Free school

I have not been able to find out who exactly TP Ramasamy Pillai was, but he seems to have been quite generous to the cause of education. He must have lived on General Collins Road, for there is a house on the road with his name on the gatepost. The house itself is set back from the road, and the large gates open into a driveway up to the house. Rather foreboding, it seemed to me.

The gates of this building are nothing like that; these are smaller, and much more inviting, the way a school ought to be. These are the gates to the Sree Thiruvoteeswarar Free High School, which is run by a Trust of the same name. That Trust was endowed by Ramasamy Pillai. and the school provides fee education to a rather limited number of students. Going by some of the websites aggregating such information, the school has anything from 15 to 37 students enrolled in classes 6 to 12. Those sites also say that the number of teachers range from 2 to 6. That no doubt gives the school a fairly decent teacher:pupil ratio, but with only two (or three) classrooms in the school, how would they accommodate so many grades?

Be that as it may, one hopes that the school, supposedly established in 1947, is able to hold its own in the years ahead!

Corner house

This house, at the corner of Venkatesa Bakhtan Street and Perambur Barracks Road, looks like it has seen several monsoons.

I have no idea whose house is it, nor anything else about this building. It is just that as I passed by it, I noticed that one side had almost collapsed and seemed to be held in place by a lot of bricks propping the wall up. The rest of the building may soon follow suit. 

Couldn't come away without a picture of this building - I can imagine how grand it would have been, back in the day, dominating this part of the city!

Off season

Summer-time is fruit-time. And there are quite a few fruits on display here. And different varieties  of some of them, too. 

But you can easily tell this photo is not recent. How? 

What kind of a summer fruit display would ignore the National Fruit of India! Tell us now, which is your favourite variety of mango?  

Tower, towers

It might now be dwarfed by the residential apartments in the background, but this red-brick tower was once the centrepiece of India's first institution to train teachers. 

The absence of any reasonable protection for heritage buildings, especially those owned by the government, has seen many wonderful structures laid waste, and this tower is going the same way, by all appearances! 

 

Gate puzzle

From the letters you see here, can you make out the name of the establishment that this gate allows entry into? 

Easy enough to guess, so I'm not going to give you any further clues. Leave your answer in the comments and maybe a week from now, I'll update this post with the answer!

 

Crowdless corner

Continuing on yesterday's theme, here is a picture of another public space that one would expect to be packed. 

Surprisingly, the foyer of the Chennai Central's has moments of emptiness!

Quiet road

If anyone tells you that Chennai roads are manic, show them this picture! 

 

Forerunner

One could argue that this is the spot from where Chennai's tryst with regional cuisines really took off. Nair's Mess is older for sure, but tucked away in Triplicane, it catered to a very niche clientele. This location, across the road from the Music Academy was an unorthodox choice by Ravikumar Reddy to set up a non-vegetarian, Andhra-food only restaurant. When it opened on December 14, 1980, the kutcheri season was about to start; it would have been unreasonable to assume that the carnatic music aficionados would make a beeline to eat non-veg food. 

But Amaravathi has thrived. Ravikumar's bet has paid off quite handsomely; Amaravathi has been the font for his firm to open several other specialty restaurants, mainly in the same neighbourhood. Kabul, for the NWF cuisine, Karaikudi for Chettinad stuff and quite a few others. 

Maybe Amaravathi has been un-ambitious by remaining a single-location brand. But maybe because of this, the brand has not been copied by wannabes. So you can be sure that when you get to Amaravathi, you are at the original!

Old favourite

Namakkal would probably top the list of (hen's) egg-producing districts in the country. The undivided state of Andhra Pradesh contributed to almost a third of India's eggs, but before and after its split, the second spot has been held by Tamil Nadu, with a little over 20 billion eggs a year. When you consider that Namakkal accounts for 80% of this, you might be able to figure out its importance in the egg world. 

On sweets, however, Namakkal would not be the first name that comes to mind. I can't think of any sweet that can claim a Geographical Indication tag for Namakkal, but these folks seem to be staking a claim for kamarkattu to be it. That's my fancy, of course, for they only claim to have originated from Namakkal, from the legacy of Namakkal Sellappa, whose sweets have been around since 1987, according to the founders of this shop.

