Travel

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It was a fantastic day.

Kanchipuram, Brilliant weather. 5 shutterbugs. 6 cameras. 1 Renault Logan.

Erina, Joel, Aravind, Me and Alexandra

It says Nothing should be pasted or written on the wall. Funny people.

Will I get the gift voucher from Univercell if I send this to NXG?

Joel and Erina with the local kids

Aravind - Yea, the same guy who laughs at his own ‘jokes’.

Alexandra.

And finally myself! And Alxandra at the background.

More photographs here.

There were some funny moments esp the time when we had actually passed Randhan looking for it. When we asked a village bumpkin for directions,

Me: Anne! Randhan epdi ne ponum?

(How do I go to Randhan?)

Village Bumpkin: Randhan ah? Adhu poirichu baa!

(Randhan? You have crossed it!)

Me: Seri ne. Ippo epdi ne ponum?

(Ok bro. Tell me how to go now.)

V.B: Adhu poirichu baa.

(You have passed it!)

Joel took over:

Joel: Adhu seri ne. Ippo epdi ne ponum?

(Thats okay. How do we proceed from here.)

V.B: Adhu poirichu baa.

(You have passed the place!)

Joel: Podaaaang……

($^%&*$)

The Seventh Chennai Photowalk happened on May 11th. I know its a bit late for me to write a post about it here. Still.

I had to sacrifice my sleep at a time when it is at its best - 5 in the morning. But, it was worth it!

A quick stroll to the Mylapore Temple Tank and I was on. It took a while for everyone to come and we were all set for the 7th Chennai Photowalk.

We were met with some stares, some hostile and some obliging poses all the way from Mylapore to San Thome.

Met some interesting people like Chandru (the chief of this tribe) Subhash, one of the editors in The Hindu, Mihir, Gautham, Shillika, Shaam, Anand, Dilip and many more. Saw PlaneMad for the first time though we knew each other through our respective blogs. He claimed to be named Arun Ganesh - I prefer to call him PlaneMad. Infact, I had and still have trouble calling him Arun.

All this means more additions to my blogroll as most of these people have interesting blogs.

All the Photowalk pics can be seen here.

In other news, the Pichavaram trip with Gapp, PlaneMad, Vetti and Dilip was not that great as we expected it to be. It was good though and we had fun. Again met new people - Vetti and Dilip. Cant write a detailed post on the Pichavaram trip here as I have promised Ram of findnearyou.com that I would write the travelogue for his website. The pics can be seen here.

Also, Shankar Ganesh’s three SugarSync Annual Subscriptions are up for grabs. All you have to do is to visit the link here and write a catchy comment on why you need a $49.99 worth SugarSync subscription and how you’ll use it.

Hurry!

Update on May 17th - While I thought that I, along with Gapp was pulling PlaneMad’s leg throughout the trip, it finally turned out that it was my leg that was being pulled. All along. :(
Right now, three people are laughing away like hyenas in Chennai. Bad.

Mera number aayega! Hope so.

Off to Pitchavaram this Tuesday, the 13th of May on a low budget and one day trip.

Anyone interested?

Details here.

I thought it was going to be another day at the beach.

Sanjay had called me yesterday and invited me over for his birthday treat near the Bessie beach. The original plan was to have lunch somewhere and then hang out at the beach. Well, I was game.

We reached the place well before four. It was then that Damu suggested that we go to the Broken Bridge. I had heard of the place before. We decided to hike till there. We had parked our bikes outside Planet Yumm. It was nearly a three kilometre walk from there through the entire stretch of the beach and a fishing slum.

And then the most beautiful place I had ever seen in Madras.

To our right at a distance of nearly 25 metres was the sea and to our left was a vast carpet of creepers.

This continued for another one kilometer and we finally arrived at the bridge. It is the same bridge which features in the Suriya starrer Ayudha Ezhuthu in one of the scenes(not to be confused with Napiers Bridge)

The bridge connecting Besant Nagar and San Thome was broken in the middle during some floods during the 70s. It seems the place has been a famous hangout since then.

We walked into the narrow bridge till we came to a slightly wider area where a group of the slum guys sat drinking. The bridge ended a few metres from there. One of the guys looked bored at us as we jumped down into the sand from the bridge. It was 5:30 then. Damu informed us that the cops made their first patrol to the place at 6( This was due to the frequent crimes happening in the area)

To leave the beautiful place within a short span of time was cruel.

We made our way back through the beach.

And then the party. But it was an altogetherly different story.

And here is one anonymous dude giving me information about the place in Besant Nagar about which i wrote a few days back (Read the comments to that post)

The place is called Damodar Gardens. According to this guy, the Blue Cross closed down and moved somewhere near MGR Film City and the place belongs the the Theosophical Soceity. He also mentions that he used to play street cricket on the wider road i mentioned.

Here is a walking talking encyclopedia on Besant Nagar.

So, who is this dude?

hey, are you reading?

It was just another evening at the beach. After a nice food session at Planet Yumm and a merry go round ride (The girls insisted on it, I swear! Ya… It was embarassing.) A quick round of goodbyes and i was back on my way home.

Besant Avenue was one of my favourite roads in Madras (Next to ECR you can say. The only difference is that my 100 cc bike has the habit of transmorgifying into a 1300 cc Hayabusa on the ECR. But susprisingly the calm peacefulness of the Besant Avenue always resists the pulsating urge of my bike to turn into something like the Busa or the R6. It remained the humble 100 cc bike.

As i neared the Adyar side of the Besant Avenue, thanks to my slow driving(i never crossed 40 on this road… to bathe in the peacefulness and to have a look at the chromed beauties in the Royal Enfield Showroom in Besant Nagar) i noticed a narrow lane. It was another avenue, minus the street lights. Man! It did look romantic at first sight. Sexy would be a better comparision. It was nine in the night. I still could make it home early. I had made up my mind. In went my bike.
To the right of the entire stretch was the KFI School (Krishnamurthy Foundation Of India) and to the left was a thick shrub forest.

DO NOT REVERSE. DO NOT HORN.

Theses words screamed at me from the huge gate to the left. Closer examination found it to be the gates of The Blue Cross India, though the building didnt seem to be occupied now. Later i found out that it was not anymore occupied. Cool Stuff.

As i further made my way into the dark narrow avenue, it wound its way into a series of curves. Under a tree i found a couple coo-chi-cooing each other. I left them to thier adventures and went on with my own adventure. Then the road opened up in a wide road (again empty, but with alive street lights) A quick powered drive of about 300 meters saw me again on the Bessie side of the Besant Avenue.

No second thought.

A quick U turn and i was there retracing my steps (or rather treads) though i could have taken the Besant Avenue road. It was too tempting.

The couple was still there though it had done some advancements. I quickly made my way to Adyar avoiding a mangoose closely in the process. Then, it was straight home to the aroma of mom’s food arousing my appetite.

Now, I tried to find the name of this beautiful road. I got many answers. Balaji told that it was the Old Blue Cross road. For Rajesh, It was School Road. In this process, Sanjay told me that this very road was haunted. He He. He still believes in ghouls. According to him, three places in Madras were haunted. The Broken Bridge, this anonymous road and some other place he did mention. I dont remember it properly. Wasnt of great importance to me.

So, the next time, am gonna take my camera and spend an entire evening in that road.

Beneath the swaying trees.

In the soft breeze.

In the zephyr.

In my own zephyr of thoughts.