An utter confusion of the type of locality it is, Kandanchavadi is a perfect example of the fast development yet vast underdeveloped condition of Chennai.
A city once reserved to Mylapore, T.Nagar, Mount Road and the likes has spread itself like an amoeba stretching is psuedopodia, now spreading to Adyar, Perungudi, Tambaram, Perumbur.
Kandanchavadi, a suburb on th Old Mahabalipuram Road is host to many IT parks like HCL, Prince Infocity, RMZ Millenia and the list goes on! Right in the middle of these huge, glassy, majestic and intimidating edifices, you would find a street with a stretch of houses which are small, stuffy, crumbling, broken or thatched roofed, and these houses are many feet below the level of the so-called "8-lane" roads of the IT corridor. So low that, these "grand" roads that have no drainage problems, actually send all the water directly into the houses.
A passion of the road authorities here is to dig up roads. They dig and dig, but dont fill it up! Are they planning to use it as a cesspit, or worse, a receptacle for the excrements? When the road authorities decided its time for another round of excavation, they destroy the small lanes, right outsid the houses of the service providers- men and women who are maids, electricians, mechanics and labourers. The class of people who do not have education to voice their problems.
I live in a colony right next to these starkingly different scenarios- of the poor and the posh. Our colony, filled with the "Mango People" is a classic example of people who crib but do nothing. (YES, me included! This is another one of my cribbing sessions). We too are at a lower level than that of the highway, but not only do we not do anything about it, we also put a stop ( read court order) to the development of the other segments of the colony trying to fix things for themselves. We have the gutters of the whole locality flowing into our colony in the rains, yet we do nothing, (probably because we are so used now to the fragrance and the mosquito bites).
All we speak of is moving out ( and I'm sure we won't do even that) !
At a very such "all fart and no shit" session I had with myself (while contemplating whether or not to clean the toilet) on having to ride down the "pot-hole infested" small lanes near my residence, i saw something surprising. The roads had been filled up! Yes, ACTUALLY filled up! But, that wasn't the real surprise as they had done a terrible job leaving piles and mounds of rocks mud and clay!
The surprise here was, the whole street (of the cattle class, mind you! NOT the middle class colony people, but the maids, carpenters, electricians etc) was out. From toddlers to hunch-backed grandmas. I found women sweeping the mud and throwing the rocks aside, the men wetting the dried clay and scraping it away, the children picking up pebbles and old folks, sitting around in plastic chairs giving instructions.
It was at this moment, i realised what a force our country could be. I used to always wish our country had richer people. Now, I don't. These are the people who don't have the education, money or the luxuries you and I do, YET, they turn our thoughts into actions. I remember whining for days about the lack of cleanliness on our roads. But if we had a moment like this all over the city, where EVERY man, Rich or Poor, Young or Old, came out and cleaned the area next to them, there wouldn't be a cleaner happier city.
They say it takes every drop to make an ocean. Our ocean has huge potential for not just drops, but bucket loads! With a population of over a billion just an hour of community service per person per year to improve our environs can drastically alter the look, the condition and the beauty of this magnificent Nation
With this thought in mind, I sign off with the determination to clean my toilet as the first step.
Anisha Lakshmanan
