What changed in Chennai in the 60 years I knew the city.
Much and not so much really.
I.The Railway Stations
1. The Central--Madras central railway station looks the same--a few cosmetic changes like chairs in the waiting hall, a new waiting hall at the side and a new A/c waiting room and dormitory hardly mark a make over. Same platforms, same stalls, same food and same dirt and same jostling crowds. Luggage on the platforms, waiting to be loaded into the parcel vans and coming in the way of passengers, puddles of water from (?fish) from some parcels, bad smells, food smells, filter coffee smells and a mix of languages make up a typical day on the platforms. Polite crowds, passengers gossiping with total strangers exchanging stories of their life and asking about the others' lives are my favorite people. It holds up the mirror of life to you and lets you get an insight into life as such.
2.Egmore - My interaction with Egmore was very little. There was a train service to Pondicherry. It used to start from Egmore at 10.00pm after all the important trains going south left. It used to reach Pondy by next morning - 6 to 8 am. When you can travel in 4 hrs (those days-now it is 2 1/2 hrs), why travel 8 to 10 hrs? The languages heard were either Tamil or Malayalam.
2. The Bus stands--
The Pallavan Express Bus stand at Parry's corner, next to the high court complex has now been shifted out and since it is nearly 15 years since I traveled by a bus, I do not know what the new one looks like. In my day, I used to take a rickshaw to the bus stand from Central. It was at the end of the block from Law college entrance on Broadway. We had to get a token at the ticket booth and when the bus comes in, you embark as per your token no. No pushing, jostling or reserving a seat by throwing a hanky through a window. All very peaceful and slow as the frequency was not great. But the roads were good and the travel was comfortable. ( Mullapudi's joke-"you know that you have entered AP from Madras when you feel the first bump.")
Next alternative, the moffusil Bus stand a few yards down the road from Broadway signals towards the flower bazaar police station- Stalls on to the road, a narrow entrance and crowded place with buses going down south standing and loaders yelling "Pondy, Pondy" or "Cuddalore, Cuddalore".
All very hectic and buses with lots and lots of luggage on top-Keerai and miscellancy- standing waiting. I used to travel mostly by express buses as an express bus will take me by the JIPMER campus and I can get down there instead of going to Pondy bus stand. They used to go via Dindivanam(or Thindivanam)----Chennai--Chengalpattu--Mamandur-Maduranthakam-Thindivanam. I shall talk about it later. The moffusil buses used to ply the road along the coast via Marakkanam and go to Pondy directly. On return journeys, I had to go to Pondy as there may not be any vacant seats by the time the bus comes to JIPMER campus. Then the choice was any bus.
The rarely used bus stand (by me of course) was the Basin Bridge Bus Stand at the end of Wall Tax road. all the buses going to Andhra started from there, but my choice was the train. The Karuvadu stalls (dried salted fish) from near the Padmanabha theatre to the Basin Bridge were a source of nauseating stink which improved my breath holding capacity by 3 times.
Much and not so much really.
plus ça change,
plus
c'est la
même chose (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr)-- Ha! my french showing through- It means "The more it changes, the more it is the same (thing)."
(as Pondicherry was an ex French Territory, The Govt. of India had promised to protect the french heritage and culture. So, a study of French was compulsory in all colleges in Pondy.. I scored 111/200 in the certificate course in French run by University of Madras.)I.The Railway Stations
1. The Central--Madras central railway station looks the same--a few cosmetic changes like chairs in the waiting hall, a new waiting hall at the side and a new A/c waiting room and dormitory hardly mark a make over. Same platforms, same stalls, same food and same dirt and same jostling crowds. Luggage on the platforms, waiting to be loaded into the parcel vans and coming in the way of passengers, puddles of water from (?fish) from some parcels, bad smells, food smells, filter coffee smells and a mix of languages make up a typical day on the platforms. Polite crowds, passengers gossiping with total strangers exchanging stories of their life and asking about the others' lives are my favorite people. It holds up the mirror of life to you and lets you get an insight into life as such.
