Chennai past Forward

07/10/2024

Though begun with best intentions, the Madras Musings lecture series for has a problem - some people come only for the food and eat everyone else's share too, as the Man from Madras Musings realises. After Amma canteen it is Muthiah Munchings.

Though begun with the best intentions, the Madras Musings lecture series for Madras Week has a problem - some people come only for the food and eat everyone else's share too, as the Man from Madras Musings realises. After Amma canteen it is Muthiah Munchings.

02/12/2023

A brief article on the similarities and differences between Tiruppavai and Tiruvempavai/Tirupalliezhuchi as a curtain raiser for Margazhi -

What is common between Tiruppavai and Tiruvempavai?

02/04/2023

Father Kapali at his best - Rishabha Vahanam saw prolonged dancing and of course I had to weep with joy.

30/03/2023

That Papanasam Sivan composed காண கண் கோடி in Kamboji on the occasion of Adhikara Nandi sevai at Temple is well known. There is one more song of his that mentions this procession. Which one?

30/03/2023

This morning, our regular group of walkers had the pleasure of walking with , He who walks with us always

27/03/2023

And so, finally, Egmore station is to see some sweeping changes, much of it essential. The story “Egmore Station to undergo extensive makeover” has all the details. Once the Madras terminal of what was the South Indian Railway Company (headquartered in Trichy), it stands on land acquired from Dr. Senjee Pulney Andy, one of the early Scottish-qualified medical men of the city. The terminus itself opened in the 1870s with what seems to have been a classic style station (see pic 4, courtesy T Stanes & Co collection).

The present edifice, designed by Henry Irwin in 1902 but considerably tweaked by the railway architect E.H.C. Bird, saw construction begin in 1905 and opened for business on April 11, 1908. The contractor was T. Samynada Pillai who undertook construction of several other iconic buildings in South India. Egmore station was a thing of beauty, with its three-span roof structure, carved pilasters and brackets based on South Indian temple design, its dome, corner towers and contrasting use of brick, granite and sandstone. Its chief attractions were its refreshment rooms (catering by Spencers and ice from Unger’s Royal South Indian Ice Factory) and the drive-in platform, alas, both gone now. Pic 3 shows a photo taken in 1914 and featured in Southern India by Somerset Playne.

Pic 2 is by . The station, as per railway statistics, handles Rs. 32 crores worth of tickets per year, translating to 117 lakh tickets sold. It serves 552 trains every day with 24,600 peak hour footfalls.

Pic 1 is from the plans provided by the Southern Railway.

12/03/2023

When grandfather’s writing chair developed a hole in the cane weave I thought it was end of story for most carpenters offered a plastic replacement. Last week thanks to persistence it has has been re-caned beautifully with same pattern also

09/03/2023

The single platform and siding of the Bangalore Cantonment station - a reminder of an age not so long ago when this bustling metropolis was essentially a regimental centre

09/03/2023

View from train window. What a stunningly beautiful country we have

09/03/2023

As the train passes through Thiruvalangadu my mind goes to the one and only Karaikal Ammaiyar - pic courtesy

08/03/2023

It was in February 2018 that we at Madras Musings last wrote about this historic plaque. For those not in the know, it records in three languages the munificence of the Armenian merchant Coja Petrus Uscan, who in 1728 funded the first bridge across the Adyar. Known as the Marmalong (Mambalam) Bridge, it has since made way for the present Maraimalai Adigal Bridge but the plaque with its inscriptions in three languages – Persian, Latin and Armenian – survived after a fashion, much neglected and partly buried under the ground. In 2018, with Metro Rail work inching alarmingly close to the plaque, Madras Musings contacted the then Managing Director of CMRL, Pawan Kumar Bansal IAS and requested that it be protected. The response was positive, and the plaque was taken care of. However, we were told that its eventual fate would be decided by the Highways Department under whom the bridge itself is.

We are now happy to report that the plaque has not only been lifted, but it has been given pride of place, with a proper mounting for it in such a fashion that the inscriptions are once again visible fully. It is necessary to express our gratitude to the Highways Department, CMRL, and the ASI for what has been done. May the plaque flourish.

Our OLD shows the plaque as it was a couple of decades ago. Our NEW shows it as it is now.