Where am i ? Society News

Society News

PSM Photowalk 4

Triplicane is one of the oldest central business districts of Chennai. It owes its name to its Puranic existence as Tiruvallikeni or Tiru-Alli-Keni (Sacred Lily Pond in Tamil) denoting the pond in front of the famous Parthasarathy Temple located there.

Triplicane is an important hub of the city, though the commercial din often drowns out the more pleasant aspects of life here. With several lodges and boarding houses, many of the single men who work in the city can be found here. This has in turn, has led to a number of eateries coming up in this area. From roadside dhabbas, or kai-endhi bhavans as they are known locally, to family-run ‘mess’es, Triplicane is unique. With narrow side lanes and ancient houses waiting to be ‘discovered’, Triplicane remains a must to anyone wanting to ‘know’ Chennai.

About 20 PSMites (and a few guests) gathered at 7.00 am today in front of the Parthasarathy temple. These were, Azhar Hussain, Chandrasekaran, Ganesan, Jagadeesh, Mahendran, Poochi Venkat, Pradeep, Ramanakumar, Ramkumar, Rithwik, Samyak, Sanjeevi (Guest), Satish (Guest), Satya, Shashwath (Guest), Sivakumar, Sridhar, Sujatha and Suprakash. We were met by S R Raghunathan, Senior Photographer, The Hindu who kindly accepted to be our mentor for the PhotoWalk.

After showing us around the temple, Raghunathan took us on a PhotoWalk starting at the Bharathi Illam. Later, we saw among other sights, the Triplicane vegetable market, ancient houses alongside contemporary buildings, the 157 year old Hindu High School and the 'foreigners only' Broadlands Hotel. The walk ended near the Parthsarathy Temple where Raghunathan took us to his childhood home, a vintage 'agraharam' which 50 Brahmin families still call their home despite offers to move to more modern dwellings.

Posted Aug-30-2009