I'm still struggling to survive in Chennai road and traffic. But the moment when i park the scooter in office and when i park in apartment at night are the most satisfactory moments i have in day. The satisfaction that i reached without any incidents. I'm still being tutored by my friend about the driving and the rules to be followed on the road. By rules, i don't mean the traffic rules implemented by the government. The rules followed by people to survive on the road. The rules i have learned so far are as follows:
1. Don't follow all the traffic rules blindly.
2. Don't give a damn about people honking horns behind you.(Which i have trouble following after driving in USA for close to 7 years where honking is very rare and only when we do some mistakes. So i still get flustered when i hear people honking behind me).
3. Don't give way to anyone.
4. Exception to rule#3, give way only to Vehicles driven by women, because they are bad drivers and you would end up in accident and public supports only women. (This may sound little sexist or anti-feminist, but, 'Hey!!! i'm trying to be safe in road and not hurt others, so whatever tip helps me it's fine.)
I try to follow these, but in signals especially, where people try to squeeze in whatever gap they find, people keep honking me to squeeze ahead, but i'm still not comfortable to do that. So either i get scolded(which i don't hear much, thanks to helmet) or move my scooter with legs to squeeze in between vehicles. There are some places where there are no signals and after some time people lose patience and starts forcing in the oncoming traffic, it's like a war zone. One army trying not to give way and one army adamant on squeezing in and stop the oncoming traffic. One good thing is, even though i'm a bad driver, as nobody follows rules, even if i make mistakes, people adjust and get past me or avoid running into me.
This weekend also i stayed in Chennai, so i wanted to visit some new places this weekend. After the visit to the Anna Centennial Library last weekend, this weekend i decided to visit the Theosophical Society in Adyar which is just 4 kms from my place. Before going there i read something about Theosophy to get some introduction about it. First of all, it is different from Chrsitian/Boehmian Theosophy and its called Blavatskian Theosophy named after its founder. Is it a Religion? The answer is both 'Yes' and 'No'. It combines all the religions and mentions there is one absolute God and promotes Universal Brotherhood and that there was an ancient religion which will be revived and spread throughout humanity in the future, replacing dominat world religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism etc.The more i read about, it did indeed sounded like a religion. So i really didn't know what to expect there. Anyway it was open to visitors only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, so i thought i will just cover the gardens if nothing else was there to my interest.
Saturday my friend was also available, so we both went decided to go. Before leaving we were checking if any memberships are required or any entry fees etc. It was mentioned in their site that there are restrictions on Saturday like 'No Young couples allowed'. I guess they mean unmarried young couples. I don't blame them for this rule. Anyone in India would understand why that rule was in place ;). If not, you should take a walk in some public park and see how young couples behave. I don't blame young couples in India also, they don't have much place to hangout.
When we reached the entrance, the gate was closed, but i could see just then an Uber car entered with some foreigners. I got down from my scooter and went to the gate and called the security to open the gate. He gave me a look like "What do you want?". I said we're here to visit the Theosophical Society, and asked whether we came in wrong timing. He said its open now and looked behind me and asked "No girlfriend right?". I said "No, its just us guys". Then he opened the gate and behind us there were a couple on a bike whom he didn't let in.
Only the garden and some historical buildings portion was open to the public and certain areas were open to only the Members of Theosophical Society. Inside it was very calm and peaceful. We couldn't believe we were in Chennai. You never hear that much silence anywhere in the city, except for occasional birds sound. It had few Banyan trees which must have been there for over a 100 years and we couldn't find where it primary trunk was. There were other trees which we normally find in villages and some i never heard or seen before such as Punnai maram(Alexandrian Laurel tree), Poovarasa maram(Indian Tulip tree), Magila maram(Bakula Tree/Spanish Cherry Tree), Badam Maram(Almond tree), Nagalinga maram(Cannonball Tree), Arali maram, Mavilangam(Garlic Pear Tree), Puliyamaram(Tamarind tree), Chembaruthi chedi(Hibiscus Plant), Aanai kunthamani (Coral wood tree), Kaattalari maram(Suicide tree), kalli mantharai(Temple tree) etc. You could cover an entire botany class in that garden.
In addition to these, there was a coconut plantation and it looked exactly like a village. If anyone in Chennai who has never seen a village, you can check this out. And i saw a tree full of bats, sleeping upside down which i was seeing for the first time. I was little scared that one or two might wake up and come and bite me. Saw a couple of parrots sitting in a tree too.
