Parry’s Corner, Chennai

Parry’s Corner is a well known junction in Chennai, named after the EID Parry’s building that stands at the corner of the intersection of North Beach Road and NSC Bose Road near Madras High Court. Paris or Parrys is a household name among Chennaites, which is an important place for commercial banking and trading and also very famous for bazaars, is one of the most congested areas in Chennai. The NSC Bose Road has many historic buildings and EID Parry’s was the second oldest business house in India exists for more than 200 years.

The EID Parry’s (India) Ltd., date back to 1788 when Thomas Parry arrived in Madras and registered as a free merchant and setup a model business of piece goods and banking. Acquiring the plot and garden house across the way from the High Court, Thomas Parry developed it as the office of Parry and Lane and remodelled the house in Palladian architecture. Followed by several partnerships the firm became Parry & Co in 1839, made it the premier house of business in the South and one of the leading businesses in the country.

The EID Parry’s building, also known as the Dare House is named after John William Dare’s contribution to Parry & Co, as the most significant partner. He was recognised in the name of the Art Deco building that opened its doors on the Parry’s site in 1940, is now houses the headquarters of Murugappa Group. Next to the Parry’s building (on the NSC Bose Road) is the head office of the TNSC Bank.

The six-storied Art Deco building/home was built in 1970 on the pulled down of Ramalingam Building, owned by the Madras Provincial Cooperative Bank. By 1974, when the Bank moved into the new home it become Tamil Nadu State Cooperative Bank come head office.

Between the Anderson Church (see the steeple in left) and TNSC Bank on the NSC Bose Road are the buildings of State Bank of Mysore and LIC Bombay Mutual Insurance. Both the building sits on the site where the Anderson Hall and College exists once. The organisations also used the old buildings till their new once opened in 1957 and 1955 respectively. Interestingly both the buildings are constructed in Art Deco style and the Bank of Mysore (center) is architect by B.R. Manicam who was the architect of Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore.

Source of Reference : Hindu Metro Plus, The house that Parry built

Fenced Paddy Field

During one of my outing on the outskirts of Chennai, I come across a meadow of paddy which I find amazing. The thing to feel amaze was not that I haven’t seen paddy fields before, but their existence. Though villages and farm lands around the Chennai are rapidly convert into plots and buildings, it’s wonderful to see the lands that are still cultivated. Perhaps sooner or later the landscape going to change but the sights will remain nostalgic like what many places used to be right now for me.

Linking this post for Run A Round Ranch's Good Fences.  Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends here 

Update Life

Following the left eye in 2012, my father underwent a cataract surgery for the right yesterday. When he was done with the left, there wasn't a need to go for right soon since cataract showed very less growth then. The Dr. has advised to go for surgery when the cataract showed 50 percent growth last year, but being caught up with other problems related to health postponed the surgery thinking how to handle life without one another as I was in need of two people i.e. my parents. At this same time last year I was into the cast post fracture above my knee and for more than 2-3 months I was depended on three people to do the natural task as human.

Early before my fracture, my father caught with one on his ankle following his bike fell down at the knock of a car. Being a diabetic patient it took more than 3 months for his wounds to heal and only later we were able to do something for his hair crack which was almost healed on its own lying beneath the wound. Shifting houses has been a task we went through last two years has kept away the thought and care for the cataract. Though he has been going through eye sight problem with one enough clear vision and other getting blur, he kept postponing the surgery thinking who will assist me or replaces him for at least a month to quite recover.

Everyone knows it’s a minor surgery and doesn't last more than 10 minutes and he was back at home in 4 hours. But things don’t end there right? Regular apply to eye drops matters much important and being away from light vital more along with complete rest and control in sugar to sustain quick recovery. Similar to the phase during his bike accident, I come into the control of my mom again but residing close to my native house our uncle’s family (dad’s bro) was helping us in many ways. Do you remember or not, the house we are staying now isn't what we were looking for but to put an end to house hunt then (March) we decided to move here to transfer later slowly.

