Mumbai Burns, Chennai Weeps
Professor Higgins, while giving a makeover to Eliza Doolittle, told her torepeat in My Fair Lady that "The rain in Spain stays mainly in theplain". After last week's prolonged visit by Cyclone Nisha, whatwould be apt to say in this metropolis is that the "rain in Chennai staysmainly in the lane". While Mumbai burned, Chennai wept, a fact that gotforgotten because of the magnitude of the terrorist strike on India's commercialcapital. Barring people in Tamil Nadu, particularly those in coastal areas, whowere battered by Cyclone Nisha since last Tuesday and suffered unending misery,no one outside the state realized just how horrific it all was. The roads turnedto rivers, parked cars bobbed in the water, even the middle-class who live inapartment buildings found putrid water lapping at their doors or inside theirhouses. The poor living in low-lying areas had to be evacuated. Even inhospitals like the Government Taluk Hospital, patients (mostly pregnant women)were hastily reassigned to the first floor because the ground floor hadknee-deep water, the Mogappair East Government Girls' High School was flooded asrain water entered in a torrent. Just like in Mumbai, where politicians wereembroiled in a "tu tu main main" cacophony over a preventablecatastrophe, here too politicians were pointing fingers at each other over whowas to blame for a metropolis that's a wannabe destination for software andindustry, for real estate biggies, for luxury brands and malls that could notcope with Mother Nature's fury. Of course, CM Karunanidhi, the left, the PMKwere more focused on Sri Lanka Tamils, while Tamils here stoically faced up tothe ravages of the rain.
The Rain In Chennai Stays Mainly In The Lane
Local Administration Minister M K Stalin, who is also the son of the DMKpatriarch, put on his fancy raincoat, surrounded himself with sycophantsincluding Chennai's mayor M Subramaniam, and did a tour of duty in rain-affectedareas. He trudged around in knee-deep water "inspecting" roads (notdissimilar to the aerial surveys politicians undertake). After all, electionsare not far off and the AIADMK looks poised to win the battle of the ballotsimply because incumbency is not a factor that will go against it. Stalin, whohas thumped his chest over giving this city flyovers, should see whatirreparable damage he has done because his engineers forgot to put in effectivestormwater drains. Why didn't he do some "inspection" when the workwas being done to prevent systemic glitches that you don't have to be rocketscientist to know. Incidentally, Stalin patted himself on the back: "Theefforts taken by the corporation and government have paid dividends. In fact,the residents of Velachery and Kolathur expressed gratitude to me," hesaid. Bravo!
The flyovers at T'Nagar, where hundreds of thousands of shoppers go every day,only served to let water collect on the approach road to them with the resultthat people sitting in autorickshaws found water gushing in to their knees. Itwas a terrifying experience, given that the roads are potholed. "I was soscared, considering that just one week ago, a Tata Sumo got submerged in atrench dug near the Kathipara junction and those inside were saved only becauseof the resourcefulness of passers by," shuddered a city resident. Lack ofco-ordination led to Rs 201 crore being wasted by the Tamil Nadu RoadDevelopment Company on laying stormwater drains along the IT Corridor at RajivGandhi Salai. Now it's going to be relaid and the estimated cost is Rs 369crores. And why did that happen? That's because the government tenders the workto a clutch of contractors who bid to make money and also to keep their patronshappy. Of course, they also do a shoddy job ensuring that they get recalled toduplicate the job and make more money. Their collective conscience does notprickle that so much tax payers money is going into their pockets and not, inthis case down the drain where it would matter.
Honking Horns In Airspace
I'm not a frequent flier. And yes, just like the title of Erica Jong's book, Ihave a fear of flying. But after my flight, from Madurai to Chennai, throughCyclone Nisha last week, I've sworn off ATR planes. But as everyone points out,those are the cheaper flights in an era where the aviation industry is gettingbailouts, subsidies, even lowered ATF prices, but are refusing to pass on thebenefit to consumers. Did you know that planes had horns? This is the questionI've asked a lot of people since my stomach-churning flight, but some snorted,some just laughed and some just did not believe me. But as the plane descendedthrough a stretch of dark, thick clouds, where visibility was zero and theaircraft shuddered and suddenly fell, the 13 passengers in that flight lookedpanic-stricken at each other as the sound of a horn, which would not quit forall of 10 minutes, could be heard.
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How Do Cylones Get Names?
So the US recently had Hurricane Katrina which paid New Orleans a visit. And ourpart of the world too seems to have cyclones with women's names. Thus you havenames like Cyclone Nargis and Cyclone Nisha. Nisha brings to mind a PYT (prettyyoung thing) but one only has to look around Chennai and the rest of the coastof TN to know that "she" was deadly. According to a blog by the ITAcumens Community, the naming convention for cyclones in the northern IndianOcean began in 2004 when the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) released alist of names that would serve as a unique identifier in issuing forecasts andwarnings. Also, giving names helps to eliminate confusion when several systemsare formed in the sea at the same time.
Now the IMD also provides weather advisories to seven countries – Bangladesh,India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka. And names areforwarded by all these countries which get their turn to christen a cyclone.Cyclone Nargis came from a list given by Pakistan while Cyclone Nisha came froma list given by Bangladesh.
