On the street where I live-Chennai

A beautiful Wesley Church lies a few houses away from my house, a part of which faces the Poonamallee High Road . It was just another monument until a few days ago.

A landmark of Chennai

 

Vamsee had tagged me a while ago and the rules were fairly simple. I had to select the 6th picture in my 6th folder and write the story of the picture. To begin with, Ive altered the rules a bit here. Its the 6th picture alright, but its from my latest folder - the Chennai photowalk that started at Dasaprakash and went on till Rippon Building. Ironically the latter is the landmark of the city, but my post speaks of the former.

When Aarti told me that the walk started from Dasaprakash, I couldnt say no . After all, I lived down the road. This was my area and it would be fun to discover it through a lens. Secondly, the hotel has several fond memories - of playing as a kid, enjoying the icecream in the parlour , meeting friends and being treated by parents in the restaurant. The dasaprakash dosa was the most delicious dish ever tasted. This was of course years before fast and junk food took over our lives .


Sadly however, the hotel doesnt offer services anymore .In fact no one knows whether it does or not, but it has an empty look about it.The picture says it all. Family disputes followed by litigation, union strikes have been the cause - but if rumours are to be believed, there is a talk of a buy over and a revival. Until then, the landmark lives on as a reference to the traffic junction opposite the building,as one haggles with the auto driver .

Back in Bangalore -

Travelling is often passing one milestone and moving on to the next. I am now back in Bangalore and lazing around in the summer heat.My thoughts however go back to the photowalk in Chennai last Sunday.

I walked up to the milestone(in the previous post) to take a picture of it from the other side. It was at the intersection of Egmore over bridge and Poonamallee High Road in Chennai. With all the muck lying around, it was written in Tamil -

Poondamallee - 22kms
Bengalore - 328 kms..

The Poonamallee High Road leading to the village is one of Chennai's main arteries and it also connects to the highway - NH4 between the two cities. Well, I didnt take the road this time, but the late evening train. By road or rail, commuting time between the two cities is just under 6 hours (oops - had written years by mistake..my dad called to correct it..and in the meanwhile quite a few comments as well..)

At home in Chennai

A friend seeing my status on Facebook asked me "What, you are on a jaunt again ? " I relied saying " Home ." The status said that I was heading to Chennai aka Madras . His prompt reply was "I thought Bangalore was home." I was planning to reply - " Bangalore is where I live, but Chennai is home ." I went for a photowalk today, my second and the 17th organised by the photowalkers . The walk was not just in my hometown, but also in my locality and even though the weather was very hot , I couldnt resist the walking down the streets .Incidentally, my story on the birth of the city was published in Jet Wings in the January issue.
(The milestone says 3 Km to Chennai - from Egmore over bridge to Fort St George -Parry's corner )

Back from Bheemeshwari and its a fishy tale again..

The 40 kms stretch of the Cauvery in Karnataka is home to Mahseer, one of the most famous sport fish loved by anglers all over the world."Angling is all about a game of wits between the fish and the angler and the mahseer, 100 pounds and more gives a real fight ..."

I made an unplanned day trip to Bheemeshwari, on the banks of the river where Jungle Lodges runs its Cauvery Fishing Camp. I was listening to a presentation on angling and eco tourism and was fascinated by the mahseer. It is indeed a big fish and a prized catch .I had been there a decade ago to do a TV show on the location and it was wonderful getting there again ..

My Bheemeshwari trip was courtesy JLR who had a IFS training camp for all IFS officers across the country..And it was wonderful listening to some wonderful presentations on eco and wildlife tourism in an eco-wild setting..Needless to say, I did see some jackals , a small snake , the Indian giant squirrel , plenty of avifauna including the wagtails and stood fascinated as a gillie showed us how to catch a Mahseer .

Fishing Tales -Inside Story

“ Can you see that light, madam ? It has seven bulbs.” Balu points across the vast expanse of waters to a long horizontal contraption with outstretched rods. ”That’s a Cheena vala,” he says, referring to the Malayalam word for the Chinese fishing net believed to be brought into Kerala by the 14th century Chinese mariner, Zheng He.

I am at the Ashtamudi Lake , near Kollam sailing around the islands .Balu is from the local resort and is accompanying me on my morning cruise.He speaks fluent Tamil and Hindi and says he picked it up from the tourists .

The entire water scape is littered with these shore operated stationary nets. Long metallic and wooden rods jut out into the waters ,held in place by ropes. We sail a bit closer to take a look. The structures are more than 10 metres high .The rods stretch out as the birds perch on them and nets are outstretched on them.


Balu explains the process and says that fishing usually starts in the night. A net can be operated by a team of about five fishermen. They normally lower the net and submerge it at a certain depth. The lights suspended from these rods are placed on the surface of the waters and are used to attract the fish and crustaceans. The electric cable stretches out from the fishermen’s homes from the bank to the contraption .


“You can find more than 1000 of them ,” he says referring to the Chinese fishing nets . Popular in Kochi, , they are used by the local fishermen here to catch mainly prawns and crabs. Balu tells me that on a lucky night, the catch can be anything around 4-10 kgs.

We move on passing islands and islanders as Balu points out to “seacrows” .These cormorants were perched on the rods that were immersed in water. “This is Karimeen fishing,” he says referring to the pearl spot fish which is a delicacy in the backwaters.According to him the fishermen promote breeding and even cultivate “fish sanctuary.”He shows me the fish which is probably the size of the palm .


“The fishermen , even women catch by hand,” explains Balu , “We call it Vellavali.”I ask him about the rods and he explains that they are stems replanted on the waters . The fish he says feed on the leaves of plants that are littered below the surface .Stems are placed above the water and the nets are cast around them to catch them in the night. I listen fascinated as Balu tells me that lanterns are used by the fisher folk and karimeen auctions happen early in the morning .

It is Sunday and the backwaters are silent. It is a five day week for the fishing community. As we sail back, Balu sums up ,” There are different kinds of specialists for various varieties of fish and each technique is different from the other, even the nets ..” Its amazing, I thought how we take such simple things for granted.

The Inside Story is a fortnightly column published in the Metro Plus, The Hindu every Monday. Its not my story, but the story of the destination . I decided to reproduce some of my published columns and start a new series.

Kollam beach

 

I went to Kollam (Quilon near Trivandrum, Kerala )beach in the afternoon-obviously not the right time to be there. However the endless stretch of sands caught my attention with the striking contrast of colours..difficult to pick my fav pic as I took quite a few with two different cameras. But I liked this for the sheer depth .

On a different note, its been 25 days since I left home and I finally came back to Bangalore to spend a week at least. I will be heading back to Madras soon and hopefully everything will be sorted by March..Funny how life takes you through a journey on its own ..