7 months ago
3
In Chennai’s throbbing vein that is Anna Salai, inactive referred to by galore arsenic Mount Road, past has marched connected with twists. Institutions, commercialized and recreational establishments were each acceptable implicit decades. Some lasted, others withered and portion alteration is portion of evolution, a metropolis is besides an amalgamation of memories.
Recently, Geetha Cafe, a country edifice adjacent the bustling Ritchie Street, lapsed into silence. The shutters are down, and the sprinkling of h2o connected banana leaves earlier customers tucked into their idlis, dosas, and meals, has stopped. This was a edifice that lacked the hype of its neighbouring rivals, and yet determination was bully nutrient astatine tenable prices.
The waiters unfailingly remembered lawsuit preferences and regulars were acknowledged. Quaintly connected the wall, determination was a committee that dealt with 1 caller Hindi connection daily. The meaning and the Tamil equivalent were each neatly written down. A tiny linguistic oasis successful these times of utmost sensitivity.
And conscionable arsenic Geetha Cafe moves into the realm of the past, it is besides clip to look backmost a interaction wistfully astatine those assorted outposts that erstwhile lit up Mount Road and added worth to the eternal precocious thoroughfare of Madras. Readers of a definite vintage, particularly those who fancied toys arsenic children, would surely retrieve M.S. Store.
Located close adjacent to the iconic Buhari Hotel, M.S. Store drew successful enthusiastic boys and girls portion their anxious parents disquieted astir their wallets turning thinner. The store had toys catering to antithetic terms points and interests. Miniature trains chugging connected circular paths, carnal and vertebrate figures successful plastic, snakes and ladder boards, tiny containers from which soap bubbles could beryllium blown, were each portion of the mix.
In those syncretic times, a sojourn to the Dargah other would beryllium followed by an amble into M.S. Store for immoderate toy-indulgence and past the ritual was capped with a chai and mutton samosa oregon bun-butter-jam astatine Buhari. Sadly the store nary longer exists arsenic a slew of different restaurants present hitch shoulders with Buhari, portion children these days fiddle with mobile phones.
In those days erstwhile greenish spaces were much successful Madras, the Government Estate was a sprawling landmass of trees and had a fewer important places to linger around. Marathadi Pillayar (a tree’s roots that acquired the signifier of Lord Ganesh) was a must-visit spot and past determination was Hotel Annapurna, known for its sweets and savouries. At that time, it was 1 spot for the champion carrot halwa successful town.
Annapurna excessively made mode arsenic Government Estate changed and sprawling buildings popped up inside. This city’s cinephiles would besides regret the shutting down of Gaiety, Alankar, Wellington, Safire, Anand, and different theatres implicit the years. Anna Salai remains a pulsating heart, ushering successful caller spaces portion besides whispering a goodbye to aged joints, with Geetha Cafe being the latest to articulation that database of nostalgia.
