City view

A few days ago, we had a view of the city looking north from the top of the lighthouse; this one takes it a few hundred metres higher - if you look closely, you can see the red-and-white band of the lighthouse at the bottom of the photo. 

The broad stretch of the beach looks glorious from up above. It is possibly less sandy than it should be; but let us hope it remains at least the way it is right now!

Square arch

This was raised in 2012 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Tamil Nadu legislature. It was earlier the Madras state and somehow it was felt necessary to mark the transition of the name of the state with this structure. 

It is called an arch, but its outline defies the definition. 

For better or worse, it is going to remain on the Kamaraj Salai for a while, so let us enjoy it while it is around!

Empty road

They had blocked eastbound vehicles on Radhakrishnan Salai at the Citi Centre and had to try and find other ways to get close to the beach. Unfortunately for them, the entire stretch of Kamarajar Salai, and most of Santhome High Road was out of bounds for a few hours last morning. The Republic Day parade was taking place and it was not to be interrupted by private vehicles zipping about. 

Problem was, they weren't allowing cameras, either. At least not near the Gandhi statue, so one had to go around through the parking area of Queen Mary's College to get to the main road. By the time we got there, the martial parade had gone past and it was the dancers and musicians who were strutting their stuff. 

It was wonderful to see the number of people who had turned out to watch the parade. Kamarajar Salai looked strangely narrow, with the spectators spilling out on to the road itself, giving the cops a tough time. As the greeting telegram (No.19) of yore would say, "Long Live the Republic"!!

Unfading statue

Quite a few of the statues along the Marina were unveiled in January 1968, when the second World Tamizh Conference was held in the city. Among those are a couple of non-natives; missionaries who came to the land with religious fervour, but live on in current memory thanks to their contributions to the Tamizh language. George Uglow Pope was one of them, but he was following a precedent set by Constanzo Beschi, who was ahead of him by a couple of centuries. 

Today is the 344th anniversary of Beschi's birth. He arrived in India when he was 31, starting off as a missionary near Tiruchirapalli. Fascinated by the land, its customs and most importantly the language, Beschi threw himself into becoming one with it. He adopted local clothes and customs; studied the language in depth, both classical as well as the argot. Out of that arose two books of Tamizh grammar, one classical and the other for the common man's dialect. Not stopping with that, he complied a சதுரகராதி - a four part lexicon, besides Tamizh-Latin-Portugese dictionaries. 

His seminal work was the Thembavani (தேம்பாவணி -  the 'Unfading Garland'); it was not merely a story of the apostle St Joseph's life, but the telling of it in a fashion that was influenced by Tamizh epic poetry. Beschi had to put up with a fair degree of persecution, but his open admiration of the culture and the language tempered the challenges he faced. This courage and his ascetic ways earned him the title of Veeramamunivar (வீரமாமுனிவர், the 'courageous hermit'), which is the name by which every schoolchild in Tamil Nadu knows him even today!

Another anniversary

The line of statues along the Marina has Ilango Adigal at the northern end (most articles seem to miss that one out) and this one at the other. It is probably more appropriate to say that it starts with this one of K. Kamaraj, who is one of the few politicians to have given up a ministerial position - that of Chief Minister, no less - to go back to his party's organisational hierarchy. The line starts here, because the road along the beach is named Kamarajar Salai - and he has to be at the head of it.

He was 72 when he died, and kind of picked the wrong day for it. There is no way anyone else can overshadow Gandhiji. Lal Bahadur Shastri was also born on October 2, but he does not even get a token mention these days. Maybe that way, Kamaraj is a little better off. His statue here being quite close to that of the Mahatma helps the high-and-mighty to spare a garland for him, as well, to remember him on the anniversary of his passing away.

I have been wondering: the road along the beach has been around for a long time. What was it called before being named after this great leader? Does anyone know?