Kamarkattu is a start-up; keeping with the times, they're bringing old flavours in organic fashion. They give no indication of having been badly hit by the pandemic. Set up in 2018 by Chandru and Carthic, both from Namakkal, Kamarkattu has expanded to five outlets in Chennai. The city seems to be their only market for the moment, but surely Kamarkattu can find takers in many other locations!

 

The pillar

It was World Heritage Day yesterday; because I had asked a question about a monument within the city yesterday, I'm posting two pictures today in honour of the day. They are both from West CIT Nagar, where Mambalam meets Saidapet. Towards the end of the 18th century, the Long Tank was very long, and the spillover would flow across Mount Road, looking to connect with the Mylapore Tank on the east. This was very much of an inconvenience to the general public; since 1726, when Coja Petrus Uscan bequeathed a bridge across the Adayar less than a kilometre away, the public had become used to fording that waterway. A new watercourse, even if it was mainly a feature of the monsoons, had to be crossed. 

Cue Adrian Fourbeck, a merchant who was an "old resident of Madras". There is little information about the life of the man himself, but that he was pensioned off as a Gunroom Crewman of Fort St George (with a pension of 1-14-0 pagodas) in 1740. He must have been a shrewd merchant, for by the time he passed away in 1783, he had made enough to bestow his fellow citizens a bridge across the canal. Petrus Uscan's bridge half a century earlier had cost around 30,000 pagodas. Even if Adrian's bridge cost only a tenth of that, it was still a princely sum. 

Fourbeck's legacy was built by the executors of his will, T. Pelling, L. de Fries and P. Bodkin, according to plans made by Lt. Col. Patrick Ross, then Chief Engineer of Fort St. George. Their names, as well as that of the Governor of Fort St. George, Maj. Gen. Sir Archibald Campbell, were inscribed on a four-sided pillar, which marked the bridge's inauguration in 1786. While one side had the entire description in English, the other sides had its translations in Tamizh, Latin and Persian. The foundation stone of the bridge erected by Coja Petrus Uscan is out in the open, part of the Chennai Metro's fencing now. The bridge itself has been replaced by the Maraimalai Adigal bridge of the 1960s. Of Adrian's bridge, nothing remains but the pillar, which is today protected by a wall and fencing, and is inside the State Highways Department's office!

The exact location: 13.024642297473248, 80.22863700289777

Waiting, lonely

A part of TTK Road, between the KB Dasan Road and Seethammal Road, has been blocked off for vehicular traffic, thanks to the Chennai Metro's construction spree. 

Most businesses along that stretch have seen a drop in their clientele. Access, parking, all of it is difficult and will likely get more so as the construction progresses. 

For now, Ronald McDonald is sitting alone, contemplating life in McDonaldland, I guess!

Construction site

The onset of spring sees a lot of home-building activity across the animal kingdom, and wasps are no exception to this. Within the huge number of insects that are classified as 'wasps', there are vastly differing nest-building behaviours. A large majority of wasp species are solitary, and their dwellings are no more than a hole-in-the-wall (or ground). It is the eusocial wasp species - almost all of them belonging to the Vespidae family - which build elaborate nests with an egg-laying queen and many worker-drones. 

The main raw material for a wasp's nest is some kind of plant fibre, which it chews up to produce a layer of material around an empty space. Further layers are added (there is a fascinating paper on the complexity of nest building, extract here) and sometimes, the honeycomb pattern emerges. More often, the patterns are different, though. It is common enough to see huge honeycombs in the city, but rare to see a large wasp nest. 

These wasps, most likely of the Polistinae sub-family, make rather compact nests. These are usually seen under plant leaves, or on building crevices; I couldn't recall seeing wasp nests on telephone / TV cables. But then, come to think of it, the ones on plants were usually grey-white, and paper-like in texture, whereas the ones attached to buildings were more brown and of a mud-like consistency. Maybe they were made by different species, but for now, it would interesting to track what kind of nest this one will eventually turn out to be!

Wedding finery

At a wedding hall; the ceiling looked quite grand and I couldn't resist taking this picture. For a change, I've managed to get a lot of symmetry on this!