There was a Hindu temple, a Mosque, a Catholic Church, a Buddhist Shrine, a Sikh Shrine and a Zoroastrian temple inside the garden. Most of them were locked, so we couldn't enter any. There were few buildings built in 1800s and one building had the statues and logos and many different religions and their respective religious figures with a phrase "There is no religion higher than the truth" printed in the middle of the room. Some meeting was supposed to happen, so the security was rushing us off from that place. Many foreigners who are members of the society visit there it seems. After all this was first founded in Newyork and then the headquarters was moved to Adyar(the place we visited). Annie Besant was its President for 26 years(1907-1933) until her death it seems. I remember her name from my childhood textbooks as supporter of Indian Independence. Never knew this side of her. There was a bookshop and a library, both containing only books related to Theosophy and all the religions.
Overall it was a nice place just to hangout for couple of hours, especially for families, considering no young couples allowed ;). And i still don't exactly understand what Theosophy means and what exactly they do there now. I guess you can know only if you're a member. But for general public, whatever they allow for general public is enough to spend couple of hours.
After we completed the visit by 4, i didn't want to go to room soon, so we searched for any places nearby and found that the Broken Bridge is nearby and decided to visit that. It's a bridge, as name suggests leads no where, a broken bridge. It was built in 1967 to connect fisherman from Adyar side to the other side. The fishermen who worked in harbour would then take bicycles, tricycles, rickshaw to cross the bridge. After the bridge was broken in 1977 due to strong currents of Adyar river, it was never repaired after and became a spot for youth to hangout and to see sunrise/sunset. It was used in many movies(by which i came to know about this) such as Ayutha Ezhuthu where Suriya and Madhavan fight. So the main reason i wanted to visit the bridge was just as nerdy movie fan.
After taking a couple of pics, there wasn't much to do there. Had to leave soon because of the foul smell. On Sunday i visited the Anna Centennial library for couple of hours and i guess i will go for atleast few hours on any weekend i'm in Chennai.
Next weekend i may go to my hometown, so it will take some time for the next blog.
Badminton, we're still playing once or twice in the week. But should increase the frequency for it to have any effect in reducing weight.
Reading Challenge is at 17/30, still 4 books behind schedule. Have to complete 13 books in 13 weeks exactly. I should apply some force on the accelerator to complete that.
See you in the next blog with some new (hopefully interesting)experience or stories....
1. Don't follow all the traffic rules blindly.
2. Don't give a damn about people honking horns behind you.(Which i have trouble following after driving in USA for close to 7 years where honking is very rare and only when we do some mistakes. So i still get flustered when i hear people honking behind me).
3. Don't give way to anyone.
4. Exception to rule#3, give way only to Vehicles driven by women, because they are bad drivers and you would end up in accident and public supports only women. (This may sound little sexist or anti-feminist, but, 'Hey!!! i'm trying to be safe in road and not hurt others, so whatever tip helps me it's fine.)
I try to follow these, but in signals especially, where people try to squeeze in whatever gap they find, people keep honking me to squeeze ahead, but i'm still not comfortable to do that. So either i get scolded(which i don't hear much, thanks to helmet) or move my scooter with legs to squeeze in between vehicles. There are some places where there are no signals and after some time people lose patience and starts forcing in the oncoming traffic, it's like a war zone. One army trying not to give way and one army adamant on squeezing in and stop the oncoming traffic. One good thing is, even though i'm a bad driver, as nobody follows rules, even if i make mistakes, people adjust and get past me or avoid running into me.
This weekend also i stayed in Chennai, so i wanted to visit some new places this weekend. After the visit to the Anna Centennial Library last weekend, this weekend i decided to visit the Theosophical Society in Adyar which is just 4 kms from my place. Before going there i read something about Theosophy to get some introduction about it. First of all, it is different from Chrsitian/Boehmian Theosophy and its called Blavatskian Theosophy named after its founder. Is it a Religion? The answer is both 'Yes' and 'No'. It combines all the religions and mentions there is one absolute God and promotes Universal Brotherhood and that there was an ancient religion which will be revived and spread throughout humanity in the future, replacing dominat world religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism etc.The more i read about, it did indeed sounded like a religion. So i really didn't know what to expect there. Anyway it was open to visitors only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, so i thought i will just cover the gardens if nothing else was there to my interest.
