CHENNAI: It took four hours to navigate the distance between T Nagar-Chetpet-T Nagar (15 km or less). On any given day, it takes about 20 minutes from T Nagar to get to Spurtank Road, but Monday brought a whole new definition to a long commute!
Since Valluvar Kottam was surrounded by choc-a-bloc traffic around 12.30 pm (it took us 30 minutes to reach there), I told my driver to take us to Chetpet via Mount Road, hoping to catch the bridge and drive past Poonamallee to go to the office in Ambattur Industrial Estate. And that was a mistake. Every 50 feet or so, the roads were blocked – either by protestors sitting on the road, or by the police who were directing traffic and also providing assistance to parents with children.
We had to take detours after detours so much so that we passed by the same street thrice. We decided to head back home, and drove towards Casa Major Road on Egmore, which had free flowing traffic just 45 minutes ago, but now had protestors sitting on the road blocking traffic. A few auto drivers and some policemen directed us towards the road that went to Egmore Railway Station. We circled the Commissioner’s office twice before heading to the bridge via the Children’s Hospital. That alone took us an hour.
There were close to 100 police personnel – both men and women, and also hundreds of people, gathered outside the hospital, some of whom were arguing with a few cops on the road itself. The latter was trying to get the group to come over to the side of the road, and I have to admit that my cynicism about cops took a backseat when I witnessed their patience while talking to an angry mob.
From the bridge, we headed straight to Mount Road via Ethiraj Salai where we saw students of a women’s college coming out in droves. I couldn’t help but wonder the reasoning behind the colleges and schools sending their students away. How will they get back home when everyone is stuck in traffic?
We breezed through Whites Road and Mount Road until we climbed down Anna Flyover…to reach yet another traffic jam. Rather than get caught in it, we took a detour near Kamarajar Arangam to go to GN Chetty Road. It took another 45 minutes to get there. It was 3 pm.
But what could have taken less than 10 minutes to reach my house took an hour, as GN Chetty Road was blocked by more protestors. We took another detour to Habibullah Road and it took us more than 45 minutes to reach Thirumalai Pillai Road, which is less than a kilometre away. On the way, I saw parents trying to console their kids, a group of teachers trying to convince an auto driver to take them, several autowallahs and chaiwallahs helping visibly harassed traffic cops direct traffic.
Through all this chaos, my biggest concern was for my mother, who was with me in the car. She is diabetic, and she didn’t have her meds on her. Throughout the trip from T Nagar to Chetpet and back, every time I saw a pharmacy, I didn’t have a choice but drive past it, as I couldn’t get out of my car. We were blocked on all four sides and had to wait until we reached Thanikachalam Road to buy her meds.
We reached home at 4.05 pm. It was a miracle we made it.