Road Rave
Just the other day, after yet another singularly joyless ride through what is most injudiciously called a Highway, i fondly remembered another road : Smooth as silk . Two laned. Well paved kerbs, road markings in reflective paint, unbroken lines of cats-eyes, orderly bus bays and pretty shelters. Emergency- call phone kiosks every 3 kms, round the clock security patrolling , quick and efficient toll plazas, beautiful flowerbeds at "view point" halts. Trauma care and towing services at ever-ready mode. Sections of the highway, straight as arrows, looking like airport runways at night. A wonderful beach running alongside, throughout. No, this is not in some videshi postcard. The road, named ECR Scenic Beachway, part of SH 49, is very much in our own dravidian soil. From Chennai to Cuddalore via Puducheri ( Pondicherry), along the Bay Of Bengal coastline. We lived in Chennai at the time this East Coast Road was still new. One trip was all it took us to get besotted w