Heavy Rain turned Chennai to Venice

"Rain rain go away... come again another day!". My daughter sang this rhyme passionately for the last several days, standing at our door steps and staring at the rain. The continuous rains, in the last 1 week, turned the whole city upside down.

In the past, I have seen/experienced several such rains in Chennai, as a pedestrian. Several years ago, I was once hit by a motorist & I fell into a pool of stagnating water along the road side.

This is my first rain experience as a motorist, in Chennai. So, the experiences are much more interesting. The following are some after effects of the heavy rains in Chennai:

1) There is water everywhere - along the sides of the road, in subways, inside houses, and at times, filling an entire street. This causes hardships to motorists and pedestrians.

2) The flow of water & the moving vehicular traffic has created pot holes in almost all the roads. For the past few days, my two wheeler drive is really hurting my back, because of the bumpy roads.

3) Rain water gets splashed at you, by vehicles that move along your sides and on to your front. You should definitely wear a rain coat or a jacket, not just to escape from the rains but also to escape from the water splashed by these vehicles. Yesterday morning I saw a shocking incident on the road. A moving car splashed a pool of water on a bicyclist. The bicyclist had a folded umbrella in his hand. He banged the umbrella heavily on the car and created a huge dent. The car didn't stop. First of all, the car driver should've slowed down on seeing a pool of stagnating water. Second of all, the bicyclist shouldn't have got so much anger. I'm sure the bicyclist caused atleast a few thousand rupees damage to the car.

4) Government did a good job of cleaning up the 'coovum' river, a couple of weeks before the rain. However, the tons of garbage taken out of 'coovum' river still lies on the road, in some areas. They haven't disposed/cleaned them up. So, due to the heavy rains, the garbage is again going back to the 'coovum' river.

5) Storm water drains are constructed in several parts of the city. I live in Choolaimedu and the rain water quickly drains in a few minutes. I don't see water stagnated in any of the nearby areas. However, I heard that some places in Velachery are terribly hit by the stagnant water.

Some folks are concerned because the growing real estate industry has converted several small lakes & pools into residential communities. Hence the rain water is entering the city's streets, instead of getting stored in designated locations.

I'm not sure how long it would take for India to build an infrastructure that is comparable to the developed nations. Definitely, miles to go... Until then, Chennai's residents can enjoy their free Venice trip experience.

Also read:

Driving on Indian roads - Pleasure or Pain?    

Two Wheeler Service Experience