Bull elephant

At the corner just after the lighthouse on Kamaraj Salai, you will find this sculpture. It is quite an interesting work, if you pay attention to it. It has been crafted in the style of the ancient Chola sculptors - as seen at Darasuram, near Kumbakonam. Or is it after the Chalukyas, as seen at the Badami caves? 

If you go to the Airavateswara temple at Darasuram, you can see a similar interpretation, but as a bas-relief work. It is in bas-relief at Badami, as well. Both of them show a similar elephant-bull combination. If you look at this sculpture from the left, you will see the bull raising its head; move to the right and you can see the elephant unfurling its trunk.

This work follows the Darasuram/Badami tradition in another way - there is no indication of what this is all about. The pedestal seems to have kept a place for a description or a dedication or whatever. Only that it still remains empty. Go ahead, fill it with your imagination!

Mysterious obelisk

I have no idea what this is here for. It does not appear to have been properly finished, either. An 1895 picture of the Napier Bridge shows an obelisk at the north-eastern end of the bridge, but that looks like a pretty much completed structure. Maybe it was knocked down at some point, and an apology of a replacement was made.

But why am I thinking obelisks today? There is no connection between those indomitable Gauls who turn 50 today and the city of Chennai, save for the three years that Madras was under French rule. Yet, on behalf of all the Asterix / Obelix fans of Chennai, Bon Anniversaire!

Take shelter

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation may operate the city's bus services, but if you want to catch one, you'll have to take shade at the mercy of the Corporation of Chennai. At the last count, there were approximately 1,200 bus shelters across the city. Many of them are in an advanced state of disrepair, the cement seats crumbling, as the are pillars. Others are designed rather poorly, that is not possible for them to be used as waiting spaces.

A couple of years ago, the Corporation of Chennai embarked on an ambitious project of upgraing the bus shelters. The idea was to form some kine of Public-Private-Partnership where a large enough proportion of the revenue goes back to the partner who has enhanced the look of the bus shelter. About 350 such shelters were identified; the modified design included cc tv, decent seats, a backlit panel, plus information panels showing the expcted time of the next bus and many other things which are essential for the commuters to know. The initial plan was to convert 350 of the existing shelters; it has been almost four years now, but it doesn't look like 350 bus stops have been upgraded.

The one in the picture certainly has been. Being right ouside the Secretariat of Tamil Nadu, it was probably one of the earliest to be upgraded. It appears that it is being used very sparingly; nobody wants to be the focus of attention from the ministers who look across to this bus shelter as their vehicle leaves the gate of the Fort!

Port gate

For a long, long time, I had assumed that there was only one entry point into the Port of Madras. Far from being the only gate, it is one of the minor gates, the one through which children on a school trip, going to see ships berthed in the docks, were allowed.

Almost at the southern tip of the Port, this gate is probably the most visible one to the common Chennai-ite. I'm willing to take a bet that any city resident who is not required to visit the port for his or her livelihood will tell us that this is the 'main' entrance to the Port - all the others are well hidden, I guess!

Token celebration

Here's another version of the lion capital that we saw atop the pillar at Ashok Nagar a few days ago. Another version not merely because of the change in colour (I think the Ashok Nagar one is by far better than these gilded lions), but also because that one is actually the complete Lion Capital of Sarnath; this, on the other hand is representative of the state emblem of the Republic of India. The inverted lotus, on which the lions are placed, is missing from this one, because that is not part of the State Emblem.

This column was placed at the junction of Radhakrishnan Salai and Kamarajar Salai, right on the Marina, in August 1997. It is possibly the only remaining symbol of time when India celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its independence. I remember those celebrations as being very low-key, rather muted. Maybe a 5000-year legacy considers 50 years as just the blink of an eye.

The definition of the State Emblem (as seen here) shows only a two dimensional image; of the four lions standing with their backs to each other on the Lion Capital, only three can seen in the 2-D image. This one too has only three lions - or so I believe. I've never bothered to go around it to check if that's really the case!