 

A pillar

Here is a challenge for all of you. It is going to be World Heritage Day on April 18. On that day, watch out for my tweet at Shantaram on Twitter and answer the question that's going to come up there.

You get the advantage if you figure out where this signboard is. It is very much in Chennai city, in a place that has a very high traffic flow. The traffic is so heavy that hardly anyone notices this sign. 

Go for it!

 

Name connect

This is the gatepost of a Chennai residence. The name has remained unchanged since it was built in 1919. 

Question is: which person makes a connect between this gatepost and Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar who was born on this day in 1891?

ɐᴉpuI ⅎo uoᴉʇnʇᴉʇsuoϽ ǝɥʇ ⅎo ǝǝʇʇᴉɯɯoϽ ƃuᴉʇⅎɐɹᗡ ǝɥʇ ⅎo sɹǝqɯǝɯ ǝɹǝʍ ɥʇoꓭ .ʍɐʅ uɐᴉpuI puɐ suoᴉʇnʇᴉʇsuoɔ s╻pʅɹoʍ ǝɥʇ ⅎo ǝƃpǝʅʍouʞ pǝʅǝʅʅɐɹɐdun uɐ pɐɥ oɥʍ ǝuoǝɯos sɐ ɹɐʞpǝqɯ∀ .ɹᗡ ʎq pǝpɹɐƃǝɹ sɐʍ ʻǝɹǝɥ pǝʌᴉʅ oɥʍ ʻɹǝʎI ʎɯɐʍsɐuɥsᴉɹꓘ ᴉpɐʅʅ∀

A drain runs through it

The Nandanam Canal is one of the minor storm-water drainways of Chennai city. The total length of these storm-water drains is about 50 km; the Nandanam Canal probably contributes about 2 km to that. In recent years, its length has been slightly truncated because the Chennai Metro diverted a part of it to make way for the underground passage between Saidapet and Nandanam stations. 

We must remember that about a century ago, the entire west side of Mount Road from Anna Flyover to Maraimalai Adigalar Bridge was a large waterbody; so large that the only name they could give it was the "Long Tank". When that was filled up to accommodate Madras' growing need for space, someone forgot to inform the rain Gods of this change of plan. It should therefore be no wonder that the T.Nagar area floods at the slightest of rains. 

This drain is part of a larger system intended to take away some of the floodwaters to the Adyar river. Because they remain dry for the better part of the year, storm-water drains such as these have become filled with effluents and even sewage from residential colonies along their banks.  It certainly cannot be part of anyone's ideal of childhood memories, they way the Nandanam Canal currently is, but it has potential; if only it could be cleaned up, with some spots for children to play along its way, then maybe it will be idyllic, too!

Who owns?

There is this rather grand-looking entrance on Perambur High Road which gives off an appearance of not having been used for a few decades. On the left, there is a sign which proclaims Imran Husain as being the owner of this property. While there is no evident counter to that sign, the larger sign on the right talks about M Bilal Husain & Co. No mention of Imran there. And on the gatepost, the name is of M. Nazir Husain, adding to the mystery. 

The logo on the gate follows the larger sign. So at some point, this was unquestionably a key part of MBH & Co. The logo references a cattle hide, so some connection with the leather trade. Backing that up is the presence of a MBH & Co in Guindy, which deals with leather goods. It might not be the same MBH we see here, but the balance of probability goes the other way. 

Sadly, there is not much I have been able to learn about MBH the business, or about the individuals whose names are all seen in the picture. I hope the ownership question gets sorted out soon and the firms can go about their business in peace very soon!

 

Small and white

I don't know enough to recognize which Jain sect has established which temple, but I will hazard a guess that both the Shwetambars and the Digambars would have their shrines in white. This one at the corner of Mathala Narayanan Street in Mylapore, however, declares itself to be a Shwetambar temple. 

Vasupujya Swami was the 12th of the Tirthankaras. The 24th, Mahavira lived in the 6th century CE, so Vasupujya could have been the reigning tirthankara of the 2nd or 3rd century CE. 

Once again, if you thought Mylapore was only for maamas and maamis, here is more proof of the multi-religious makeup of the place!

