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I have been using Fast Track Chennai for almost a couple of years now, and I realized that I really need a better alternative in Chennai. I have missed my flight twice, reached late at least ten times and lost my temper almost every second time I call them to order for a cab. I can cite numerous reasons (yes, my list is surprisingly long!) but here are three major ones:

1. Their drivers are ill-trained and they never understand their responsibility of informing the customer in case their vehicle is broken or they are running late (which they almost always do if you need them on time.).

2. The call-center employees never understand your requirements and your timing and pick-up address are prone to be goofed up most of the time. Often then tend to attend more than one customer at the same time. Yes, you can easily make this thing from the phone call.

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3. I know that it is my stupidity/lethargy/idleness that I did not learn Tamil and I understand that the drivers are not supposed to be fluent in Hindi or English (though most of the time Fast Track people assure me that they are sending driver who understands English), but I do expect the drivers to know the routes in the city. I am not able to count how many times I have got delayed or paid twice the normal fare due this reason.

There are a number of other operators whom I have started trying instead of Fast Track. Anyone knows a better option in Chennai?

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Chennai celebrates its 369th birthday. Though my professional commitments and other constraints  deprived me from participating in the celebrations, I did get a chance to attend ‘Chennai 3.0’ organized by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The theme of the conference was “Chennai – Evolution Today, Revolution Tomorrow”.  And, I have no doubts seeing the growth plans and the people behind the evolution, revolution is bound to happen.  CII did a great job to get industrialists, city planners, bureaucrats and politicians all on the same platform and talk different aspects of Chennai today and tomorrow.

While everybody presented their vision for Chennai and how ‘the Detroit of India’ should move forward to become the world class city, it was intriguing (and one of the speakers highlighted this) that none of the Chennai based industries/business houses came forward to sponsor the event. I was bemused seeing most of the speakers talking about inclusive growth and sustainable growth but they did not highlight any of concrete plans to give any indication how they are going to achieve that. Though we had detailed plans on how to solve problems of Car Parking, Shopping Space, satellite cities and how to make Chennai Airport a world class airport, but somehow problems of commoners living in Chennai took back seat like the commoners present in the TAJ Conference Hall. But probably this was not primarily intended to dwell upon that, it was more of a celebrations of achievements of this city and setting up the context for future growth and expansion.

My personal experience with Chennai has been really wonderful, earlier I was a bit hesitant to think Chennai as the preferred workplace, but after my fieldwork in Tamilnadu and now more than one year in Chennai I love the city.