[madan80]

Working for a software company in chennai, does sometimes entitle you to a long and arduous bus journey to and from offices. Sometime, it can be equated to cattle... you arrive in office and you will see all busses coming, dropping employees off and leaving.. so they swarm... colorful clothes filling hallways through the campus.

Well, once in a while you want to break out of that mould- and you decide to drive to office.

last night, my wife tells me that she has a meeting at 9Am, which is INSANITY. Considering her office is about 55 Km from home. So, in order to get there at that time, i would have to drop her at the railway station by about 640. Which was insane. So I said, why not i drop you???
Little did I think- she said "ok!"

anyways, i decided to give my good'ol lancer a run on the highway. We left home at 640, and started driving. Being this early, we managed to beat all the office/college/usual traffic and covered the 55kms in about 1 hr.

It was an awesome drive, wind blowing, crusing at 100, bliss... wish I could just drive on and on. We reached her office and I had to then drive over to mine, which is on the other side of town, another 50+kms. This route is however not on the highway but through a reserved forest region.

I guess, one of the most relaxing drives, is when you can see the road, not a soul and forests on both sides, and you know you are in the city.

It was bliss, RadioCity was cranking some nice rock numbers, put the windows down, and was cruising...untill i reached the "IT Highway"
to put the frustration in a nut shell, it took me over an hour to complete a 11km stretch. In which I think i banged the undeside of my car, went through about hub-cap deep water, got frustrated because of STUPID drivers and basically threw a wet blanket over the state of mind I was in.

Made me want to think, why are people so impatient? there was kilometer long pileup of traffic, and some jackass decides that he can go, and goes... blocking the traffic even more. And if there is an empty stretch, vehicles will go.

To complicate things, the IT highway is under construction, so various parts are either filled with gravel (to increase height) or with gravel dust, to add a foundation. Junta tries driving and vehicles are getting stuck,. Busses, trucks, sumos, bikes...everyone, but they still keep coming. Each thinkgin that they can get out of it better than the previous person.

The best picture- there is a big mess of traffic stuck in this mud and a tractor(HMT type) driver is laughing and driving slowly.. put put put puput puput puput put... I could feel his joy - like the tortoise in the race between the hare.

I finally rolled into office at 920, after completing nearly 120 kms. but it was fun.

Note from moderator: Kindly avoid using excessive smilies

[Venkatesh.C]

Cool. What are the places you were driving to that are spanning 55 kms in each direction?
Ambattur, Navlur, Tambaram or what? and where is the reserve forest?

[madan80]

Chetpet to Mahindra city, then via Vandalur to OMR - the stretch between vandalur and OMR goes via Kelambakkam, the initial part is close to the vandalur zoo which has quite a green cover. After about 10kms you go through a "reserve forest" there are signs on both sides near kelambakkam.

[bblost]

Vandalur

I studied at Crescent Eng. College.
Used to ride from Adyar to Vandalur, everyday. thats about 30 kms.
Have you ever gone to the top off the hill opposite the airport.
great view, especialy on a clear day.
And yes the road, NH45 is great.
I used to do the 30 kms in 30-35 mins on my splendour.

had this habit of bunking the first few hours of college, and just ridding on and on. Sometimes without even realising it.

[vkochar]

Oh yeah I know how you feel. Have been through this plenty of times in Delhi.

Worst case scenario is as you explained - when the roadworks are going on and there is only one side of the road open. Everyone is smoothly driving in one line and the other line is meant for the other sided motorists, it is only when one King Monkey Moron Motorist in his car will take a cut to avoid the long line and suddenly end up in face of the other poor chap. This will cause a further 1 hr jam - and worst , there will be plenty of other Junior Morons queing up behind him.

It drives me crazy at times, but then what the hell !! This is India !! It happens only in India

[esteem_lover]

Quite a drive madan. The morons in the city always put the dampener on such wonderful trips. It's quite the same driving on the GQ from blr & you reach maduravoyal & really get stuck with bad roads & worse traffic & have to crawl for the next 6kms.

[benbsb29]

Its the same story everywhere. Damn.

[finneyp]

That was a nice drive Madan except for the last stretch of 'IT Highway'.
In Blore too, we have such messy roads - Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road etc.

Would prefer a 50 kms highway drive to office rather than a 15 kms stressful City drive!

[cheap_deal]

whoa that is a long time for office commute. wouldn't it be easier if your wife drove herself?

my commute a few months ago was 350kms (175km each way) 6 days a week.

[DirtyDan]

Somebody (who belongs to a higher BHP caste than me) ought to start a good driver thread and/or a 'bonehead things I have seen Indian drivers do' thread.

