Moved

At the departure terminal of Anna International Airport, Chennai. Why would they need this kind of a message? 

Anyway, this is probably the only thing about Chennai that I cannot even begin to defend - our airport - so I will go with any explanation that is given!

Time to take-off?

Granted, the only Chennai thing about this is the location. This particular airline was one of the earliest off the blocks when the aviation sector was opened up in 1993; it was one that stayed on for quite a long while, even becoming the largest domestic carrier by passenger volume in 2010. And through the 2010s, it continued to hold on to its full-service philosophy, when the markets boomed with LCCs - the low-cost-carriers trying to squeeze revenue out of everything possible.

Jet Airways' fall to bankruptcy was quite rapid, bringing up once again the old saw about how the easiest way to become a millionaire is to start with a billion and buy an airline. Maybe it was good for them that they were non-operational during the pandemic; but in a cut-throat sector, it might be a big challenge for the airline to come back after a 4-year break. (Has it been only 4-years? It feels like a generation ago!)

Their plans for restarting are not going at the pace they expected; but it would be good to have one more option for the Indian skies - so here is hoping they are able to fly again soon!

Half mast

It has been over 48 hours since the ailing Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu breathed her last at a Chennai hospital, but many parts of the city seem to be in mourning still. Even the airport seemed to be deserted last evening; the usual jockeying of vehicles, to be ahead of the rest in the queue, seemed to be desultory at best.

All that was because of J. Jayalalithaa, whose impact on the country's psyche seemed disproportionate to her political presence at the national level. It is difficult for an outsider to comprehend the hold she had on the person-on-the-Tamil Nadu-street; the editorial in yesterday's The Hindu gives you glimpses of why. But it is well nigh impossible to describe an image crafted over 4 decades and more to be encapsulated into a few sheets of newsprint.

The national flag at Chennai airport is flying at half mast. That is because the state has announced a 7-day official mourning for its former Chief Minister. "Former", only because she is not around any longer. But for millions of Tamil Nadu, she will always be their "Nirandhara Mudalvar" (perennial Chief Minister)!

Droning away

When we were planning on making a corporate film, the director told us that he would have a surprise for us. Turned out that the surprise was a drone-cam. The radio controlled drone was designed and fabricated by the director himself, with his brother helping out on the electronics bits. It needed two sets of controls; one to fly the drone itself and the other to manipulate the Go-Pro camera that was its payload. 

As in many other parts of the world, Chennai is grappling with issues around regulating drones. There are some basic controls in place; anyone planning to fly a drone must get the equipment cleared by the DGCA. In addition to that, each time one plans to send the drone into the air, the plans have to be cleared by the city police. The uncertainty around getting the permission from the police was the reason for our director saying that he might surprise us - there was no way he could commit to having a drone-cam for the shoot.

It was quite a curiosity and the crew took turns at trying to pilot the drone. After going up a bit - around 15m or so - they found that the signals from a nearby cellphone tower were interfering with the drone's radio controls. There was a danger that it would crash; but as it came down, the controls were re-established and the drone-cam landed safely. And then, the roles were reversed. Rather than the drone-cam focussing on us, we all pulled out our cellphones and cameras and tried to get a good shot of the drone!

Back!

The 'Muscleman' is certainly one of the icons of Madras. And after a week away, it is nice to be welcomed back by the city's icons!

Old machine

When credit cards first came to India, these devices were used to 'swipe' the card - essentially taking a print of the details embossed on the plastic. I thought they had disappeared completely. 

But no. They are around. This one was being used in the lounge at the Chennai airport; the clack-clack of the imprinter running over the card and charge slip brought back memories. I don't think the Chennai airport is doing it for any concerns on privacy - unlike PF Chang's in the US, which, in June this year, turned to these readers in an effort to to safeguard their customers' data!

Setting right?