Beautified lamps

The Marina has periodically gone through beautification drives; the current drive is one of the more comprehensive efforts, involving cleaning up the beach and providing amenities for beach-goers. One of the side effects has been that the completely out of place deer have been removed (and that by itself adds to the beauty of the beach). The drive was supposed to be completed by the end of January 2009; there has been some frentic activity of late, so at least someone is trying.

The change of the street lights along Kamarajar Salai is also part of the beautification, it would appear. Maybe they'll get around to the other side of the road in a few days, but until then, the mismatched lamps offer a differnt kind of symmetry!

Fading glory

He was the only one to visit the 'Jewel in the Crown' during his reign as monarch. Titled 'King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India', George V visited India twice, once when he was still the Prince of Wales and later, as the ruler of the British dominions. Though he was not a great one for travelling, India appears to have held a fascination for him, judging from his repeated visits. The second visit was timed to coincide with the 3rd Delhi Durbar, a ritual commemorating the ascension of a new ruler to the throne. Neither his grandmother Queen Victoria, nor his father, King Edward, had been present at the Delhi Durbar held in their honour; George V not only graced the occasion, but also was given a new crown; one so heavy that the King's head hurt.

This statue was probably unveiled at around the same time as the 3rd Delhi Durbar, sometime in 1912/13. I can only guess at that, because there seems to be no record of the statue having been installed. On the pedestal itself, the inscriptions have faded out, so there is nothing to be gained from getting very close to the statue, either. In some ways, we are lucky that it is still around: it is obviously not getting much attention despite being very close to the seat of government, so the inference is that it is being allowed to go to seed.

It has caught up with the times; I had mentioned (here and here) how some of the newer statues in Chennai don't seem to have any information about them; these days, the King Emperor has also joined that list!

Citizens' Run

My first thought on seeing so many people wearing black t-shirts with an 'X' marked on them was, "Oh, another protest march!". Blame it on the political climate in India over the past weekend when everyone seemed to be protesting against everything. But then I kicked myself for not remembering that the 'X' was Roman; it was the 10th year of the Chennai Citizens' Run. I just caught the vanguard of the Run; schoolchildren wearing the t-shirts over their school uniforms and still seeming cool. The celebrities were probably waiting for the sun to go down a bit further before beginning their Run - that makes sense; the early runners can wait in the cool evening to see their heroes, more non-runners will be on the beach and might contribute to the causes supported by the Run. Even though it has been a low key affair since it began in 1996, the Citizens' Run has helped garner support for over 40 Chennai NGOs.

When one thinks about it, Chennai has quite a few runners, though not so many large scale events; apart from this Run, the Chennai Marathon is probably the only other well-publicised running event. However, there are those niche events by smaller groups like the Chennai Runners who had their ECR Run on Sunday (these folks need a daily dose of endorphins: they run at least 5 km every day except Mondays), or the Hash House Harriers - they have both Chennai and Madras versions (well, they do run, even if you think they are more focussed on what happens after the run).

So the next time you see a bunch of people in t-shirts running towards you, don't panic. Move to a side, wave them along, and if you want to be extra careful, hide that bottle of beer!

No more letters

This building stands at the corner of a space that is otherwise taken by a BPO firm. Over the last century and more (109 years, says 'The Hindu'), this building has seen the bustle of clerks sending letters, maintaining their savings accounts and of course, waiting for news from (many?) loved ones. As the premises of the Santhome Post Office, it had prime location, across the road from the Santhome Bascilica; one can imagine all those expatriates coming over after the church service to see about their letters (oh, okay, they may not have kept it open on Sunday, though!).


The building was closed down last week. The owners decided it was unsafe for occupation and the tenants decided that the Mylapore Post Office, just a bit down Kutchery Road, was good enough to handle the traffic generated at the Santhome one also. It will be sad to see this tiled structure go down - thus taking down one more of Chennai's quaint buildings. But we must progress!