Saturday my friend was also available, so we both went decided to go. Before leaving we were checking if any memberships are required or any entry fees etc. It was mentioned in their site that there are restrictions on Saturday like 'No Young couples allowed'. I guess they mean unmarried young couples. I don't blame them for this rule. Anyone in India would understand why that rule was in place ;). If not, you should take a walk in some public park and see how young couples behave. I don't blame young couples in India also, they don't have much place to hangout.
When we reached the entrance, the gate was closed, but i could see just then an Uber car entered with some foreigners. I got down from my scooter and went to the gate and called the security to open the gate. He gave me a look like "What do you want?". I said we're here to visit the Theosophical Society, and asked whether we came in wrong timing. He said its open now and looked behind me and asked "No girlfriend right?". I said "No, its just us guys". Then he opened the gate and behind us there were a couple on a bike whom he didn't let in.
Only the garden and some historical buildings portion was open to the public and certain areas were open to only the Members of Theosophical Society. Inside it was very calm and peaceful. We couldn't believe we were in Chennai. You never hear that much silence anywhere in the city, except for occasional birds sound. It had few Banyan trees which must have been there for over a 100 years and we couldn't find where it primary trunk was. There were other trees which we normally find in villages and some i never heard or seen before such as Punnai maram(Alexandrian Laurel tree), Poovarasa maram(Indian Tulip tree), Magila maram(Bakula Tree/Spanish Cherry Tree), Badam Maram(Almond tree), Nagalinga maram(Cannonball Tree), Arali maram, Mavilangam(Garlic Pear Tree), Puliyamaram(Tamarind tree), Chembaruthi chedi(Hibiscus Plant), Aanai kunthamani (Coral wood tree), Kaattalari maram(Suicide tree), kalli mantharai(Temple tree) etc. You could cover an entire botany class in that garden.
In addition to these, there was a coconut plantation and it looked exactly like a village. If anyone in Chennai who has never seen a village, you can check this out. And i saw a tree full of bats, sleeping upside down which i was seeing for the first time. I was little scared that one or two might wake up and come and bite me. Saw a couple of parrots sitting in a tree too.
There was a Hindu temple, a Mosque, a Catholic Church, a Buddhist Shrine, a Sikh Shrine and a Zoroastrian temple inside the garden. Most of them were locked, so we couldn't enter any. There were few buildings built in 1800s and one building had the statues and logos and many different religions and their respective religious figures with a phrase "There is no religion higher than the truth" printed in the middle of the room. Some meeting was supposed to happen, so the security was rushing us off from that place. Many foreigners who are members of the society visit there it seems. After all this was first founded in Newyork and then the headquarters was moved to Adyar(the place we visited). Annie Besant was its President for 26 years(1907-1933) until her death it seems. I remember her name from my childhood textbooks as supporter of Indian Independence. Never knew this side of her. There was a bookshop and a library, both containing only books related to Theosophy and all the religions.
Overall it was a nice place just to hangout for couple of hours, especially for families, considering no young couples allowed ;). And i still don't exactly understand what Theosophy means and what exactly they do there now. I guess you can know only if you're a member. But for general public, whatever they allow for general public is enough to spend couple of hours.
After we completed the visit by 4, i didn't want to go to room soon, so we searched for any places nearby and found that the Broken Bridge is nearby and decided to visit that. It's a bridge, as name suggests leads no where, a broken bridge. It was built in 1967 to connect fisherman from Adyar side to the other side. The fishermen who worked in harbour would then take bicycles, tricycles, rickshaw to cross the bridge. After the bridge was broken in 1977 due to strong currents of Adyar river, it was never repaired after and became a spot for youth to hangout and to see sunrise/sunset. It was used in many movies(by which i came to know about this) such as Ayutha Ezhuthu where Suriya and Madhavan fight. So the main reason i wanted to visit the bridge was just as nerdy movie fan.
 |
| From Ayutha Ezhuthu |
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| Me |
Next weekend i may go to my hometown, so it will take some time for the next blog.
Badminton, we're still playing once or twice in the week. But should increase the frequency for it to have any effect in reducing weight.
Reading Challenge is at 17/30, still 4 books behind schedule. Have to complete 13 books in 13 weeks exactly. I should apply some force on the accelerator to complete that.
See you in the next blog with some new (hopefully interesting)experience or stories....
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