Car for wedding procession

 

Car for wedding procession

If it is baraat in North India, it is Maapillai Azhaippu in Tamil Nadu. The bridegroom is taken round the streets in a  decorated vehicle. There are specialists who provide customised cars for this purpose. Usually, these are very old cars (many are  Heralds, some are even Dodges and Studebakers) which are not fit for normal use.

This car was in front of a mandapam in Washermanpet. It looked like a Herald which had undergone a major body transplant. Just opposite to this mandapam was the garage of a contractor who supplies such vehicles for weddings and movies.

 

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Zari work

a woman on zari work

CN Krishnaswamy Road opposite the Big Mosque in Triplicane is a typical lane, full of small shops and eateries with people and vehicles darting in and out. The road also houses a couple of embroidery workshops and stores specializing in zari and gilded materials. we managed to peep into one of them for this photograph.

 

 

Friday Prayers at the mosque

Namaaz-Prayers at the mosque

The Ramzan month has come to  an end. Last Friday, I was fortunate to be part of a heritage walk to Wallajah Mosque and surrounding areas of Triplicane. It was led by Mr. Kombai Anwar. The walk ended with an iftar party at the Wallajah Mosque (Big Mosque). The was taken after the iftar.

Old Star Talkies

Dress circle?

Star Talkies in Triplicane used to bring the latest Hindi movies to Madras during my college days. The theatre closed down some time ago and is awaiting the kiss of the bulldozer.

Meanwhile, one of the booking counters has been converted as a dressing table by the caretaker’s family.

Is this what is meant by Dress Circle?

Part of Ramzan Heritage Walk.

 

 

Tangled wires

Tangled wires

Despite the advances in communications technology, the last mile connectivity seems to be primitive. Here is a telephone junction box in a busy commercial area of Chennai.

Sometimes you wonder, how these things still work!

The Chennai Photowalk. Retrowlak # 42 Broadway.

Ingenuity ?

Sleeping man and Ingenuity

Does her new spects give her the ability to see ingenuity in the way the man sleeps?

A pavement dweller in Broadway sleeps in front of an Optician’s store.

From the Chennai Retrowalk #42

 

The Magnificient Seven

Street Children

Charming street children from Broadway. They insisted on our taking their pictures. One of them even wanted us to wait till he brought his kid brother.

The Chennai Photowalk Retrowalk #42

 

The Wheels of Justice grind slowly

Sleeping rickshaw puller in front of Law College

The judicial system is notorious for its tardiness in dispensing justice. This scene of a sleeping commoner in front of the Madras Law College adjacent to the Madras High Court seems to illustrate that.

As per a report in Times of India, nearly 300,000 cases were pending in the Madras High Court as of December 31, 2016.

Legal education started in Madras in 1884 as a course in Presidency College and became an independent institution in 1891. The Law College moved into the present premises in 1899.

The Madras High Court complex is one of the largest in the world and is a classic example of Indo- Saracenic style.

The Chennai Photowalk Retrowalk #42

Attitude Demonstrated

Posterboy

The man applied paste and neatly put up 4 posters screaming “Attitude”. Soon after that he did what many men do inChennai – unzipped his fly and relieved himself right under the poster he had pasted.

So much for Attitude!

Can we call him the Posterboy of Chennai men?

From The Chennai Photowalk Retro #42

See action photo below:

Civic sense

Communist God?

Labour Union Booth

A labourer relaxing in a booth adorned with Divine images as well as party festoons.

A scene from The Chennai Photowalk, Broadway.