Land's end, Bandra...

During my last visit to Mumbai, friend took it upon herself to show me around certain parts of the city I haven't been to and certain pockets that she had covered during her heritage walk escapades... The destination for today was Land's end.. I only knew of Taj Land's end hotel, and the worli sea link around Bandra, did not know the story or about the fort there. Enroute she and P [her 9yr old] told me the story about the place and I was WOWed by how much the little one knew!! :) 

For me history was a subject I dreaded all through school, just about scraping by. But then as I began travelling, I realised it was more than dates, years, and names, and thus began my love for the subject. I got curious and wanted to know more about everything I saw, heard and ate [yes even food wasnt spared]. The richness of culture, location, region, religion, people comes through the history and what we see today! Hence, the fascination....  

Anyways, there we were at Land's end. Parked the car near Taj and began walking down the road. Dont remember what day of the week it was, but it was damn crowded. We walked past a gate and a garden of sorts on our left. Did not venture into it as it was packed with couples busy lost in each others' eyes/arms and everything else.. Sigh! Looks like all parks provide the right kind of atmosphere for romance to blossom.. Who knows!! We walked past towards what looked like the Fort walls. There was a flight of steps leading up to the fort wall, again packed with kids and couples strewn all over. We spent some time soaking in the ocean, while friend continued giving me insights into the place.

 The story goes that back in 1640, the Portuguese built a fort known as Castella de Aguada (which literally translated to Fort of the Waterpoint, today also known as the Bandra Fort. It was basically built to serve as a watchtower overlooking the Mahim Bay, the Arabian Sea and the entire southern island of Mahim. 

After a few decades, around the 1850, a Parsi businessman/philanthropist [yes Bombay still has quite a Parsi population even today], Sir Byramjee Jeejeebhoy bought the entire Land's End area and decided to develop it. He built a road connecting Lands End with the rest of Bandra [Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Road], a promenade and sea-facing wall on the western side of Lands End. Little after that, in 1865 Byramjee built his own residence on top of the hill right there at Land's end.   

Today the most famous landmark out here is the Taj property. I noticed they had bought the space across from the hotel, and as we walked back to the car, I wondered if access to the fort would be restricted if they take over the entire area.. 

Anybody add to this [there isn't much online about this place]? Shall update with credits...  

Salty Saturday... Battle for survival

During the Mylapore Food walk, we were walking along a narrow street, more like those alleys you see in English Cop shows and movies. It was quite narrow, and there were bikes and cycles parked along one side of the road. The other side had vendors, most of who were gypsies, selling necklaces, earrings, bracelets made from beads of all possible colours. There was one woman bang opposite the Maami's Mess and there was a little girl beside her. They spoke in a funny language, which I assume is a tribal language. 

Couple of us were standing around the stall, oggling at their wares, talking about how beautiful they were. We also tried striking a conversation with the lady, who mentioned the beads were sourced from Delhi & Agra and she sold the necklaces for Rs50-60 while few were bit higher. She mentioned how during the Mylapore festival, all the vendors are forced to move their display into these narrow lanes . Sometimes, we don't have any place and have to pack up, which means we go hungry for a few days. The little girl beside her was cute, and had a shy smile. When we pulled out our camera, the man in the next stall nudged her ahead asking her to smile for the camera. 

I wondered how hard her life was. She was all of 7yrs old, and all she did was help her mom make these pieces and guard the stall when her mother went out or walked to the streets to sell some of these pieces. The woman asked if we wanted to buy anything, a few did. She was persistent, talking about how pure the stones and beads were, how she hand made them and  that they were made with care and attention to detail. if she wasnt persistent, she would not be able to sell a thing. This was all she held onto to earn a living and care for her family. She also had a small boy sleeping behind her. 

It is amazing the different kinds of people you meet right at your backyard!! Am submitting this for Salty Saturday theme from Chennai Bloggers Club!! 

Next time you are in Mylapore, near the temple, do watch out for these women and buy something from them please!! :-) 

Madras Day - Heritage Walk - Theaters of Mount Road by Mohan Raman

Sunday morning 6am, i was at Sun Plaza, what was once Sun Theater is today a complex with stores and restaurants. 

 I was there with many others looking forward to the Heritage walk by Mohan Raman that would take us through the Theatres of Mount Road [some of which have still stand stall while few others have been brought to the ground]. Organised  by Chennai Heritage, this was a lovely way of spending the Sunday morning- the stories, the insights, the little bits and pieces of information shared by other participants, beautiful.. especially for a movie buff like me!


