Make way!

Brief description of a typical traffic situation in Chennai :
The auto misses your vehicle by an inch, the bus driver decides not to brake despite the signal turning red, vehicles move slowly like a herd of sheep even when the signal suggests braking. Pedestrians lose their temper and try to stop your vehicle in order that they can cross the road, and you decide not to stop and honk your way past them. An overdose of relentless honking accompanied by high pollution levels is common.
"Make way for me" is the underlying theme that describes the Chennai traffic.

There are well established traffic rules in Chennai like in any other big city. However, following the rules is too mainstream for Chennaites. What do they do? Break the rules, create problems and find solutions for the same. It is the sort of situation that can be avoided by merely following the rules.

A typical Chennai traffic situation. Rules followed? Vehicles close enough.

Lanes? We haven't heard of them in Chennai. Heavy vehicles and two wheelers use the same line of traffic. The concept of driving in lanes hasn't arrived here yet (or have we gone beyond the concept?). The absence of lanes doesn't bother Chennaites. They are 'street-smart' in the literal sense.
The main culprits(?) of the situation are the auto drivers. These men are known for their perfectly-judged filling of every possible gap on the road. They see them as voids, cavities that need to be filled. The auto right in front of the 'blue bus' (see image) describes this situation clearly. He fits his vehicle in a position which restricts his movement in all directions unless the vehicles beside move.
Owner-driven cars are the most vulnerable, the ones who complain the most about the traffic and score less in street-smartness.
The ones on the bike, much to the envy of the car drivers, maneuver their small vehicles with ease through a path that would lead them as close as possible to the signal.
Amidst all chaos, lies an understanding between the drivers, in which lies the solution to the problem created by the disorder. A visitor from overseas would describe the above picture as a depiction of a panic situation. It however isn't one and an Indian knows it.

T Nagar is one area infamous for its traffic. One does not simply cross at the signal in T Nagar. During the festive season, vehicles line up (crowd up?) till the beginning of Pondy Bazaar. It is an undying passion to shop at T Nagar that causes one to risk this one hell of a traffic. The 'uncle from next door' described his experience in T Nagar the other day. He waited behind a car for minutes, only to later realise that the car before him had halted and the driver had no intentions of moving. The perfect camouflage of the parked car had the 'uncle from next door' assuming the car would move sometime.
What follows from Pondy Bazaar is an amazingly straight stretch of traffic congestion. The stretch contains an exceedingly large number of alarmingly over-crowded share autos. They stop their vehicle right at the sight of a prospective passenger irrespective of the number of seats available. Passengers fill the volume of the share auto completely, even the tiny space over the engine, next to the gearbox.
Despite the fatiguing traffic situation, it is the understanding that gives a person the nerve to brave the traffic and make it through.

The understanding :
It is when you decide not to panic even when the ply of vehicles behind you honk relentlessly. It is when you know the auto driver is at fault and you shout at him for the same. It is when you understand pavements are meant for hawkers and encroachments and roads are meant for walking and driving en masse.

In short, it is when you realise 'the roads are filled with idiots'. It is only then, a person is ready to brave the Chennai traffic.

The Local Authors and AU Examinations

It has been quite a while. Exams, you see. Blogging wasn't an option over the last month. Each time exams get over, I look back and wonder how I managed to do away with the distractions and pat myself on the back. Yeah, I just did too.

One might question the 'pat'. "Every student takes up examinations. Writing a series of examinations is not an achievement after all.” I answer, "Writing Anna University examinations is." Yes, I can hear the seniors telling me what I have seen is just the beginning.

After being put through correction antics in the first semester, it was a deliberate decision from my side to be a little more cautious this time. I had to choose the right books to learn from, the right authors.

Here is a stereotypical classification of authors.

1) Local author : Writing an Anna University examination?, get a book of hers/his.

2) Local-foreign author : A rare breed of Indian authors that exhibits traits of good foreign authors.

3) Foreign-local author : A foreign author who has taken inspiration from the ones belonging to the first category.

4) Foreign author : The ideal author. 

I had to choose books from the first category.

Who is a local author? (The definition is a product of my imagination and the 'local' has no racist intentions)

A highly qualified academic author who is better known for his expertise in training a candidate to write an examination than for his scholarly works. The 'local' refers to the author's origin in the literal sense. However, as the stereotype goes, the 'local' relates to the made up definition of a local author. Call a local author book ‘LAB’.

Books by such authors are the kind of ones most sought after right before the examination. You are most likely to hear the shopkeeper say, "Out of stock" for the popular books. These books are going to give you the 'key words' the examiner is looking for. If you were wondering how to fill pages to to make up a sixteen-mark-answer, you have the answer. The book is like a halo over your head. It is the solution to your problems.

LABs are visually distinctly identifiable. The cover of such books contains highlighted features apart from a random diagram from one of the lessons. A typical LAB contains 'salient features' such as previous years' solved question papers, two mark questions, and well highlighted notes that remind you you are only preparing for an examination and not learning. Don't be surprised to find grammatical errors and logical inconsistencies. Once you choose to read the book, train to live with it. 

Books such as these do not facilitate learning. When you spend time reading these books, you spend time trying to satisfy a person, the paper evaluator. 

The much criticized examination pattern and the unworthy-of-a-read local author books go well together. It is almost as though the intention of the author is not to make the student understand but to only show him a way to crack the examination.

What is flawed with the examination?

• The pattern allows you to skip about a third of the entire syllabus and still get an A. That tells a lot.
• It evidently fails to test the thinking capabilities of the student. It tests only what the student remembers and not what she/he has learnt. 
• Questions score in ambiguity and fail in specificity. One walks out of the examination hall way too often wondering if what she/he had answered was what she/he was asked for. 
• Specificity in one's answer is equally vital. A student goes all out and unleashes every dog when she/he is unsure of what is required of her/him. This is when students come up with exceedingly long, irrelevant answers.

LABs and AU examinations make a good combination. This is what makes the flawed system well established. The criticized but seemingly unquestioned system is severely outdated and requires a revamp. 

A change in the pattern of examination could bring about a change for the better as the examinations influence so many other factors. Most notably :

• It could get rid of the stereotypical LABs. Local authors would start producing better books.
• It could bring about a change from the current exam-oriented teaching style. 
• The new pattern could be such that it judges a student by his intelligence and not by his memory.
• A good change would silence the critics.

Preparing for an examination needn't be a burden after all. A change could well establish learning as an enjoyable experience and produce better engineers from its students.