Harish Palaniappan's

Velacheri, Luz, and Mandaveli are areas of the chennai city, India.. most happening and economically active areas. People from these areas woke up on the 61st independence day morning on the 15th of August 2007 (yesterday) and aghast.. where have all of it gone.. oh how will i have my jolly, bumpy ride through these roads anymore.. who the heck did all this... all such kind of expressions and questions... but no answers...

Reason for the shock: All potholes in the roads in these areas were missing.. and nobody knows how.
"it was there last night .. i even saw it at 11pm", says a petrol bunk incharge referring to the pothole in the road in front of the bunk, which has been there for many days until this morning that it disappeared.

While people in those areas of the city are investigating, somebody said, "Wait.. they left a clue"..there was some tricky clue the hackers left behind.. something is written with chalk next to every pothole.. (see photo)

While the investigations are on for the hackers, I will stop showcasing my story writing skills here and let you know what this post is about.

Pothole fixing drive:
It seems like a few thoughtful and energitic guys planned their celebrations for the independence day by fixing potholes on the roads in Velacheri, Luz, and Mandaveli areas on the night of 14th August...after prime hours (rather than doing it the government way in prime time, when the traffic is heavy, so many people know that the government is doing a lot of work)

The good guys even got access to tar, cement and the raw for filling the potholes professionally (rather than just dumping some irregular stone blocks in and leaving it to the vehicels that drive over to set the pothole...like how the government does it most.. most often).

All volunteers were asked to bring their IDs, to help them identify themselves if some cop or somebody finds it disturbing to see so many young men and women on the road late night who would say they are fixing potholes if asked...imagine.. i would ask even letters signed by their parents if i was a cop...(he he)

They met at velachery bus stop at the strike of 9pm, shaked hands, introduced themselves had their ice-breaking on the road (not in some 5 star hotel with all the glittering lights, good food, and jazz... they had the sounds of horns by vehicles though)

By 11pm, when the traffic had subseded, they were on their heels filling potholes that were registered on their website(yes they have one for that.. after the drive they even stroke off completed potholes on the list to update the website). Around 4 or 5am in the morning of the independence day, they were are all stretching and waving everyone a happy independence day after a hard workout and fixing around 60+ potholes.

Read about the pothole fixing drive, first blogged here.

The makeshift website for this drive is here.. you can register as a volunteer (if you are in chennai), or register potholes that you found today on some road (in chennai) on your way to work.

And thanks to jayan's blog.. i read it first there.