There have been a couple of news items during the past week about Chennai as a travel destination. One was Lonely Planet putting Chennai into its list of 'Top 10 Cities for 2015'. It was great to see Chennai coming in at number 9 on that list, even if it invited disbelief from many, including resident and non-resident Madrasis. 

The other, not so flattering appearance, was on the list of 'worst airports'. Especially galling was that it was the third year in a row that Chennai was finding a place, this time as the sole representative from India. This one is more believable for those who use Chennai's airport frequently. Though I have not been involved in any such mishap (or personally know anyone who has been), falling ceiling panes - over 20 times in one year - are not confidence inspiring.

The last time I was at the airport, I found this cherry picker rising up to repair the roof. Hopefully, it will hold up - and get better - so that the cheering crowds coming in to Chennai next year do not have to worry about the sky falling on their heads!

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!

Tailgating

On the average, about 40,000 passengers pass through the Chennai airport every day. That's just under 15 million passengers a year. They fly in or out on one of the 125,000 aircraft which use the Chennai airport. By that reckoning, an aircraft takes off, or lands, at the airport every four minutes.

However, there are certain windows of time when the frequency is much higher. Early morning is one such, and aircraft get on to the high-speed runway nose-to-tail. We were waiting for the one ahead of us, and there was the next one coming up behind us already!

Slow day

In the background, the Pallavaram hills look on; they have seen several days in their time, and this is no different from the many they have seen. They must be very old hills, for they have been worn down to almost sea level. This is also the area where traces of a palaeolithic settlement have been found.

The slowness is seen in the parking lot of the Chennai airport in the foreground. Usually a mess of vehicles trying to go every which way, the lot seems quite sleepy - but this was last week, before the long weekend, when almost everyone had probably got to where they wanted to go!

Ready to take off?

In the airport, they are getting ready to launch a boat!

From above

I have written earlier about how Madras has a significant presence on the country's aviation map.

Here is a picture from the air, showing the old terminal on the right. 

Grounded club

Towards the northern end of the Chennai airport complex, a little beyond the old terminal, there is a small board marking the presence of a club that was a pioneer, even though it has gone to seed in recent times. The board says "Madras Flying Club". The first time the board went up was in 1930, after a bunch of flying enthusiasts received a subsidy from the government of India to set up a flying club.

The Madras Flying Club (MFC) became functional in July 1930, even though the subsidy was available to them in March/April that year. The delay was to ensure that a qualified instructor, as well as an engineer, were in place before flying classes began. Quite appropriately, the first pilot instructor of this club was Flt Lt Hawker, with Hulcop as his first engineer. Even after their arrival, the then governor of Madras, Sir George Frederick Stanley, waited for another month before formally inaugurating the club, as its first 'Patron'. Lady Beatrix Stanley may have had some difficult moments pronouncing the names of the first 2 aircraft of the club as she christened them: "Garuda" and "Pushpaka". Over the years, the MFC had a stellar record, until it started losing its way in the new millenium. 

In January 2012, the only instructor of the MFC retired after he turned 65; since then, the Club has not been able to attract anyone to come on board and take charge. They also have had run-ins with the regulatory authorities, and with all that, activities at the club have come to a standstill. The Airports Authority of India, probably vexed with all the inactivity, has served notice to the MFC to vacate the space it is blocking currently. Hopefully, the one of the first flying clubs in the country will not come crashing, but will find fresh wind beneath their wings soon!

Take-off

Had got out of all the frequent flyer programmes nearly ten years ago. But in the past two weeks, I have been at the Chennai airport on 8 days. This picture was taken yesterday, after having reached the airport 75 minutes ahead of the departure time. The queues have gotten longer - and Monday mornings are always a bad time to travel out, with people being more grumpy than usual.

Is the increase in passenger traffic because of the second runway at the airport having gone operational? That runway - after having been delayed time and again - was to have been opened sometime last week. That is what I thought, but it does not seem to be reflecting in the flight schedules yet. In the meantime, we continue to take off along the old path!

