Saturday, May 24, 2008

Esplanade

That's a bit of a misleading title: the picture is not of any esplanade, but taken from the eastern end of 'Esplanade' - that's what Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Road was originally used for, before all sight of the Bay of Bengal was obscured by the Port of Chennai and other buildings.

Looking southwards from this point, it is surprising to find traffic being so thin; even the red-and-yellow suburban train seems to be empty. That's quite unusual for 6 o'clock on a workday evening - or maybe it is just the calm before the storm of people leaving their offices hits the roads.

The picture covers some of the city's well-known features: the Rajaji Salai subway, the Reserve Bank of India building, the Beach-Tambaram suburban train, the TV Tower of Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, the spire of St. Mary's Church inside the Fort and the floodlights at MA Chidambaram Stadium. And though the shops are not visible, the crowds at the bottom left of the picture tell you that business is still booming at Burma Bazaar!




4 comments:

magiceye said...

very interesting perspective

Shantaram said...

>> magiceye>> Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Is this really the esplanade? i thought it was the road between high court and broadway bus stand. Because im pretty sure that this stretch of road used to be called north beach road during the british times

Shantaram said...

>> Bitterscotch>> You're right, it is not the Esplanade, it is the former N.B.Road; Esplanade runs perpendicular to it... misleading title, but I did confess to that earlier!