Chennapuri: Part 6

Continued from here

Monegar Choultry

I still remember the excitement in the evening of meeting my parents after three months. We drove from Tennei (my grand uncle’s house in Nungambakkam ) and as we passed the Monegar Choultry post office very near the house I jumped up in joy.

We stayed in my father’s quarters, a two bedroom house. The magic of being in the city again cannot be described. I came down to earth a few days later when my father told me that the next day I would be taken to the Madras Christian College School for an admission test. As my knowledge of English was not up to the mark my father sat up with me and taught me. Well, to cut a long story short, I was admitted not due to my scholastic abilities but because my cousins had studied there - the old boy connection. After an initial period of adjustment I settled down in school. It was an excellent school with dedicated teachers with all the facilities like library, sports activities, and lovely buildings with yellow and red stripes and situated in what was then a prime location - at the end of Lingha   Chetty Street opposite the High Court buildings. There was a big assembly hall on the first floor with a wooden floor, class rooms on three floors and a tall tower with a spiral stair case .We had Malayalam class on the top room with windows on all four sides. The view was fantastic and the breeze blew you off. The students were a very cosmopolitan lot. The education was in English medium except for one Tamil medium section.

For the first few years, ward boy Kumarasamy got me into a tram at the end of Broadway (very near our house), cycled to China Bazaar, got me down from the tram and pushed me to the school on the bike. This went on till my friends made fun of me and I got my father to agree that I could walk with the ward boy to the school. My children make fun of me to this day. I was quite rotund those days. We had to wear the green school blazer to school. I wore spectacles and my father chose a gold frame. The whole effect made me look like a miniature Pickwick and I was nicknamed Pickwick Green Frog! My wife years later had to put up my father’s penchant for choosing outdated frames! In the lunch time we played in the quadrangle in the middle of the school - mainly cricket. In the afternoon we were taken to the High Court grounds where the school got permission for us to play. For big cricket matches we had cross over to the
Caithness grounds on Springhaven Road which has now been taken over by the expansion of the harbor.

The Head Master was Kurivilla Jacob, a young man with a lot of ideas. Kalastri was a maths teacher of rare knowledge and dedication who got so involved in walking up and down with his hands in his pants pockets and lecturing that he did not know that his buttons were undone! Zackaria had to pull him up saying that his banana was showing. Without batting an eyelid Kalasri went on teaching while buttoning up his pants. Zackaria could not make head or tail of maths just managing to scrape through but later on he ran a very successful business till he went to Pakistan. Then we had S.V. Purushothaman, a Sanskrit teacher with such an unrivalled ability to speak in English that he was school orator. 

China Bazar was a bustling place with shops and hotels and bookshops. Immediately after Lingha Chetty Street was the famous Armenian Street with its beautiful Armenian Church still maintained by the Armenian community in Calcutta. It is still a haven of peace amidst the chaos around. Past the beautiful Y.M.C.A buildings towards the west there was the old Pachiappa College buildings, the wholesale market
on Bunder Street, then you turned left on to Evening Bazar full of watch shops and then the famous White House which specialised in top end textiles. They had a clientele of high society people. Further up the place was full of Chinese dentists and then the Christian mission and hall. You ended up in the medical college and hospital entrance. This was the center of shopping Madras at that time. Y.M.C.A buildings, the law college, and the high court still stand majestically but alas the peace and serenity have given over to chaos.

Esplanade with High Court and Law College on the left

The school had a high reputation but we found that many times this did not count in competition. I remember a cricket match we had to play against a Brahmin school as a part of the schools league matches. They did not have proper equipment and had to borrow from us. They all wore tufts like orthodox Hindus. They did not have shoes and played bare footed. They beat us hollow and our physical instructor was not exactly happy and gave us a tongue lashing. The school arranged summer excursions to various places in the South. I still remember the overnight trip to Mahabalipuram by boat on the
Buckhingham Canal starting from Lattice Bridge. The trip to Travancore State was memorable. We were excited at the observatory to see Saturn and its rings.

During the war years the school was divided into three branches -George Town, Chetput and Tambaram. I stayed on in the George Town branch and we had just a handful of students. We were taught air raid drills and first aid procedures. The great fun was to have the whole school to ourselves to run around during intervals. You saw tanks on the road sometimes .Once the scare of Japanese invasion was over the school reverted to George Town and I finished my schooling there.

 

Monegar Choultry (from S. Muthiah's Madras Discovered)

To be continued...

Comments

[shakuni]

A boat-ride is a splendid excursion - defnitely more attractive than the mundane school-bus.
By the way, where in Nungambakkam was your grand-uncle's house?

[Ambika]

Can you add tags, or keywords? I think you should put "Madras Christian College" as well! There will be several people who will like to read about the early days, dont you think?

Yes, as Shakuni says, the boat ride sounds a much better option than the roads today!

[Raja Ramakrishnan]

I can assure you that the boat ride was not all that romantic.We had to contend with the mosquitoes and our scout master who kept us on our toes with a non stop quiz.
My granduncle's house called Tenneri was on Krishnamachari road now called Krishnama road.This is off Nugumbakkam high road near the Taj Coromandal hotel .The house still stands.It was built and occuppied by one mr.jackon in tne 30s.

[Ambika]

These links are of the locks on the Buckingham. Thought you might find it interesting

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1388564539/in/set-72157602035752273/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1389461732/in/set-72157602035752273/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1389461804/in/set-72157602035752273/

[Raja Ramakrishnan]

Ambika- unabe to open the picts

[Ambika]

OK, try now. Have changed the settings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1389461804/?edited=1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1388564539/in/set-72157602035752273?edited=1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12893157@N05/1389461732/in/set-72157602035752273?edited=1

Thanks Ambiks .Was able to open.