A Small Part of Old Madras. Review on Chennai

Over 40 years ago, when I first joined the Highschool, our headmaster used to tell us that he received his education in one of the finest institutions in India, the Madras Christian College. Up until that time my travel was much limited to Kerala, based in Kottayam, I had the opportunity to visit the southern end of the sub continent- Cape Comorin or Kanya Kumari where the Indian ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea met, and from one vantage point there, you can see the sunrise, a giant red globe merging out from the ocean and in less than 13 hours later, submerging back to the ocean; and to the north, I hadn't been beyond Alwaye. However, within a year, I had an opportunity to travel to Madras, Mysore and Bangalore with my cousin. For us, two teenagers it was an adventure. We took the Cochin Express from Ernakulam Junction, and arrived in Madras Central the next day by way of Coimbatore and Jalarpet.

I was amazed by the size of the city, its wide boulevards and neat streets, beautiful buildings and shops and motor cars. We took the transit bus to travel within the city, and it was in Mount Road, I fell in love with the city. The reason was a store called ''Higginbotham's Books''. With eyes wide open, I rushed inside this beautiful store and was amazed to see so many titles I wanted to buy. They had a section on natural history and hunting books where I found several interesting titles including those by Jim Corbett, Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles Darwin and mystery novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and others. I had seen an old book by F.W. Champion titled ''With A Camera in Tigerland'' with full of tiger photographs in the school library and wanted to get a copy of it. I was told to visit the Moore Market where there were a few book stalls that sold used books.

We arrived at the buzzing Moore Market, and surprisingly, in the second bookstore, I found the book I wanted. But the seller wanted 40 Rupees for it, and I was in no position to buy it. In those days a good meal cost only one rupee or less. I offered 7 Rupees, and he said no.

It was these two places in Madras that stole my heart, and I visited this beautiful city numerous times over the years, and never failed to visit the Higginbotham's and the Moore Market once. As for the Champion's book- during the second visit to Moore Market a year later, I found the book was sold, and it took me another ten years before I had a chance to own the book, in 1968 when I settled down in Montreal, I ordered it from a catalogue issued by Wheldon & Wesley (UK). I got it for 2 pounds and 10 shillings + a small postage.

It was many years ago I last visited Madras. I know the name of this city has been changed to Chennai. Nevertheless, I have fond memories of my first big city- and the name was Madras, the jewel of South India!