Praveen’s Magic Quill

It’s been a long long time since I posted something in here. That’s mainly because I had to concentrate on and keep up my corporate training schedule at Mangalore. Anyway, being posted back home at Chennai, I finally found time to post something. During my short stay (50 days) at Mangalore, I noticed quite a few (but major) differences between Mangalore and Chennai. And that’s what I am gonna share in this post.

1. Terrain:

Though Mangalore is also a shore city like Chennai, it has a very rough terrain with roads consisting of a lot of ups and downs which gives us a feeling almost as if we were living in a hill station! It’s quite difficult to drive even a motorcycle in that city, but as much as I have seen, everybody drives there with ease and quite safely as well, unlike Chennai where we witness rash driving in almost every road. Everybody (from cyclists to autos to buses to water tankers) tackles the terrain well and drives safe out there.

2. Traffic Rules:

Mangalore is probably the only city I have ever seen where vehicles of all size and type seem to observe Traffic Rules. Even in the absence of a traffic policeman, irrespective of the size of the intersection (whether be it Lalbagh Signal or Jyothi Circle Signal) the Mangaloreans tend to observe atleast the basic rules. Even if one particular path which has the green signal but is empty, the vehicles on other paths wait for their turn, thus making it easy for pedestrians to cross roads. I have seen many signals in Chennai, especially small signals at Beach Road and Mount Road, where vehicles zoom past the signal irrespective of the colour of his signal.

3. Roads & Drainage Systems:

Maybe since it’s a small city compared with Chennai, most of Mangalore’s roads are cemented ones. Manholes are well covered and if someone has dug pits for governmental purposes, there would be warning signs covering its perimeter. Since my training at ELLA was exactly placed at the monsoon time of the calendar, there was a continuous lashing of rains, right from Day 2 to Day 49 of my stay. But, the major point to be noted here is its drainage system. Take for example it rains heavily for 4 continuous hours in Mangalore and Chennai. The drainage system in Mangalore makes sure that the entire rainwater disappears out of eyesight within 40 minutes! But in Chennai, we know very well that it will take atleast 4 non-rainy weeks for all that water to disappear!

4. Dressing Sense:

People of Mangalore (irrespective of age and gender) have a good dressing sense. They have proved that they live in the 21^st century, unlike the Chenaiites. Although, Mangalore Guys and Chennai Guys are almost of the same cadre when it comes to dressing up, the difference is huge with the girls. Mangaloreans wear anything that’s up for grabs, anywhere and anytime. One could see them wearing skirts or jeans or party wear or just about anything you could imagine at this period of the century. I wonder when the Chennai girls recognize that they are well into the 21^st century and act accordingly!

5. Public Transport:

The only parameter I felt a bit of discomfort was using the public transport in Mangalore. Majority of the buses out there is run by private parties. Just like we have vans here in Chennai. There are 2 conductors in each of the bus. While one of them is incharge for issuing tickets, the other is incharge of conveying the message to the driver when to start and stop the bus. This 2^nd conductor does his task by continuous, non-stop loud whistling! Either he shouts “Beka Beka Beka” (Quick Quick in Kannada) or he whistles at every stopping which comes twice a minute. If I should have been for another month, I would definitely have considered taking some cotton while commuting in those buses!

Well, that’s it for now. Lots of online friends had asked me to post my experiences at MphasiS. Sorry to disappoint you. I will definitely do so in my next post, which will come next weekend. Meanwhile, do comment on what you think of my observations of the Mangalore city.