Want to look at the house where actor M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and Carnatic vocalist G.N. Balasubramaniam (GNB) lived? Want to find out from black-and-white images how the old bungalows of Gandhi Nagar looked in those days?
If yes, then head to Gandhi Nagar Cricket and Sports Club on Fourth Main Road which is organising a heritage walk and a photo exhibition of the colony, from 7.30 a.m. today (December 15).
Initiated by a group of present-day and former residents of the area, the walk will explore the old in the locality and the personalities who inhabited them. The search light will be thrown on old institutions in the locality as well.
This is the second edition of the walk. Last year, it was conducted as part of Madras Week Celebrations and had close to 35 participants. “It was a humble start where we covered Third and Fourth Main Road. This time, it would cover Crescent Park Roads and Second Main Road,” says honorary secretary V.S. Sukumar who came to this locality as a four-year-old.
The walk will be led by Sekhar Raghavan, G.C. Shekar and Sukumar.
Organising the walk was not easy. The members were inviting people to share old photographs and memorabilia that could be showcased at an exhibition after the walk – this job took some doing.
“Many shared the photographs in their personal albums,” says Sekhar Raghavan, a former resident of Gandhi Nagar, who now lives in Besant Nagar.
N. Srikanth, president and founder member of the Gandhi Nagar Cricket and Sports Club, will talk about numerous sportpersons who have lived in the area and with him who has rubbed shoulders while playing cricket at the club.
Sukumar, a former student of Rani Meyyammai High School, has collected photographs of his SSLC days and the school magazine. “We also plan to stop at the houses of two former teachers, L.K. Ganga Bai and A.V. Dheenadhayalu, both of whom must be in their 90s,” he says.
Gandhi Nagar is one of the first planned layouts of Madras, where the Madras Co-op House Construction Society offered 332 housing plots with various facilities such as underground drainage, broad roads and planned areas for schools, cricket ground, tennis courts and a ladies club.
Residents started occupying the houses from 1949.
The organisers hope to make the heritage walk and exhibition an annual event and also document the information for posterity.
For details, call Sukumar at 9840622611 or email him at gncnsc@gmail.com.
