One rarely ventures into the commercial jungle that Theagaraya Nagar has become, without a single-minded purpose — to shop.
Rewind to a couple of decades ago, and this mercantile quarter paints a picture of unruffled bliss. “It was mostly well-spaced, independent houses which helmed broad, tree-lined roads. There were not more than two or three flats which you could spot in the vicinity,” says 46-year-old D. Kannan, a businessman who has grown up in the locality from the 1970s.
T. Nagar has transformed immeasurably. However, the legacy of having introduced to the city the science of planning is something it can still hold on to. The combined area of Mambalam and T. Nagar was one of the Madras Corporation’s first urban-planning initiatives.
With the southern parts becoming increasingly congested, the authorities looked towards the central region of the city to create more housing for the growing population. Thus, the Mambalam town planning scheme came into being.
The scheme looked to develop 1,200 acres of land in the area into a model colony other municipalities could replicate. In the eyes of then Governor Viscount Goschen it was a ‘garden suburb’ which had to be conjured. This began with the draining of the Long Tank of Mylapore in 1923. The construction of the Mambalam railway station in 1911 as one of the stops along the suburban line connecting Egmore to Kancheepuram had already made the area significantly more accessible.
Panagal Park which was opened to the public in November 1928, served to bring people together in the colony. “The grounds would be flocked by people between 6.30 and 7.30 in the morning coming in to listen to the news on the radio. In the evenings, Tamil songs on Vividh Bharathi would draw in crowds,” says Mr. Kannan
It is a strong sense of community that he remembers. The fact that one of the oldest and most vociferous residents collective, the Mamabalam Residents Association started in 1925, thrived in this area bears testimony to the fact.