What happens when you decide, on a whim, that you will rediscover Mount Road in one afternoon? You set out armed with a heavy but wonderful book on Madras’ Architectural Heritage and a pocket size digital camera. You remind yourself that your original purpose to ride along Mount Road was to complete an odd job near Island Grounds. But then you are cheaply delighted that you hit upon the idea of converting an errand into a joyride. “Oh yeah, I am getting a ride anyway and I am being smart at utilizing it so well”, you tell yourself.

There you are, having turned onto Mount Road from TNagar at the busy Nandanam junction, gaping in surprise at the empty and I mean really empty road. “Isn’t this the arterial road in Chennai? The one that stretches 13km and has been the lifeline of commerce, communication, entertainment and easy accessibility since the 17th century?” Memory’s archive files tell you that Mount Road was built, perhaps it evolved, in the 1600s soon after the Fort was set up as the hub of business. This road was named Mount Road for the simple reason that it connected the Fort, on the north-east, to the base of St.Thomas Mount.


When the age of commerce flourished in the 1850s, Mount Road became the centrepiece of ‘commercial architecture’ and the Round Tana was surrounded by several buildings, some of which, though old and worn, still remain, like the Art Deco place Curzon & Co and the Colonial style P.Orr & Sons.

You sit alert and poised in your seat, ready to capture any fragment sprayed with history or at the very least interest. Oh yeah, you are careful to avoid licence plates when you take shots of traffic, you also ignore the scowl that a few people offer when they incorrectly assume that you are trying to take their picture. Nah, you are not the stalking, secret admirer kinds, but they don’t know that do they? Hush, we are digressing. Where were we? Right, we were talking about the pictures. You actually end up clicking thirty seven of them. Not bad I say. For a 15 minute ride, you do well.

From the Nandanam junction the ride towards Fort St.George, though you don’t venture that far and stop near the Island Grounds, stops and sallies past several landmarks of Chennai on the cue of traffic lights. You look out at Anna Arivalayam on the right, Kamarajar Arangam a little further on the left, and the many lighting accessories shops that dot the sidewalk before the road curves and then straightens upward to flyover the Cathedral Road – Nungambakkam High Road junction below. The downward stretch leads you to the older part of Mount Road easing onto Thousand Lights Mosque on the right. Oh wait, you know what you try now? You put your head out and imagine that you can take a picture of the mosque above the heads of the many commuters. You don’t succeed too well and all you get is a shot of the grey curving wall.

You finally see reasonable traffic to convince you it is the road you think it is. You now keep moving all over the rear seat trying to click at the flying snapshots on both sides. Spencers Plaza, Higginbothams, Tarapore Towers, Bharat Insurance Building, Bombay Halwa House, Pallavan Transport Corporation office all whiz past as your head spins. You sigh in relief when you see Sir Munro posing elegantly on his horse because you have arrived at your destination. You mess up a lot of pictures but you do salvage a few. I see you are getting tired of having me tell you all you have to do when you decide to act on a whim. Go on, finish this yourself. Seriously, go on.

Sigh, what a ramble! Anyway folks, it was one wonderful ride. And my errand did not seem all that bad you know. Mount Road, renamed (like a zillion other things) Anna Salai a while ago, is indeed a pleasure to explore; even if you have lived in this city for several years. If it were December or January (the only months when Chennai’s weather is comfortable), I would have suggested a nice walk along Mount Road. But we are in the wrong month. So a ride it will have to be. Try it one nice afternoon…on a whim.