Those squares

The Chennai Circle Office of the Canara Bank was earlier a rather dour building; it was nothing spectacular to look at, nor was it an eyesore. In some ways, it was presenting itself as quiet, efficient, businesslike - much like what one could expect a public sector bank to be. 

I cannot remember when these colours on its facade came up. The bank had undergone a change of identity many years ago - in 2007. Its earlier logo was a hand holding a flower, which was changed to two interlocked triangles. What that is meant to signify is hazy at the moment, but the triangles were coloured yellow and blue. There was some explanation for what the colours indicated, too, but that is beyond me now. 

These days the building on Anna Salai is quite distinctive in the evenings. Once the lights are up, you can't miss the bank with its yellow / blue lights. While I can't remember when this happened, I know it has been this way for quite a few months now. But it was only today, as I passed this that I thought: wait a minute, maybe this was also done for the Chess Olympiad? And sure enough, the building has the 8x8 grid of a chessboard!

Non-carbon dating

Found this gatepost a few days ago and I was wondering how old Mr. Neelakantan could possibly be. The first clue was the old name of the city is still very prominent on this, which means that we can fix the lower bound of his age at 47; the city was renamed in 1996, which means this would have been made at least 27 years ago. Even assuming that Mr. Neelakantan joined them as the Assistant Cashier fresh out of college, he would have been 20 that year, so it is simple enough to fix the lower bound. 

What about the other end? That gets a bit more complicated. We know that the Grindlay's Bank has a long history. It was established in 1828 as Leslie & Grindlay, was known as Grindlay, Christian & Matthews in 1839 before settling for Grindlay & Co for a long stretch between 1843 and 1924 when it became Grindlay & Co Ltd. In 1947, changed again to Grindlay's Bank Ltd. We shall let it wait there for a couple of minutes while we look to Calcutta of 1863 and the birth of the Calcutta City Banking Corporation. Look away for a few months, well, a couple of years; it is 1866 and the firm is now National Bank of India, headquartered in London and expanding out to China and East Africa. Cut to 1948 and the Grindlay's Bank Ltd is being acquired by the National Bank of India, which is over thrice as large as Grindlay's. 

It took another 11 years before the two entities merged their operations. With that, we can say that the upper bound could be figured by imagining the 20 year old Mr. Neelakantan being the first to join the newly minted National & Grindlay's Bank Ltd in 1959, that year. Which would make him 84 years old this year. But wait, I have one more clue to be used. The gatepost says "Madras 1" and I will assume this refers to the PIN code for George Town. The PIN codes were introduced throughout the country in 1972 (though there was some limited use of area codes earlier) and now I have Mr. Neelakantan pegged at being 71 years old!

Okay, I'm ignoring the "Lloyds Branch" bit there. I couldn't find any reference to a Lloyds Branch in Madras, but Grindlay's had a Lloyds Branch in Chowringhee, Calcutta. Mr. Neelakantan could have retired from there, which was why he had that on his gatepost...

Mutual benefit

We have seen a couple of institutions similar to The Triplicane Permanent Fund Limited earlier - in Mylapore and in Purasawalkam. Those are much older; in fact, the TPFL is still in its 'nervous nineties', having been set up only in 1926. It is not even the oldest in Triplicane; that place would probably go to the SMSO Permanent Nidhi Ltd, which is in its 136th year. And that is much bigger in terms of its book size as well.

The TPFL is a very modest institution - its business volume would have been less than Rs.100 crores in the last year. Though it has only six branches, they are well distributed across the city; and hopefully, they would cover all the existing members of the fund. Intra-city migration would have seen a large number of Triplicane-ites moving to other parts of Chennai, but will continue to remain members of this mutual-benefit society.

And that is also the reason why this firm, despite being headquartered in Triplicane, does not have anyone from that locality in its management team!

