8 months ago
2
I remember, arsenic though it happened yesterday, my archetypal bid travel to Chennai, past Madras, fractional a period agone arsenic a pre-teenager. Those days, our small municipality of Nagercoil did not person a railway station, and we took the bid from Nellai Junction. The reserved compartment was little crowded and offered plentifulness of country for my siblings and maine to determination astir and consciousness astatine home. The conception of lying level overnight connected the berth portion travelling was simply amusing, arsenic we played astir for a agelong clip earlier yet falling asleep.
It was lone erstwhile we alighted astatine the Mambalam presumption the adjacent greeting that I realised that the bid had been carrying a immense assemblage to the metropolis overnight. We recovered ourselves successful a antithetic world. Hawkers and hagglers filled Ranganathan Street with sound arsenic humanity flowed similar a river. Men successful khaki trousers and sleeveless vests ferried radical successful rhythm rickshaws, their bells ringing incessantly. The rooftops of houses invariably sported tv antennas, wherever birds perched successful the evening earlier calling it a day.
I was much acquainted with the T. Nagar country wherever my maternal aunt lived. The country has changed wholly successful caller times, with the large, shady roadside trees, wide, walker-friendly pavements, and the thoroughfare vendors selling watermelon and musk melon present gone. In those days, it was communal to spot milkmen milking buffaloes astatine thoroughfare corners and delivering caller beverage to doorsteps. Walls successful nationalist places were covered with cinema posters that changed each Friday, giving a caller fresh look.
On Sunday evenings, the streets would look deserted arsenic it was premier clip for TV movies. During summertime evenings, families would ticker TV with their beforehand doors unfastened to fto successful the breeze, and arsenic you walked down the streets, you could astir travel the full movie. Similarly, connected Fridays, office-goers would hurry home, anxious not to miss the Oliyum Ozhiyum programme that aired Tamil movie songs.
In those days, cinema houses, abundant successful and astir the city, were cherished hubs of entertainment. The magic of the metallic surface drew crowds similar moths to a flame, with the assurance of introduction adjacent erstwhile tickets were sold retired — acknowledgment to men and women who thrived connected selling tickets successful the achromatic market. Towering cut-outs of fashionable stars connected Anna Salai heralded the accomplishment of forthcoming blockbusters, captivating the imaginativeness of passers-by. Alongside these expansive displays, the melodic jingles connected Vividh Bharati successful the evenings added to the excitement, enchanting young and aged alike.
The electrical trains, with their high-pitched rhythmic whine, served arsenic the city’s inexpensive section transport, moving similar humor done veins from aboriginal greeting until precocious astatine night, transporting countless radical crossed the city. The overcrowded, fashionable greenish metropolis buses epitomised quality collaboration astatine its best, with the conductor acting arsenic a stationary summons kiosk, sitting astatine the backmost and passing tickets done the quality chain.
Today, with its web of roads, overbridges, and sleek underground trains, Chennai has transformed into a modern metropolis. The metropolis moves faster, and convenience is astatine its core. Yet, amidst each this progress, the psyche of Madras feels distant — similar a representation fading into the background. The charm of its slower pace, the affable chaos, and the warmth of acquainted faces look replaced by a much polished rhythm. While the maturation is undeniable, a definite warmth and quality look to person been near behind, arsenic though Chennai has mislaid its Madrasness.
As I locomotion down this once-familiar roadworthy — present paved with factual and lined with parked cars alternatively of hawkers’ carts — I can’t assistance but agelong for the days gone by. Back then, the streets were live yet spacious, bustling yet unhurried. The city’s hum was gentler, its pulse slower — a rhythm, a feeling, present mislaid to time.
jclementselvaraj@gmail.com
