Last week i found myself in Chennai after a long-long time.
The city had, of course, changed over the years - it now had a much better airport; the long awaited metro connection was now up and running; bigger, brighter lit buildings had come up along the Anna Salai, and all the hotels seemed fully booked by the hundreds of delegates who had come to participate in the the G-20 ministerial summits.
My work had brought me to the Guindy area. Unlike some of my earlier, hurried visits, this time I had some breathing space - time to catch up with old friends, and to explore the city a bit.
Getting around the city is a lot easier now - thanks to the new Chennai Metro lines. For a confirmed metro junkie like me nothing could be better - a fast, cheap way of getting around, a place to observe and learn about the ebb and flow of a metropolis in motion.
The first thing that struck me is that this Mass Rapid Transport system was that it had not yet been embraced by the masses. It is a lot less crowded than Delhi Metro. Perhaps for this very reason the trains are shorter (4-5 coaches) and space inside the stations has not yet opened up for commercial activity - no snack shops, no kiosks for mobiles, or accessories. The coaches are also narrower compared to the Delhi Metro Phase-I lines because they run on standard gauge (1435 mm) and not broad-gauge (1520mm).
Built at the cost of about $3 billion this MRT system started its operations only in 2015 - more than a decade after Delhi. So it is not surprising to know that it carries only ~200,000 passengers a day - far below the 2.5 million using Delhi metro every day.
I found the station layouts rather odd. Passengers need to go through the security checks before buying tickets. While this by itself is OK, the absence of barricades puts the onus on the security staff to keep calling out the those who head directly to the ticket counter. There are no automatic ticket vending machines either. This leaves the person at the ticketing window (usually only one) to deal with a whole range of issues - printing tickets as well as coping with complaints related to the access cards.
As with most cities, the names of metro stations gives you a glimpse into its history. One of the stations on Singapore MRT is called Dhobi Ghaut, but for some reason Chennai prefers to use English names for areas that served the same purpose long ago. You have a station called Washerman-pet and yet another one called New Washerman-pet!
One downtown station is called Chinna Malai in Tamil and Little Mound in English. Further down the blue line you also have Government Estate, Toll Gate and Thousand Lights! It took me about an hour to travel from Chinna Malai / Little Mound to the last station on the blue line - Wimco Nagar Depot. One thing I loved about this line is that it has a nice view of the sea from the time it emerges from the tunnel to take an elevated track in the suburbs.
On my way back from Wimco Nagar I had decided to seek out one of the oldest sweet shops in the city. 'Basha Halwawala' was supposed to be about 100 years old, and unlike its more glamorous, upmarket cousins like 'Sri Krishna Sweets' and 'Adayar Ananda Bhavan', preferred to stay as a tiny 'we-have-no-branches' shop in the back lanes of Triplicane.
The nearest metro station was Government Estate. True to its name, the station stands next to a decidedly ugly, 'modern' building on Wallajah Road. Using online maps, I crossed over to Ellis Road and found myself in a camera enthusiasts paradise - a long street lined up with scores of shops selling photography equipment. Also surprisingly for Chennai, Hindi is widely spoken in this area.
Being a predominantly muslim locality running parallel to the sea, this street has numerous shops selling non-veg food. One of these shops had set up a big vessel outside in which something called 'Nombu-Kanji' was being prepared. From the bing crowd patiently waiting outside this seemed like a popular dish - especially during Ramadan.
Basha Halwawala was at the far end of Ellis Road. As expected, this shop belonged to a bygone pre-plastics era - it still wrapped halwa in paper sheets, and put them in cardboard boxes that had fastening string built-in. I picked up 500g of 'Dum ka Roat' - and it was delicious!
A few shops down this road I also chanced upon "Karaikudi Murukku Kadai", another traditional 'savoury shop' staffed with super enthusiastic ladies who persuaded you to taste - and buy - as much as possible. From Triplicane I walked past Zam Bazar and Roypettah to the Thousand Lights metro station which, in turn, took me back to Guindy.
One takeaway from this visit - apart from the metro system and sweetshops - is that if you want to get around, do not depend on Uber. Either the cab drivers are not interested or the app does not work the way it usually does. I waited for about 30 minutes for cabs that were supposed to 'arrive in 7 minutes' but never turned up. It is far easier to flag down an auto-rickshaw and it is likely to take you through the rush hour traffic a lot faster than any taxi.
---------------------------------------
REFERENCES & LINKS
- Basha Halwawala, Triplicane - https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/inside-basha-halwawala-chennai-s-80-yr-old-sweet-shop-famous-its-dum-ka-roat-96201
- Indian Express - https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/know-your-city-a-triplicane-sweetshop-tickling-chennais-taste-buds-for-100-years-8495953/
