Old boys

It took almost two centuries for this "old-boys' club" to come up. The survey school that began in 1794 grew to become the College of Engineering, Guindy, of today. It was only in 1993, however, that some of the alumni decided that they needed a club that is both exclusive and global. Global, because the earliest alumni were not the natives, and also because over time, the native alumni have gone on to be stars around the world.

Exclusive because it is meant for the alumni of the core colleges of the Anna University - the CoEG, of course, as also the Alagappa Chettiar College of Technology, Madras Institute of Technology and the School of Architecture and Planning. That may sound like a lot of institutions, but it must be remembered that the Anna University has over a hundred colleges under it. 

The Alumni Club - it does not have to specify what the alumni are of - has the facilities you would expect of any such club: meeting rooms, auditoria, restaurants, library, sports facilities. All of this spread out over a complex on the southern bank of the river Adyar, accessed only through the posh Boat Club area. But hey, an institution whose alumni have gone on to be social reformers, politicians (in India and other countries), cricketers, movie stars should get to do a bit of posh once in a while!

Tables

Sometimes, when you get in early for a weekend movie at the Madras Race Club, you get a wide range of seating options. 

Although, with the way these tables are oriented vis-a-vis the screen, at least one person at each table must decide the movie is not worth watching. Maybe there is an opportunity here to design a movie-watching-on-club-lawn table!

Growing city

This signboard, just past the Guindy railway station, was put in place not very long ago - maybe in the past couple of years. With the Chennai Metro track running over it, it is now just another commonplace sign showing directions to some of the further corners of Chennai. But in an earlier avatar, the signboard here was much more significant. On the side we are facing, it was a "Thank you for visiting" message, while the other side was its counterpart, the welcome to the city. In those days, this sign marked the limit of the Corporation of Chennai.

It was in early 2010 that the Corporation flexed itself and gobbled up quite a few of the local bodies - municipalities, panchayats and town panchayats - from the neighbouring districts of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. With that expansion, the area under the Corporation of Chennai more than doubled, going from 174sqkm to 426sqkm. 

The earlier "Welcome / Thank You" sign should have now shifted about 30km further down this road - although the Corporation hasn't got around to putting one such up, I guess!

Form book

I know little about betting. And I know far less about horse racing. Even so, the name "Original Vel Sporting News" is something I would recognize as being the bible for horse racing enthusiasts in Chennai (and apparently in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ooty, and several other places as well). As a child, It was fascinating to peek into this publication for the sheer exoticness of the names of the horses. 

One of the quirks of this publication, which I couldn't figure out in those days, was the fact that none of the races seemed to be happening in Madras. In the days before the internet and mobile phones - in the days when long distance calls meant 'trunk' calls that had to be booked a few hours in advance - they still managed to get bets out on races in Bombay and Hyderabad and other places. And the books detailed the odds on those races. But never for Madras. It could have been because of the strong public sentiment against horse racing - remember the statues on Mount Road? 

The Original Vel claims to have been established in 1929. A case in the Madras High Court, in 1953, dates its founding to 1936. A record of those court proceedings gives us an idea of what 'Sporting News' could be found in those pages: "The Cricket Test at Delhi" "The Duncan Cup Cricket at Madras" "Five Lucky Charms", "Peter the world-beating athelete" and "Stopping Zatopek"  were some of the articles. But also included were: "The Queen and the Riddle of Minister's summons to Sunday talks at Castle", "Herbert Morrison's attack" and "Hitler's valet held by Reds". Dashed sporting, old chap, but what is it doing in Original Vel? Had such articles continued to find a place in the publication, it would have been fascinating to browse through. But these days, they staple the booklet to discourage flipping through it. And I am not going to pony up 15 bucks to read horse names!

Elevated rail

At about half-past-eight on a weekday, you would expect the traffic on Mount Road at Guindy to be much denser. Maybe it was just an off-day, for it seems to be quite light. 

The tracks of the Chennai Metro are seen, at a height from the road. Once it is in operation, it is expected to further reduce the traffic congestion. On the evidence of this picture, there doesn't seem to be much need for it!

Multiple sports

One of the landing approaches to the airport at Meenambakkam takes the aircraft over Guindy. Once upon a long time ago, Guindy used to be thickly forested. It still boasts of one of the smallest national parks in the world (and also one of the few completely contained within a city). Institutions nearby - the IIT Madras and the Raj Bhavan (the governor's residence) retain enough of tree cover for the air passenger to look out and see a green carpet.

Which is suddenly broken by this stretch of grassland. Forming a rough, round-cornered triangle, it has long patches of green and brown. Well, that is one of Chennai city's three golf clubs; this one is run by the Madras Gymkhana, which started off their golf links on Island Grounds before moving to this location sometime around 1887. Even though they have moved inland from their original location, the course is still styled as links. 

