17. The Chennai Diary

21st December

We landed at Egmore station 21^st December after a pleasant trip by the Chennai Express from Pune. 12 waking hours passed looking out the window and chitchatting with fellow passengers. It is another thing that we nearly did not catch the train. The train was to start at 00.10 hours on 21^st Dec and we were all set to reach the station on the 21^st night till my cousin (God bless him) on 20^th morning asked us to check the timing as other people had missed trains starting past midnight, because of the confusion of dates. Well to cut a long story short – all hell broke loose and we did our last minute packing and winding up in fast forward. But we made it to the station in time.

The train crosses Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra before reaching Tamilnadu. It is fun to see the landscape change as we pass through each state. The crop changes from millets to cotton to banana plantations and the irrigated fields gradually giving way to the beautiful rock formations of Andhra. One can truly appreciate the beauty and diversity of our great country only while travelling by a train (will it sound cynical if I say from a glass window of an AC compartment!). 

Like most of the old railway stations in India, Egmore station is an old British style structure with the characteristic terra-cotta red paint. We were looking forward to meeting our friends who were there to receive us. It was great driving through the quaint old streets of Chennai in Anu’s new car. Chennai looks and feels great at this time of the year. The rest of the year it is either hot or hotter (hot as in high temperature and not the modern connotation of the word!). 

22^nd December

Fort St. George Museum

The very first day Ajit took us to see the Fort St. George Museum as Rajeev was desperate to see the old coins there. ( see his detailed post on the Museum at    http://exclusivecoins.blogspot.in/2013/01/did-you-know-series-15-fort-st-george.html?utm_source=BP_recent ). It was a little tricky reaching there because there are no indicators anywhere for such an important tourist spot.  Another problem we encountered in Chennai was that at all Government operated ticket booths the staff refused to give change and caused harassment to the public buying tickets. But at least this time I found the people in general not so averse to speaking in Hindi – thanks maybe to Bollywood, Television or the IT boom which brings in a large cosmopolitan crowd.

The Fort St George Museum

St Mary’s Church

In the same campus towards the back is a very old church. It is popularly called the ‘Westminister Abbey’ of the East, housed in the oldest British building in India. The construction of St Mary’s Church started on March 25^th (ie Lady Day and thus acquired the name) with public contributions. Interestingly the Church was a bomb proof building on account of the peculiarly designed roof and very thick walls (not today’s bombs of course). Because of this it was used as a barrack and a granary during the Second Carnatic War in 1758-1759.

Many famous people were baptised at this font

The unsigned altar piece, a depiction of ‘The Last Supper’ is of the Raphaelite school and was brought to Madras as spoils of war by the British troops who stormed Pondicherry in 1761. It is also said that the central figures were painted by Raphael himself.

A Raphaelite school "The Last Supper"

Another gem

The same day we met up with a number of our State Bank batch mates and colleagues who had come for a seminar at the Taj Coromandel. Some of the people we met after 30 years and had to tax our grey cells till their 30 year younger facial features could form in our minds, I am sure they had to crank their grey cells as much to recognise us. But catching up with batch mates whether from school, college or work is always an interesting and lively experience because suddenly you become the age at which you had parted. 

Meeting old friends

23rd December

Pondicherry now Puducherry (meaning 'new town')

On the 23^rd early morning we were off to Pondicherry in two cars having been joined by Rajeev Agarwal and Kalpana; their son Ankit joined us directly in Pondicherry. Pondy is some 162 km south of Chennai on the Coromandel Coast. It is a very pleasant drive of about 3 hours from Chennai.

While in Pondy a trip to Auroville (City of Dawn) is a given. It was an experimental township set up by Mira Richard better known as Mother. Auroville was inaugurated on 28th Feb 1968, when soil from 124 countries was brought and mixed in a lotus shaped urn to symbolise unity of people.

While in Pondy a trip to Auroville is a given. So we went straight on to Auroville to pick up gifts for people back home and spent a long time going through all the stuff made by the Ashramites.

