• 51L (East Tambaram to CMBT via Velachery, Guindy)
• 551 (Kelambakkam to East Tambaram) [I could not recall the very soundex similar M service in this same route too which I have seen a couple of times]
• A soundex-similar 70C route from CMBT to Madurappakkam (via Tambaram)

I hope these routes would immensely help the commuters to reach the nook and the corner of the city quite comfortably and easily. A little patronage from the public would also serve as an encouragement to the transport corporation to beef up the frequency of these services which would again benefit t

1. Casual emails (instead of snail mail)
2. Quick and cheap voice calls to kith and kin across the world
3. A sneak peek into their banking account without the hassle of getting entangled in serpentine crowds. You may like to check out my recent post about this here.
4. Quick booking of tickets for cinema, travel and accomodation etc
5. Information search
6. Entertainment

1. Many of us would be having Sodexho or Ticket Restaurant meal passes which are accepted in restaurants and other supermarkets. Remember that when you tender a meal pass, you would not get a cash change for the balance. Hence you would need be very careful whilst paying the bill amount. You can balance the amount with the coupon and cash. Also double check the fund and mentally calculate the cash change expected back before handing over the same to the teller. Once the bundle reaches the teller, it might be little difficult to convince what you handed over and what he is trying to usurp unscrupulously.
2. Some of the supermarkets have a bad way of restricting coupons to purchases beyond certain threshold limits. Nilgiris, for example, accepts sodexho meal passes only for bill amounts exceeding INR 150. A similar argument applies to the use of credit cards.
3. When you use the credit card, you are not obliged to pay any thing extra towards VAT or other surcharges. But certain merchants like Poorvika Mobiles resort to such bad trade practices. Check out my earlier experience over here.
4. Also towards ensuring focus in the transaction and helping others, remember to turn off your mobile or switch it towards the silent mode. You might like your that blaring ringtone 'Kattipidi Kattipidi' but not your neighbor as it sounds very disgusting, annoying, embarrasing and irritating particularly if they are of the opposite gender.
5. Another useful practice whilst tendering cash would be -- attach a denomination breakup similar to that of banking challans. That would make things clearer and the transactions faster too. Also, a number of business establishments now require you to give a mobile number and write down the number of the currency notes in an attached slip if the value of the currency notes exceed 500, 1000, because of the amount of counterfeit currency in circulation.

I just thought I would share these tips for the benefit of new and old visitors of Chennai besides also a friendly gesture recall-reminder for Chennaites to add an extra caution towards transacting in Chennai.

1. The people in our country does not seem to like queues. So you can always get to witness a lot of haggling and cheap tactics to bypass the queue. A few people seem to demonstrate a sense of temerity by way of pompous costumes or a showy appearance to impress others as if they are VVIPs to do away with the crowds and get their task preempted at the cost of additional waiting times for others.
2. 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' seems to be the slogan and learning for us only in black and white. I was able to spot a lot of banking challans littered around the floor. People also scantly that there is a big security risk in leaving thier financial data open to others.
3. Since my waiting time involved about twenty five minutes, I had more fun and frolic to watch in the ambience. One interesting was a person who just got down from the bike and curiously watching people entering and exiting the ATMs. Not sure if he was waiting for some one to join him or waiting for a scapegoat on whose money he can have a free piggyback ride.
4. There were three counters servicing the tokens. Only counter was running in full speed. The other counter guy just kept walking out and in every two minutes. The third counter lady I observed was busy chatting with some one who was standing to her back. Not sure, if it was a personal conversation but definitely not a recommended way for she was costing others' time and energy too. Besides that the guy behind her was holding the mobile phone as if shooting something from her computer. So I was really worried about some unauthorised shoulder surfing in progress too.

I just thought I would share my observations to the bank branch today since there were a good amount of security lapses which other readers should be aware of and be wary next time they visit a branch.

1. Ordinary Bus: INR 2
2. LSS: INR 2.50
3. Express/Minimum Fare ('M') Services: INR 3
4. Deluxe: INR 5
5. Volvo A/C: INR 10
6. Night Services: INR 4

1. If the driver does not feel confident after reaching Guindy to get enough crowds to Velachery - Vijayanagar, he might enter into an indefinite wait over there.
2. There are chances that he might abruptly change his mind to return to the same route asking you to alight there and making you pay for the 'upto Guindy' route.
3. There are a few unscrupulous auto drivers who extend (2) a bit further by two rupees since the normal Guindy alight point is near the police station but the Velachery boarding point is near the arch. For less than ten feet distance you might end couging up two rupees more.

There is also an allied risk with a few share autos plying upto the Guindy flyover and then instead of taking the U-turn near Sardar Patel road Alexander Square or the Nanchil-Kumaran fame Y-turns near Little Mount and Raj Bhavan, they might resort to an unprincipled 'wrong-lane-U-turn' into Guindy Racecourse. This stretch is frequented by heavy vehicles and negotiating this stretch in the wrong direction is rather risky. To save a few bucks on the gas (called petrol in this part of the world) and time, resorting to such practices might end up fatal for more than one.

I just thought I would share this with other readers for their benefit whilst negotiating Ashok Pillar - Velachery stretch.