Sunday Photo: Austin Classic

Shot at a heritage rally on vintage cars, couple of years back held at the VGP Golden Beach parking lot on ECR.

Happy Birthday Chennai

Our city celebrates 375^th year of establishment today… here I share a couple of photos on one of the city’s oldest bridges, Napier Bridge.

Also known as Iron Bridge was built in 1869 by Francis Napier, who was then Governor of Madras. The bridge was constructed over the Cooum River, connecting Fort St. George with the Marina Beach. Although the bridge was narrow before, it was soon converted to a concrete structure in 1943 by Arthur Hope.

funny to see buffaloes across the bridge

Alongside the old bridge, a new one was built in 1999 with a 10.5 meter-wide carriageway on the western side. The bridge is 138 meter long with 6 spans (bowstrings) across the river near the mouth. As part of the Marina Beach beautification, special lights have been fixtures beneath and on the arches and surface of the bridge, provides visual effect during night times. This architectural marvel stands tall and proud, making it one of the most significant landmarks in the city.

 

Life along with monkeys

My place of residence in Adyar, Chennai, has lot of monkeys! Since my native is Adyar, we transferred to the neighborhood area (buying a ground floor flat, 8 years back) to prevent difficulty of climbing up and down to the first floor home there. Now shifted back to Adyar for the last 5 months, mainly because of the emotional attachment my father hold towards this area and having been grown myself for more than 20 years here, he is more than three decades ahead of me. Though we couldn’t go back to our native home - which remained to be first and second floors since my uncle runs a workshop at ground floor -  we had rented a house close to ours, therefore my dad don’t need to wander between the neighborhoods.

a monkey on the fence (click any pics for enlarge)

I have seen monkeys (bonnet macaque) in my area even before shifted to neighborhood, though I had no idea about them until transferred back to Adyar. I not even thought that I would be back here like a bounced ball, but taking years to respond. For me where I reside becomes second, because I have come to believe that I don’t belong to one place. My intention was comfort and peace, and I am always open to experience new environment and ready to adapt anyplace with basic infrastructures. I dream of living in suburbs, where pollution and noise were at least. That too driven towards the southern districts rather closes to Chennai.

The monkeys here aren’t much troublesome, though they make their presence noticeable. At the rear of our house, canopy of trees (mostly large) sprawls for few hundred meters provides wonderful shelter to the monkeys from very young to aged. Also being very close to Adyar Theosophical Society and Besant Garden, which are very few patches of green across Chennai, adjacently, gives way to forest environment including number of rare flora and fauna. I’m really not sure these monkeys reside among the canopy of trees at the backyard, because they don’t make their way everyday across us. But few houses away from us used to make mild explosions sometime, which we come to know through our servant maid that they blast crackers to drive away the annoying monkeys.

a monkey perched on our staircase handrail

Mostly they come as a group or family, sitting here and there, climbing up and down and leaping through the branches of trees. But they don’t stay long into our sight, as they keep moving like nomads. There are even huge monkeys (perhaps obese) among them, which could scare anybody with their looks. Before I go ahead continue with monkey stories, I need to say my house has inbuilt something pre-cautiously to prevent monkeys entering or looting things leaving its hands through the windows grills. Or perhaps through their early experience with monkeys annoyance, the owners of the house has made additional frames of net to the existing windows, so that we could open the windows without fear of monkeys.

But the windows in the hall doesn’t have this facility, so monkeys have attempted few times entering our house and also succeeded, which we haven’t know until one night dad wake up to see a monkey sitting on my bro’s helmet left on the sofa. Once saw him it leaped through the windows but certainly scared my dad who didn’t expect a monkey sitting on our sofa, that too at mid-night. We were blaming the cats other day for coming into house and drink the milk left at the dining table. But through this attempt we confirmed it was the monkey, and not the cat. Few days back I read news in paper, that a monkey has been constantly attacking an apartment in the neighborhood and its main intention was drinking milk from the milk packets that dropped at every doorstep in early morning. Before the households collect the milk packets, the monkey empty those and also become so obese because of drinking only milk! Lol

