Sonu Niigaam at Saarang

This is and will be my last Saarang as a student in IIT Madras. As always, I am a bit nostalgic about this fact. On Friday night, we had Sonu Niigaam (yeah, that's his new spelling as per numerology) perform in the OAT.
In spite of a couple of hiccups like Sonu lambasting the sound department for some problems on stage right in the middle of his first song and the power going off in between for a couple of times, Sonu kept the audiance enthralled as he churned out hit after hit.
He even demonstrated how music is made in the industry. He asked the audiance for four names of vegetables. He got aloo, bhindi and mooli. Then, one of the guitarists (if I'm not wrong) on stage suggested mutter paneer. Initially, Sonu was reluctant since mutter paneer is a dish made of peas and paneer and not a vegetable. However, he accepted it later on. He then proceeded to attach a tune to these four words and sang a couple of lines as well. It was fun.
Sonu also reached out to two mentally challenged persons in the audience and displayed his emotional side as well. He was quite down-to-earth throughout the show and was much better than the Sukhwinder Singh we had two years ago. Towards the end, he even bared his biceps by removing his jacket. Thankfully, he didn't remove the vest.
After his performance was over, we had another guy called Benny Dayal. However, I left after his first song Dil Se, which he claimed was a tribute to A. R. Rahman for his Golden Globe.
My only disappointment was that Sonu did not sing two of the songs I had wanted him. Though he hummed the tune Kal Ho Naa Ho from time to time, he never sang the song in full. He also didn't sing Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, his recent hit from Rab Ne Banadi jodi. But other than that, all his other songs were funa and had the audience clapping, dancing and jumping.

A New Year wishlist for Chennai

Disclaimer: I have referred to Mumbai as Bombay and Madras as Chennai. This is intentional. However, this is not hypocrisy. This is the way people generally talk about the two cities. Just yesterday, I heard someone talking of a Bombay-Chennai flight. I'll be happy to have someone enlighten me on this issue.

Here's my new year wish-list for Chennai

1. Get a good drainage system - In 2009, please do not let rains that are hardly 10% of what one gets in Bombay paralyze the city and let the politicians have a field day offering relief when a good drainage system would prevent any of this from happening in the first place. It's time civic officials went to Bombay and learnt!

Picture: A flooded street in suburban Chennai (28 Nov 2008) after Cyclone Nisha {Note that the rains were not even as much as Bombay usually receives}

2. Build flyovers, not underpasses - Do not sanction any new underpasses (famously called subways) to connect either side of the railway tracks. Sanction flyovers. A little rain and people living in on the wrong side of the railway tracks such as West Mambalam and Nanganallur are cut off from the rest of the place.


3. Build wide roads, free of potholes - Hope the corporation of Chennai is listening. I repeat. Build wide roads, free of potholes. If you cannot, at least do not call them 'High Roads'. It really sucks. Call it just a road.

Picture: An manhole on the arterial Sardar Patel Road in Chennai

4. Implement the law on auto-drivers - This one's last on my list because I know the impossibility and the impracticality of such a suggestion. But, a faint hope in my heart makes me root for this. Bring the auto-drivers, who are a law unto themselves only in Chennai to book. Send them to Bombay to see their counterpart return the Re 1 change!

Chennai's first grade separator

This Sunday, on Diwali-eve, Chennai got its first grade separator - at Kathipara. This was a project marred by delays. Originally due to open in April 2007, one portion connecting GST Road and Inner Ring Road was opened in March 2008. All arms were thrown open on this Sunday i.e. October 26, 2008 after an inauguration by CM Karunanidhi.

When I went past it on Tuesday morning, I could clearly be seen that the project had been completed in haste and inagurated as a face-saving measure. There were absolutely no finishing touches and the grade separator didn't look brand new from any angle. When I traveled across the GST-IRR grade separator in March, I had seen the poor finishing touches on that stretch. Then, I had hoped that all would be set right when the project was completed fully. But, that was not to be.

Leave alone finishing touches. People can manage with shoddy work. But how can people manage without signboards? On Tuesday morning, I saw vehicles coming on the wrong side, for there were no signboards to indicate the routes. Grade-separators can be confusing. In fact, rade-separators without proper signboards are like death-traps. Indeed, that was what happened. The next day, I read in The Hindu that the grade separtor had claimed its first victim. (http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/29/stories/2008102958550300.htm). As I said earlier, grade-separators must have proper signages, more so, when people haven't been exposed to such stuff before. But then, that's not always the case. Especially, if it's Chennai.

Even now, I fail to understand the delay in the project. The Hindu claimed it was "contractual problems and escalation in the cost of raw materials". Whatever they say, the delay is unexplainable. Tamil Nadu has a lot of clout in the UPA government at the center. TN MPs have plum ministries including Surface Transport and Highways. What prevented Mr T. R. Balu, the Highways Minister from using his good offices for the benefit of his people, many of whom spent a lot of time waiting at the construction site morning and evening due to traffic jams? Fine, even if he didn't want to appear prejudiced towards his home state, why should he make statements about the project being 'ahead of schedule'? If you don't believe me, read up at http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/26/stories/2005092614620300.htm. Now, can someone explain?