Showing posts with label Thiruvananthapuram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thiruvananthapuram. Show all posts
Thursday, November 15, 2012
by Arun Mathew
Check out the door to the men's loo at the Trivandrum Airport which is supposed to be the Gateway to God's Own Country (at least according to Wikipedia)...I was not too sure about clicking the pic of the "Madama" on the door of the women's loo though!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
by Arun Mathew
The warriors on Trivandrum's wiki pages will never talk about the city's non-existent but superior waste-management system. However, they might try writing about poor waste-management in the neighboring commercial city of Kochi. Many such people (who never look in their own backyard before looking into those of others) live in the capital city of God's Own Country. When such people rule your city, state or country, how do you expect anything to change? First, look at your own and try to change something, then move on to that of your neighbors'?
A year and a half back, we had seen this.
Well, as expected, things just got worse. The Vilappilsala solid waste-treatment plant on the outskirts of Trivandrum has faced closure and the increasing number of agitations from the local populace means it might never open again. Waste-disposal has become increasingly difficult. If you carry a camera with you, you could probably drive around town all day clicking pictures of ordinary citizens like you and me throwing waste off their bikes and cars in full public view.
The following picture was clicked while I was getting back home one night. Someone had just thrown out a huge bag of what looks like waste from a slaughter house. 24 hours later, it lay in the same spot!
.JPG)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
by Arun Mathew
The city of Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram in the state of Kerala in Southern India has been facing severe road infrastructure problems for few years now.
In one of his recent tweets, Tharoor - Member of Parliament from Trivandrum tweeted "Marxists have ruled City Corporation for 40 yrs,whom else can we blame?". Blame is all they all can do. Is anyone doing anything about this mess that throws people off their vehicles into the gutters?
The commies are no better - every time the media picks on one of those bad roads or bridges, they are quick to stage a drama by tying a few elephants and red flags to a road-side pole, playing a live band and announcing the "inauguration of ABC four-lane bridge" when actually it is just a cover-up hoping to quieten the ordinary citizen and media.
Then there are also internet-based patriots and vandals like Ajay Puppy, Such-Shit Vijayan, Kappa-Sudheesh and so on, who continue to hide the fact that their city is more like Mars than Barcelona by posting pictures of Kowdiar Road (where despite being a 'model' road, quite a few have actually died) and spreading false propaganda on behalf of many other fanatics indulging in edit-wars on Wikipedia.
In one of his recent tweets, Tharoor - Member of Parliament from Trivandrum tweeted "Marxists have ruled City Corporation for 40 yrs,whom else can we blame?". Blame is all they all can do. Is anyone doing anything about this mess that throws people off their vehicles into the gutters?
The commies are no better - every time the media picks on one of those bad roads or bridges, they are quick to stage a drama by tying a few elephants and red flags to a road-side pole, playing a live band and announcing the "inauguration of ABC four-lane bridge" when actually it is just a cover-up hoping to quieten the ordinary citizen and media.
Then there are also internet-based patriots and vandals like Ajay Puppy, Such-Shit Vijayan, Kappa-Sudheesh and so on, who continue to hide the fact that their city is more like Mars than Barcelona by posting pictures of Kowdiar Road (where despite being a 'model' road, quite a few have actually died) and spreading false propaganda on behalf of many other fanatics indulging in edit-wars on Wikipedia.
Back in September 2007, a tiny bridge called Marapallam was razed down for road widening with an estimated completion time of March 2008. We told ourselves "Oh! 9 months, that would pass by very soon!". Sure, the 9 months did pass by swiftly. But, nothing has changed.
Tonight, as I write, I have just come back home after witnessing a young man, who was thrown off his motorbike because of the uneven terrain and now has a broken leg.
Tonight is a night in 2010. October 2010.
Nothing has changed. The 'crip'-pled Road Projects continue to cripple us in many ways.
Nothing has changed. The 'crip'-pled Road Projects continue to cripple us in many ways.
Some of this pathetic truth is here for you to see...a truth that reminds us more of Mars than Barcelona!
.jpg)
(Marappalam, shots from 2008 and 2010)
Very soon, you will need to learn to swim, coz that is where our roads are heading ... God Bless!!!
Friday, July 9, 2010
by Arun Mathew
To start with, our Bus Drivers might go on strike if they were denied the right to stop in the middle of the road like you see below:
And our politicians and law-enforcers will lose the Right of Way privilege they enjoy so much ...
Our student unions will go on strike too if the school-kids they supposedly protect are not allowed aerobridge-like access to their school buses ...
Politician-turned-Environmentalists will cry hoarse when they cannot plant trees on the road no more, to check deforestation
The larger so-called reasons are scarcity of land (land is available in downtown Singapore, NY and Bangalore for motorways) and Bars (many of us in Kerala would rather do without wide roads if that means demolishing our precious highway bar stopover). Also, like those in the helm of affairs say "Kerala is a very peculiar state inside Shining India". God ONLY Save God's Own Country.
Friday, July 2, 2010
by Arun Mathew
You and I have been doing the "GO SLOW" for years now! Ideally, these boards should be made permanent structures with a garden around them ... The good news though is that a concerned minister has randomly announced that all roads in the state will be tarred within a short period ... wish the efforts are here to stay ...
Update: The Roads are NOT here to stay! Ok! Tell us something new, ha?
.jpg)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
by Arun Mathew
I thought they would stop comin' by, But I see this blog still has curious visitors from Bangalore, Brisbane, Dublin, Balaramapuram, Kumarapuram, Nedumangad etc. Considering that some of these places still do not have proper Internet connectivity and they still keep comin' back, I must not disappoint!
I am sure they are re-visiting this blog to see if their favorite part of the world has finally turned into Mars...nah! You won't be disappointed! We are actually slightly better off than Mars at the time of writing this ... :)
Let's visit MG Road for starters...Looks like with the expertise of some Development NGOs, they have come up with a more efficient and effective way of Parking on busy streets...
This is the new, rising world-class way of parking...maybe we should take lessons from Barcelona?
Scenes from M.G Road, Trivandrum