Though we aren't in hurry now, we have a thought in mind of another house since we experience water problem here and to feed our thought, the house owner has kindly requested us to be prepare to shift house as he had approached for a plan to built a brand new home by demolishing the present one, which is 40+ years old. And also staying opposite to a school makes feel anxious and I really lose my peace during the school time. We have our own houses in the same and neighborhood areas but they aren't convenient for me. We have our home in ground floor only at the apartment and we shifted from their mainly due to short in space and my native house has homes in upstairs since uncle’s workshop occupies the ground space.

In-between I have requested a friend in US (who’s on onsite) to acquire a person hoist (a transfer device which lift a person to move their position), to help my parents to make easy my shifting. As you all know that I have lost the ability to stand post fracture. Initially the transfer between wheelchair and car only bothered me much as I don’t find great difficult with life at home as I used to it daily, but I don’t think that life sustain at this phase forever and I need to think about future with aging parents, a device like hoist will aid them reduce physical stress. He has inquired with PTA/Take-AlongLifts and looking forward to their quotation and shipping method. Hope things goes well... 

Thirudan Police

Titled in the name of a nostalgic game we played during our childhood days imagining ourselves as thirudan (thief) and police and trying to catch the opponents to eliminate. The Tamil film Thirudan Police is also based on the same but the difference was the thief and police are in the same department. Rather being a usual serious action cop story, the film is based on comedy and father-son sentiment and revenge in an amusing way.

Vishwa is a carefree person and dislike his father Singaram; a sincere head constable who wants him to become a police officer before his retirement. But the situation brought him into the same department as his father was killed in a fake encounter planned by an assistant commissioner to save his son from a rape case, as he found the evidence. Vishwa doesn’t seem to feel sorry for his father’s death or shows any interest on revenging the culprits until he realized the worth and hardship of his father as he himself went through it. But how does he revenge, is the highlight set in a light-hearted way.

The movie led by Attakathi Dinesh shows much improvement in acting (following his character as visually challenged in Cuckoo) and also continues to act close to reality make it appreciable. His sorrow for disregarding his father has been carried out light-heartedly though it makes sense and meaningful when he broke down realizing his mistake to misunderstand his father. Veteran actor Rajesh in the sincere head constable suit suits him well, as he had done similar roles in couple of films earlier and though he comes for a short period deserves respect. The upcoming comedian Bala Sarvanan has done best supporting role, and being a constable he guides Dinesh and make fun together.

Naan Kadavul Rajendran and John Vijay played the funny villain roles against the serious assistant commissioner, who launched them to kill the constable Singaram and to help his son to finish off Vishwa. Between the comedy rattle there’s a mild love track with Iyshwarya Rajesh – not so fair but enough with girl next door image – make some pleasant appearance and couple of duets with Dinesh. Music by Yuvan was fine and I liked the song Pesadhe, which sounds pleasant along with a party song by Vijay Sethupathi.

The debutant director Caarthick Raju had done a decent job to be watched by everyone and will be appreciated for highlighting the father-son relationships, apart attaching photos of the actors and technicians shot with their fathers to the credit was something innovative and touching. Produced by SPB Charan, the film has SPB Balasubrahmanyam appear in a special guest roll, sent a brief message to student on father’s behalf. Thirudan Police – A Light-hearted Play!

Park gate and flowers

Actually this shot doesn’t focused on the blue gate barred in spike/arrow bars, but on the flowers which are commonly known as spider flowers or spider plants belong to the family of Cleomaceae. Close to the gate of Anna Park in Yercaud, the colourful flowers make beautiful lines on both sides as inviting visitors into the park. Though it isn't a big park or garden, there are number of beautiful flowers esp. roses to admire and during summers they conduct flower shows displaying number of flowers.

I was looking for a photo for Good Fences Thursday (run by Run A Round Ranch) and come across this look like newly painted gate of Anna Park from my storage in laptop. To say about the spider flowers, they are native to South America and blooms in purple, pink or white with four petals and six long stamens.