Windblown

Unlike that TV-journalist who was pretending to be covering Cyclone Biparjoy, this one makes no claims. 

All papier-mâché, she just sits unconcerned in the middle of an exhibition hall, while around her swirl people. The 'wind' seems to be from one direction only!

 

 

Connecting line

That is a very nice view of the eastern sky from inside Tholkappiyar Poonga. 

If you're able to see something like a straight line from the white cloud at the centre, worry not. It is indeed a line made of water vapour, from a jet flying rather high. It was a rare thrill to be able to spot one of these jets riding on water vapour, but I guess it has become the norm these days. 

Are you able to spot the contrail in the picture?

Splash of yellow

That Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula) in full flower is a sight to behold, especially when most other trees on the road are just green. 

Must look for a road with the bright red of gulmohar, or palash. Let me know if you happen to come across any!

Multi-dimensional

We have earlier talked about the importance of the muchhandi Vinayagar - the remover of obstacles at every T-junction on Chennai roads. This one is getting decked up for the beginning of the day, or maybe it is a once-a-week re-decoration.

The owner of this property is probably taking a fail-safe option; as you can see, the Vinayagar here is present in both three- and two-dimensions!

 

Which place

Now I wish I had paid more attention to where I was, or had at least made some note about this picture when I had taken it a few days ago. Was too excited about getting back to Chennai that I was clicking pictures at random through the aircraft window.

Most of those are without any indication of what it was that I was drawn to when I took those pictures. On this one, however, the river entering the sea seems to be the main reason. I don't think it is the Adayar Estuary, or the mouth of the Cooum. It does not seem to be the Pulicat lake, either.

Now that I've set you off on a track - red herring or otherwise - can you give me some idea of what we are seeing in this picture? I have no clue!

Paradise lost

The signboard a little distance away said "Eden Gardens"; the street sign corroborated it (well, almost). 

But this is no way to get to that Garden of Eden, I guess. 

Teatime

I would love to have a cuppa, but they ain't open yet!

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...

Bargain

If you rummage through them, you could probably find all the heroes of your childhood here!

Just because

As far as I can make out, this marriage hall was renamed only after 2014; before that, it was called the Hema Malini Kalyana Mantapam. I am not sure if the "dream girl" had anything to do with the property, but chances that she did are pretty high. The original owner of the property was Justice Somayya, who had built his bungalow on Lloyds Road. After his time, the bungalow became the place for conducting dream weddings. 

And this post comes up because we are going to this hall for a wedding reception tomorrow. Even if it has been a few years after the name changed to SVR Mantapam, map locations continue to refer to it as "formerly Hema Malini Mantapam"!

Going down, going up

Subway: It was originally a way for pedestrians to get across to the other side of the road, but is now the term for any passage that goes below another. 

The Americans prefer to use underpass - their 'subway' being either the underground train systems, or the sandwich chain!

Onward

A stride that is familiar around the world. 

It is the 68th anniversary of his passing away, a "Martyrs' Day". I believe India has several of those - honouring the many who gave their lives to the cause of India's freedom. 

Part of the ceremonies on this day was to have the entire country pause for two minutes at 11 am, in memory of this man, and to the cause he served. I am not sure how many even remembered the significance of this date!

Multi-religious

Just outside the gate of the erstwhile Madras Mint - now the Government Press - is this shrine of sorts. The autorickshaw drivers from the stand nearby must be the ones taking care of it. Fresh flowers,  an awning to keep the rain out... and maybe a box for collecting the donations. If you click on the picture you will see that the iconography covers Christian, Muslim and Hindu symbols. 

Such syncretism is much required in these times... maybe the clock under the awning could be synchronised as well!

Tables

Sometimes, when you get in early for a weekend movie at the Madras Race Club, you get a wide range of seating options. 

Although, with the way these tables are oriented vis-a-vis the screen, at least one person at each table must decide the movie is not worth watching. Maybe there is an opportunity here to design a movie-watching-on-club-lawn table!

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! 

Everyone's posing

Just because this seemed too good to pass up, on the sidewalk of the Marina.

They should have given the photographer a pair of shades, as well!

Nothing on the right is left

Moving from the white-on-blue lettering that seems to have been the favourite of signboard makers over a couple of centuries into this rather jazzy red-on-yellow scheme must have been the decision of a very brave man. Or someone so secure in the permanency of the business to not bother with such trivialities as signboard colours. Such a signboard, made around 50 years ago - that's a guess, and yours might be better than mine - still advertises the supplies provided by the Office Equipment Company, of Armenian Street, Madras.

Although I have not myself seen the offices of this company, I am fairly sure it continues to exist. It must be somewhere upstairs in one of those buildings on Armenian Street, trying to stay relevant for the office supplies and 'requisites' of the day. 

Considering that no one below the age of 40 has conceivably never seen a cyclostyle machine, it would be fair to say that as a business, nothing on the right of this sign is left, these days!

Early design

Of course, there are still many parts of Chennai where you can get to see people like her. But make sure you get there early in the morning!

Umbrella

A few weeks ago at Pallikaranai, I was fooled into thinking that the Forest Department had erected an observation tower, only to find out that it was just a water tank. But this one did not have any such surprises. What looked like rest-stop, with this thatch roof and a bench, was just that. It is the only one on the banks of the Pallikaranai marsh. It must have been the Foresters who had this put up. 

I just hope that there will be a few more such. And that they do not turn it into a lakeside eating joint or something!

Abandonded

On Vellala Street in Purasaiwalkam, there are a few buildings which appear to have been residences at some time. Most of them appear to be of the 1930s vintage, giving us an idea of what the street must have looked like in those days. At least one of them has been given over to a temple, while one other houses a shop.  

This one seemed particularly lonely. Maybe it was the fresh colours of its neighbour that made the exposed brickwork even more vulnerable. In a few years, this would have come crumbling down; and there would be one less building to show us what street would have looked like in the 1930s!