Hop on - Hop off Tour Bus

The Yellow A/c buses are between the tourism complex and Mamallapuram and the Blue A/c buses (run by TNSTC) are running between High Court, Marina, Valluvar Kottam and Ripon Building with 15 stops.

The Stake holders of these Yellow buses are some of the Prominent Hoteliers & Travel Operators.

One could also do an ONLINE BOOKING HERE and save time visiting the Tamil Nadu Tourism Offices.

Owing to the popular Chennai climate, thankfully the buses are Air-conditioned and unlike its famous counterparts at London, Munich, Paris its not open top. And they have a professional Guide in each bus.

For other options head directly here to the TTDC homepage.

This is the Mamallapuram Guest House inaugurated by erstwhile CM of Madras Mr K Kamaraj 51 years ago and was under the ITDC Management subsequently. Taken over later by the GRT group and rechristened as GRT Temple bay.

The Stone in the bridge announcing this piece of history shown below.

Happy Madras / Chennai day and have a blast on the 369th birthday.

The story appeared in the Sunday weekly magazine Dinamani Kadhir of February 10, 2008

It so happened that the newspaper carried the report on February 10, 2008, the day on which The Fourth Chennai Photowalk took place.

Mylapore Festival, an annual event in Chennai in the month of January is sponsored by Sundaram Finance and organised by Mr Vincent D’Souza of Mylapore Times. This year the festival was celebrated from January 3rd to 6th, 2008

The 4 day festival consisted of concerts in Parks at Mylapore, Folk Dance, Kolam Contest, heritage walks, Kokkalikattai Aattam and so on. The Kolam Contest and Kokkalikattai Aattam by a troupe from Wallajah took place on January 5th and 6th, 2008. I present some images taken on the concluding day.

Unlike the previous years, a few men participated in the Kolam contest this year.

I could see a number of foreign tourists watching with interest the Kolam contest.

Mr Vincent D’Souza of Mylapore Times, the organiser with volunteers.

The better half giving a helping hand to the gentleman to complete his Kolam.

Mr TT Srinivasa Raghavan, Managing Director of Sundaram Finance Ltd, the sponsor of Mylapore Festival being interviewed by the TV Crew of Jaya TV at the venue of Kolam Contest at Mylapore.

A foreign tourist being interviewed by the TV crew of SS Music at the venue of Mylapore Festival

The members of the Kokkalikattai Aattam Troupe getting ready for the event.

It is sunset time. The Kokkalikattai Aattam started. I could get the silhouette of the lead dancer.

(to be continued)

Normally the MRTS stations are deserted. After the service got extended upto Velachery, usage of MRTS has increased. Yet I have not seen so many people in the platforms as you see here.

When the train to Velachery arrived, all the compartments were full. The passengers who got into the train at Light House Railway Station had to travel, standing.

It is nice to see people realising the advantages of travelling by train leaving their 2 wheeler / 4 wheeler at home or at railway stations. I saw about 30 to 35 cars and about 200 two wheelers parked at Velachery Railway Station, as I came out of the Station.

Fellow passengers were comparing the time taken to travel by bus from Marina to Velachery and about 30 minutes the train takes to reach Velachery from Light House.

After extension of services upto Velachery, MRTS appears to be a great hit with the people of Chennai. And the patronage is increasing day to day.

While we were waiting for others to join at the Fort St George Parking Lot, we found a number of teams playing Cricket. Most of those present appeared to be from Sowcarpet area. This image of one such team waiting for their turn to play.

Resistance came from the sentry at the War Memorial on taking photographs of the Memorial. Again Subash used the magic wand described by CC in his post and we were allowed to photo(graph)walk around the Memorial. Incidentally this gentleman, a foreign tourist, was also having the same camera which I was using. He checked with me about my camera and when he knew that it is the same Brand and Model, he became very happy and gave a friendly smile.

CC was impressed by the reflection of the Memorial on the granite slab and was preparing to capture the image in his camera. I got impressed with the act of CC and the result is the image you see here.

That is Navneeth, Srivatsan and Siddharth in the traffic island opposite to the University of Madras.

The platform edges are being relaid with (looks like ) marble stones opposite University of Madras. This worker was grinding the stones as we proceeded towards the Anna Samadhi.

Velu, the cool drink vendor, and PlaneMad (Arun) near the Anna Swimming Pool. CC says the following about Velu in Flickr “He comes from Vizhupuram district, about 175 kilometres from the city of Chennai. He came here 45 years ago, in search of a job, money and a better lifestyle for his family. He seems to have found it.”

An elderly woman paying her respects at Anna Samadhi

Siddharth trying to take a close up of Arun. Srivatsan photographing that and I clicked it then.

MGR’s Memorial is next to Anna Samadhi. MGR was buried in this place along with his watch. Someone has spread a rumour that the tick tick of the watch is still heard. Some visitors who visit keep their ears on the memorial to see whether the tick tick of MGR’s watch is heard.

The Group next visited the Armenian Church in Armenian Street. ( I still wonder why the Armenian Street is called Aranmanaikaran Theru in Tamizh)

Built initially in 1712 near Fort St George, this church was destroyed in the French siege in 1746. It was completely rebuilt in 1772 at Armenian Street. That’s why you see the two years mentioned in the entrance of the Church.

Chennai Metroblogging has a post on Armenian Church by Nancy Gandhi. And there is this story Last Armenians of Madras in the BBC website. These links will provide the readers the historical information on Armenian Church.

The Church is presently renovated and restored with an estimated Rs.1.5 crore grant from the Armenian Church Trust in Kolkata, and guidance from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. The renovated Church is expected to resume service by March 2008.

