If these are the kinds of campuses that the IT majors are putting up in Chennai, I am sure a lot of those Chennai-loving folks who are working in the IT industry abroad will go “(same color of the grass in front of the building)” with envy :-). Wow, what a beauty!
Wipro campus in Chennai (above)
Xansa campus in Chennai (above)
(Picture courtesy and more pictures from this site.)
When Rathna Cafe, the famous Triplicane based eatery, opened a branch in T Nagar several months ago, it created a flutter in my family. Suddenly the usually calm elders of the family all got excited. It appeared that every one of them had a story to share - about fluffy hot idlis served with piping hot sambhar (”fusht klash” theriyuma It was first class you know), delicious vadai dipped in sambhar, pongal dripping in ghee and accompanied by sambhar and so on. I noticed that sambhar kept recurring in all their stories.
Not one to let go of an opportunity to know, I asked the eldest to tell me more. He said that Rathna Cafe used to serve unlimited sambhar, the then equivalent of bottomless Coke, along with every South Indian tiffin item. And then came the icing, “the server walked around with the sambhar bucket and he poured it out on our leaf with a steel mug” added Grandpa. Steel mug and sambhar in a bucket? Since I had never managed a visit to the original Rathna Cafe, I decided that the new one in T Nagar had to be visited and the sight of the bottomless sambhar matched with the one in my imagination.
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Not very far from the very beginnings of the city of Chennai, nee Madras, is LingiChetty street is a little gem of a temple. Built around 1000 years ago, this temple houses the Mallikeswara swamy, or the lord of Jasmine blooms. Legend has it that a Chola king, out hunting in this area, came upon a bunch of Jasmine shrubs. The king orders his soldiers to clear up the weeds and create a beautiful garden around the jasmine shrubs. When this is done, they discover a Shivalingam buried under sand. Hence the name for this place - Man-Adi.
The king immediately orders a temple to be built around the lingan, and thus is born Mallikeswaran temple in Manadi, Chennai.
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Master card has a series of ads which documents the priceless moments of our lives, I decided to write down the moments of Chennai life which are forever engrained my memories, something that I can never forget and will always miss.
Waking up at 5 am on a Sunday morning, starting my bike, crusing down Cathedrals Road with the cool wind in my face, and no traffic. Reaching the beach, marking my terrortiy for cricket, and defending it against other who also wish to play cricket. Playing cricket till it gets hot, cooling off with a glass of lime juice at palimar juice stall….absolute bliss!!!
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Chennai-boy Achanta Sharath Kamal boosted India’s medal tally in the Commonwealth Games with an impressive win the Men’s Final of the Table Tennis event. Sharath Kamal earlier played an important role in engineering India’s win in the team event. This is the first time an Indian paddler has won the singles event.
Sharath works as an Officer with the Indian Oil Corporation in Chennai. Sharath trains at YMIA in Mylapore. Sharath’s dad Srinivasa Rao and uncle Muralidhara Rao are well known coaches Table Tennis coaches in Chennai.
With property prices at an all-time high, it was quite natural to expect big name developers to announce township projects on the lines of those that exist overseas and also in some other parts of India. Given that the city centre is already crowded, let’s hope that more such townships come up on the outskirts of the city.
Call them what you will. Community living spaces or gated communities are the new buzzwords in the city.
Large land banks are being developed into townships with clubhouses, gardens, walking tracks and swimming pools, and often equipped with round-the-clock security and a CCTV connection for every apartment. These townships target the upwardly mobile, double income families who are willing to pay a premium for security and hygienic surroundings.
The latest off the block is the Rs 300 crore deal by the Ozone Group, which acquired 43 acres near Anna Nagar. The company plans to develop 5.5 million sq ft of built-up space, which includes an integrated township with over 2,000 apartments, an information technology park and a shopping mall.
One of the key constraints in making people move to these townships would be the availability of public / private transport facilities. I’m not sure whether the developers are doing something in this aspect as well.
I went over to Chamiers for a cup of cappuccino. Unfortunately, I forgot both my camera and my sketchbook, so I bring you this image from the back of a napkin.
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.
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Pic Courtsey CHennai Best
Pudupet in Chennai is synonymous with automobile mechanics. For bullet maniacs like me this is the region where the legendry bullet mechanic Jaffer has his workshop, I don’t go to him, but another mechanic, I’ve heard friends swear by Jaffer. The shops are the typical roadside mechanic sheds, but trust me these guys perform some of the best customization on bullets, some awesome stuff.
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Sir Thomas Munro was a governor of the Madras presidency during the British Raj. A person who understood the dynamics of the British occupation in India and the role of the Company and the Crown in Indian lives.
Mr. Muthiah, the city’s famed historian quotes Sir Thomas Munro
“Your rule is alien and it can never be popular. You have much to bring to your subjects, but you cannot turn India into England or Scotland. Work through, not in spite of, native systems and native ways, with a prejudice in their favour rather than against them; and when in the fullness of time your subjects can frame and maintain a worthy Government for themselves, get out and take the glory of the achievement and the sense of having done your duty as the chief reward of your exertions.”
He was also an able administrator, and was involved in a lot of developmental projects. Just one of the reasons villagers named their first born son “Munrolappa” a long time after his death. Even today, the City of Chennai pays tribute to this administrator. With a statue right smack in the middle of Mount Road, emerging out of the fort.
Sculpted by Francis Chanterey, and sitting proud and straight on his horse, in the middle of Chennai’s famed Island, is The Stirrupless Majesty. Either due to an oversight, or depicting his affinity for bareback riding, Sir Thomas Munro’s statue shows him without saddle and stirrup.
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