 

Protein fix

There are some stereotypes that take a long while to go away. One such is the image of the south Indian as a vegetarian. Maybe most will describe themselves as such, for there are relatively still very few who eat meat every day of the week.

Sundays are most often meat days; and stalls like this one in the Saidapet market, make a killing that day. It might not look very hygienic, but this is where a majority of the non-vegetarians would shop. The meat is fresh, and the shopkeepers know what you are looking for. Anything from 100g to a few kilos is easily provided for!

 

Walled garden

A house in Mylapore. Even if it looks quite compact from the outside, it is expansive enough to have a garden inside. Would have loved to find out more, but it isn't polite to peep into houses, so just this one photo will have to do!

 

Old society

The Madras Mahajana Sabha's building on Anna Salai today seems to reflect an organisation that has always been interested in providing reasonable accommodation for its members (and maybe others) who are visiting the city. But those 8 characters below the building's name should be a clue to the antiquity of the association itself. It is considered a catalyst to the founding of the Indian National Congress, which came up a year after the MMS was established. However, it seems to have been more of a parallel organisation, supporting the Congress when it was proscribed, and fronting for it on occasion. 

The founders of the Madras Mahajana Sabha, M. Veeraraghavachariar, G. Subramania Iyer and Panapakkam Anandacharlu were concerned about the British hold over India and had in their own ways been agitating against the colonisers. Subramania Iyer and Veeraraghavachariar were two of the co-founders of "The Hindu" and therefore the initial office of the Sabha was at the premises of The Hindu. 

Over the first couple of decades of the 20th century, the Sabha grew closer to the Indian National Congress; today, many of the Sabhas early leaders are described as stalwarts of the Congress. It was convenient to have this kind of a twin identify, for whenever the Congress had to go quiet, the Mahajana Sabha stepped up to fill the breach, at least within the Madras town and other parts of the Madras Presidency. Today, this building is the most visible reminder of the Sabha!

Quiet mosque

When we think about Mylapore, the first images that come to mind are of the traditional maamas  and maamis, along with the temples they visit. We should not forget however that Mylapore has a history of its own, having been known to the Ptolemic world as Millarpha or Meliapore. Therefore it should not be a surprise to learn that Mylapore has within it places of worship belonging to faiths other than Hinduism.

One such is the Jumma Masjid on Kutchery Road, which predates even the much better known Big Mosque of Triplicane. The latter is a late-18th century creation, while the former has been in use since at least 1699, almost a century earlier. Even though some of the walls, and the dome of the mosque has been damaged due to water seepage - and general passage of the years, one assumes, the mosque itself continues to be a hub of action for the area. 

And it would well be a hub these days, as we are well into the month of Ramadan. This photo was taken on a Sunday a few years ago, so it does not give you any sense of the hubbub around this place today!

Double-header

Quick - can you tell me which side does this snake have its head? If you are not able to make out, do not worry. You are not alone. There are very many who will give you company in this. 

Called the இருதலை மணியன் (two-headed manian) in Tamizh, the Red Sand Boa uses this feature as an effective means of confusing any threat. By the time the threatening animal realises which end is which, the boa has disappared into a hole in the sand!

One in Multan

It was while getting yesterday's post ready that I realised I have not talked about the Ripon Building at all. I have skirted around the theme, including a post about the man the building is named after. 

Will have to satisfy myself with a rather poor picture of the building for now. There is a better one on this blog; that doesn't talk about the building itself, though. Will have to wait another day for the Ripon Building - remember, I'm not going to talk about the one in Multan, though! 

 

Colour and tricolour

On my way to the Chennai Central station to take a train out tonight. Got rather excited at seeing the Ripon Building all lit up, but this is all I could get of it on my phone.

Maybe the colours were to mark Mahavir Jayanti, though I would have assumed white to have been the colour of choice in that case. The Ripon Building was fitted out with a 'dynamic lighting' system in June last year. A little over 200 light-units have been placed around the building, each of which could take on various combinations of the primary colours red, green and blue. Had thought of checking out the building on Independence Day last year, but missed that and also this year's Republic Day, both of which would have seen the building decked out in the tricolour. 