We started of at the Sun plaza, which was the site of the old Sun Talkies. Even thought it is technically not Mount Road,  it was the chosen spot as it was near Mount road and where the team had obtained permission for people to park their cars in ;)

After a brief introduction to the walk and insight on Sun Theater and how it was brought down, we hopped into vans that took us to where the 1st Multi plex of Chennai once stood- Saffire, Blue diamond & Emerald complex. Saffire was where good english movies were released, including Poseidon Adventure. Blue Diamond had the concept of continuous shows- starting at 9am and going on through the day. My mom & uncles have spoken about how they would watch the beginning of a movie in one show and come back to watch 2nd half in the next. Apparently, the owners were the ones who developed the Silver Sands  Resort and an ad used to run before every movie running for more than a few minutes with the "Sea horse logo" blazing on the screen. Mohan said "the minute the logo appeared and music came,  we knew it was the ad and all would pile out into the balcony for a smoke or general breather" This complex also had a pub/discotheque in the basement but because of protests from others, it was shut and a  Gujarati/Rajasthani restaurant called Navarathna came about. Sanjay Subramanian who was part of the group mentioned he has had a few dinners with his family there during the early 1980's.

Sujatha & Sashi commented on how teachers from Church park would stand at the gate staring at the theater, mainly the bubble elevator to see if any of their students were escaping classes by watching movies here.  Alas, today, the theater remains no more, and the land is just empty and going to waste.

 

We then moved towards Anand & Little Anand near British Council library [LLA building] and in its place, is a monsterous glass faceted building that is coming up.  As we proceeded, our next stop was near LIC- where we saw the place that had once housed Globe & Plaza theater [ plaza has become Suguna vilas now]. We then headed to where the current Philatelic Bureau stands. This was the old Warwick Theater built by Warwick Major [ Major being his surname and not a title]. We were also given some stories on Alankar and Wellington theater, the latter being Wellington Plaza today.

 

It was time to head around to the trio of theaters -Casino, Gaiety, and Chitra. Of the three, only Casino remains and still shows movies, Chitra is an office complex while Gaiety seems to be another complex or shopping mall of sorts. Mohan spoke to us in length about the changes that the Tamil movie industry went through, and how the concept of placing huge cut outs for actors and sets came about. Apparently for a movie, they erected a huge Murugan temple, so much so that people when crossing the place would say a prayer and pause. For another movie, Vettaikaran that was to be released in Chitra Theater, the director insisted on putting up a Forest like set and wanted to chain a tiger to the set. When others protested, he relented and put a tiger in a cage.

Mohan mentioned about Midland Theatre in General Patter's road where MGM English pictures were screened. It then became Jayapradha and today is a mechanic shed. Around the corner was Sagar that became Odeon and we now know it as Melody. A quick visit to Pondy Bazaar to remember T.R. Rajakumari's theater that has now become a shopping complex/big bazaar?

There were also the two other theaters Kapali in Mylapore [opposite Mandaveli bus stand] and Kamadhenu in Luz [it is a wedding hall and soon might meet its end], a favourite among Viveka­nanda College students.

There was also the story about a director[ forgot his name] who was very possessive of his heroines. When making a movie with a leading heroine and M R Radha, he dint like the fact that the two were close. He set up a scene where M R Radha had to jump from a building [ back then no stuntmen or fancy equipment were used remember] . On the 1st take, M R Radha jumped, landing perfectly, but the director wanted to get him off the movie and so asked for a retake. And lo behold, M R Radha fell down, broke his leg and left the movie industry saying Theater was far safer and better... :-)

We then went across the road, via the subway [it was empty and well, a bit eerie] to the other side, Wallajah Road where we heard some fascinating tales about Paragon, Lyric, Elphinstone theatre and Jaffer ice cream parlour. 

The soda fountain at Elphinstone theatre was very popular among those who wanted to enjoy some treats from Jaffer's. What was amusing was that if any VIP was watching a movie at Gaiety or Casino, snacks & treats would be served in their seat all the way from Jaffers.

Paragon was where Shivaji released one of this movies- Pudhiya Paravai, even though Shanthi theater had already been built. It seems "Sangam", the hindi movie was running to full houses in Shanti and so Sivaji decided to release his movie in Paragon. But, the theater that had switched hands to Narasu Group had crumbled during a heavy rainfall, so producers had to spend in resurrecting the theater, getting it ready for the Sivaji release.

Trivia from Wikipedia- it completed 132 days at the Paragon theatre, 76 days at Krishna, 76 days at Sayani, and it crossed eight weeks in all major centers. After completing 70 days at Paragon, it was reportedly removed to allow the theatrical run of another Sivaji Ganesan film Aandavan Kattalai.

The walk was coming to and end, and we made our way towards Shanti Theater. Enroute we saw Anna theater, which is still running, but dint look too good in condition.

At Shanti theater, we entered the main building, which thankfully has not been touched, modernised [ aka filled with jazzy colours and glass... bleh..]. There were pictures of Sivaji all across the walls, one in particular was eye popping, it had been done by K Mohan of Mohan Arts [ they used to do all the movie posters and cut outs back then] it had Sivaji Ganesan portrayed in a very unique manner.

There were also photographs taken during a movie puja- sivaji seated with his mother, and for every new release, they would change the name of the movie on the image and use the same.

