A Quiet Madras Saturday...

Well... to begin with… I’m a neutral observer & NOT biased to any of the parties mentioned in this blog!

I have never known Madras so quiet… especially on a Saturday evening!

Saturdays are when traffic is at its peak, and the whole city would be out on the streets.

People are so happy & relaxed on Saturday evenings since a WHOLE Free day- Sunday is in the offing. Generally roads are filled with happy people-families & children, kith & kin moving around the city. It’s a swell everywhere - @ restaurants, shops, beaches, temples, cineplexes, et all.

Roads are usually so clogged, one has to know all the short-cuts to avoid the jams. But last Saturday was so different! People were quiet and the mood was oscillating since morning… the party chieftain of the ruling AIADMK party of my state was to face court verdict.

The gory Dharmapuri bus incident is still fresh in everyone’s memory, which followed a court verdict on the same chieftain in 2000. The city was filled with uneasy calm since morning! May be it was the same feel across the state.

Well... of course people were glued for the judgement, which we knew- that without political pressure would be a sure conviction, else if there were any ruling party influence/threats would result in acquit & walk frees!!

The Politics we have been witnessing is just like what we see in Tamil movies! While all the national/regional channels were going gaga over the judgement and flashing news even in film/song channels… the ruling AIADMK party channels had totally irrelevant programme coverage... as if things were so normal and perfect!!

A funny image that was doing the rounds on Whatsapp :) LOL :D :P

Soon, the conviction happened and all channels had LIVE DRAMA (of different sorts-some were celebrating (DMK et all), some were wailing (AIADMK)… mmm.. enga amma venum… mmm… enga amma venum! While some where accusing the DMK, Subramanian Swamy was issuing a statement something like “I filed the first petition, DMK taking credit”… ha ha), everybody wanting maximum limelight and each politico trying to be street smart. And, finally the usual reaction that happens in movies… the minute a politician gets charged… the ‘unwell’ and ‘accused is old’ pleas… & so needs to go to hospital from court and not jail!

By 7.30 p.m. we really wanted to visit the temple… its Navrathri time and the manifestations of our goddess Amman in the various temples are so beautiful & divine, and we sure didn’t want to miss it. So my father went and checked the main roads in our area and enquired with a few neighbors and found that our neighborhood was pretty safe and free from any major incidents of protest/violence.

So we ventured out and the Roads were a shocker for us… so dark and so quiet and free signals and a few cars, vehicles and few partially empty government buses then and there! It was an uneasy calm everywhere! That’s all there was… Not the festive, celebratory, happy Saturday spirit!

Only places of worship were open. All shops (esp. all TASMACs… that’s a good thing…. phew!!) and institutions which were open till afternoon closed (tightly shut) and there were hardly people on the roads.

Even the happy Besant Nagar beach wore a deserted look, with only 2 or 3 hand-cart ice cream sellers. All other hangouts were closed!

Was wondering how the following days would be!! Anyways, looks like things are getting back to normal…