Date:01/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070159230300.htm

After a gap of 45 years, she took up education from her house and completed her PG from Osmania University.

Rajamani Lakshmi Bai later got P.hD from Osmania. Wife of former High Court Judge, Governor and Central Minister Shiva Shankar, she was a courageous lady. She was known for her will power when she was at Visakhapatnam during her younger days. After World War-II bombing, the St. Joesph’s Convent where she was studying was shifted from the city to Jeypore of Orissa. She did not discontinue and studied at home. Her father, a Circle Inspector of Police, sent her by bullock carts to Benaras to write matriculation and graduation.

She again submitted a thesis on ‘Perfection of Bhagavadgita – philosophical education and literary appreciation’ to Berhampur University for which she was not only awarded D.Litt at the convocation recently but also given the Acharya Singupuram Chandrayya memorial research gold medal by Orissa Governor Chandrasekhar Bhandari.

Slow ‘em down

A few days ago the traffic police booked some dozens of youngsters for rash driving on the Beach Road and collected a huge sum as penalty from them.

This should act as a deterrent for the young men and the traffic police should continue with the raids not only on the Beach Road but on important roads like the National Highway.

Those driving along the Beach Road when there is not much traffic, or even during a Sunday evening or a holiday, often experience some anxious moments as youngsters on bikes zip past a vehicle in front of them blowing the musical horns at high pitch.

The youngsters in groups of three or four overtake a vehicle from its either side or from the left side.

If it is not so, the bike rider overtakes a vehicle, either a car or a two-wheeler, takes a turn immediately in front of it to stop at the road side or to overtake another vehicle or to show his skill in driving in a jig jag fashion tilting his bike very low. The vehicle driver’s heart skips a beat as a bike suddenly appears in front of him from the right or left, almost brushing against bumber of the car or the front wheel of the two-wheeler. This poor fellow is forced to apply brakes suddenly while the bike rider vanishes in a fraction of a second with one not even able to look at number plate of his bike.

In a jam

A drive along the Beach Road on a Sunday evening is no more a pleasant experience. It is true that thousands of people pack the kilometres long beach on a Sunday but still people on two-wheelers and four-wheelers used to have sufficient space on the road to drive along with their families enjoying the cool sea breeze and halting near a wayside vendor to buy a snack or an ice-cream.

Since the last many months, the traffic police allowed parking of vehicles along the road and vehicles occupy two-thirds of the way on either passages of the double-road. Now there is no space on the road for two cars to drive abreast. If the vehicle in front of you is a bus or even a four-wheeler is going slow, you have no other option but to drive slowly behind it.

One must also be very cautious of a parked vehicle suddenly coming in your way as most of the drivers simply do not bother to look for traffic on the road before they come onto the road.

traffic police seems to have no other option but to provide parking space on the road itself.

One also wonders where this large number of cars and two-wheelers are parked before they are given parking space on the road.

(Santosh Patnaik and G. Narasimha Rao)