Sheer coincidence then, that my scramble to click a picture also got a tricolour painted on the wall of the bridge. I have no idea how I managed to get all of these in one shot!

 

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. 

The Eater's Digest - 12

The Nair Mess at Triplicane is over 60 years old. I am unable to indulge in nostalgia for what it was like, because for the longest time, I was not able to make it there for lunch. I have heard innumerable tales of how crowded it would be at lunchtime, and how the food there was to die for. And then, the place went and renovated itself, so there was now an opportunity for a level playing field. 

Still, it took a bunch of schoolmates to push me to get there. The instructions we were told were very clear. Be there by 12:55 pm. If you can't make it in time, then turn back, go away. Nervous about showing up late, we used the map to guide us. The map showed us where to park and how to walk in. But having parked on Walajah Road, it was not easy to get to the place. The map gave up, but our hunger must have showed on our face, for even before we could ask for directions, we were pointed in the right direction. Schoolmates, for a change, did not taunt us for being just that bit late; they had got in and held two seats for us, as we walked in at 12:58. The place was relatively empty, with only 3 or 4 of the 20-odd tables having diners at them.

In the 3-4 minutes it took us to complete our hellos, every table was full up and there was a crowd of people waiting to be seated. And yet, we never felt rushed. There is not much of a menu; you better know what they can serve you at lunch time and you ask for it. The waiters will remind you of several sides that you might like to order to enjoy the experience to the fullest, but they're happy even if you go for just the simple mutton-meal or fish-meal. We did gorge, and some of my foodie friends reminded me that even if the building has been renovated, the menu and the preparation continues to remain the same: a wonderfully flavoured set of dishes that fills you up, but never lets you feel bloated. That's a grand meal, for sure!

Replica

Built between 1951 and 1960, this church, Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Perambur, was designed as a replica of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Haute Pyrenees in France. The Grotto of Massabielle  is the place in Lourdes where Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old girl, later to become St Bernadette had 18 visions of Mother Mary between February 11 and July 16, 1858. 

It was around 1935 that the parish priest of Perambur, Fr. Michael Murray had the idea of establishing a shrine of significance in the parish. His zeal in collecting funds for this led the then Archbishop of Madras to put his weight behind the project; it seems to have been his suggestion to the architect Chevalier Davies KSG, that the shrine be modelled on the Lourdes church. There is not much to be found about Chevalier Davies, possibly because his first name has been supplanted by the title, which in my fancy was conferred on him for his work on this shrine. 

Fr. Alfred Mariotta, succeeded Fr. Murray in 1947. He seems to have been cut from a slightly different cloth than his predecessor, for the church's website says that Fr. Mariotta used up as much energy as Fr. Murray, but gave off noticeably less heat. The quiet way in which he worked to get land for this church seems to have mystified everyone. The website says, "..with what process of cajolery, reasoning, bargaining or persuasion he secured the different slices of land, no one will ever know!", but one day, the parishioners woke up to find the land was ready. And then the church was built; it echoes the three spires of the Lourdes Sanctuary, but replaces their sharpness with gentle domes. Like the one at Lourdes, this one too has a lower basilica, the Basilica of the Rosary and an upper basilica, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Lourdes also has an underground basilica, the Basilica of St Pius X - as far as I can see, that wasn't built into the design here!

 

Teatime

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

Bright prospects

In the full year of the pandemic, Fabindia saw its operative revenue fall by about a third, which still put it above the Rs.1,000 cr mark. Their profits nosedived and the bottomline turned red, though. It was only to be expected, with many of their 309 stores across the country remaining closed for a significant part of the year. But this has been a small setback in the growth of this 62-year old firm. Started by an American, John Bisell, in 1960 as a home-furnishings exporter, Fabindia today retails fabrics, garments, furniture, foods and personal care products. The idea of the firm is to provide a platform for traditional garment (and handicrafts, furniture, foods) makers. They have been doing it successfully enough to contemplate an IPO; given the choppy state of the stock markets today, that IPO which was scheduled to open on February 27 this year, has been pulled back. 

Chennai's first Fabindia store - for a very long time, the only one in the city - was opened on Woods Road sometime in the 1990s. It was in a building that was built sometime in the early 20th century and had an old-world charm, but also the staid feel that goes with some of such spaces. Over the past 10-15 years, many more outlets were opened in Chennai. 