I am amazed when the gate falls at a railroad crossing and the imbeciles pass you on the right and que up at the gate in the right lane. Then the train passes and the gate goes up. Wonder of wonders, what a surprise! On-coming traffic on the other side now wants to use the right lane. Who could have possibly foreseen this?

One thing I have learned as an outsider, you Indian folks have an amazing tolerance for one another. Almost everyday in India I see driving antics that would start a brawl in my country, the U.S. They are ignored by Indians. Your way is better.

[vkochar]

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

Somebody ought to start a good driver thread ...

I am amazed when the gate falls at a railroad crossing .....

you Indian folks have an amazing tolerance for one another. Almost everyday in India I see driving antics that would start a brawl in my country

Yeah - It is not a bad Idea to start a thread where we can mention all the Driver techniques of Driving Bad & Rude !!

The railroad is a different story altogether - It's the most irritating & sometimes dangerous thing to do.

Well Dan, you know as the saying goes ( When In Rome, Do what the Romans Do - Or something of that sort ). We Indians do have amazing tolerance level where Jams & driving antics are concerned. Imagine if all of us do start having a Brawl or a fight, the Traffic in our country woud go Haywire.

But also you must realise that we are the 2nd most Populated ( Or is 1st now ? ) country in the world . The no. of 2 wheelers sold here are in Millions every year, with 4 wheelers not being far behind, and also there are the great Truck Driver / Bus Drivers of our countries. All these things combined cause the great Indian Jam.

The only solution to this mess is a very good Public Transportation. Delhi has solved 75 % of its problems with the Metro. Delhi driving now is simply the best. With every passing visit of mine ( which is twice a month ) I find traffic of delhi getting better & better now. Other metropolitans are also now finalising everything, so hopefully we should have a good traffic system and public transportation system in the next 3 - 4 years.

[diabloo]

This stems from the inherent notion that I am smarter then the rest. Hence the I can beat the rest and get to the other end, while rest stand & watch. I am VIP, rest will adjust for me.

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

I am amazed when the gate falls at a railroad crossing and the imbeciles pass you on the right and que up at the gate in the right lane. Then the train passes and the gate goes up. Wonder of wonders, what a surprise! On-coming traffic on the other side now wants to use the right lane. Who could have possibly foreseen this?

[weejai]

This happens all the time in Bangalore...I travel daily 65+kms from home to office at ITPL, the marathahalli bridge is on everyone's fav list to watch such Master Moron Monkeys Making or Managing Marginal non-Motorable way Moving at Mind bolggling pace; giving Monster look to Men in queue only to get their Mobile Mated with Monsterous truck from opp side; Mindlessly followed by Member Moron Monkeys!!!

The worst scene witnessed was when this new Maruti Estilo suddenly broke the queue way far behind as I saw him in the RVM and picking up speed on the flyover like a plane when others are waiting for their turn. Only if the driver had opened all four doors at that speed, he might have taken off into the skies....

[Nitin]

weejai..I've seen such character do the same thing at the Cox Town railway crossing. Ever so often,I'd get this urge to get off my bike and threaten the guy in the car/bike to go back from where he came.
One person actually did that,and it was such a sight! Along comes Mr Businessman,driving his OHC. He decides to squeeze through,and get across the railway crossing.

Ooops..did he not see the 20+ cars & bikes waiting their turn?? So Mr Medical rep gets off his Roadking,and swirls his bag the way Sreesanth did his jig after hitting Nel for a 6 !! The tribal dance! The OHC is forced to reverse all the way back,and gets pushed a good 10-15 slots behind his original position.

Now thats what we all love to see..

[Venkatesh.C]

well lot of truth is being bandied about and am scared!!!!!! yeah. coz my attemps have not been very savoury. I once asked a qualis guy to fall back in line and he just tried to turn into my line and ram me. I had to get out of his way and ended up getting screwed(losing my place in the line). THe junta as usual were looking at me incredulously as though asking. "Cant y ou keep your trap shut and keep your place in the line?"
Sometimes I wonder what is the right thing to do in this country. Being mr.Righteous or to just the **** shut up.
Yeah i do relish the thought of someone playing righteous and if it pays off. Most of traffic offences are done by the Educated and Certified Idiots of this country. Taking U turns where there is explicit no-u-turn signs or driving on the right.. the list just goes on.
There is also this nonsensical usage of hazard lights that really gets on my nerves. Some use the hazard lights to indicate that the driver is going straight through an itnersection and If i try to explain the driver that he/she is incorrectly using it, junta smile like they do at a child and say OK OK...
GRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!