We also learnt about the Devi theater, that came up right next to Shanti Theater, how the owners had to go through a battle, law suits to obtain permission. 

And then there was little bit on Nagesh theater. When Nagesh approached the city council asking for permission to build a theater, he was turned down "how can you build a theater bang opp a school - Holy Angels school" . Nagesh then called upon the then CM MGR, and narrated this incident. When MGR countered saying "yes, that is a valid reason" Nagesh replied " sir, how will students in uniform with a security at the gate skip school and come across the road to my theater? they will go to Saffire/emerald while Church park students will be tempted to come here" and that got him the permit... Alas, today, Nagesh is gone and so is the theater, in its place a wedding hall stands. 

Followed by a breakfast at Saravana Bhavan [located inside Shanti Theater complex] the walk came to an end.. 

The city never ceases to amaze me- so many stories, so many legends and yet it is so humble!! :-)

Rendezvous of a different kind in Auroville

Am submitting this post for IndiBlogger’s  Expedia - Around The World Contest

The majestic cobra woven around what looked like a torch stood out against the pale yellow background. Sharing space on the wall was another painting that reminded me of a rainbow or maybe a hippie. Must be because of all the vibrant colours splashed on the canvas.  I was in Auroville near Pondicherry, except this time i had decided to explore the place little more than usual.

Curious to know the artist’s name, i peered into the canvas when a voice resounded in my ear, “These are by Hufreesh Dumasia, she is from the Auroville village” she said before i could strike up a conversation. Minutes later, i spotted her speaking to a lady. Beckoning me with the wave of a hand, she introduced me to the other lady saying she was the one who had created the masterpieces on display.

Striking up a conversation, i learnt that hailing from Mumbai, Hufreesh is one of the artists who has made Auroville their home. She came here to pursue higher studies, but today has settled here and has initiated a project with the sole focus of bringing together artist from various corners of the country and the world. She is keen on spreading the value of art and its role in a community life.

Auroville is a township created by The Mother to unite people of the world, and there are many who have made this village their home. They work, contribute towards the upkeep and sanctity of the place apart from pursuing interesting careers like art, music, dance and teaching languages to students from around the town.

Hufreesh mentioned there were quite a few who were very talented, had been painting for years and  have had shows across the world. “I am so much at peace and have begin to look forward to every day since moving to Auroville. My life before was such a stark contrast. 

Now when i pick up an empty canvas, i simply let my mind wander, i don’t have an agenda, i don’t have any ideas, i just let my hand weave the magic” she chirps with a big smile lighting up her face. Before i could ask her more, she was called away dashing off with a “Au Revoir” [Good bye in French].

Everytime i have made a trip down to Pondicherry, i have spent a couple of hours at Auroville. But this was the 1st time i had wanted to do something different and meeting a resident of the village was definitely a surprise rendezvous. I spent a few minutes looking around at the other paintings before walking down the path towards the Matri Mandir. The gentle drizzle and silence around made it quite an experience.I got back to the parking lot wondering if there was a way for me to spend some time in this Auroville village!

This post was recently posted on Clubmahindra blog

Gandhi in Chennai

The Marina beach in Chennai is the longest beach in the country, stretching across 14kms... There is a Mahatma Gandhi's statue almost at the center, and it is a beautiful one at that....

 This photo was taken during an early morning [7am] walk along the beach with uncles and cousins.... 

There are so many statues lining the beach, hope to capture them and share them all during the coming month :)

Tales unfold

As we rode  along lush greenery in Anegundi, our guide Virupaksha suddenly brought the autorickshaw to a halt, pointed to the left and told us "lets go explore some cave paintings".. Lakshmi and i looked at each other sceptically as we did not see any mountains or caves, and the sun was beating down with a vengeance. The auto driver and Virupaksha understood our apprehension and said "its just here, not far"

Virupaksha said -You see the fields, we walk through them, and then you see the tree there, just take a left and voila, you are there at the caves... 

It was only after we crossed the fields and came to the tree did we realise their idea of "its just here, not far" was a mini trek.. Stumbling upon boulders, we made our way to the top to see a vast open space filled with wild shrubs and bushes. Virupaksha and Lakshmi went ahead, and i followed them few paces behind till they finally stopped at a large boulder with a cavity in it. 

There were quite a few sketches on the rock, some looked like bulls, others resembling stick figures we doodle.

 On the neighboring rock, we saw a circle with multiple little circles, a ladder, waves, petals and strokes all around. 

Virupaksha gave us his interpretation of these, while recently Lakshmi discovered it was something entirely different while doing research for her article- Stories that rock art tell.

Here is a post by Lakshmi as well..

Looks like there is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to paintings and sculptures from our past...

Colours of Summer

During my previous visits to Bangalore, here are some shots taken during our daily walks and around the city.... 

Looking forward to more trips... more shots... more beauty...more nature!! :)