One such was this one at the junction of TTK Road and Eldams Road. It is a 4-storey building completely dedicated to Fabindia and has all its products, including a cafe on the top floor. Sitting up there, it is a decent view of the roads below, and looking on to the CP Ramaswamy Iyer Road flyover. It is also a nice view from below, once the lights come on. With a lot of glass on its facade, we can look right in to the products on display and the chic people shopping there!

 

Treepie

From the family of crows and magpies, here is one that is endemic to India. The Rufous Tree-pie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) is a noisy bird, but one that is quick to make friends with humans. Like other members of the Crow family (Corvidae) it is extremely adaptable and an opportunistic feeder, which makes it difficult to dislodge.

Though it has a wide variety of calls, the ones we are most often subject to is the plaintive screech; thankfully it has other calls as well. But from this one, which visits our surroundings almost every day, does not deign to speak to us in anything other than its complaining tone!

Behind the wall

The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (the Sisters of the Good Shepherd) was founded in 1835 by St. Mary Euphrasia, (born Rose Virginie Pelletier) who believed that education should bring out the best in every aspect of humans. In the 33 years between her founding the Congregation and her death, St. Mary managed to also establish 110 convents in 35 countries, which has now expanded to 72 countries.

The Sisters set up their schools in many places. One such was in Madras, almost 100 years ago. Given that the Nungambakkam area was not a crowded space, it is possible that the school continues to operate from the same space it was founded in. For some time, it must have been a co-educational school; in the 1920s, there would not have been enough girls going to school to make it viable. By the 1960s/70s, however, Good Shepherd had become a girls-only school. We used to go past the school's walls on the way to our school, quite a distance away. Those days, the walls seemed to be 100-foot high, but I guess they'd have at best been 20-foot tall. At that height, it was impossible to find out what was going on behind those high walls. On the few occasions when we were allowed permission to enter Good Shepherd, it seemed to be the same as our school. But we were sure there was more hidden.

Not any longer, I guess. Going past the Good Shepherd a couple of months ago (the walls are considerable shorter than they then were), I found I could look right through to the grounds of the school. That relentless Chennai Metro has taken over a portion of the school grounds; the Sterling Road station on the proposed Purple Line (Madhavaram to SIPCOT) is to be built underground here. Thankfully for the children of the Good Shepherd school, their playground has been spared; one of the smaller buildings on the edge has been brought down. The girls can continue to enjoy their playtime - I'm sure the walls will come up again, soon!

Celebrate the stage

Today is the World Theatre Day, a day of celebration for those who see the value and importance of theatre as an art form. These celebrations were instituted in 1962, but celebration of theatre has been going on in this venue since at least 1906. That was the year when Suguna Vilas Sabha staged their play Kaadalar Kangal here. Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar, the founder of Suguna Vilas Sabha and a pioneer of Tamizh theatre, introduced the 'evening show' to the Madras audience here. That was quite a change from the then prevalent practice of having plays between late night and early dawn; the revised timings attracted the 'family audience' which Sambandha Mudaliar's works catered to.

But those were not the only ones. Shakespeare (how can one forget the bard on this day!) would have found it difficult to follow the dialogues in Jwalita Ramanan or Vannipurathu Vanigan even as he recognised their plots. For the actors got on stage to speak in Tamizh; and Jwalita (Juliet), Ramanan (Romeo), Shylock, the vanigan (merchant) of Vannipuram made their way into the populace of Madras. 

It might look very unlike a drama theatre now; but as it gets restored fully, one hopes this stage at the Victoria Public Hall will be able to host a show or three on one of the World Theatre Days this decade!

 

Home away

Between September and November of 2018, two facilities were opened in Chennai. They were named after two other states and symbolised a 'home' which residents of those states could expect to find when they visit Chennai. I expect this was necessary because Chennai has long been vilified - without much basis - as being unwelcoming of people from other parts of the country. 

