Treefic Jam

Last Monday, the 12th of September 2011, I was out of the gates of my office by around 5:45 PM. As has been the case for the past couple of weeks, the skies had started to turn a bit cloudy and I hoped that I would reach home before a  thunder-squall came up. But my hopes were dashed.
We (there were two friends in my car) encountered rain almost 10 minutes into our trip and it only got heavier. It was also accompanied by its special effects crew of a good gust of wind, thunder and lightning. It took us almost an hour to reach Irumbuliyur bridge, a 20-22 Km drive that usually takes 40 minutes at the most. In a way, it was a harbinger of the more eventful time ahead of us.

This Irumbuliyur bridge, including its rather elaborate ramp, is probably a stretch of 1 Km. The longest it has taken me to cover this stretch was say 3 minutes. But on that fateful day, it took me 30 times longer - if you don't want to do the math, it is 90 minutes. There were stretches when the traffic was at a real standstill. Not even the proverbial "inch-இன்ச்சா நகந்துது".

At first, the vehicles started dimming their headlights and moved on to just the parking light. After some time, it was the turn of the engines to be switched off. And after some more time, people even switched off the parking lights. So, that stretch of the highway, actually became darker and adding to the already spreading gloom. Thankfully, the rain had subsided and that enabled the general public, who were in the buses, to get down and start walking on the road! Yes, it was clear to all concerned that there was no way this traffic jam was going to ease out soon. 

We had switched on the local FM station and thankfully, the RJ was giving the traffic updates. He said that a huge tree had fallen down near the Irumbuliyur bridge and that had caused quite a nasty jam. He further mentioned that the traffic at Chrompet was also at a standstill due to severe water logging. Apparently, the same news was also flashed on Sun News and ta-da, my mother called me to check where I was. 

Calls were made from the occupants of the car to family and friends. Calls were made from family and friends to those in the car. Exchanges were taking place with colleagues. And I was also updating Facebook! Considering the sheer number of vehicles stuck on the road, I am sure the telephone companies made a killing that day.

After 1.5 hours, we were finally out of Irumbuliyur bridge and the traffic flow was surprisingly good; surprising, considering the volume and the rather narrow stretch where the tree had fallen. When we reached Tambaram, one of the folks in the car got down and opted to catch the suburban train to reach his home in T.Nagar. The remaining two of us, had no such option and continued on. 

However, we did have an option of taking the new flyover at Tambaram and reach Besant Nagar via Velachery. But, I guess we were destined to proceed further on GST, hoping that the current normal flow of traffic would continue. We were in for a big shock at Chrompet, where, we spent the next one hour. The reason, like mentioned earlier, was water logging in that area. 

One hour later, we were out of that jam and thankfully, we didn't encounter any more that night. I reached home at 10:15 PM, which meant that I covered a distance of 52Kms in 4.5 hours. Only. 

I had a lunch-meeting with a client, earlier that afternoon, and since I had to be on my best behaviour, I opted to barely tasting the rather sumptuous buffet spread. I had a couple of Milk Bikis biscuits before starting the return trip and so, you can understand how hungry I must have been by around 7 PM. But, being stuck in the jam with no options other than enduring it, the hunger pangs started receding by around 8 PM and when I reached home, I was actually almost not hungry. 

There were only two good things for me in that jam - the first was the presence of two other humans beings with whom I could have a live conversation and the second, was that I had emptied my bladder completely before starting the trip and so, I was devoid of that pressure. 

One interesting note before I wrap up: During the time I was stuck in the Irumbuliyur bridge, my mother called me a couple of times. On one of those occasions, she had a verbal typo when she asked me "எப்படி டா இருக்க?" ("How are you?") instead of "எங்க டா இருக்க?" ("Where are you?"). But in the larger context of the time spent in that jam, I am not sure if it was indeed a typo. 

You can read more about the jam here.