This is not the case with this restaurant alone. There are quite a few places which are like this. There is simply nothing which creates a longing to visit the place again. Rainforest in Adyar, Eden in Besant Nagar, New Yorker in Nungabakkam, Copper Chimney and French Loaf to name a few. This list would include most restaurants in the city.

With the concept of dining gaining prominence, the emphasis on food is being lost I feel. The food should create a longing in me, that sadly is becoming hard to find along with fine dining. The longing is there in Mathsya for instance, otherwise it’s the domain of roadside eateries like idiyappan in Pichupillai street and Brilliant Masala Dosai. This longing is also there in bare bones restaurants like National Lodge or Maris. For now its roadside zindabad.

View slideshow

(I could not get an image of the ships that passed through the Chennai Coast as there was a large turnout for the event and I could not go near the seashore)

They are calling this plan – SECOND MASTER PLAN. The pessimist in me wonders what happened to the First Master Plan. Wonder if it was fully executed.

Vision 2026 is to make Chennai a prime metropolis which will be more livable, economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable and with better assets for the future generations.

Excerpt from the Introduction document

TOC of Second Master Plan

I found more interesting stuff on the site. Some of these stuff actually gives us hope to continue living in Chennai. Checkout the following links for what you can probably expect in the coming years.

1. KOYAMBEDU WHOLESALE MARKET
2. DEVELOPMENT OF WHOLESALE FOODGRAINS MARKET
3. TEXTILE MARKET
4. BIO-METHANATION POWER PLANT PROJECT
5. SATHANGADU IRON & STEEL MARKET
6. DEVELOPMENT OF SATELLITE TOWN AT MARAIMALAINAGAR
7. MADHAVARAM BUS AND TRUCK TERMINAL
8. CHENNAI MUFUSSIL BUS TERMINAL (CMBT) AT KOYAMBEDU
9. CHENNAI CONTRACT CARRIAGE BUS TERMINUS
10. MULTI-LEVEL CAR PARKING COMPLEXES
11. MRTS
12. AIR SPACE EXPLOITATION OVER MRTS  STATIONS  IN PHASE-II
13. OUTER RING ROAD
14. TAMILNADU URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT –III
15. LOCAL BODIES ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME
16. COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

I am really glad that atleast the plans exist. It’s of course an entirely different issue whether anybody is looking at those plans and acting by it.

At Poonamalle High Road on a Sunday Morning two weeks back

At Nandanam Signal on August 4, 2007

Again an image shot at Nandanam Signal yesterday

Traffic held up at Lattice Bridge Road yesterday evening

The wait at Sardar Patel Road near Adyar Terminus

Near Tidel Park. Waiting time reduces as the traffic is light in the IT corridor being a Saturday.

The Vintage Car Rally called My TVS Heritage Motor Rally was flagged off by Letika Saran, Commissioner of Police, Chennai, at Don Bosco School, Casa Major Road, Egmore.

The cars that participated are cars as big as Plymouth Valiant or a Ford Mustang, and also those as pint-sized as a Mini 1000 or an Austin Chummy.

The Hindu reports that for the first time, cars and bikes belonging to outstation club members were brought from Secunderabad, Coimbatore, Salem and Madurai to participate in the parade.

Mr K M Mammen of MRF Ltd with his Dodge (1947) car being interviewed by NDTV today at the Vintage Car Rally at Chennai

Prominent personalities like AVM Saravanan and K M Mammen of MRF were seen at the Rally and their Vintage Cars participating in the rally. I heard an announcement that the car used by MGR participated in the Rally, but I could not identify the car.

Vintage Bikes also participated in the event.

Looks like one of the organiser of the event and a judge awaiting to judge the vintage cars on return from the rally

Most of the cars were looking bright and shining. This shows how much the owners care for these (vintage) cars.

(For more images of the Chennai Vintage Car Rally please visit the set in flickr )

The National Art Gallery in the Museum complex is located in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Chennai.
.