It is a 6690 yard, par 72 course. Though it was only a 9 hole course when it started off, it graduated through 14 and 16 holes before becoming a full fledged 18-hole course. Given the nature of the terrain - with its scrub jungle pedigree - it was a course where players played off the browns for nearly a century. It was only in the 1980s that the transformation to greens began; as you can see, the browns are not giving up so easily. Despite being small and treeless, it is supposedly a tough course to play on, thanks to the narrow fairways, challenging roughs and swirling winds. If that is not enough, you will also be distracted by horses running around - this is probably the only golf club in the world that is fully ensconced within a horse race track!

Central, but access?

This is the Central Library of a rather exclusive institution. It started its life along with the institution, in 1959. At that time, it was housed in the Civil Engineering Block. This arrangement is more an indication of how important civil engineering was, than any downplaying of the library's status.

That phase lasted about six years, and since 1965, the Central Library has had its own place in the academic campus. In the new millenium, the facilities received a major upgrade. Apart from all the books, periodicals and journals, users of this library can also access sections of the Library of Congress' online collection. 

Maybe I was too pessimistic about outsiders being allowed to use this library; it is a challenge to get inside the campus of the IIT Madras and I assumed entry into the library would be even more difficult. However, the Librarian here, Dr. Harish Chandra, seems to be inviting everyone to visit and benefit from the printed resources there. Must go look it up sometime soon!

Grand hotel

The most recent entrant into Chennai's list of luxury hotels, the ITC Grand Chola is indeed quite grand. Spread out over 7 acres in the middle of Chennai, it is truly a spectacle. Inside the building, too, are grand spaces, where everyone wants to be photographed.

As if the lights from the buildings weren't enough, the car had to appear just as the photo was taken - at least it didn't run me over!

Associations' building

The Thiru Vi-Ka Industrial Estate in Guindy is over fifty years old and this building seems to be from the same era. One of the earliest Industrial Estates in the country, this was the first in Madras. With the emphasis on small-scale industries, this 400-acre piece of land has a large number of such small factories, typically turning out components to be used by larger factories elsewhere.

Not that there are only small units here. Some big names - Ennore Foundries, TVS Electronics, Alcatel-Lucent, among them - have a presence inside the 'Guindy Estate'. Even the Olympia Tech Park on its western edge is an attractive location for the large, new age industries. The overbearing majority of units at the Guindy Estate however are of the single-unit entrepreneur type, somehow managing to clear a profit and trying to keep pace with all those competitive manufacturing practices coming out of China.

Bringing those kind of entrepreneurs together are various associations and industry groupings. The biggest of them here happens to be the IEMA - the Industrial Estate Manufacturers' Association, which is why their name board is the most visible one at street level. Inspite of having a spanking new office at RV Towers, the IEMA continues to operate out of this building, jostling for space with all those other groupings of small scale industries. Looks like they'll run out of nameboard space soon!

Vazhga, Gandhi mahan

The Gandhi Mandapam, on the Mahatma's 140th birthday. More details in a while...

Told you!

Not a sign that you'd expect to see in the midst of the city, isn't it? You've got to remember that Chennai is probably the only city in the world that has a national park right in its midst, completely within the city. The campus of the IIT Madras is next to the Guindy National Park and has a large-ish lake within it.

Who knows what other creatures lurk in the lake!

Well positioned statue

This man came into prominence in early 1984, when the Cholan Roadways Corporation was split and one of the splinter groups was named 'Dheeran Chinnamalai Transport Corporation'. For a while back then, I believed that he had something to do with the Little Mount area in Chennai, because 'Little Mount' is what Chinnamalai translates as. And then, when this statue of the man was installed opposite the Guindy railway station a few years ago, I had reason to recollect that connection with Little Mount, because that's not far away from the Guindy station. Did he actually have something to do with the locality, after all?

Apparently, that's not the case. Born as Theerthagiri, he came by his more popular name because of his bravery (Dheeram) in opposing Hyder Ali's tax collectors. The people of the Kongu region (where he was a local chieftain) rallied behind him, declaring that the King of Mysore now had to cross not only the geographical formations of Sivan Malai and Chenni Malai, but also the human Chinna Malai to get to them. It is a different matter that Theerthagiri went on to side with Hyder's son, Tipu Sultan, to fight against the British. For six years after Tipu's death, Theerthagiri continued to undermine British supremacy in the Kongu region, until he was caught and finally hanged in 1805; like that of a few other local chieftains of the time, his story was also used as a rallying cry against British rule.

The positioning of the statue seems strangely appropriate. Not just because it is close to Little Mount, but also because it is right behind a very high-traffic bus stop - recalling the route of his rise to recognition amidst the '80s generation!

Of wet chains and broken links

The Government of Sri Lanka is right now in the middle of one of its most sustained offensives against the LTTE in the past two decades. It appears that the Sri Lankan army has the upper hand currently and are pressing home their advantage. The fierce fighting in the island has forced many to cross the Palk Straits, bringing with them their tales of atrocities by the soldiers. Some of the more hardline Tamizh political parties have been quick to pounce on this as a cause - and the Tamil Nadu government decided to nullify that political advantage by throwing its weight behind the cause, too.

