How time passes; I went to Chennai on Friday to attend a meeting. We were put up at the State Guest house Chepauk. I could find some time to adjust some visits into the itinerary. We worshiped Lord Shiva at the Kabaleeswaran Koil Mylapore, the center of Brahmin power in Chennai.
I had visited this temple some good 40 years ago. Those days it was little unclean, full of litter and stray material but nevertheless not in any way less grand or holy than today. But now there is a transformation, the place is clean and tidy. We paid obeisance to Lord Shiva, Parvathi, Nartana Ganapathi and Singara Velan. The seven spires of the temple tower and the sacred lake are great and imposing structures.
For a long time I had wanted to visit the St George Fort Chennai, the seat of British power in Southern India overlooking the Bay of Bengal, with its red stone fortifications and iron cannon pointing straight at any venturesome enemy. Robert Clive the ruthless governor of Madras Presidency ruled from here. Now it is mostly a seat of Govt power with some defense structures and barracks thrown around. Yet there are many old, heritage structures here, the chief one being the St Mary’s church; said to have been built in the 18th century. It has a vast, spacious hall with wooden pews, several marble plaques and tablets commemorating the British ladies and gentlemen of those days who laid down their lives for the crown. The sepulcher on the dome has colored glasses and in the backdrop there is a painting of the Last Supper by an anonymous painter, a sort of replica of Da Vinci’s magnum opus. I felt very thrilled after visiting this Westminster Abbey of the East. In the evening we visited the Ashta Laxmi temple, but I felt the place did not exude religious fervor. Enroute to the Marina, we chose to go via Alwarpet. After 35 long years I was back in the place where I studied and I grew up, mostly the formative years of my character. Everything has changed. It is now Boston Inter National School. The streets are lined by big shady trees and there are numerous new stores and I could not spot even one of the old shops; Udupi, R.A stores, AM stores, Venkateswara Biscuit stall, Muniyandi vilas, etc. I was stunned. Adyar Gate has become the Adyar crown plaza hotel, and Fair Lands has been renamed Amma-Naanna. Was I a fool to expect things to be the same after so many years? My school days whirred before me and the images of those days came pelting and melting down my consciousness. Oh what joy and liveliness!
The long walks from Alwarpet to Nandanam via Boat club! I feel what shapes a person is memory and experience in reverse order. Over all I felt Chennai was clean and ordered, especially the tree lined avenues of Besant Nagar and Adayaru, just as it was in those days. In the evening we walked on the Marina and visited the resting places of Dr MGR and Jayalalitha. On the beach road with the azure blue sea to the left, I kept looking at the buildings; Madras university, Presidency College, Lady Willington College of education, Police Headquarters of TN which really define the ethos of this historic city from a heritage point of view.
My late night bus at Koyambedu was delayed by one hour and I felt a lot needs to be done to improve the appearance of this place which was squalid and foul smelling.