Ironically if we let it rain then in the next few days or probably even hours the whole city of Chennai will be under water. I have been living in this city that’s home to 4 million people and never even once in 20 years of my life have I witnessed a downpour of this magnitude. Its water water everywhere. I braved all the weather and in true Journo spirit started to Jaya tv for my work, where couple of my friends and I are training at news production. 

There was traffic jam all over the city and my area was no different. There were hardly people on the roads. (Sigh!! how I wished I could have bunked and sat at home eating hot molaka bhajji nd enjoy the rains.) Commuting to the office was not a problem. The bus SWAM yes SWAM through the water and safely landed us at our destination. The real problem came only when we were returning back home.

After a 15 minute wait we got a bus and luckily got a seat too. The journey to what I call as the thrilling roller coaster ride began. The bus slowly started to move amidst the traffic oops sorry evading the water. The stretch I was travelling in was from Ekkaduthangal to Thirumangalam. I guess cyclone Nisha has started to like Chennai that it’s refusing to make a move. As I was listening to music to fight boredom I shifted my glance towards the window to see the water levels on the roads. It was a sight to watch. Seriously I wish people could come out of their houses just to see the levels of water and I am not exaggerating; there was a deluxe bus that was drowned in the water, scores of cars that were abandoned and ya there was a bike in the water or under the water should I say, which I later identified it to be a pulsar with the help of its peculiar pointed edge at the rear. Whilst everybody in the bus was worried of how to reach home safely my friend and I were enjoying this new experience, we were super thrilled. In fact the water entered the bus (I know none of u all gonna buy this but this is the truth!!) It was like going in a river the only difference was the mode of transport. I was giving live updates to my other friend via phone. It was super exciting never have I seen Chennai like this.

Water had entered all the shops and the shopkeepers were doing their best to keep it at bay, while the traffic policemen were signaling the buses and controlling the chaos. Panic prevailed all over the city. When my friend and I were discussing in which angle to take video of the floods we heard a strange voice *creek* *shessh*the bus came to a halt. The driver relentlessly pursued to start the bus but his efforts went in vain. I just realized that we were right in the middle of the river and if we had to get down then it would take us a lot of time and energy to reach the shore. As this thought was passing through my mind the bus started, everybody in the bus heaved a sigh of relief.

My stop arrived and I had to switch buses to reach my house. I was standing in the middle of the road cuz that was the place where the water level was considerably less, till my knee level. I couldn’t differentiate the pavements and the roads as everything were at unison. I was lucky the second time to get a share auto. And that’s how I reached home after what seemed to be a roller coaster ride that lasted nearly for two and half hours.

P.S: On a more serious note, I wonder whether there is no Provision of what is called as Drainage system in the city. This is the worst that the city has ever seen and I hope this will be the last one too. The Chennai city doesn’t need Nisha it has so many sha’s to deal with.

Of beliefs and Customs

It was a long day at work, had so much of work to do that I actually skipped my lunch too!!. After work my friends and I went to our regular chat shop to have the delicious chat. We are their loyal customers and the fact that we prefer that shop is cuz it’s kind of very light on our wallets. All of us were hungry and called the waiter to place our orders and to our disappointment fond that the chat section of the hotel was closed. Dejected we came out and thought we will try out the next shop and to our surprise found even that one was closed. Cursing the shops nearby I bid goodbye to my friends and started to ride back home.

My stomach started to grumble so I started to drive as fast I could to reach home soon. But to my luck I got caught in a traffic that was caused due to a death procession. I was caught in Aminjikarai and the road there was narrow and due to the death procession the vehicles were standing in a queue for the traffic to clear. As I was waiting for the traffic to clear something caught my attention.

Yes the death procession. I was very bewildered by that whole custom. Death is something that is horrid and unpleasant. It’s a scar that stays in our life for a very long time. I somehow fail to understand this whole custom of death procession. There is a family grief struck due to the death and the way this whole procession is carried out seems to be very illogical to me. Firstly you take the corpse seated in a chair and have a whole bunch of dancers dancing the traditional “Dapankuthu” leading the procession. Is this an event that has to be celebrated dancing? And to top it all you have flowers and mostly the fresh red roses strewn all around the road. Flowers are something that are used for a happy occasion. I feel sad to see these flowers being crushed under the wheels. The icing to this whole is the bursting of crackers scaring the passer byes too. 

I was lost in these thoughts and for a moment I could hear the auto man behind me horning to move ahead as the traffic cleared cuz thankfully the death procession took a right turn. Finally I reached home and the first thing I did was to eat no no hogged. Then I asked my mum the reason for the Dapankuthu and the throwing of flowers and likes of that. The answer my mum gave was so quirky that it left me toying with the question how on earth they find such social beliefs and customs!!!

Apparently when someone dies the send off needs to be grand to that person in a way that it brings happiness to him. And that’s the reason for the Dapankuthu and the others. It seemed totally illogical to me. Many of the Hindu families still follow this tradition and may be will continue to do so. I personally feel that people need to change with the times. 

This is a plea to all the people who indulge in this custom

 5 concrete reasons as in why this system should be scrapped off

1. Chennai is becoming traffic prone and this one is jus adding to the list.

2.  The amount of money that is being spent in all this if available to the family will be a lot helpfull.  

3. Cleanliness of the environment is something that all of us are least bothered about. Strewing flowers and making the roads dirty and not driver friendly is not appreciated. 

4. It just annoys someone to see a death procession when a person is on the way to work

5. For god sake we are in a civilized society and acts like these seems really funny and stupid.