The grave of Rev Harutiun Shmavonian

Rev Harutiun Shmavonian. (Shiraz 1750 – Madras 1824) a diocese of Madras established a printing press in 1789. Influenced by the publication of an English newspaper, published the first Armenian journal, Azdarar (’Monitor’) in October 1794. The first constitution for an independent Armenia was drafted by the community in Madras in 1781. Not until the fall of the USSR in 1991 was the dream realized.

Anand recalled his earlier visit to the Church some time during 2002 when he was the sound recordist for the team which made a documentary on the Armenian Church for UGC.

The Belfry Tower in the Armenian Church is the only Church in Madras (Chennai) which has 6 bells. Two, dating from 1837, have an international pedigree.

They come from the same source – London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry – that created the bells for the UK parliament’s Big Ben, and the much older Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

The group, after a brief halt in a lassi shop, decided to skip the visit to High Court Complex and the location where the German Cruiser Emden bombarded Madras during World War I.

Boarded a bus to head for the Fort St George and bought the tickets for Fort. Little later we realized that the bus is heading in the opposite direction. The conductor heard the request for tickets for Fort as for Port and issued the tickets. We got down at Beach Station, where we started and looking for a bus to go to Fort St George.

While we could not get a bus immediately, we engaged a Share Auto. It accommodated the seven of us (three of the group engaged a regular auto and proceeded to Fort St George already).

While we entered our names in the Register at the entrance of Fort Museum, the policewoman was surprised that being residents of Chennai and were yet to visit Fort Museum. Many in the group have visited the Fort Museum some time or other.

This Cupola once housed the statue of Cornwallis at the Cenotaph Road junction and is presently inside the Fort Museum Entrance. Read the story of Empty Cupolas by Mr S Muthiah.

The Fort Museum building was raised with the profits on the lottery in about 1795 A D. The building, prior to being the Museum premises, had halls for entertainment, broker’s exchange, officers mess for the British Regiment, Coffee House, lottery drawings. Madras Bank functioned in this building since 1861 AD. What the plaque does not say is “The first light house of Madras functioned from the roof of this building” (Four Light Houses of Madras)

Videography and flash photography inside the Museum was not permitted. Apparently there is no bar on taking photographs in the ambient light. When the Museum authorities saw a bunch of people taking photographs, restrained us to restrict the photographs to a few.

Madras was bombarded twice. Once on 22/09/1914 (World War I) and again on 12/10/1943 (World War II). The bombings led to exodus of people of Madras to places distant and near. My mother and uncles recall about their moving to Kanchipuram in 1943 calling it as evacuation.

To appreciate the display in Museum, one needs to spend at least a day, while we could spend about an hour or so. There is a section entirely devoted to the paintings of the British Governors, Kings, Queens and Durbar of Udayar kings of Mysore etc.,

Time was around 1.30 pm. Due to a personal commitment, I had to cut short the Chennai Photowalk and the group minus me, (photo)walked to the St Mary’s Church in the Fort St George Complex.

As I mentioned on my blog, this second walk will begin where the last one ended. At fort St. George.
The route:
Fort St. George -> War Memorial -> University of Madras/Senate building -> Gandhi statue. All along, we’ll pause and photograph, if allowed to, the buildings that face the sea.
The walk will start at 9 AM on Sunday, 9th December 2007. If you can, join us.

As we came out of the Beach Railway Station, we had two options; one to walk along the Burma Bazaar or cross the Road and walk along many landmarks on the North Beach Road. We chose the second option , used the subway and surfaced in front of the Original Skyscraper of Chennai – TIAM House – Murugappa Group Headquarters, presently known as Jesus Calls Towers.

As we walked further when we neared the General Post Office, a number of Share Autos were mobilizing passengers traveling to North of Chennai.

Share Autos have become an integral part in the life of Chennai residents. It offers an affordable and quick mode of transport. The advantage of Share Auto is that it stops wherever you want to get down. At that time we did not realize that the group will travel in a Share Auto a little later.

General Post Office, Chennai functions from a 116 year old premises. The old GPO building was damaged in a fire in October 2000. Subsequently, a project to construct a new building retaining the facade of the existing building was implemented.

The compound wall of the GPO also doubles as a Bill Board for political parties. You will also find an add on advertisement for Kalaignar TV.

PCOs have not lost relevance in the age of Mobile Phones. On this lazy Sunday Morning the PCO vendor has opened shop and awaiting customers in the pavement in front of GPO.

Next we stopped in front of the SBI Main Branch. This building was once the headquarters of Madras Presidency Operations of RBI and Imperial Bank (later to be known as SBI). The land for this building was bought for Rs 1.00 lakh from the Madras Government in 1895. The Rs.3 lakh-building contract was awarded to Thatikonda Namberumal Chetty, to whom Madras owes many of its public buildings.

The next stop was Dare House. By 1819, a partnership firm named Parry and Dare was founded with Thomas Parry and John William Dare as partners. Parrys Corner, one of the most prominent central business districts of Chennai, derives its name from Thomas Parry. In its existence of over 200 years, presently known as EID Parry is part of Murugappa Group.

In the southwest corner of Dare House, you will find this pillar – Boundary of Esplanade. Refer this report in Hindu to know more about Boundary of Esplanade.

While walking through the Parry’s Corner the AC Volvo Bus of the MTC (21G) crossed us.

We proceeded further to the Anderson Church in the entrance to Thambu Chetty Street. Madras Christian College functioned next to the Anderson Church for about 100 years (1837 – 1937) in the heart of the City before it moved into its sprawling 350 acres campus at Tambaram.

The Chennai Photowalk III will cover the visit to the Armenian Church, the Museum and St Mary’s Church at Fort St George and the share auto ride.

(This post relies extensively on various websites for details on various landmarks in The Chennai Photowalk route)

(To be continued)