School gate

This was early on a Saturday morning in May. Just after 7 AM. It was not the earliness of the hour. It was May, the season of school holidays and the reason for this space being largely vehicle-free. 

For the gate you see over there is the entrance to the Chettinad Vidyashram, one of Chennai's sought-after schools. It was founded much after my school days were over, so I am not able to bring up a school-boy's perspective of the kind of school it was. But I remember hearing about how it encouraged a whole lot of activities, within and outside the curriculum. There were horse-riding classes as well, probably channelling the connection the Chettinad royals have with turf clubs. The one thing that stood out about this school was that it had a large number of students (and staff, too) - almost in 5-digits, though I have not been able to validate that. 

The other aspect that is striking about the school is that it does not seem to be overly concerned about preparing students for the typical career paths (at least among its comparator schools) of engineering and medicine. The school does have special coaching streams for the IIT-JEEs and the NEET, but it seems more happy to let the children discover what they are good at and follow that lead. So much so that a list of the school's notable alumni has a larger proportion of actors, musicians and sportspeople than usual. Maybe that's the best indicator of the school's motto: "The Golden Mean" being put into practice!

 

Clear road

Well, this was taken on a Saturday morning, so it is good that there is almost no traffic here.

Greenways Road is usually busy, but even then, traffic is kept moving on this stretch, especially because of the residents here - the judges of the Madras High Court, the General Manager of the State Bank of India, a few ministers... 

None of them seems to be up and about so early!

Royal board

This must have been one of the original signs erected when a part of Madras was renamed Raja Annamalaipuram, after the passing away of the first Raja of Chettinad. That title was given to him by the British, in 1929, in addition to the knighthood that was awarded to him six years earlier.

In gazette notification announcing his knighthood, he is addressed as "Diwan Bahadur Sathappa Chettiar Ramanathan Chettiar Muthiah Chettiar Annamalai Chettiar Avargal, Banker, Madras". Even de-duping the Chettiars in that leaves a lot of letters to be written; replacing the "Diwan Bahadur" with "Raja" helped, but even then, it would have been quite a task to find a board indicating the name of this locality had anyone insisted on the full title! 

Old sign

There was a time when people had to be reminded about where they were. This sign must have come up during one of those times. And it still remains there even today, unchanged over all those years - except for a bit of rust around all the edges. 

Just in case they plan to take the sign down, I would like to have part of it. Please?

By the way

"Ninaivale silai..." was a lovely song from 'Andaman Kadhali', a late 1970s film. The song was very popular in those days and it also attracted a controversy. There was a good deal of outrage over the pronunciation of the word "திருக்கோவிலே" (Thirukkovile - holy temple) in the song. It was claimed that the singer K.J. Yesudas was unable to say it correctly and that he sung it as "தெருக்கோவிலே" (Therukkovile - street temple), which somehow denigrated the temple.

It was that song which came to my mind when I saw this arch, leading to a temple. Although I did not go inside, I am sure this  would have been around in the 1970s. As you can make out, the temple does not seem to have any wall in front of it. You just walk off the street into the temple's foyer; and the main deities can be viewed - and prayed to - from the street itself, if you wish. 

The arch says "அருள்மிகு திருவீதியம்மன் ஆலயம்". (Sacred Holy-street-amman Temple), using a synonym of 'தெரு' for street; so, when it has taken over the entire street, it is okay to call it a street temple, I guess!

Colourful zones - 4

This is the last of my 'colourful' posts; and look at that building! The pinks had dulled, the blue & cream was quiet, the blues were soothing, but this one just does the shimmy in front of you! I imagine this striking colour scheme is because the building houses a TUCS 'Fair Price Shop'.

The TUCS was originally the Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society and was set up in 1904 (it probably startled the authorities into passing the First Cooperative Credit Societies Act of 1904). Over its life, it had somehow become the default outlet for the state's public distribution system and is identified very closely with the government. The building seems to be Corporation property - TUCS only seems to be in charge of minding the store here!

Colourful zones - 3

Blue continues to be the colour of choice for an office of the Corporation itself; this is the office for Ward 142 (Bheemannapet) and has signboards for a women's self-help group meeting room and for the Ward health inspector.

Funnily though, I've never heard this being referred to as the Bheemannapet office - more often than not, folks call it the RA Puram office, because that's the postal code it is located in.

No sooner was the paint job over did someone stick a poster (that yellow smudge) to deface it. The poster thanks the Corporation of Chennai (and also the state's Chief Minister and Minister for Local Administration, as well as the Mayor of the Corporation). For what? I didn't read the fine print!