Till this evening, we hadn’t done our Diwali shopping yet. My folks always prefer T.Nagar for shopping and I dread the crowd. Especially on the eve of Diwali. Been procrastinating the last couple of days and finally succumbed to the ultimatums. So, off we left for Pondy Bazaar, the heart of Chennai’s dress and jewelry market.
Was I in for a surprise or what? At 6:30PM, which is the worst time to get there, the traffic was not only fast moving but light as well. I had expected snarling traffic jams and mentally gave us an hour to head there but instead, we made it under 20 minutes. Even better, I found a parking space within a couple of minutes.
Credit definitely goes to dozens of traffic cops, volunteers and student cadets who have managed the crowds exceedingly well. The Chennai Traffic Police have even roped in the popular Solomon Papaiya to record instructions to the public in his own humorous way. It went very well with the festive joyous mood of the crowd.
However, when most of the cops and volunteers went away at around 10 PM, the traffic snarl was visibly back. Auto rickshaws started to park right outside the big shops hunting for customers, thus blocking the traffic. If autos were bad, some of the private cars are worse. They would do a valet service kind of pickup without any consideration for the traffic hold up.
A clear indication that we lack self discipline and expect to be governed by the cops.