It was early 1951, I came to
Road from Adyar bridge to Guindy, had a deserted look with just a General Store, selling stationery, provisions, even medicines, owned by a Sindhi Family, who lived in its upstairs and nearby a Military Hotel on the Road to Guindy, Burmahshell Petrol Bank and near it a small Bakery, now grown & seen as Adyar Bakery and a Saloon, the Mylai Saloon.
Ofcourse, two land mark buildings, the Theosophical society, the only International Hqrs of a world organization and the Travancore House, owned by the late Maharaja of Travancore for his stay whenever he visits Madras, with a massive gate at left of the Adyar Jn. on a sprawling campus, with paddy field at its back side.
Today, in the place of paddy fields,
stand Padmanabha Nagar with hundreds of buildings and even big show rooms
facing
Beyond this was the Elliot’s Beach with jungles all around and occasional visits to the area in the fifties and even sixties, made us to vacate the area by sunset. Today, one of our prestigious colony, the Besant Nagar, with small and big buildings beckon every one to make more frequent visits, especially with popular shrines, Velankannai Church, Ashtalakshmi Temple, Aarupadai Veedu etc., etc.,
In early fifties, it was indeed a sight to see TRAM CARS running on the tracks laid on the roads, especially from Santhome to Luz and vice versa for just 10 paise per head and trams going on towards Madras Harbour thr: RHRd., Mt.Rd., frontage of central station to China Bazaar, also on Broadway etc., Ride was enjoyable, hearing the peculiar bell sound it produced instead of bus horn.
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