How to fix a road. Chengalpet style.

Step 1: Find a small tiny road which is simultaneously used by lorries, trucks, cars, share autos, bikes, stray dogs, grazing cows, a couple of pigs and my cycle. This road must be too small to permit two-way traffic, and so who has to go off-road depends on a clear hierarchy based on size (though pedestrians still rank higher than my cycle)

Step 2: Dig up the entire side of the road making it tinier by half, because it wasnt a big enough challenge already to look death in the face every time you pass someone

Step 3: Wait for the rains to convert your open grave on the side of the road into a swimming pool

Step 4: Add a bunch of stones to spill all over the road. Because punctured tyres are fun.

Step 4: Watch as this small tiny road continues to simultaneously be used by lorries, trucks, cars, share autos, bikes, stray dogs, grazing cows, a couple of pigs and my cycle, effectively disproving Pauli's exclusion principle.

Of course there is always the alternative route. In this particular case, it looks like this:

As the saying goes, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And they were both equally bad"

But then I complain too much. I'm sure the road will be fixed one day, and the two opposing lanes of traffic will live in harmony once more. 

And when that day comes, I'm sure my grandkids will be around to enjoy it.

"GBM"

Nomenclature is a funny thing. Words often come to be used in contexts that are diametrically opposite to their actual meaning.

Take, for example, the word referring to 'professional guidance of the individual'. Counselling. Ask any twelfth standard kid waiting to be sentenced counselled to a college. Before going in he will understandably be close to a nervous breakdown. After coming out he will require another form of counselling. Grief counselling.

Another interesting phrase is the "General Body Meeting", or what college students affectionately call a GBM. Every now and then, there arises an issue that requires the full participation of the entire student fraternity to help resolve. This of course is through free and open exchange of ideas in a public forum.

At least, thats what I used to think.

The next time I'm heading to a GBM, I'm bringing popcorn.