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall

A monkey here also tried to scare me once, when I was alone. I working on my laptop other day and suspect something leaps off the window before I saw it clearly. But our pet, which was sleeping near my wheelchair, alerted me by suddenly barking at the window. Initially I too thought it must be a cat, but following the incident above it sounds certainly to be a monkey. Our pet haven’t seen monkeys often, so she kept barking every time they come around and also become crazy to chase them. My mom was plucking flowers one evening (from daily jasmine vine), which has become her daily activity after shifted here, a monkey came waking on the compound wall threatened her thinking she’s having something eatable in her bowl, which she use for collecting flowers. Though it doesn't do anything, she left the bowl on the wall and moved away and it passed as well.

So far the monkeys hadn't been a trouble for us; but it is fun something watching their activities and also provides opportunity to conduct photo shoot on them. The huge ones make wonder through their appearance and they aren't active and fun making like the young and middle once. I leave the post with a small collage on the monkeys fun below, shot at various moments! Thank you 

Sunday Photo: Gate

A wood planked gate of one of my neighbors… actually it is a gate of a construction office situated on our house lane, opposite to our side entrance. 

Meet my grandfather!

My grandfather (maternal) visited me yesterday on the sideline of my late great grandmother’s annual ceremony. I haven’t seen him for a very long time, as he wasn’t well to move out of his house or climbing down from his upstairs home. I was truly surprised when my grandma brings him home along with her. Since he was suffering from certain health setbacks in recent past, I didn’t expect him to visit me and for me it is hardly possible to meet him at his home in first floor and coming across their congested street in wheelchair is something quite awkward to image. Since it is hard to take a car inside their street and also post fracture last year, I am going through difficult times transferring between car and wheelchair.

My grandfather and grandmother (shot at Kodaikanal in 2012)

I feel so happy meeting him and I really moved looking into his eyes that was yearning to see me… His affection and care for me is something very special and is always evident through his eyes. Though he won’t speak much and couldn’t make gestures easily, I understand him quite well and I can’t explain how much I love him and he means to me. He is our best well-wisher and what and where we are today is only because of his chief intention along with his son’s (my late uncle) hard work, and selfless being provided us so many advantages in life. Until he closed his teashop at early 20s, he has been a hard worker and active being.  For more than two decades he had been a cabs car and lorry driver, before started fulltime dairy business and opens the teashop.

My uncle’s demise in late 2001 had hit him immensely and shutting down the teashop, left him jobless at home resulted in greater drawback at health followed by a cardiac arrest due to clot in heart.  But in latter days he suffers from diabetic and nervous problem and the side effects of tablets forced him to quite depend on others. He could walk only at very slow pace and someone need to lift him from the chair to stand and being little obese it has been very difficult for my grandmother to take care of him. We ever expected him to become infirmity at this early age of 75, while older than him are progressing well. I am one of his main concerns to make him feel regret, and he had expressed his sorrow many time with granny for unable to help me in anyways.

In 2001 he used to drive me every day to a clinic in T.Nagar here, where I took Ayurveda treatment for nearly two months. Driving through the heavy morning traffic is a true venture in his way of driving, though he manages only because of the eagerness to see me as a normal being. While studying in school, he used to pick me in his bicycle if I received none.  Putting the bags on the handlebar, he pedals me to home placing me on the rear carrier, since my school was very close to their house. He had scolded me and also embraced at same, as he always had special attention towards me.

I think it is our turn to take care of him, not only because he had worn-out his life for our self but true love he has shown for others and as children/grandchildren it’s our duty to support not only physically but also make him feel happy and content. At my stand I am conscious not to disturb him anyways, but I feel sorry that indirectly I’m one of the main concerns on his drawback stream. Emotionally he has been disturbed by others, forgetting whatever he had done for them and just for the brief of ego and updating their fake statues - though they deserved to be so – makes him feel anguish. Until 2012 he had traveled with me for many places, as I love doing it so, I am helpless now leaving him at home as he finds it very difficult to travel and getting in and out of the car, and in case of urgency he prefers Auto (rickshaw) to pick and drop him at doorstep.