If you are travelling from Saidapet towards Tambaram direction with an intent to alight in Guindy Railway Station and getting across into Guindy Industrial Estate easily, you might be out-of-luck as the latest traffic pattern change introduced by Chennai City Traffic Police would mandate you to take the Race Course road, Maduvankarai bridge and enter Guindy at only MKN Road. The bus stop near Saagar Hotel has also been shifted to MKN Road.

 

This would include that we would now be forced to go through a forced sine curve crossing in Guindy. If you would like to avoid this circuitous route then we are being forced to shell extra bucks for an exorbitantly priced autorickshaws from the RaceCourse side.

 

 

 

The most recently constructed Maduvankarai bridge which links the four furlong road in the Velachery Checkpost direction to Adambakkam NGO Colony and Guindy junction is no doubt the best time saver since it cuts-short the distance to take to reach Guindy from Checkpost instead of taking a circuitous route through Halda, Spic etc.

 

However, I just noticed from different patterns of incidents that the entry point junction of the bridge from Velachery Checkpost seems to be little treacherous since MTC buses most often breakdown at this point and you would need to wait long exposed to the rain or shine at this point till the next buses come.  Two or three times, I have realised this with D70 (towards Guindy direction).

 

Just thought I would share this experience with other users too.

 

Yesterday whilst commuting from Tambaram to Adyar/Mylapore, I had to connect buses at Vijayanagar terminus. I was wondering whether to take 21L and connect again near Light House to Mylapore. Fortunately, an M15 came almost immediately. The bus was also rather empty and I got a seat too. When the bus reached Taramani, I noticed an interesting name of a playschool:

 

Kalpana Paati Play School

 

This is located near Taramani (after the Church and Baby Nagar bus stop).

 

Just thought I would share this interesting observation with other readers too. A few minutes before, I just have shared another interesting observation regarding buses over here.

 

Yesterday while commuting from Tambaram to Adyar/Mylapore through M15 and when the bus was near Jayanthi/Thiruvanmiyur, I just observed a H21 in front of me through windshield. Right at the same moment and exactly in the same line, there was a 21H volvo coming in the opposite direction. For a fraction of the second since the two buses were aligned exactly in the same line, the bus nameboards could be read as follows

 

H21 21H (a kind of palindrome :))

 

Sometime back I have shared about a new Vekkali amman temple in a small village called 'Vizhudhamangalam' near Madurantakam over here. A pilgrimage to this temple had been remaining overdue for really really overdue and long in my Todolist. Today afternoon, I was relatively free and hence just thought I would have a quick trip to this temple. Around 3 PM, I started off from work. Fortunately, I got a direct bus to Madurantakam right near the traffic lights. Since it was an ordinary bus and had more stops to cater at Tambaram, Chengalput etc, it took around a while and could reach Madurantakam only around 4.15 PM.

 

I had the following landmarks to the temple from Madurantakam as given by the temple organizer [(91) 984-063-3366]:

 

These landmarks were not sufficient to get the bus. There seemed to be a lot of confusions/ambiguities waiting. A few of the interesting scenes were:

 

I called him again and he told me to see if Pazhanchoor bus was there and that would drop exactly in Vizhudamangalam Koot Road. It was already 6 PM. I set a self-set cutoff that if no bus comes by 06.15 PM, I would return back since it would be tricky to locate the route late nights to remote villages. Thanks to the Goddess, a private bus to Pazhanchoor came in around 06:10 PM. It costed me around INR 6 only to Vizhudamangalam Koot Road. Two copassengers exactly guided to the bus stop and the bus reached Koot Road at around 06.45 PM. It was already slowly getting dark. Since it was a remote village, the streets did not have much street lights too. I managed to know the route to the temple and walked off and reached around 07:00 PM. Since I had called the temple manager, he had informed the priest before he started off home and hence the priest helped me with doing some Archana to the Lordess.

