People, Week 25

The young parishioner at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church – Mary Immaculate at Perambur. He was too shy to tell me his name, but. Though he was very happy to see that he was clicked and posed quite a bit.

Pirambu

… aka Bamboo Cane baskets. Pirambu Koodai is the tamil name for this.

These baskets used for carrying / selling flowers or vegetables or fruits by the retail vendors. Also used by the retailers of perishables at their shops to display their wares.

Eco friendly baskets instead of plastic ones.

A shop selling them at Koyambedu Market.

Catch them RED handed?

… or RED legged (with blood on the glasses too!).

This is a technique applied by many households in yesteryear’s, to avoid robbers and thieves scaling their roofs and running away with their loot. They place broken glass pieces on their front portion of the compound walls / roofs etc to keep the thieves in bay.

One such home at Ramaswamy Street (yes !!) at Purasawalkam.

Emperors new clothes

…. with the dust & dirt around in urban situation, all vehicles get a new cover when parked for a while.

Looks like every vehicle needs a dust cover to be carried along with them and safely covered before it gets parked.

Scene at Parrys Corner, near Seven Wells.

Glorious 155 Years

…. this school at Mint street has seen 155 years of service and that many children passing through them to go on to higher studies. Some of their alumnae are Vallalar, Dr S Thanickachalam and many more.

But this school currently is in a bad shape due to their inabilities to raise funds and sustain the running of the school by their trust. So as a result from 2500 students at its peak now the strength is 350 odd students. Hopefully their alumnae will come together and see their Alma mater tide the difficult times.

The other view, of the school.

Save More

Some lovely melon shaped Piggy (!?) Banks seen on the streets … these made of clay / sand are to save coins and some occasional notes. Has only one way to take the money out, that is just break them to retrieve the money, no other way.

Seen them near Sanskrit College, Mylapore.

Chennai & Rains – 2009 Ver 1.0

(the visibility is almost 5-10 meters, scene at “0″ point of Chennai)

(absolutely empty Mount Road on Saturday 11am)

(from my work station and enjoying the rains)

On popular demand (even if one asks for more pictures, its popular demand ) …. this years 1st rain spells caught here. You might remember the last years Rains.

People, Week 24

Hussain Raja is a Rickshaw puller / driver. One could hire his services at Sowcarpet area. He normally sits at Mint Street.

Illuminart ….

Come festive season, you get to see such lovely light arts at various worship places to jewellery shops to garment showrooms. The represent mostly god pictures from all faiths.

One such art at Sun plaza junction at GN Chetty Road and Mount Rd approach.

Nature – Week 1

Sterculia Foetida is a Native tree and has quite a bit of Medicinal Qualities. Originally from East Africa & Australia. Its a tall & Straight tree.

Its but famous for the unbearable stench its Fruits / Flowers produce. When you are near the tree in its full blossom, you’ll wonder if you’re near a sewer.

Spotted at Kothari Road, Nungambakkam.

Colour coded

Every faith insists on a specific colour to their devotees. The usual colour worn by the devotees of Hinduism in south India is “Kaavi” (light terracotta shade), but many faiths insist on White, some specify shades of off-white and a few red (like here). Many Christians wear white for their Sunday prayers.

Here you see a section of devotees back from their worshiping place and relaxing at Vandalur Zoo.

Telugu still around ….

… yes the older establishments still have Telugu (language) signs in their boards. Many establishments in the older settlements like Mylapore, Purasawalkam, Triplicane, Parry’s corner, T Nagar etc have quite a sizable population of Telugu speaking residents.

This is at Kala Pharmacy, Pantheon Road, Egmore.

Walks, Flys, Crawls, Swims …

… yes many in us prefers to eat delicacies made out of these birds, and many likes to cook them in their own styles and serve.

These are specific to sunday’s at bazaars / markets in many neighbourhoods you get to see the ducks and hens and goats and various other exotic animals ready for sale / cooking.