The website of the Government Museum, Chennai http://www.chennaimuseum.org/ has the photograph of the Victorial Memorial Hall in all the pages.

The site plan numbers buildings located in the Museum Complex in the site plan and the National Art Gallery located in the VIctoria Memorial Hall is numbered as 5 in the site plan, which can be seen in the link http://www.chennaimuseum.org/draft/siteplan/naggr.htm

According to the website the following are supposed to be located in the National Art Gallery (Victoria Memorial Hall) :

1. Decorative Art Gallery
2. Tanjore Painting Gallery
3. Indian Traditional Art Gallery
4. Ravi Varma Painting Gallery

When I visited the Government Museum complex last Sunday (March 11, 2007), the photographs posted here were shot.

Another photograph taken at the NAG is posted below :

Now the building is sealed and a notice in Tamil and English says that “The Building is in damaged condition. Visitors are advised not to walk or sit near the building”

Victoria Memorial Hall is known for its historical importance and the architectural style.It is definitely one of the heritage buildings of Chennai and deserves to be maintained in proper condition. There is no mention of the present state of the Victoria Memorial Hall in the website of the Government Museum and the plans of the authorities to renovate / repair the buildings. Will the Museum Authorities / State Government take steps to preserve this wonderful building ?

(with inputs from websites and a personal visit to the premises on March 11, 2007)

But first, a little history. The ever trustful Wikipedia says:

The Library’s beginnings go back to 1861, when hundreds of books were found surplus in the libraries of Haileybury College (where Indian Civilians were trained in England). These books were sent to the Madras Government, which in turn handed them over to the Madras Museum. Conceived on the lines of the British Museum Library, it was part of the Madras Museum till 1890, when the need for ‘a free public library’ prompted the then Governor of Madras, Lord Connemara, to lay the foundation on 22nd March, 1890.

The library was as part of a cultural complex that grew in the grounds of what was once called ‘The Pantheon’. The entire complex now boasts buildings that reflect architectural unity, even while demonstrating the various stages of Indo-Saracenic development, from Gothic-Byzantine to Rajput Mughal and Southern Hindu Deccani.

Back to the present, now.

The colleague and I reached the Pantheon complex, and headed out in search of the new-improved Old Buildings. On first look, the renovation is mighty impressive. On first look.

The smell of varnish hits your nostrils, the wooden doors and pillars and balustrades gleam in the mid-morning sun. You walk in, as workers carry out rotting planks of wood, while others bring in the red carpet. For a moment you are deluded into thinking the management finally begins to practice “The customer is king”. But you realise the red-carpet and the flower garlands and the kolam are for the minister who’s slated to unveil the restored library.

You walk in, and look around. The ceiling looks as good, almost, as the day it must have been built. Closer inspection though, shows you chipped plaster work, missing details. But above all, the new paint job on the walls are a travesty of the original. The restoration to former glory begins to sour. As I walk further into the reading hall, it gets worse. The shelves – once grand and beautiful, are now covered in dust and a thin veneer of green. These haven’t seen the carpenter’s tools in about 100 years. Other shelves have had their wooden slats replaced with ‘government prescribed’ aluminium. A sad marriage of the old and the new.

To cut a long, sad story short – the restoration is neither complete, nor truthful. To me, it appears as just a temporary facelift. I hope to be proved wrong.

Coming out of the library, my friend and I decided to go to the Bronze Gallery in the same complex. While the building housing it isn’t as impressive as the hall, the contents are truly special. But that is a post for another day.

The ambience is very inviting, plenty of seating to make oneself comfortable, a biro coffeeshop adjacent for refreshments and an absence of the hurry that characterizes the shopping district of Chennai.

The books are still being unpacked but a reasonable collection is on display already. Given the proximity of several IT companies, the Business and Management books section is well-stocked and occupies an entire wall. This branch is much bigger than the one in Shopper’s Stop and seems all set to become a stopper’s spot.

Update: Here is a review by Metblog author Lavanya, with more details.