Rear view

As you enter Anna Nagar from the Koyambedu side of an evening, you cannot miss the multi-coloured tower of the VR Mall. Make that in plural, even though the traffic does not allow your eyes to wander around to spot the other towers. 

Meant to evoke the temple gopurams that are unique to Tamil Nadu, the multi-coloured towers of the Mall define its entrances. The temple theme is carried on into the mall itself, with its huge temple doors, a massive bell that hangs just inside one of the entrances and similar iconography, the mall deserves a visit to just figure out what it is about. Shopping can wait.

This view is not crowded at all, because it is from inside a gated community adjoining the VR Mall. Walking down to our vehicle, I was struck by the contrast of the sterile white-light inside the complex with the warm and colourful glow from its neighbour!

Shook up

These arches, at the southern entrance to Chennai's first planned locality, came up almost twenty years after the locality itself did. Having re-named Nadukkarai as "Anna Nagar", in a bid to attract folks to the place, it was kind of odd that the locality did not have anything specific to remember CN Annadurai by. 

That was fixed in 1984-85. Annadurai was born in 1909, so 1984 was the celebration of his platinum jubilee year. The man himself had passed away in 1969; yet, there was a lot of fanfare around him. These arches were built as a part of the platinum jubilee celebrations. 

A couple of months ago, these were to be brought down - at least temporarily, so as to clear the space for construction of a flyover on Poonamallee High Road. Demolition began towards the end of August. However, a week went buy without much progress in bringing down the structure. And then, on September 5,  the demolition of of these arches was brought to a halt by the Chief Minister! 

Engineer's park

Chennai, or even Madras, does not have much to connect it with this grand old man of Indian industry. Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born in Mysore and carried out most of his pathbreaking projects in Mysore or for the Nizam of Hyderabad. That kept him away from both Madras city as well as the Madras Presidency.

But the work he did - the automatic floodgates at Khadkavasala, the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad, and the various public works that he oversaw as the Diwan of the Mysore State - served as models for post-independence India's effort in building 'modern temples'. Sir MV was over 85 when the country became independent, which probably hampered him from being the country's Chief Engineer. Still, his birth anniversary, today, is observed as 'Engineers' Day' in India.

Madras honoured him by naming the tower at Anna Nagar after him. And that remains as his connect to the city - apart from the BA degree he earned from the University of Madras in 1881!



Tower, Anna Nagar

Probably not the one you were thinking of, right? The Masjid Javeed on 3rd Avenue, Anna Nagar, has a minar that is quite eye-catching, especially at twilight!

Bursting bubbles

Haven't yet seen a child who can resist the temptation of trying to catch soap bubbles as someone else blows them out. This boy certainly can't, but he's also trying to keep an eye on his parents, who've decided they aren't going to buy him that bubble-blowing set today!

Not the sundal you know

Time was when pushcarts such as these were extremely homogenous. Every one of them had the same basic ingredients: greenpeas, chickpeas, slices of unripe mangoes, grated (or finely chopped) coconut, salt, chilli powder... and then the power of the maker takes over. Whether you took your custom to Balu or to Ramu depended upon how well the man knew your taste, and how he'd balance the salt to be just right for you. Were there pushcarts in those days? Unlikely, you say? Maybe you're right, for the sundal came to its own on the sands of the Marina Beach, which are not the easiest terrain to push a laden cart through.

With more options for an evening out than just the Marina, the options for push-cart-snacking have also grown. Chennai has also become quietly cosmopolitan, no matter what outsiders might say. Here's proof, if you will: the sundal has ceded a fair amount of space to crunch-munch delicacies imported from other parts of India. Jhal mudi on the push carts was just impossible to come by a few years ago, but now, it looks like Chennai has taken to it with a vengeance.

Writing about sundal and jhal mudi has only served to make me drool - I can't think of what to write any more!

Skating away

Looking back at 'Western' influences of childhood, it is very difficult to think of too many that haven't grown to be part of my life today - English itself, for starters; the 'western music thing', started off by hearing The Beatles and Elvis; playing cricket on the streets; all of those laid the base for ongoing interests. "Obviously" you say, "the ones that haven't stayed on have been forgotten!": so what am I trying to prove here? Well, nothing much, if it comes to that, was trying to think of something that fascinated me as a child but did not stick on for much beyond that.

That thought was spurred when saw these children practicing hard at a skating rink at the Anna Nagar Tower Park. There were about 25 of them doing the rounds under the watchful eyes of a coach (in blue t-shirt at the right edge of the picture). In the middle was a mother, helping her child with the skates and some others who were taking a breather. Quite a nice sight, but the surprising part was that there were so many onlookers around; a few of them were the casual, nothing-better-to-do-this-evening types, but many appeared to be regulars. There were some sounds of encouragement, a discussion on the sidelines about how one of the children had improved his speed and technique. There was a feeling of a community, bound together by these evenings in the park - one of the surprising spin-offs of encouraging outdoor sports - even skating.

My attempts at roller-skating were usually on the sly upon the terrace of my grandfather's house. The rumbling of metal wheels overhead was guaranteed to get him riled up; it would have been a perfect way to wreck his mood and get him to come storming out of the house to the terrace. But the skates prevented quick getaways - the fun was to get him to chase, and never catch us!

The photowalk

Chandrachoodan (http://www.selectiveamnesia.org/) has been running a wonderful concept called 'Chennai Photowalks' for a while now. While it is normally once a month, he had organized three in the past few days, to celebrate The Madras Week. The last one was yesterday and I was determined to make it for this one, at least. By the time I reached the starting point - the Tower Park at Anna Nagar - I was late by 30 minutes. Having spoken to Chandrachoodan on the way, I knew that the walk would start off vertically, to climb the Visvesvarayya Tower and I could catch up with them at some altitude. As I got to the Tower, I found quite a few people who seemed to be lugging around fairly high-tech photography equipment and all of them were at sea level - turned out that we were too late to be allowed up the Tower. It was a disappointment, and I am sure it would have been a bigger one for the few who had come all the way from Bangalore to join in the Madras Day Photowalk.

Anna Nagar, where this Tower Park is located, was the first - and probably the only - properly planned and laid out part of Chennai city. Until the late 1960s Nadukkarai (the middle bank - probably called so because the River Cooum makes a U turn around a piece of land), to the north of Poonamallee High Road was agricultural land. A trade fair held in Madras in 1968 was centred at Nadukkarai and that brought it to the attention of a lot of people who were looking for a quiet residential area close to the city. In a rare instance of long term planning, the whole area was laid out with straight roads, spaces for schools, parks, shopping and community facilities. And with all of this done, the locality was named after CN Annadurai, the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Giving it such importance was necessary, for it was a challenge to attract people to come and live in this place - it was really the back of beyond.

Surprisingly, considering the movie background of many of the state politicians, the one feature Anna Nagar lacks is a good cinema hall - if it had that, it would probably have declared its independence from Chennai - as this post suggests!