Kutchery Road in Mylapore has many slices of history to offer avid consumers of nostalgia. With a few landmark shops occupying the stretch starting to moving out of the area to facilitate Chennai Metro Rail work, there is a sense of history being peeled off.
On December 23, the 137-year-old Dabba Chetty Shop started functioning from a new space on North Mada Street. A note in black bold font stuck on the shutters of the shop read: “We have shifted to New Number 9, North Mada Street, Mylapore, next to SM Silks, Mylapore.”
K Badrinath, from the fourth-generation of the family running the outlet, could not hide his pain, when asked what he felt about the move. “It is not an easy thing. We are moving out after my great grandfather started the shop in 1885, and I can not explain how I am feeling.” His voice over the phone betraying a sense of helplessness.
Dabba Chetty Shop is well-known for treating Mylaporeans and people beyond the locality to a range of herbal medicines. The move to shift to a new address was on the cards for some time.
Badrinath says the shift could last four to five years and in in the same breath, suggests it could be a permanent move.
“We heard that the entrance of one station would come at the space where we were located, so I do not think we have any scope for coming back,” says Badrinath, who has been managing the shop for 45 years.
He has started giving away visiting cards sealed with the new address. “What do we do? Our business has to go on and we need to inform our customers,” says Badrinath, adding that post-delivery medicines and Deepavali leghiyam continue to be the signature items at the store.
Although the new space is slightly bigger than the one at Kutchery Road, Badrinath says his heart and soul is with the one at Kutchery Road.
He says more than 10 outlets in the stretch from Arundale Street to Bazaar Road have moved out and some of them have been in the area for four to five decades.
Baskar Seshadri, a long-time resident of Mandaveli, says many other landmark establishments are scouting for new space elsewhere and a few have already moved out. Some are happy that they have received a good compensation and many others are sad about moving out of their ‘first home’, he says.
He says a row of shops near Jumma Masjid on Kutchery Road would also have to make way for Metro Rail work.
An air of uncertainty hangs heavily in the air as more shops will be eaten up once the work gains momentum.
“The other day, I was talking to some shopkeepers in Mandaveli and one person almost broke down as he feared more shops would be targetted,” says Baskar.
