Route 5E- Vadapalani to Besant Nagar

It is one of the many bus routes in Chennai which takes you through the past, the present and the future of Chennai, where you go through areas where the rich , the poor and the middle class of Chennai lives. Chennai is a big city though not as big as Mumbai or Kolkata but it is definitely bigger than Bangalore. Keeping that in mind, you can expect any journey through the whole of any route to take atleast one hour, but during peak hours 5E takes one and a half hours. The bus starts at Vadapalani –known for its Shiva and Murugan temple (the name itself vadapalani means palani in the north … the other palani is near madurai ) after a long wait at the traffic junction at the 100ft road the bus then moves in to K.K.Nagar (Kalaignar karunanidhi nagar after the politician Mr.Karunanidhi). By this time itself, hardly just two stops in to the journey the bus is crowded. Still, the brave hearted people of madras board the bus without the slightest of hesitation as this is the only bus through K.K.Nagar to the Adyar and Besant Nagar areas.

The hot Chennai climate takes its toll on the poor passengers, smell of sweat mixed with coconut oil is all around, sometimes it gets to a nauseating level. The bus stops at major points in K.K.Nagar viz – PSBB, Pondicchery guest house, MGR Nagar (Ironically, an area inside KKNagar is called MGR nagar after Mr.Karunanidhi’s political rival)

The bus then moves onto the famous Ashok Pillar and Udhayam theatre where more people try to board the bus. By this time the poor conductor has had enough and he starts shouting at people not to board the bus as it is too crowded, but people ignore him and board the bus. The plight of college students is horrible, even thought they enjoy it seeing them hanging on the footboard give you a jolt. You cant blame them, the only space left on the bus is the footboards where 10-15 teenagers evade all laws of physics and hang on to their lives. The bus then moves through Jafferkhanpet and into saidapet where some of the crowd gets downs and some more board the bus. Next the bus moves into Guindy where the Guindy Nationala Park, Anna University and the IIT (Chennai) are situated on either side of the road. This is where the future of Chennai and India studies (the anna university and IIT that is not the national park). Then the bus gets stuck at the infamous Madhya kailash junction. Half the crowd gets down at anna university or at the IIT. The bus is now mostly empty with only three stops left. The final stop is near Besant Nagar beach where a large no of college students hang out wasting precious hours in their lives.

Besant Nagar is a posh area in Chennai as is Anna nagar and it too boast of a famous temple – The AshtaLakshmi Temple honouring Lakshmi- the goddess of wealth.