Tall steeple

The St Thomas Garrison Church was built sometime in the early 19th century to serve the spiritual needs of the British troops stationed at the Pallavaram and St Thomas Mount garrisons. 

When the airport at Meenambakkam began regular operations, the landing approach was planned over this church. However, the church's steeple and spire were seen as a potential danger, being tall enough to come in the way of descending aircraft. The height had to be brought down, and from the way the church looks like today, it was done reasonably aesthetically. 

Do you wonder what it looked like before it was shortened? We did, too. And the pastor was kind enough to bring out a history scrap-book and show us a photo of how the church used to look. Go ahead, click on the picture and go back in time!

Grounded

This picture was taken a few months ago. Did not pay much attention to what was being clicked at that time, but in the days since, have managed to figure out that most of the aircraft parked down there belong to Kingfisher.

It has been quite a while now since Kingfisher has shut down its operations. Maybe this was in the initial days, when they were still allowed to use their parking slots. Wonder whether they continue to be parked there today!

Patchwork

The new terminal at the Chennai airport has a whole lot of can-be-better items, discussion about each of which can go on for several pages. Maybe because those items relate to the more functional aspects of the terminal, there seems to have been very little said about the aesthetics of such pieces of art around the airport.

Most pieces are quite tolerable; this one of a horse is quite an intricate work. It has over 200 separate pieces that have been put together. Each of the pieces has quite a bit of detailed work on it and it certainly must have been done with a lot of passion. The finished product may not be to everyone's liking, but little can be faulted with the effort that has gone into it.

In the manner of most of the city's public installations (remember the flame and the women?), these pieces also have no descriptions. Shouldn't there be some recognition of the artist and highlights of the work itself? What do you think?

Nosing ahead

The Chennai airport has been at the receiving end of poor reviews, almost all of which are well justified. The airport is pretty much at the limit of its capacities in all forms. And rather than go in for a completely new airport - as was done at Bengaluru or at Hyderabad, Chennai opted for the revamp route. 

Ever since the first terminal was opened sixty years ago, Chennai has been reluctant to let the airport move out from this location. The original terminal - seen in the background - was referred to as the Meenambakkam airport, because that was the nearest suburban railway station. When the new terminal was built in 1985, it was no longer Meenambakkam; the railways in fact built a new station at Thirusoolam, between Meenambakkam and Pallavaram to cater to the airport goers. But try telling a Chennaiite that it should be called the Thirusoolam airport and you will be left feeling that the coals of Hades would be a refreshing, cool change.

The expansion is to be completed in 2013-14. And if current projections hold, that would be bursting at the seams by 2016-17. The TN Vision Plan for 2023 envisages a completely new airport, near Sriperumbudur, about 50km away. Even when that happens, we will still call it the Meenambakkam airport, I'm sure!

Clouds over city

As cyclone Nilam came around.... rushing back home, took this picture of Chennai airport's terminal building. Lots of wind and noise; but surprisingly little rain - and it remained quite warm that evening!

The other church

It is natural that when one thinks of St Thomas' Mount and church in the same sentence, the building that comes to mind is the Church of Our Lady of Expectation. That's the one on top of the mount and perhaps the one that's much better known over the world. However, there is one other old church in the vicinity - one that goes by the rather workmanlike name of St Thomas Garrison Church. 

It was built sometime in the 1820s and was intended to serve as a place of worship for the garrisons stationed at St. Thomas' Mount and at Pallavaram. It is not clear why these garrisons could not go up the mount - probably it was difficult for the horses and carriages to climb up that winding path and so they had to have a church right at the foot of the hillock. Over the past two hundred years, this church has seen a lot, as can be gathered from all those memorial tablets inside. 

In the 1950s, when the Meenambakkam airport was getting ready for regular air traffic services, it was found that the spire of the St Thomas Garrison Church was impeding the flight path for aircraft landings. Ever since, it has had to do with this truncated top - the third storey and the spire had to be taken down to ensure aircraft safety!