 

The temple had sanctum sanctorums for Lordess Durga, Lord Saneeswaran, Lord Ganesh and Lord Muruga besides the primary sanctum sanctorum for Lordess Vekkali. It is claimed that the primary sanctum sanctorum does not have a roof similar to the one for the Lordess in Woraiyur near Trichy.

 

After doing a few circumambulation of the shrine, I started back around 07:15 PM. The darkness had already set in in the ambience all around now. I some how managed to walk a few yards but there was a eerie feeling because of the deserted area. Fortunately, a biker from near the temple premises was coming. He gave me a ride till the Koot Road, thanks to my Lord. He also was telling that there is a bus at 7.25 to 7.30 and the next  bus is at 8.30. The last bus to Madurantakam is around 9 PM (which might come at 9.30 PM also). But as he was telling and nearing the Koot Road, the bus reached the Koot Road and started off. He was telling that we should have been a few minutes earlier. But he waited along with me since it was very isolated place. Fortunately, an Aavin Milk Tempo came that way speeding. We chose to request them a ride till Madurantakam. They were more happy to help out. It was a good omen to get a travel in a holy vehicle too. Milk is always considered holy. The vehicle reached Madurantakam around 8 PM. Now I just thought instead of immediately starting off to Chennai, I should have a sneak peek into Madurantakam Kothandaramar temple also.

 

I had to wait a while in the temple since naivedhyam thaligai was being offered because the temple was being closed for the day around 8.30 PM. After the thaligai got completed, the sanctums-sanctorums of the Lord and Lordess were opened. I had a good darshan of the Lord and then started off around 8.30 PM. A Tambaram bound bus came in around 8.45 PM which dropped me in Tambaram around 9.45 PM.

 

In the night while casually going through the Panchangam, I just realised that it was Aadi Pathinettam Perukku. It was God's blessing to have turned a casual mundane Monday into a pilgrimage day for me.

 

Today whilst commuting from Tambaram to Velachery Vijayanagar, all had been fine till the bus reached Pallikaranai - Narayanapuram. Not sure what happened later, Nithira Devi (the Lordess of Sleep) waved Her magic wand a bit on me it seems. From the Sri Balaji Dental College to Vijayanagar, I had some quick wink of rather deep sleep in the bus. When the bus reached Vijayanagar, the noisy ambience accompanied by the conductor repeatedly shouting everyone to disembark from the bus since it has reached its final destination gave me a soft jolt from the little afternoon siesta.

 

When I woke up and saw outside, the environment was for a second little confusing to me -- Was it Velachery Vijayanagar or T. Nagar South Usman Road? Then I slowly came back to senses realising that the bus I boarded was Velachery Vijayanagar and that was the spot reached.  This also makes one feel that how fast this erstwhile lonesome suburb of Velachery Vijayanagar is fast-flourishing and developing into one of the satellite business hub of Chennai metropolitan city.

 

#end

 

This was an interesting English saying I recalled when I visited Indian Bank Rajakilpakkam ATM today. I had to visit the ATM today afternoon to make some cash withdrawals. The ATM could be seen from a distinct distance of at least half a kilometer since it is located on the arterial road. For a significant time, there was no crowd but all of a sudden when I finished my transaction and exited the ATM, I saw a serpentine crowd that has formed outside the ATM for cash withdrawal.

 

Not sure whether it is because of of something like 'Sunday Afternoon Shopping Time Preparation Hour' when people just barging into the ATM to grasp and grab some quick hot liquid cash to appease their shopping hunger or if Indian Bank started to screen some interesting matinee film inside the ATM lobby! :)

 

I also just thought I would share this website which explains about this English saying in a more descriptive way.

 

Sometime back in 2004 September there was a few confusion with my erstwhile Standard Chartered Banking account which had been also a payroll account for my the then one before organization, which is now defunct. There was hilarious headaches with a few stupid phone banking and in the process one cheque book got misplaced in transit to Bangalore. After a little long arduous ordeal till January 2005, the new cheque books got reinstated besides ensuring that my savings account over there was sundered off any relationship with the defunct organization. A little payment for the lost cheque book also served as a Agni Pareeksha to ensure that any afflicting bad eye or sins are also cleared thereon.