2.Egmore - My interaction with Egmore was very little. There was a train service to Pondicherry. It used to start from Egmore at 10.00pm after all the important trains going south left. It used to reach Pondy by next morning - 6 to 8 am. When you can travel in 4 hrs (those days-now it is 2 1/2 hrs), why travel 8 to 10 hrs? The languages heard were either Tamil or Malayalam.
2. The Bus stands--
The Pallavan Express Bus stand at Parry's corner, next to the high court complex has now been shifted out and since it is nearly 15 years since I traveled by a bus, I do not know what the new one looks like. In my day, I used to take a rickshaw to the bus stand from Central. It was at the end of the block from Law college entrance on Broadway. We had to get a token at the ticket booth and when the bus comes in, you embark as per your token no. No pushing, jostling or reserving a seat by throwing a hanky through a window. All very peaceful and slow as the frequency was not great. But the roads were good and the travel was comfortable. ( Mullapudi's joke-"you know that you have entered AP from Madras when you feel the first bump.")
Next alternative, the moffusil Bus stand a few yards down the road from Broadway signals towards the flower bazaar police station- Stalls on to the road, a narrow entrance and crowded place with buses going down south standing and loaders yelling "Pondy, Pondy" or "Cuddalore, Cuddalore".
All very hectic and buses with lots and lots of luggage on top-Keerai and miscellancy- standing waiting. I used to travel mostly by express buses as an express bus will take me by the JIPMER campus and I can get down there instead of going to Pondy bus stand. They used to go via Dindivanam(or Thindivanam)----Chennai--Chengalpattu--Mamandur-Maduranthakam-Thindivanam. I shall talk about it later. The moffusil buses used to ply the road along the coast via Marakkanam and go to Pondy directly. On return journeys, I had to go to Pondy as there may not be any vacant seats by the time the bus comes to JIPMER campus. Then the choice was any bus.
The rarely used bus stand (by me of course) was the Basin Bridge Bus Stand at the end of Wall Tax road. all the buses going to Andhra started from there, but my choice was the train. The Karuvadu stalls (dried salted fish) from near the Padmanabha theatre to the Basin Bridge were a source of nauseating stink which improved my breath holding capacity by 3 times.
2 comments:
Très bon, babai! Your french is very good (Mine consists of just one word: égalité!).
The really nice thing about Chennai is that it still seems the same after all these years, like you point out. All other big cities: Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore - have changed to a point that they are not recognizable and have become characterless.
Perhaps this is because Chennai is so much more down South and so much more Tamil that it has not seen the influx of non-locals and the associated runaway growth. Let us not forget the forbidding weather.
So, Chennai is not for the opportunistic immigrant- in Chennai, like in Rome, you must do like the locals do and love what the locals love. It is not an indictment of the city- it is not insular like Calcutta, and the people are civilized. It is not hard either - just know your Rajni and your Ilayaraja, macha!
I agree. Madras hasn't changed much from my times (80/90s) except the name.
The warmth of the city has not changed but has increased (read it as Hot weather :))
The T.Nagar festive(all round year) crowd is still same and same cheating by auto-karans, but with the entry of Uber and Ola, it has reduced a bit.
I feel, the unchanging nature is due to strong cultural/religious practices till date, and off course the language "Tamil". The pride of the language and culture is what causing the city to stand tall with a unique identity. I often cry about too much proud about the language with my friends and highlight how we are viewed from other states etc., but I believe that is the exact thing which is making it unique.
To me, Chennai is more multilingual and cosmopolitan than any others (before the advent of IT). Our neighbors were all non-tamils. To our left, Mallus, to our right, Konkani, Telugus, Maratis.
My teen friends group had tamils, telugus, Bengalis, mallus, and Kannadas.
I still cherish the times when I use to go to Music Academy with my Grand father for some blissful Carnatic kucheries.
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