Bank office

When the banking sector was nationalised in India, fourteen commercial banks ended up in the hands of the Government of India. Of those, there were two that had been established in Madras - the Indian Overseas Bank and the Indian Bank. The latter was set up in 1907, following the crash of the Arbuthnot Bank, by V.Krishnaswamy Iyer, a lawyer of the Madras High Court. He was the moving force behind the Indian Bank, though it was sustained by Ramaswamy Chettiar and later, his younger brother Annamalai Chettiar.

Initially headquartered in George Town - the commercial hub of Madras - the bank moved to Royapettah much later. This new building came up less than 10 years ago; the bustle of Avvai Shanmugham Salai seems a rather unlikely location for the headquarters of one of India's largest banks; but there it is! 

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!

New bank?

Had heard - vaguely - of the T. Nagar Cooperative Bank earlier, but was not aware of anything about it beyond a name. 

Not that I know much more about it now, but at least I know where their head office is. Noticed this new building on Doraiswamy Road, and then realized it was housing a business that has been around for quite some time. Long enough for its address to be registered as 'Madras' on the DICGC's website!

Witness point

It was in front of this branch of Karnataka Bank, on Thambu Chetty Street, in the early 1980s, that Kanaka the flower-seller would set up her trade in the evenings. Even though the business hours of the branch would have been long over, the flower trade was brisk. Not only the bank staff, as they left for the day, but the various other folks going down Thambu Chetty street would stop and pick up a mozham or five. Like all smart street vendors, Kanaka knew everyone working in the neighbouring offices, their work habits and routines. 

She was therefore a bit surprised when, at about 9 pm on May 20, 1983, she saw Laxmi Raj Shetty, a new and relatively junior employee at the bank (he had joined as a trainee clerk in October 1982 and was confirmed in April 1983) come out alone, lock up the branch and go away. She was even more surprised when she saw him come back after a short while, carrying a suitcase. In to the bank he went, and came out after about half an hour, carrying a couple of bags, the suitcase and a briefcase. Stacking all these on the steps of the bank, he went out to flag an auto, loaded up the luggage into it and went away into the night, ignoring Kanaka's questions about "periya ayya" (senior person). 

The next morning, periya ayya - Gnanasambandam, the bank manager - was found dead in the washroom. Kanaka became a crucial witness in the prosecution of Laxmi Raj Shetty. He was found guilty of murdering Gnanasambandam and robbing about Rs.14 lakhs. The First Additional Sessions Court sentenced him to death, but a High Court bench reduced that to life imprisonment. Not much is known of Laxmi Raj Shetty's life since, but old timers of George Town still recall details of the 'Karnataka Bank Murder Case' as it came to be known!

If you would like more of the details, you can go through the full story here!

Local boss

In a strange way, this area between Nungambakkam and Egmore seems to be some kind of banking hub. There are a couple of representative offices of foreign banks up ahead on this road. Then there is the large Standard Chartered Bank complex on Haddows Road. The State Bank of India however beats all of them because not only does it have its 'LHO' - Local Head Office - here, but it also has quite a number of Officers' Quarters just behind the LHO.

This building is obviously a fairly recent one. The State Bank of India, as you may know, has its roots in the Presidency Banks of the early 19th century. For a long while, the erstwhile headquarters of the Bank of Madras served as the LHO for State Bank of India as well. It was probably about a dozen years or so ago that the LHO moved into this building. In doing so, SBI went against the grain, picking a spot that was not on 'Main Street', so to say. However, once the big daddy of India's banks came in, it became the main street, almost by default.

The one thing that is mysterious about this is the building's name. "Circletop House" conjures up an Enid Blyton-esque image, that's quite far removed from the business of  banking. But that's the name of this building. Try as I could, I was unable to spot any circular appendages on the roof of the building!

Bank by the wayside

The Chennai office of the Reserve Bank of India has the Fort Glacis as its address. But it spurns the security of the fort's walls, preferring to sit just outside. Of course it was a much later creation than the fort; by the time the RBI was set up in 1935, the fort had for long been an administrative centre rather than a trading outpost. 

