In 1950, Indira the elephant, travelling in a mobile zoo, was spotted by 2.4 million visitors across 17 cities in Japan. After several decades, she has been spotted again, but this time on Nelson Manickam Road. Enclosed in a photo frame, symbolising Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's gift to the children of Japan. Indira welcomes viewers at the photo exhibition, ‘The History of India-Japan exchanges — Resurgent Japan and Vibrant India, New Discoveries, New Exchanges', that opened here on Saturday.
“These exhibits aim to increase cooperation between the two countries,” said Masanori Nakano, Consul General of Japan, Chennai, about the exhibition that marks 60 years of diplomatic ties between Japan and India.
Visitors can find the ‘ Nanseibu Bankoku Shokanozu, ' a map that was drawn up in 1710 and which presents the world from a Buddhist outlook, the historic opening of the Bombay sea route linking the two nations and a photograph of Tagore's visit to Tokyo in 1929, among other historic exhibits.
“In our history books, Judge Pal (Radha Binod Pal) is a very famous Indian whom we learn about in junior high school,” reminisced Takayuki Kitagawa, the Deputy Consul-General. “I have also talked so much about Indira the elephant, and I now have the opportunity to see how famous she was,” he added.
Set in chronological order, the exhibits end with photographs of the rescue and relief operations by the Indian Disaster Rescue Team during the earthquake that devastated Japan a year ago. The exhibition is on display at the ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI, Tamil Nadu Centre, until March 31 between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
