Nurungukal....contd....

       Madras now Chennai ,to me was a place of many exclusive and unique geographical indicators. Madras central railway station still remains as a monument of colonial rule. It has a resemblance to such an edifice in London. I used to look in wonder at the clock on the top which is very much similar to a tilak. And before it, lay the Mount road [Anna Salai]stretching like a python trying to reach the St.Thomas Mount. The station itself was to me, with its many terminals resting on different platforms like the  many headed snakes in our mythology. Higgin Bothoms at the exit  ready to quench the thirst of any voracious reader can not resist you from picking up a book or two or at least a daily or weekly. I always used to dig for a popular  novel if not a latest edition of The Illustrated Weekly.

                As you come out a crowd of rickshaw pullers would swarm you and one of them would eventually grab your luggage and deposit you in his rikshaw.The slang in which they talk is typical to Madras city , more or less like the way M.R.RADHA spoke. On the way to my destination I enjoyed to engage in  conversation with  them mainly on politics and cinema. Majority of them were fans of MGR.No traffic rules were applicable to them and they would take you through the crowd at brake neck speed swaying on the pedals. Most of them wore a pant and sleeveless baniyan with a red hand kerchief tied round their neck. If your are not tactful they would squeeze out a chunk as fare. It is up to you to be friendly on the way and to get a fair deal at the end.

       Any body who went on leave, it was a practise to make a visit to the Moor Market which stood majestically near  Madras Central.They were like sisters in embrace. A heritage lost for the sake of convenience.Now it has become a foregone nostalgia. It was said that every thing from pin to plane were available there and where your capacity to negotiate was tested........contd....