The Mylapore Episodes- Part 3

I did miss out two important landmarks of East Mada Street. One was the corner 'Kalathi Kadai' which had one of the best rose milks you can ever think of at 50 paise. The other one was the 'Lady Sivasami School' mostly made up of smart, sharp, good looking 'iyer girls' in the traditional pavadai-dhavani uniform and the roadside Romeos of Santhome and PS schools used to wait eternally sipping the rose milk on the kalathi kadai wall for the school to finish so that they could accompany their respective Juliet’s back home. However we used to sit on the 'thinnai' of Vietnam House of Mathala Narayanan Street(we had spent more time on that thinnai than at our homes) waiting for the girls to pass the street in the evenings since that was a perfect starter before we switched over to cricket sessions. Each one of us had a girl to 'site adichify' and also remember all of us making a horse like'toktok'sound when one particular girl used to pass through the street since she was fair with a long nose and pony tail and looked like a horse which was not exactly appreciated by one of our guys who had his eyes fixed on her.

Getting back to the other landmarks of Mylapore which was our daily walking route to college on Cutcheri road-Luz Corner there was the calm Vinayaka Nagar colony with some pretty girls, Raja Kalyana Mandabam which was virtually built on the Buckingham canal ( God knows how the crowds for the wedding tolerated the adjacent 'cooum') Aavin ice cream parlor, Shanti Vihar, Bombay Halwa House, Luz Pillayar temple(quiet handy during exams) Udupi Suga Nivas, the Old man's platform book shop, the fragrance of Amrutanjan factory inducing a headache even for normal people all the way on to the 'Madam' alias Vivekananda College on the Sullivan Garden street which is now renamed if I am right.

Eating on Shanti Vihar with some college friends was a delight and since we had very little money, I devised an ingenious plan where we used to eat at the post paid area which was meant for Tiffin and then cross a small barrier to walk through to the pre paid meals area and then exit conveniently tipping a server with small amount who happily obliged us every time. Bread Channa of Bombay halwa house was all class and the 'sambar vadai' and 'Rava Dosa'of Udupi Suga Nivas were 'heavenly'.

But beyond all the fun and enjoyment derived from all these places Mylapore had something very special and that was the 'Shiridi Sai Baba temple' across South Mada street. The place is very nostalgic even today for me especially the 'Thursday evenings' and sitting in front of the 'Dwani' and the prayer room for even 5 minutes and touching the lotus feet of Baba is a life time experience which just can't be explained.

Mylapore stands out even today in Chennai city and has everything you can ask for!

RK