Wel folks .. if u r dreaming bot driving in Chennai like Madhavan in 'Alaiypaayuthe' with a cd-man blaring 'Maddy Maddy..', then "Helllooooo!!! Welcome to Reality .. and to Chennai" .. Driving in Chennai roads ... (shudder) .. man .. not an easy task .. i ve been drivin for a li'l more than a year in Chennai and one thing i ve learnt is that, never follow the rules set by the government .. there are different road rules set by fellow-drivers (which is gettin worser and worser day-by-day btw) and those are the ones to be followed ..
For instance, u are waiting in the red signal ... there'll b 4 or 5 more seconds to go for the signal to turn green but ur fellow-drivers 'll not wait .. u know .. ppl r so busy they cant wait for those few seconds for the lite to change to green ... oh yeah!! like they cant wait to go to hell ...
And the tragic fact is that, u wont b allowed to follow rules either .. the other day, i was in the front of the row of vehicles and there wre still five seconds for green signal but as usual ppl near me started to drive but i , like gr8 miss.goody-goody, didnt budge from the place .. waited for the time to become zero sec and lite to turn green ... and that was one of the most embarassing moments in my life i think .. ppl behind me started yellin at me and scolding me .. :( and all for tryin to follow some rules ... 'm not the sorta person whoz easily tempted to follow rules and when out of the blue i decide to, look at the feedback?!!! :( and also, after the rains (which is another miserable story) , roads in many places r pathetic .. by the time u reach ur destination, u'll b shaken fully like u shake a tonic bottle b4 u ve the med .. :-/
and worse of all is this .. some ppl (and these ppl 'm telling bot are educated (??!!@) and in gud positions) when they r drivin their cars, smoke and the tap the ash out the window without a thought bot the ppl driving along ... and once they ve done with that cigarette, they jus toss it out the window .. :-/ .. and once i saw a guy jus flip it out and it landed on a gal who was driving a two wheeler and she lost her balance and nearly collided with another four wheeler .. god only knows how these guys cal themselves educated when they dont even ve the common sense to realise that they r causing trouble to fellow-drivers, not to mention the harms of the cigarette smoke and the pollution they r causing ...
and there's this other category of ppl who r so busy they ve to take cals while driving ... they wont give way for others to overtake either and meanwhile they'll b takin their cals and driving simultaneously.. how long 'll it take to park in a side of the road and take the cal and resme driving after that???? hmm ... :-/ .. saving precious minutes eh?? arey no yaar .. gettin a faster ticket .. when'll ppl realise that??? let 'em get their tickets faster but y get other ppl theirs??
so ppl, if u r new to Chennai and very new to driving , then plz try driving before seven in the morning and never bother to even try after that ... and if u think t'll b okie sorts to drive in the nite after eight or so, wel .. drop the idea ... chennai roads see a li'l lesser traffic only after ten in the nites and ppl who drive after that are really rash ... so dont risk ur lives .. i made that mistake and paid for it by spending over two thousand bucks on my bike and another eight hundred on my hospital bills and medicines .. not to forget the fact that i was limping around like kamal hassan in '16 vayathinile' and using only one hand (caz the other was not in a condition to be useful for anything) for over a month ... man .. i had my lesson .. so mark the words of an experienced person for experience is like a comb which nature gives when u r bald .. so, dont wait for ur own experience .. some things ought to be learnt secondhand ..
man .. 'm gettin gud at this now .. drivin in chennai roads i mean ... some school junior cald me the other day and told he saw me in besant nagar and that i was driving very fast .. he he he .. and my cousin had come to visit me and i had to pick her up and drop her off at central .. and she had told my mom (some pal she is) that my driving was rash .. this proves that 'm gud for driving in Singara Chennai ... ;) so, there u go .. u ve got some sage advice ... now itz is up to u .. Happy and Safe Driving!!!!