One such scene at Zam Bazaar, Triplicane.

People, Week 23

Tamizharasan, works on weekends at the Koyambedu Vegetable market at his family shop which sells pumpkins in wholesale. Is studying on other days of the week at a neighbourhood school.

Music after 20 years

… yes the Madras Chamber Orchestra played for the second time yesterday at the Egmore Museum Theatre (1st one was this April’09) after 20 plus years after it was formed in 1960’s and stopped playing from 1988 onwards. Once conducted by the eminent musician Mr V S Narasimhan, now revived and conducted by the French national & Violinist Bernard Wacheux.

Check more about it here.

Tamil & its Prachara Sabha

…. when the language Tamil needed some push at schools with the students they probably would have formed this “Poets Club” aka “Pulavar Mandram”. They conduct various competency tests for the language Tamil at school level and award certificates. Need to check with schools if this is still in existence, as we’ve written exams in our school days (not giving you the idea how old i’am).

Like Hindi as at Hindi Prachar Sabha, Tamil should use such ones across the world to bring Tamil studies at schools under some aegis like Pulavar Mandram.

Their office at Vellala Street, Purasawalkam.

Dance Needs

Many search for a Shop which caters to all the dance needs (especially for the classical ones) like the costumes, accessories et al, found one such shop which caters to all requirements for a dance show.

Found opposite to Kapaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore.

Help yourself

Self Help Groups, are the group of poor people volunteering in coming together and forming a small enterprise to move their financial ladder / eradicating their poverty. Then start saving from their enterprise to form a Common Group Fund and lending to their own members of their small group. There are various Micro Finance companies too who lend to these members or group to make their living out of this.

Was very pleased to spot one such group in the heart of Chennai, near Big Street Mosque, Triplicane.

A Sunday Morning …..

…. a typical sunday morning street scene. September Sun is blazing and the street’s empty, as the residents are either sleepy after their morning chores or not up from their beds yet.

A bye-lane of Gangadeeswarar Koil Street, Purasawalkam.

People, Week 22

Ahmed, the SUPERMAN, runs his corner shop at Triplicane High Road / Pycrofts Road junction. His shop’s called Nijisha Cool Bar. Comes from Kerala.

Liked his Superman T-Shirt very much.

Wear the faith

… these days not many build their homes and their faith is visible in their constructions. But the older lot didn’t believe so, many showed their religious faiths in their “Then” newly built homes.

One such home near Sri Parthasarathi Temple, Triplicane.

Go banana’s

Loads of plantain at the Koyambedu Fruit market. The monkeys in us are going banana’s seeing them …..

Early in the morning, scene at 7am.

Is it made in heaven?

Marriages are supposedly made in heaven. Oh all married people ignore this comment, just a trap for the Single & Happy because you can’t allow them to be that way right!!
From the marriages among relatives to marriages helped by arrangers to love marriages to many other facets of marriage assembly services, now the new trend is Online Matrimonial Websites. But still the marriage bureau’s for specific sub-caste’s do exist and thrive to do business. Like this one for "Nadars Only" Marriage bureau at PH road near Garden Hotel, Pursawalkam.

Sthrothriadar of Uthukadu

This is the Statue/ Bust of Late V S Ranganatham Pillai, S/o Late V Subramaniam Pillai (Who was the Late Dewan of Cochin, Kerala). The plaque in the statue says he was the "Shrothriamdar of Uthukadu", i was unable to find any legend about him in the World’s Search engine. (Friends pls dig and give more data)

One could see this statue in front of the Srirangam Avenue opp Egmore Museum / Connemera Library and off Pantheon Road.

Mini – Giant Wheel

Should i call this Giant Wheel or Chennai Eye in the lines of a London Eye?

These small / friendly neighbourhood Giant Wheels are very famous among the school kids and are normally seen closer to schools at the school leaving times.

Found this again near St Raphael School near Santhome.