Even ignoring that aspect, it is good to see the Odisha Bhawan and Assam Bhawan, close to each other on the Velachery-Tambaram Road. The feel of similarly named buildings in Delhi is very different. Meant as liaison offices for the governments of various states in the national capital, they reek of officialdom and power. These bhawans appear rather different, more down to earth and accessible by the regular residents of the states during their visits to Chennai. 

While they do have some rooms / suites meant for dignitaries, one could request for transit residence at Assam Bhawan by emailing the resident commissioner. And for the Odisha Bhawan, you could email them; what is even more interesting is that the Odisha Bhawan puts out the list of people who have been allotted accommodation on a regular basis! 

 

Another show

Back on stage for another show (of Lakshmikanthan) with The Madras Players. Today was the first time many of us were performing in this auditorium. This one did not have a second curtain that the play required, so a jury-rigged one was put in place. 

With the lights on the other side, we found that we could take pictures of the hall getting filled up. It was another full house tonight!

White label

The phrase "white label" is used for a product that is exactly the same, except for the brand that goes on the white, or blank label. When it comes to performance spaces, however, the term for such a space that is not identified directly by a sabha or troupe is black box. 

Medai, in Alwarpet, is one such performance space. Black box spaces are sparsely decorated (if at all), configurable and offer a very intimate interaction with the audience. The space itself is painted entirely black. There is seating for about 70-80 people. When these people come in to watch a performance, they get to see this on the wall going up to the black box. And then they realise that there is more at work here rather than anywhere else!

New age space

Back in the day when Perungudi was way beyond Madras city, there was a factory here manufacturing paints. The Tata Group had acquired this through Forbes Gokak taking over the shareholding of the parent company Goodlass Nerolac sometime in the mid 1970s. By 1999, the Tatas had relinquished their entire holdings to Kansai Paints of Japan. This factory in Perungudi was not really high priority for Kansai and by 2013, manufacturing activities were shut down, and a voluntary retirement scheme had provided a reasonable severance package to those workers who remained. 

Within a couple of years, the land on which the factory stood, a little over 15 acres, had been acquired by the Brigade Group, which began developing that as a mixed use space: about 18 lakh sft of office space, conference / exhibition centres, hotel and residential towers. With this plan, it became a part of the WTCA and so the Brigade World Trade Center became one of the 37 WTCs in India (incidentally, India has 4 more WTCs than China, and the maximum number in Asia). 

Only the office space has been completed; the rest of the complex is still under construction. It is somehow fitting that the WTC will further enhance the status of OMR as the place to be for new-age / tech firms. In the days of Nerolac, this part of Chennai was seen as a place for industrial light-weights; big guns like Ashok Leyland, Enfield, Ennore Foundries were at the other end of the city. Now, north Chennai is not a go-to place for tech firms, but if a tech firm doesn't have offices on OMR, well, it runs the risk of being thought of as a non-serious player in the industry!

Port view

Was supposed to visit the Dare House today for a meeting. With the ODI between Australia and India happening at Chennai today, the traffic arrangements would have meant a roundabout route and having to spend more time on the road than usual.

Luckily, we agreed to have the meeting over video-conference. Which meant that I could not look out of the windows of the Dare House to the Chennai Port today. This photo from a couple of years ago, from the terrace of Dare House, will have to substitute!

Airguns, anyone

Not on the normal shopping list, but there have to be a few places where one can get guns in Chennai, right? 

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...

Sudden turn

In the 1930s and early 1940s, CN Lakshmikanthan was the man who made the who's who of Madras society nervous. Movie stars, prominent socialites, industrialists, even politicians and lawyers were not spared his attention. As a journalist running a film weekly Cinema Thoothu (and later when Cinema Thoothu was banned, Hindu Nesan), Lakshmikanthan had almost perfected the art of extorting money with the thread of publishing scandalous stories about his targets. Most of them paid up, but there were some who were repeated frustrated by him. 

Things came to a head on the morning of November 8, 1944. Lakshmikanthan was returning home after a visit to his lawyer. He had the hand-rickshaw go through the General Collins Road route back home. This road had a blind turn around which his assailants lay in wait. Two of them stabbed Lakshmikanthan while two other kept watch. It appeared that Lakshmikanthan knew the assailants, event though he did not specify who they were to his lawyer, who arranged for him to be taken to the General Hospital right away. Being made of sterner stuff, Lakshmikanthan decided to file a complaint with the Vepery Police Station before going to the General Hospital.