The building is quite impressive, if you can stop to look at it. The massive door has RBI's logo on it and even the latticework besides the door repeats the design. Most of the time, however, folks just whiz by - and because of the subway, even that view is fairly limited.

Just wondering - is there an underground passage from the bank into the fort?

Eye-catching

It is certainly not a very 'descript' building. Like hundreds of others in Chennai, this one too is a just a regularly shaped block of concrete. Being right across the road from the LIC Building on Mount Road, it would have been completely ignored, had it not been for the arresting geometrical pattern on its facade. 

For a few years, that pattern made sure the DBS Bank faced up to its taller neighbour across the road. It could have become an instantly recognisable landmark itself, but apart from the facade, there was little else of interest in the building. One was startled, but one moved on. 

This picture was taken a couple of years ago. Today, you will not be able to get this view. And once the Chennai Metro comes up, those across the street will probably no longer have their eyes jerked towards this colourful structure!

Outward looking

Before this building came up on Mount Road, the space was the front lawns of Spencer's Hotel. Though they had sold the entire property to M.Ct.M Chidambaram Chettiar's family sometime around 1944, Spencer's continued to run the hotel into the early '50s. Even for many years after, that hotel building continued to be in use, as the training centre of the Indian Overseas Bank, who had by then raised their headquarters building on the hotel gardens. 

The Indian Overseas Bank was the second of the 'local' banks to be established in Madras, in 1937. As was the case with almost every business venture of the time, it began life in George Town. Chidambaram Chettiar realized that with several restrictions on foreign exchange business being placed upon banks after the Great Depression, Indian businessmen trading overseas would welcome an 'Indian' bank for their exchange transactions. And so was born the Indian Overseas Bank - that middle word establishing its market intent and to distinguish it from 'Indian Bank', which predated it. To prove that intent, the bank opened its overseas branches, in Rangoon (now Yangon) and Penang within a few months of opening their first offices in Karaikudi and Madras. 

It was M.Ct.M Chidambaram Chettiar's desire to have a skyscraper on Mount Road that saw him first go to work on the LIC Building, in 1953. But he died in 1954, before the building was completed - and before the insurance business was nationalized in 1956. His sons Pethachi and Muthiah fulfilled their father's wish - the design of this building also drawing inspiration from the UN Headquarters. This building also went into the Government's hands soon after - banking nationalization coming through in the late 1960s. Yet, a statue of M.Ct.M Chidambaram Chettiar's statue stands outside this building, which has been the headquarters of the IOB since 1964. Hopefully it will also participate in the platinum jubilee celebrations on February 10, 2012!

Lone star

Just across the Binny headquarters on Erabalu Chetty Street is this "Star House", the Zonal Office of the Bank of India. The current holder of that title is the fourth to be so named - the other three of course died out long before this one was started.

The star logo of the bank was redesigned in 2006 to mark the centenary year of the bank. And thanks to that, this building has a crown that can be seen from quite a distance away!

Local bank

Ever since I learnt that the man's first job was with this firm, I couldn't pass this building without thinking about Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. One reason could be that it was definitely more English looking than its neighbours, being in the Edwardian style rather than the Indo-Saracenic which is more common along Rajaji Salai. The effect is heightened by the gleaming white exteriors, contrasting with the red-brick of its neighbours, especially the Chennai GPO and the State Bank of India buildings.

Though the building was completed in 1923, HSBC got its hands on it only in 1959, as part of the takeover of the Mercantile Bank of India, which had its offices here. The site itself has an older provenance, having been the offices of 'The Mail', one of the earliest daily newspapers of Madras!

From Headquarters to Main Branch

It is said of this building that it bears some similarity of forms with the Mughal buildings of Fatehpur Sikri. That should not be a surprise because the architects of the Indo-Saracenic era borrowed heavily - and in quite a motley fashion - from various building forms across India. In the case of this building, it should be even less surprising because its initial plans were drawn up by Col. Samuel Jacob, who was at that time the Chief Engineer of the then state of Jaipur.

