Bright lights of suburbs.

The way to and back was nothing like it was even a decade back, when the only known and famous landmark near our suburbs was the Ramachandra  hospital and an engineering college near the Sri Perumbudur town .
Now factories and more factories, gated housing communities, multistoreyed flats colleges  and huge shops dot the entire route.The car factory for which land was acquired ,is in full swing. I still remember the unmistakable wonder and pride in my f-i-l's car driver's voice when he visualised gleaming cars rolling out of the factory. when we went to inspect my f-i-l's lands.That driver is no more , had he been  alive ,he couldn't have lorded over those near empty high ways any more , since they were all crawling with cars  of every make , without a break for the entire 50 kms stretch.

An hour or so into or journey back, the cab came to a standstill  ,amidst thick traffic, As i looked out i saw that the halt was on the highways abutting our ex suburban house and the time ,8.30 pm.

There was a gym with transparent glass windows, with men working out  in full glare of all the passing vehicles as well as similarly transparent restaurants where couples were dining ,there was even a Reebok shoe shop! What a change! It was like a mela!

Just a decade or a little more back i would hesitate  to walk on this very road after nightfall as it was pitch dark and totally deserted the only movement being of those monstrously speeding mofusil buses that occasionally thundered by in this lonely stretch , squashing stray dogs, snakes and two wheel riders.and unwary passerbys.

Now every inch of the road was taken by motorists returning home ,probably from those factories .Lights that  were blazing, from head lights, street lamps, and from brightly lit shops, banks, petrol bunks, restaurants ,flats , hospitals ,gyms etc.has turned this dark quiet and lonely area , literally upside down.

Quite conversely the bright lights of the city the heart of which i live now looks, no longer that bright.