Old gold

When I saw this sign on South Usman Road, I was fairly sure this 'Best Money Gold' is a one-off operation, a place where the neighbours could go over to pawn their jewels for some decent value. Would you be surprised to know they have over 200 branches across south India? They claim they do, and from what I've been able to find out, it is probably true; they have a fair number of branches over Tamil Nadu and Kerala, at least.

None of them has come to my view, but for this outlet. And now I'm curious to find out more. They claim to be part of a group that has been in business for over 90 years. 

I am sure some deeper digging will reveal their tagline - of being #1 in the country - is also true!

Ripe for picking

I did not think that one would find a cotton plant in Chennai, but the Adyar Poonga surprised me.There was just the one shrub, in flower and showing off a few bolls. Was hugely tempted to pick one, but I'm proud that I managed to resist. 

The genus Gossypium, to which cotton belongs, has over 50 species. That was news to me, because I always thought that cotton was sui generis!

Playing everywhere

It is not just in the multiplexes, even the stand-alone screens are showing only one movie these days!

Sit easy

I know of a few people who would be very uncomfortable going anywhere near this bench, let alone sitting on it.

Which group do you fall into? Open the image in a separate window to zoom in to, before you answer!

Sea harvest

In a way, this is like the picture of fruits I posted a few days ago. And in a way, these are also 'off-season' right now, because of the 61-day fishing ban from 15 April to 14 June. The idea is to keep the industrial fishing boats away and allow the fish stock to be replenished. I'm not sure how this is actually enforced, because I can't imagine how the fisherfolk will manage without any source of income for two months. The government subsidy - or subsistence allowance - may not be adequate. 

Prices have consequently shot up; fresh catch is up by about 40%. Maybe you'll be better off by temporarily changing your diet from fish to fruit. But do keep in mind that if you were French, you would actually call these fruits de mer!

Prime location

They say that location is everything for a hotel. And the junction of Usman Road and Burkitt Road, is a great location to stay at for folks coming in to Chennai to shop for a festival, a wedding or any other occasion. All along Usman Road are shops catering to everything one might need for a wedding, grihapravesam, or any such celebration. 

Hotel Sudhara has been at this location for at least half-a-century, I would guess. The facade seems to be more of an office space than a hotel, but the trick is that it is actually just a facade; step through it to the courtyard inside and the noise drops a few decibels. The well-worn look of the walls make one believe it is the 1960s again. They're pretty self-sufficient with a restaurant and a bar on the inside. The bar was accessible for an impoverished collegian 40 years ago, but I don't think any of today's college kids would go there. 

It is not always that the road in front of Hotel Sudhara is so empty; but looking at this here, it is easy to believe the claim on their website, of being located in a 'serene locality in T. Nagar'. But then, as recently as a few years ago, the owners of this hotel were locked in a dispute with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation; buses from the T. Nagar depot, diagonally across the junction from the hotel, had taken to parking themselves around the hotel in such a way that made it difficult for anyone to get inside. I bet it wouldn't have been so serene then!

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!

Quiet paddle

The scientific name of this bird, the Grey Pelican or the Spot-billed Pelican, is Pelecanus philippensis. This is because an early description of the Spot-billed Pelican was based on a specimen captured at Luzon in the Philippines in the 1760s. The name stuck on, despite evidence which showed that even though the species ranged from Iran through the Indian sub-continent on to Indonesia, these pelicans only bred in peninsular India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

The Grey Pelicans don't seem to be bothered by humans. They have large nesting sites close to human habitations and are quite content even inside cities. Chennai has a fairly large population; it is estimated that their population in southern India is increasing, to the extent that the IUCN has changed its Red-Book classification from "Vulnerable" to "Near Threatened".

Of course, with such a lovely environment as you can get at the Adyar Poonga, these birds are bound to be optimistic about their future. Unlike in the Philippines, where this bird, named for the islands, has been locally extinct since the 1960s!

Done that

There it is, finally. The one movie we've been waiting for. Unlike for part-1, we didn't do a big-crowd early morning show or anything for this. Picked the 7:30 show last evening, and it went on till 10:40 or so. 

This one was at the parking lot of Sathyam Cinemas. Always wondered why they place it in a way that I can only see it on my rear view mirror when I park!

 

Parking up

Any of us who has driven around trying to find a suitable parking spot would be glad to learn of any solution that trebles or even quintuples the number of parking slots available. Multi-level parking solutions are meant to do just that. These systems have been in use for quite a few years now, but they've been mostly out-of-sight-out-of-mind; I'm happy that my car is being parked, but I just don't want to visualise it as having two other vehicles on top of it. And these kind of parking systems obliged for the most part, keeping the sight of cars stacked one over the other well hidden. 

Even the multi-level automated public parking on Pondy Bazaar was housed inside a building that one couldn't see into from the street. You leave your car at the east gate and whenever you're ready, you will get it coming out from the west gate. What goes on inside is something like magic.

It was at the AGS Cinema on GN Chetty Road that I first remember seeing this parking with the skin stripped off. And that seems to be becoming popular now; here is one more such open parking, with 6 levels available. Squeezed into a small space between two flats, it must be for customers of one of the many shops along Usman Road. I would still be nervous seeing my vehicle at the top level of one of these - what about you?!

 

WYSIWY don't get

At the end of the lobby of the Taj Club House, this sign, discreet yet clear, will be of great help to someone who is searching for rest. The sign shows a female figure to the left and a male figure to the right. 

If you are that someone, be warned. You cannot rest yet. If you trust the sign implicitly and rush ahead, you will be headed the wrong way - the hotel has flipped the rooms on you!

Yogi duck

The Indian Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) is distinguished from its eastern cousin in a rather strange way. Despite being from a communist regime, the Chinese Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha) does not have any red colouration on its bill. The Indian fellow, however, has a red path at the base of its bill which clearly distinguishes it from the other one. 

Until 2008 though, both these birds were considered as one species, the Spot-billed Duck. The 'spot' in those days referred to the yellow band which is visible in both species. In some ways it is rather surprising that it took so long for these two birds to be separated out: the powers-that-be of taxonomy are usually prone to changing nomenclature for a different shade of grey. Maybe they missed out the bright red daubed on some bills and not on others.

Or possibly they never saw A. poecilorhyncha do this earlier. Had the ICZN folks seen this duck standing like this, on one leg, they wouldn't have hesitated to add the 'Indian' to its name!

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!