To 'highlight' the sufferings faced by people in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north-eastern regions, a human chain was to be formed in Chennai, stretching through the city into the suburbs. It was scheduled for October 22, but the rains on Tuesday led the organizers to reschedule it for today. One can't blame them if they were in a self-congratulatory mood at 2 pm, about an hour before the chain was to form. But it certainly says something that in a matter of 15 minutes or so, the skies darkened up and let loose one of the most sustained spells of heavy rain that had large sections of the human chain break away; much of the rest had to move to the middle of the road, because the rainwater flowing along the road shoulders did not allow them to stay to a side.

Recipe for disaster? Of course! Traffic was completely paralyzed in many places; one driver estimated a traffic jam stretching for about 12 km through the city. I know that we managed to do about 3 km on Mount Road / Sardar Patel in an hour before we aborted our trip and turned back - just at the right time, thankfully. The return took us 7 minutes. The traffic behind this section of the human chain remained stationary for well over an hour!

Protecting ideas

In some sense, India of the past worked on something like the 'open source' concept; there is no single person who can be credited with inventing chess, or the concept of the 'zero', both of which are generally accepted as having originated in this country. Intellectual Property (IP) was therefore one more of those quaint concepts that the British brought to India. The first legislation to protect such property was enacted as Act VI of 1856 and granted inventors some exclusivity for a 14-year period. In the nineteenth century itself, legislators brought out 4 different Acts, protecting inventions and designs and trying to ensure that inventors got some economic gains out of their work. During the twentieth century, the laws covering IP were periodically re-written, and were mostly ignored. Even the most significant legislation in this area, the Indian Copyright Act of 1957, probably lay gathering dust.

The 1990s changed all that; the Copyright Act became the shield of choice for software companies as they sought to protect their work from being pirated. India's membership of the WTO in 1995 brought with it more seriousness about protecting IP - and also a lot of hue and cry about having to protect turmeric-based home remedies and basmati rice. With all of that, the CGPDTM - Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks - took on a more market-friendly brand of 'Intellectual Property India' and began to set up its exclusive offices in various cities. This building in Guindy houses the Chennai branches of the Patents Office and the Trade Marks Registry. It also has the only office of the Geographical Indications Registry in the country.

Apart from all of this, Chennai and IP protection in India are very closely linked. The oldest firm of IP lawyers in India, DePenning & DePenning, is headquartered in Guindy, Chennai. It was born in 1856, soon after its founder, George Alfred DePenning, was awarded India Patent No.1 for his 'Efficient Punkah Pulling Machine'!

Every end is a beginning

One of the most undisturbed areas within Chennai city is the contiguous stretch of scrub forest that runs across quite a bit of the Guindy area. On the northern side of Sardar Patel Road, the forest land has been carved up into small bits; with further landscaping, the character of the greenery has changed completely and makes for nice viewing through the PWD offices, the Anna University and the CLRI. On the southern side, however, a large part of the forest land was protected by it having been made a National Park. And with only two other institutions (the IIT Madras and the Raj Bhavan) on either side of it, the Guindy National Park (GNP) continues to be part of the great green lung of Chennai.

Not everyone gets to go into the GNP; it is actually somewhat wild and it is quite easy to get lost inside! However, a small part of the Park is given over to the Children's Park (set aside under instructions from Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister) and the Snake Park (which was the birthplace of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust - a bit more about that here). Both these are very popular - not all the criticism they get is justified, though they can be run much better - and are therefore crowded almost every day. And in the company of excited kids, adults might also turn adventurous and go through gates without realizing where they lead to. This sign, next to a gate opening out from the Children's Park into the 'wild' part of the GNP, helps to warn off such well-meaning but ill-equipped adverturers!

Ready for a ride

Some cities feature them as a tourist attraction. I remember reading about them waiting to take tourists around Central Park in New York City and I am sure some of the other great cities have them too. They probably serve as a reminder of the time when these vehicles were the swankiest transport available. Some other places have them as a viable transport alternative - fuelled by the tourist traffic, but not necessarily an attraction in themselves (think Agra, for example).

Chennai is neither here nor there; horse carriages as taxis probably did not last long enough for folks to start getting nostalgic about them. They were however used by a quite a few - the rich had their own chariot-like pieces, and the common man would share the cramped, roofed carriage. Today, in Chennai as in many other places, horse carriages are used for special occasions - typically, wedding processions. I passed by this one and then pulled over to wait for it; with new upholstery and the horses looking recently groomed, I am sure they had an engagement for the evening.

Neither the horses nor the carriage-man gave me a second glance. But then, none of the other passers-by, either on foot or in vehicles, cared to show any interest in this not-so-usual fellow traveller!