The wounds were more serious than he realised, or maybe more wounds were inflicted on him. He died early the following morning; a trial for his murder put two famous actors and several others behind bars for a few years before they were determined to be innocent, or at least the beneficiaries of reasonable doubt. If only the walls and the trees on General Collins Road, which would well have been there even 79 years, ago could talk! The mystery of who killed Lakshmikanthan wouldn't have become the sensation it has grown to be through all these decades!

 

Foodwalk

Not for us the food courts; we need to walk around trying out different dishes from multiple cuisines. But most visits to the KC Food Street end up in shawarmas or kababs. 

The "KC" in the name is the abbreviation for Kandanchavadi, which is where this food street is!

 

Royal devotee

The Vaishnavite tradition of south India has 12 Azhwars, saints whose poetic works were laced with ecstatic devotion to Vishnu. It is believed that these Azhwars are human manifestations - avatars, if you will - of various people or objects beloved of Vishnu. Traditionally, Azhwars are thought to have lived between the 5th and the 3rd century BCE, but the spoilsport of science puts their works as having emerged between the 8th and 9th century CE. 

One such Azhwar was born into a royal family of Cheraman Perumal lineage and ruled as Sthanu Ravi Varma between 844 and 870 CE. Abdicating his kingdom after that long reign, during which his devotion to Vishnu was clearly evident, he composed Perumal Tirumozhi in Tamizh and Mukundamala in Sanskrit. 

This building is a shrine to Venkatesa Perumal, and it was established by the Srimath Kulasekara Azhwar Sabha. Maybe they did not want wild speculation about when the Sabha was formed, and that is why the name board of this Sabha, wedged under the centre gable, says clearly they have been around since 1904!

 

Biryani, anyone?

Who was it that had the idea of serving food in a bucket? Not just any food, biryani in particular. Who thought of it first? I am sure it started off as a convenient way of sending out the stuff in bulk, but in the past few years, it has become a thing. However, from what I have been able to figure out, with my limited research, is that the north Indian biryanis don't lend themselves to be parcelled into plastic buckets and carted around; it is only the south Indian variety that gets delivered and eaten by the bucket-load.

Before all of you howl about the best way to eat the best biryani, do remember that it is now a dish that has broken all kinds of norms. Each outlet decides the best combination for their biryani and goes for that, unmindful of what regional version it evokes. And there are hundreds of such outlets in Chennai alone. In 2020, Zomato delivered 22 biryanis every minute; in 2021 they went up to 180 biryanis a minute, and their rival Swiggy claimed that 115 biryanis were ordered every minute. Those are all-India figures, but Chennai's standalone should be pretty much in the same range, I guess. 

And then there are the self-delivering brands, who supplement the Zomato / Swiggy orders with their own delivery teams. One such is the SS Hyderabad Biryani, which started operations in Broadway in 1998 and now has over 25 branches in Chennai, and a few in other cities, besides. Here are a few of their delivery vehicles lined up in front of one of their outlets - exhorting folks to share their biryani; of course, it would be difficult for one person to finish a bucketful of it!

 

Mixing sound

The Multi-track Recording Studio at the facilities of Prasar Bharati's Chennai station has seen all the big names that you can think of in the entertainment industry. All of them would have performed here at some point - mostly the entry / early stage of their careers.

A view from the control room that looks out to the stage; artistes and technicians are testing out the state stuff before the audience enters the room!

Different pattern

Pulicat is the second largest lagoon in the country, after the Chlika Lake. The 759 sqkm covered by the lake is mostly in Andhra Pradesh, with roughly 4% falling under Tamil Nadu. That part has the southernmost part of the lagoon, where it opens to the Bay of Bengal. Close to the mouth of the lagoon, there are a few sand bars which are quite easily accessed - even on foot if one is very adventurous. 

To get to this sandbar, though, we took a boat. Looking out to the east, it was a great sight of the open ocean. And with the waves lapping from both the north and the south, they form an argyle-like pattern around the sand-bar we were on.

Quite different from the waves we get to see on the city beaches!