Ripples on the brain

When my present employer gave me an offer, the commute was the first thing that bothered me. I’m in Thiruvanmiyur and my office is in Tambaram Sanitorium. Again when I had my induction program in Bangalore and had a choice between Bangalore and Chennai, the commute was something that played in my mind over and over. Was it better to work in Bangalore considering the office there is near Koramangala where I could stay?

Finally, for some reason, I decided Chennai was better for me. Again I had 3 different options for commuting - take my car all the way, go till Guindy in my bike and then travel train from there or take a bus from Thiruvanmiyur till Tambaram on the Velachery Road and then to Tambaram Sanitorium. I tried the first two options and for the moment I am sticking with the more comfortable one among the two - car.

So far, I must say, I am enjoying my commute. The long distance drive on a highway (okay, GST road cannot be compared with the new roads, but still it’s a good one to drive on) accompanied by music from FM radio just refreshes me both in the morning and in the evening. I have become a regular listener of “Kittu Maama, Susi Maami” in the morning and “Kisu Kisu Geetha” and “En Uyire” (yeah, I know the last one is a very silly program, but the song selection is generally good). Surprisingly, I no longer listen to my favourite RJ Suchi’s “Hello Chennai” any more. I guess it is more due to the better songs available in “Kittu Mama…“, than anything else.

I have learnt/observed a lot things driving for 1hr 45 mins, 40kms up and down (guys in bangalore, can you think of it? 20kms in 50mins):
1. Never go behind ambassador cabbies. Mostly they don’t change their gears at all causing a bottleneck after a disturbance on the road and cannot go faster than 50km/hr.
2. Bigger lorry drivers are very responsive. When you honk, they exactly tell you if you can overtake them or not. Whereas tempo and mini lorry drivers are exactly the opposite.
3. Drivers of Maruthi 800 believe that they are on a motorbike. They can never stick to their lane and they always try to come on your left, however farther you are from the median on the road.
4. There are a few thathas driving huge cars (even Innovas!) on the Chennai roads. They drive in their own world, go in the right-most lane possible, leave a gap that can be covered by 3-4 cars between their vehicle and the one before them.