Music, not arms

The Doveton Group of schools in Chennai has under its management 8 schools in the city. The most famous among them is arguably the Doveton Corrie School for Boys in Vepery (though it is not called by that name any longer, if I am correct). The oldest school in this group goes back to 1855, but today, we are looking at a school that began in the centenary year of the Doveton Group of Schools.

In 1955, the Group purchased this piece of land in Choolai from one Howard Oakley. Of Oakley, I have not been able to find much, other than that he was the Patron of the Madras Amateur Photographers Society in 1932, reviving it after the post-War years. Anyway, Oakley seems to have disappeared from Madras after this sale and a Doveton Nursery began functioning here on July 15, 1955. For a long while, it was coasting along, taking in young children in the nursery and kindergarten, going on to include primary schooling as well. It may well be a feeder school to the others in the Doveton Group. It was in 2001 that, for some reason, the name of the school was changed to include Oakley. Today it functions as the Doveton Oakley Nursery and Primary School. 

One of the major activities here seems to be music. In And that brings us to the logo. When I first looked at it as I passed by, I thought it was some kind of cannon; given that John Doveton, the founder of the Group, was a distinguished military officer, the logo did not seem out of place. It was only after discovering the musical bent of this school that I took a closer look at the logo. And realised that clarinets and cymbals might well be mistaken for charging cannons!

Local cafe

John Doveton lent his name to a school in Purasaiwalkam over 150 years ago and in the years since, his name has been used for things much more than the school itself; it has gone on to represent the whole area around the school. It has been mangled in more ways than one - a set of Anglo-Indians were fond of pronouncing it 'Duff-ton' rather than the 'Dough-ton' and that became so popular that I am pleasantly surprised to see the Doveton spelling being used, without having been altered to match the phonetic effect.

One example is this cafe, right under the flyover. Maybe it is a bad example, because it has been there for over 35 years, serving as a hangout for the late-hippie generation and then going on to what it is today. Doveton Cafe is a good place to step into for a cup of coffee and then sit down to ramble on about world affairs (and those of your college-mates', too) without having to worry about how fast the meter is running!

Time. And space.

Spotted this one almost by accident; was going up Purasavakkam High Road and wondering how badly lost I was when I noticed this clock tower at Doveton. The moment I saw it, I realized I'd always known about this - "Doveton Clock Tower" - though I had mentioned it as Vepery in my earlier post!

Someone told me that the clock tower at Royapettah is now maintained by P.Orr & Sons. This one does not seem to have caught the eye of any such benefactor. Even the board on top of it, saying "Corporation of Chennai" is cracked and has fallen away on three of the four sides. But it still tells you the time!