Rolling down to the waves at Bessie

This is ramp two in Chennai, providing persons with impaired mobility easy access to the beach. Greater Chennai Corporation should use this momentum to have other beaches along the Chennai coast provided with ramps; the civic body is reportedly in the process of getting a ramp ready at Thiruvanmiyur beach

Knowing what something is not meant for is as important as knowing what it is. Usually, the purposes that something has been fashioned for are self-explanatory. How it can be misused often needs to be nosed out. Misuse can arrive in an endless variety of patterns; with a massive surprise always lodged in its armpit. Those patterns need to be understood through continual monitoring. It would also pay to lend an ear to those it has been designed for.

Superimpose these ideas on the newly-opened ramp at Besant Nagar, and how does the resultant picture look? Gita Balachanran tries to paint that picture for us.

Gita has settled back in her wheelchair, having been helped to it after she had finished dipping her feet in the rushing waves.

She wears a look that fits in somewhere between contentment and glee. The ramp at Besant Nagar is doubly good tidings for her. Her domicile receives a good blast of the salty Bessie air: Gita is a resident of Besant Nagar; and she need not head to the Marina anymore and wheel down its ramp for a dabble in the waves. 

Gita takes a hardline on who should be allowed onto the ramp — “in addition to the disabled, only seniors, those aged 60 plus.” This intransigent stand arises from a fear of quick wear the ramp would suffer if exposed to the patter of feet of all kinds. Her worry encompasses paws as well. Her concern is around quadrupeds in the canine category.

Dogs can be seen ambling and napping on the ramp. Dogs cannot be kept off the ramp. A disconcerting thought for Gita is dog poop ending up there. The least that can be done is promptly clearing dog poop when it ends up there.

“At 4.30 p.m., when I hit the ramp, I noticed plastic waste clinging to the vertical wooden blocks on the hand railings,” says Gita. They were subsequently removed.