It was built in 1896 as the headquarters of the Bank of Madras, which was one of the three Presidency Banks (the others being those of Bengal and Bombay) at that time. Befitting the stature of the bank, this building cost Rs.300,000, with the contract being executed by Namberumal Chetty. Col. Samuel Jacob's initial designs were modified by Henry Irwin, buthe north Indian influences were allowed to remain. Much of the woodwork and the stained glass in its windows date from the early 1900s. When the State Bank of India was formed in 1955, this building was designated the SBI's Madras Presidency headquarters. Since then, it had become the 'Local Head Office' and today, is just the 'Chennai Main Branch', a title that it continues to hold more out of courtesy!

Stately, but ignored?

The State Bank of India's branch office on Mount Road is a magnificent building, probably a century old and looking as stately as its name suggests.

But within Chennai, it is relegated to the status of a poor cousin. The bank's office on Rajaji Salai is a more splendid structure, even older and more historic. Maybe out of a desire to not give credit to many of its buildings, the bank also does not promote this as a heritage building or anything of the sort. It is only when one steps back on Mount Road and looks at this frontage does the beauty of the structure show itself.

Gardens by the river

In the late 18th century, there was a proposal to plant a hedge to mark the limits of the city of Madras. Even though the proposal did not come to fruition, enough work was done on it to leave behind a record of the city's limits as they were in 1775. In those years, much of the city's development was to the north of Fort St George, because the larger trading posts of the British East India Company were in that direction. The northern boundaries were therefore regularly surveyed and updated, but to the south, the spread of the city was designated by rather arbitrary lines. It must have been natural for traders, with their newly earned wealth, to look for spacious real estate to the southern ends of the city, rather than to the crowded areas of 'White' and 'Black' Towns to the north of the Fort. The river Adayar thus became a natural boundary for real estate development by the nouveau riche of the 18th century; the 'hedge survey' of 1775 formalized the status of the Adayar river as the southern boundary of Madras city.

Right at the edge came up spacious garden houses. One of these was built by George Augustus Underwood, a former colonel in the Madras Corps of Engineers. Underwood had gone on to become a trader after leaving the services of the East India Company and had done very well for himself. His family however, was not too keen on the romance of the East and so after his death, the wonderful garden house he built, with steps leading to the Adayar river (maybe there was a boat house there, too), passed on to his creditors. In time, Underwood Gardens came into the possession of the Presidency Bank of Madras, when the bank was formed in 1843. In 1921, the Presidency Banks of Madras, Bengal and Bombay were amalgamated to form the Imperial Bank, which later became the State Bank of India (SBI).

Many of the neighbouring garden houses have been razed; Underwood Gardens still remains, as the residence of SBI's Chief General Manager (South Zone). Parts of the grounds have been given over to other goverment agencies and there is talk that Underwood Gardens is also due for 'modernization' - hopefully it will be done without destroying the old world charm of this garden house!

Banking with colours

Yesterday, when I walked in to my bank branch, I felt there was something different about the place. It is always quite crowded with posters for term deposits, mutual funds and such like, and every once in a while, their promotional material is changed or moved around. My first inclination was to see what new products they were advertising. But no, the difference was not because of any new credit card or real-estate fund or any banking product.

I realized the answer was above my head; festooned around the banking hall were sheets with paintings - some more colourful, some less so, but all of them done with unbridled enthusiasm. A few of them had gone into a great level of detailing, others had covered every bit of available space on the sheet with colour. Turns out that the branch had conducted a painting competition for kids (6 - 12 year olds) of a neighbouring apartment complex over the weekend. The output will decorate the branch for a few more days.

I wonder if the bankers see any 'investment potential' in these artists - I would surely like to stock up many of the 'early works' on display here!