Pondy was under French rule for 281 years till in 1761 the British drove them out. The city was planned in a grid form by the French rulers with a grand canal dividing the town into a Tamil side called Ville Noir (Black town) and the French side called Ville Blanche (White Town). The status has not changed even today, except that the government officials have taken the place of the foreign rulers who have been joined by the Aurobindo Ashram inmates and the masses still stay in the ‘Black Town’.

The geometrically laid streets of the French Quarter are rather neat and pretty to look at, still carrying their exotic French names cutely displayed. Then there is the Promenade alongside the sea where people come out in large numbers in the evening for a leisurely stroll. There was a festive atmosphere with food stalls and ‘pheri-wallahs’ doing the rounds near the statue of the marching Mahatma looking on. Earlier a statue of the French governor Joseph Francois Dupleix’s stood on this star shaped podium with 8 granite pillars. Now the Dupleix’s statue lies in the small children’s park at the southern end of the promenade.

Auroville shop

Matri Mandir

Hotel du Parc - housed in a heritage building

Cercle de Pondicherry

posing on the promenade

The beautiful sea breaking against the rocks

The marching Mahatma on the star shaped podium with 8 carved granite pillars

A display as imaginative as a showroom window

No doubt about what he sells 'chilly bhajias'

Che Guevara tee shirts on the streets of Pondy - this happens only in India!

The old Light house

The clean and serene beach

The moonlit sea

24th December

The Church of South India- Christmas eve

The next day being 24^th December we rested during the day in anticipation of attending the midnight- mass. We attended the mass at St George's Cathedral which houses the Church of South India a successor of the Church of England in India. It is the second largest Christian Church in India and came into existence on 27^th September 1947 ie right after Independence. It has a very interesting logo incorporating the lotus and the cross. 

St George's Cathedral in Christmas lights

Christmas decoration

Skylight design

An old organ in use at the Church

The altar

The interesting church logo incorporating the cross with the very Indian lotus

25th December

An eating experience at the Isha Yoga Mahamudra Restaurant

The next day the 25th we spent time catching up with our friend Narendra, who Ajit had managed to bully into staying over till Christmas. After he left we just chatted and had a quiet time at home till we got fed-up and decided to visit the local Landmark to pick up some books as gifts. Landmark Chennai is really well stocked and I managed to pick up some good books for our friends. Anu knowing my attachment to Sadhguru suggested we go for dinner to the Isha yoga’s restaurant called Mahamudra. That turned out to be the most wonderful experience. They had a special buffet for Christmas but we instead had their dosas and appams. I had the ragi appam which was delicious and wholesome. I would highly recommend this eating experience on your next trip to Chennai. They also have a spa a boutique and a store selling miscellaneous other stuff produced by Isha Yoga Centre. 

Digging into a ragi appam - healthy and tasty

26th December

On the 26^th we had dinner at Anu’s place and met at least two very accomplished singers, one of whom, Tanisha, is proficient in Western classical. The other Vinesh has a band called Vin Sinners and you may be able to hear them on Youtube or buy their CDs in music stores; he gifted us one of his albums called ‘An element of surprise’. I said ‘at least two’ because there were other ‘chhupa rustams’ in the group. 

27th  December

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

This was the place I was waiting to visit – the oldest bird sanctuary in the country. Read my post about our trip to the sanctuary on my blog, ‘Friendly Neighbourhood Birders’ http://birdbuddies.blogspot.in/2013/01/bird-watching-in-chennai-vedanthangal.html

Pelicans galore

28th December

Dakshin Chitra

27^th night brought dark monsoon clouds and heavy rains. Chennai gets winter rains brought in by the North East Monsoon winds. The dark clouds brought back memories of the tsunami alert in April last year. The newly made roads of Chennai which had looked so impressive when we came were completely flooded with knee deep water because the contractors had forgotten to provide drainage!! Anyway when the rain abated a little and the flooding went down we drove out on the East Coast Road to the Dakshin Chitra which showcases the arts, craft and culture of the 4 South Indian states of Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu. It was certainly a nice experience. The place, run by the Madras Craft Foundation, has been developed with thought and taste and is worth spending a day in. Traditional houses have been reconstructed to the minutest detail apart from other arts and artefacts.

