Out of water

Away from their 'natural' habitat, these boat hulls look rather flimsy. Would one really be able to trust these to carry one out into a body of water and get back safely? 

Well, the folks who are rowing members of the Madras Boat Club do. And they seem to to be doing it quite well, too!

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!

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!

Club by the road

Established in 1873, the Cosmopolitan Club was set up primarily because the gentlemen of Madras were stifled in their "social intercourse with European gentlemen" because of the 'Europeans Only' policy of the Madras Club. The Cosmopolitan had as its objective the furthering of this exchange between European and Indian gentlemen of Madras. 

From its earliest days, the Cosmopolitan has been functioning from this location on Mount Road. Though it had its first establishment in Moore's Garden, it moved to Mount Road very early and has continued to remain there. 

Subsequently, it acquired the Travancore Pavilion at Nandanam, further down the Mount Road. That is now the Golf Annexe of the Cosmopolitan Club, boasting of one of Chennai's three 18-hole golf courses. The fairway on one of the holes runs parallel to the road - though it would take quite a bit of effort to send a ball into the traffic, it is not unheard of!

Bombed picture

I am sure everyone would have heard of the Emden. The word, with slightly differing spellings and pronunciations is unquestioningly thought of as a Tamizh or a Malayalam (maybe even a Telugu) word. Emdan, Yemendan, Yamandan are the variants, indicating a terrifying force that cannot be battled. But those meanings arose from the bombardment of Madras during World War I. Today is the anniversary of the day SMS Emden let its guns loose on the city. 

It wasn't just the big buildings that were hit. Many other places were, as well. 'The Hindu' recently discovered in its archives a set of pictures taken the day after the bombardment. And I recently discovered a picture that was damaged by a shell from the Emden. It has been preserved and maintained by the Royal Madras Yacht Club!

Shatter proof glass

I don't dare say anything about how this can happen only in Chennai. It could happen anywhere, anytime to anyone. I've knocked over a glass on quite a few occasions, but last evening was quite unique, so I just had to put up this picture.

We were at the Madras Cricket Club, talking about an upcoming conference. I reached out for something (can't remember what - anyway, with what happened next, everything else was forgotten for a few minutes) but my hand brushed a half-empty Coke bottle, which then gently leaned over on to a half-empty glass of rum and Coke. The glass then, quite gently, sheared itself rather neatly at the point where it was empty and the top portion landed on the table, looking for all the world like a wrist-band or something.

The only reason I can think of for this polite behaviour of the glass is the presence of an executive from Saint Gobain's Chennai plant, who was at the table with us - when the experts are around, glass behaves itself, I guess!

Open air movie

Chennai has only one drive-in theatre, Prarthana, on the East Coast Road. As I passed that way close to showtime last weekend, I was convinced that I have to either arrive at Prarthana an hour before the show starts or just leave my car somewhere else and walk to the theatre. The rush of vehicles trying to get into the theatre was unimaginable. And with vehicles trying to jump the queue tempers seemed to be on the boil all around. I don't recall it being this bad when I last watched a movie there, about 3 years ago.

The other option for watching a movie in the open, is to head out to one of the Clubs in the city. Almost all of them have a weekend movie show for members and it is usually a recent film that's screened. For a reluctant movie goer like me, it is a good option to go to the Madras Race Club and catch up on a recent Tamil, Hindi or English movie over a couple of drinks. The movies are shown old style, with at least a couple of changes of the film reels on the projector, when the screen goes blank, and folks use that time to refill their orders of drinks or snacks. When there are friends around, it is nice to continue sitting on the lawn after the movie over a slowish Saturday dinner. Yesterday, it was difficult to resist the temptation to go, for the movie was 'Jaane tu ya jaane na' - we arrived early enough to make sure we got good seats.

A movie here comes with a small drawback, though. The Club is right under one of the landing paths to the Chennai airport. As the aircraft comes from behind the screen, you might not get distracted with its light; but when it roars overhead, you can be sure that you'll miss a couple of words from the dialogue!