“This is the area where the first train from South India started,” A. Jothi says, pride evident in his voice.
Standing outside St. Peters Higher Secondary School in Royapuram, Jothi, a former stuntman who is now an artist, and T. Manavalan, long-time residents of North Madras, hark back to a time when the area was starkly different. As is likely in the case of people who have lived many years in the same place, their lives have been inextricably linked to the area and its many social and infrastructure developments that have taken place over the last five decades.
These lived experiences and history formed the focus of a heritage tour on the sunken seaside colonies of North Madras.
At the Kasimedu Harbour, Manavalan, a marine engineer-turned-artist who lives in Tiruvottiyur recalls living in Sudhandhira Puram when he was a child. Standing against the backdrop of the sea and and with a view of a row of boats bobbing up and down the waters, Manavalan speaks about Sudhandhira Puram, Lakshmi Kuppam, and parts of Nallathani Odai Kuppam and Thiruchenangkuppam thriving coastal colonies that over the years have gotten submerged by the sea.
“There’s a distance of about 1 km between the Beach Road and the sea. In the 1960s, this is where the seaside colonies were as I remember,” he says.
A new perspective: Several aspects of life in North Madras, particularly at Kasimedu harbour, through the ages came as a revelation to the participants of the heritage tour organised recently. | Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM
Speaking about Sudhandhira Puram, Manavalan emphasises on how it was an area where people from all communities and religions lived.
“Our neighbours were from a different community, and were instrumental in helping us get a house for rent there,” he says. While he migrated to Royapuram in 1975, Manavalan recalls how sea erosion over the next few years kept taking away parts of the kuppams and many other families began to migrate as well.
As a child, Jothi remembers the extension of the harbour being carried out and the changes that it brought with it. Following the extension of the harbour, Manavalan said the fishing harbour there was extended on both sides from the Harbour as well as N4 beach in Tiruvottiyur- like a bridge of sorts. “This brought water into the fishing hamlets, which were already facing coastal erosion with every passing year,” he said.
A part of how these fishing hamlets and the houses along the coast looked in the past, Manavalan says, could be seen in Pa. Ranjith’s Sarpatta Parambarai. “The movie was well researched especially in this aspect. Like how the film focuses on a boxing club in Vyasarpadi, I also remember a boxing club being active near Nallathani Odai Kuppam,” Manavalan recalls.
As container lorries thunder up and down Beach Road, Jothi has a rather idyllic picture to paint of the area from his childhood. “Remember the beautiful blue sea, coconut trees and clean sand from the movie Blue Lagoon? That’s how this area was,” he says.
Manavalan too chimes in, emphasising on how green the area was. “There were a lot of coconut trees, and the residents also grew vegetables near their houses. The groundwater here too was clean and available for us through pumps,” he recalls.
Pointing to where a fibre fishing boat has just come into the shore on a small strip of sand, and the fishermen are untangling the nets, Manavalan describes how large Kattamaram boats were characteristic of these hamlets in the past. “ After stones were laid along the coast for the fishing harbour, there wasn’t much space available for large Kattumaram boats to be stationed there. Fishermen now use fibre boats, which became even more popular after the Tsunami,” he said.
At the Pattinathar temple in Tiruvottiyur, which is one of the stops on the walk, Jothi has an interesting piece of history to share: “For years, there was no image or impression of Pattinathar here, and I drew the first artist’s impression,” he shares.
For residents of the city who participated in the walk, many aspects of life in North Madras, especially from the past, were a revelation.
Vincent D’Souza, journalist, who facilitated the walk, said there was a need to get a sense of why certain things happen in the city, and its social implications. “Most importantly, we need to make some effort to look at the real Madras,” he said, before the walk around North Madras began.