The Entrance

The Craft Shop

Beautiful Nataraj - Dancing Shiva

The tree trunk is spreading over the table

Rajeev standing in front of a Calicut house

Ajit posing in front of a Syrian Christian house

These wood carved pieces are still sold in Kerala

The ethnic restaurant where we had our lunch

A Thatched hut

Beautiful wooden Durga statue

Rajeev posing with an artists creation

We were much taken in with a glass blowing demonstration. V Srinivasan Raghavan a professional glass blower for the past 25 years made some stirrers for us in front of us! Rajeev captured the process on video. What an amazing art!

The Glass Blower, Srinivasan

His creations

29th December

Guindy snake park

I have this fascination for reptiles and amphibians – yeah! you heard me. Long ago in 1984 I along with 3 other girls had toured the south of India. I remembered having visited the Guindy Snake Park then and seen these beautiful big monitor lizards. So I forced Ajit to take us there but alas the fearless, large monitor lizards were all gone only one little shy fellow slunk into a hedge. The snakes and crocodiles looked tired and dusty. Not a happy experience.

'No change' booth - characteristic of Chennai

Bengal crocodiles

A vine snake

 30th December

Mahabalipuram now Mamallapuram

30^th was the last day available to us so we decided to cover Mahabalipuram which was less than 60 kms from where we were staying on the same East Coast Road. The city is named after the Pallava king Narsimhavarman I who took on the title Maha-malla meaning ‘great wrestler’, as the favourite sport of the Pallavas was wrestling.

On the day we went to Pondy we stopped for a while at Mamallapuram and just as well because the 30^th was a hot, sultry day and we had come with Lemmy in his beautifully air-conditioned SUV making it so much harder to stay out of it. We landed at lunch time and stopped directly at Lemmy’s favourite sea-food restaurant ‘The Moonrakers’.

Selecting your fish

Squids and prawns for starters

A Snapper - I must confess I did the maximum justice to this one

The crab bargained down from Rs 1000 to Rs 800!

Over the two days we managed to see the most of Mamallapuram though not the whole of it.

Arjuna’s Penance

This huge single rock measuring 27m x 9m is the world's largest bas-relief. It has been given the name Arjuna's Penance after the emaciated ascetic figure standing on one leg in a yogic pose of penance. The stone carvings of a multitude of creatures is a depiction of the whole of creation perhaps.

A crack in the centre of the stone has been ingeniously depicted as the descent of Ganga 

Giant elephants on stone

The statue

The real thing

Krishna Mandapam

The Shore Temple
This  8th century Dravidian style temple is one of the oldest temples of South India.

Inside is a huge statue of reclining Vishnu.

The Pallava Emblem - the lion is a common sight

Shiva Parvati

Krishna’s Butter Ball

Legend has it that several Pallava king tried to dislodge this rock by elephants but could not budge it.

Defying Gravity

College of Sculpture

In this college training is provided in accordance with the ancient Shilpa Shatra in the field of temple art and architecture.

The students creations

Some caves we missed seeing were the Tiger’s Cave which is located at a distance of 4 km from the main monument complex and the Mahishasurmardini cave and the Five Rathas, . There are many other monuments like the Ganesh Ratha, the Varaha Cave, the Gopi’s churn, Valayankuttai Ratha, and Kodikal Mandapam which we did not have the time to cover on this trip.

31st December
The last day Ajit went back to work without giving us a key to the house! So we spent time packing our stuff and going out one at a time to buy odds and ends from the local provision store. Thus ended a wonderful action packed vacation. Ajit dropped us at the Chennai Central station which is a huge crowded place reminiscent of the CST of Mumbai and we bid adieu to the old and welcomed the new year aboard the Mumbai Mail.

Ankit's tee is my tribute to Indian Railways for taking us to and fro