 

Two years from then a little shift between Chennai and Bangalore by my friend brought back the lost cheque book. But by now, since the cheque book was already declared lost and it was a closed file, I just thought I would damage it. A few days back since for a while the account was not in use and my other file managing my accounts was also in the process of migration to a newer and robust (!) architecture, this cheque book transitions spawned a new set of confusions.

 

Writing to the callous customer care or the phony phone staff of SCB didn't seem to yeild any fruitful results other than being wasted futile phone calls and hence thought I would visit Adyar branch today and get this thing sorted out. It took about thirty minutes for them to dig through and excavate the deep records, exhume the instructions given long back, do an autopsy on the same and then to bury it deep again. It has now been declared that the new cheque books are free of any type of fallacy and free to use without any let or hindrance of any creed or kind. Also the relationship of the account with any organization has also been cleared off forthwith.

 

There is one Sardarji staff in Adyar who is really very informative and helpful resource in the branch. Let us appreciate his helpful gesture too. I forgot his name anyway.

 

I had two interesting incidents today afternoon which I wanted to share with others so that it would be a valuable eye-opener and guidance for everyone.

 

Scenario 1: I had to visit my bank in Adyar and when my turn in the queue came I tendered my bank passbook, challan and the cash amount that needed to be remitted to the teller. The other person still has not relinquished his position and was squatting the way to the counter. Only when the teller shoo-shooed him mildly did he realise his folly to move off and that too I realised it was only a gesture of abeyance from him. When the teller was busy handling my transaction, he again barged in and was asking something to the teller who was disturbed from his focussed act of counting the notes. Everyone turned to him  to show their apathy to that type of behavior.

 

Scenario 2: I had to board the bus from Adyar to Guindy. The bus conductor was patiently issuing tickets to everyone. We observed that one woman suddenly picked up an argument with the conductor alleging that she gave him a twenty rupee note and the change that she was tendered was short of the exact amount that is required. The conductor stood to his claim that he only recieved a ten rupee note from her. In the melee, he actually got confused and I recieved a shortfall change which the conductor realised and compensated in a jiffy. The same folly repeated for another passenger too.

 

Both these scenarios depict and illustrate that a little patience is required in public places before availing the services of the provider who might be busy in serving another confusion. There is a good old English saying "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Attempting too many requests on the poor service provider is a surestop way of making him confused and to drive him nuts in toto. A little patience would ensure that things sail smooth for everyone.

 

Today I just thought I would visit Tiruvallikeni temple morning itself to avoid unduly heavy crowds and mad rush that prevails in the evenings of Saturday. They say people witness such turbulent crowds on Sundays too but not sure since I have not visited recently on Sundays. I started around 0730 hours in the morning. I caught a M21 to Velachery. However, there was something interesting. I normally ensure that I have enough smaller denomination currency change with me. But I missed it in one shot and hence had to tender a one hundred rupee note. The conductor was rather polite and hence he told that he would give me the change once the bus reaches the final destination since if gives off the changes immediately, it becomes little confusing and complex problem and/or a puzzle for him to solve for other passengers who board in the rest of the bus stops. When the bus reached near MRTS, I chose to alight and ask for a change. But the conductor itself saw me getting up and he came to me and handed over the change.

 

I chose to board a train to Tiruvallikeni. Again the saturday effect had a little drowiness to set in me. No sooner did the train cross Tirumailai station than did I get a light wink of sleep and I could wake up only when the train was nearing Tiruvallikeni station. The walking route to the temple was not resembling easy since even that early hours, the sun was showering a scorching hot rays on the earth. The temple was not that crowdy too and hence I could have a peaceful darshan in all the sanctum sanctorums and come out of the temple in about thirty minutes.

 

I had to visit my bank and hence chose to get a bus to Adyar. So before embarking on the new journey, just thought I would have some quick bites in the restaurant near the temple. Sometime back I also wrote about this restuarant in Go-Ergo. You can check out the same over here.  I have uploaded as a two-part screenshot below: