Chennaiites these days dread travelling on the congested Tiruvottiyur High Road. But hard as it might be to believe, a stretch of this arterial road was a lush green coconut grove during the 1950s.
Recalling his childhood memories of north Madras, eighty-one-year-old Commander P.K. Ramanathan, who retired from Indian Navy Submarine Arm, said he used to play on the footpaths of the road during the late 1940s. There were at least 500 coconut trees in the area.
“As my father worked in the Railways then, I grew up in Old Washermenpet. We lived in a place called ‘12 chatram’, a popular locality. A Chettiar family had given the houses for 12 families free of rent then. We used to travel to our house in a horse cart from Central station,” he said.
In the place of the Theagaraya Chetty Hindu Secondary School, Old Washermenpet, where he studied, now stands Sir Theagaraya College. “During lunch breaks, I used to visit Maharani theatre to catch up on songs played during matinee shows. Though the gates would be closed, I would listen to songs through the doors left open for ventilation,” he said.
Mr. Ramanathan was a regular visitor to Robinson Park in Royapuram. “It was there I learnt cycling by renting a cycle for one anna. Boxing matches were famous then and I never failed to watch the ones held every Sunday. There were many cricket clubs too,” he recalled.
By the 1960s, he had shifted to East Tambaram. “When I recently visited old Washermenpet, there were hardly any traces of the places I grew up in. Metro Rail work is on near Theagaraya College,” said Mr. Ramanathan.