OMP: Open Manhole Protocol

This is for the benefit of those who are not very familiar with India / Chennai :P way of things. In India most things work only by mean of a mutual understanding and not rules. Traffic is the easiest e.g. to quote. Road rules don't quite apply :). Your survival skills does not depend on you driving skills but on your ability to judge what the others on the road or upto =)) ROTFL.

But this picture, you might not be familiar with. This is how open man-holes are marked down here ;). These guys are so cost efficient *phew*. All it takes is a few branches from a nearby tree to mark the danger zone. You might wonder, what if someone just mistook it for a broken branch on the road. But not too surprisingly, people seem to understand as to what it signifies.


If you think this is crude, then you should watch the news channels during the rainy season. Once in a while they get into act and cover such hazzardous situations where open manholes are unmarked on flooded roads. And yes, there have been incidents of childeren having drowned, although I don't remember one from the recent past.

So, if your in India, don't ignore such cryptic warnings. But I still appreciate the guys creativity, instead of not leaving it open :p.