V.S. Jayaraman
V.S. Jayaraman of Motilal Street, T. Nagar, shares his memories of yesteryear Madras:
“My life in Madras started at Tambaram in 1970. Cycle rickshaws were in vogue then to commute from the railway station. Tambaram was not so crowded as it is these days. Shanmugham Road had a thidal, a kind of open-air auditorium, where leaders of various political parties held meetings regularly. I remember visiting one such large political gathering that had former Chief Minister and actor M.G. Ramachandran.
After a few years of stay in Tambaram, our family shifted to T. Nagar, which too was a sparsely populated area. On Ranganathan Street, there were many independent houses, and it was dotted with a few shops here and there. I vividly remember a gold covering shop and another one selling dairy products. One shop that comes to my mind is Alima gold covering and Perinba Vilas lodge. There used to be Bhats Hotel that served tasty dishes next to the railway station. The street had two other big shops — R.R. Stores that sold stationery and now replaced by a textile store, and the other was a bakery.
I remember having travelled to Mount Road (the Arts College stop) from the T. Nagar bus stand by paying 35 paise in green-coloured buses operated by the Pallavan Transport Corporation.
T. Nagar was a calm and serene residential locality. There were many small shops on Usman Road that had two-way traffic. The road was also home to many typewriting institutes like Radhakrishna typewriting institute, Parthasarathy typewriting institute, and Neo Commercial Institute. A charming independent bungalow stood in place of a large textile showroom.
The locality was sought after by city residents even 30 years ago as it was popular for various goods, including kitchenware and household items.
Another memory is of a Vinayagar idol having been found near the place where the present R1 Mambalam Police Station stands. It was said that a person going to buy milk in an early morning stumbled upon the idol. People from far-flung areas made a beeline to pay obeisance to the idol. A Tamil devotional movie, Thirumalai Thenkumari, was being screened in the nearby Krishnaveni Theatre. Since the idol was facing the theatre, it was rumoured that the deity, too, was keen to watch the film. The incident was reported in the newspapers.
There were many theatres on Mount Road: Chitra, Gaiety and Casino, which screened more English movies; Elphinstone Theatre, which screened Malayalam movies; and Paragon Theatre. Besides Shanti, there were Plaza, Devi Complex, Wellington, Midland (which was later renamed as Jayapradha), Odeon, Globe (later named as Alankar), Safire Group and Star Theatre in Triplicane.
Bookkeeping college
On Welders Road, off Mount Road, there was Davars College that taught bookkeeping and commercial secretarial studies. It was later renamed as Sabhari College. I used to see a sub-post office that functioned at the Arts College stop, besides the Head Post Office on Mount Road. The sub-post office catered for the business houses nearby. Rayala Building, owned by the makers of Halda Typewriters, on Mount Road was famous then. The office of Remington Rand of India Ltd., the manufacturer of Remington typewriters, operated on Club House Road.
