Coolers

Last week, this would have been a super-tempting poster, but with that little bit of rain brining temperatures down, the desire for such thirst-quenchers is likely to have cooled off!

Talk to me

I don't remember what kind of a shop this is, but it is wonderful how a small space has been converted into a niche business. I will hazard a guess that this is some kind of an apothecary's shop. It looks as if the man would climb over his 'work-desk' after he opens the business of a morning, always taking care to leave his footwear outside. 

Once he gets inside, he makes sure he puts out that small metal stool - an invitation for his customers to take the weight off their feet while they talk to him about their ailments. Maybe physical, maybe just the need to unburden themselves. 

I hope they go back with some panacea for their illness. This may not be a financially thriving business, but in helping people cope, it must be an absolutely necessary one!

What man?

It is quite a nicely done piece, that Spiderman climbing down from the TeaBoy outlet's signage. But what is that he has in his hands? A glass of lassi and a pav-burger? 

Is he chai-man or lassi-man, this Spiderman?

Old gold

When I saw this sign on South Usman Road, I was fairly sure this 'Best Money Gold' is a one-off operation, a place where the neighbours could go over to pawn their jewels for some decent value. Would you be surprised to know they have over 200 branches across south India? They claim they do, and from what I've been able to find out, it is probably true; they have a fair number of branches over Tamil Nadu and Kerala, at least.

None of them has come to my view, but for this outlet. And now I'm curious to find out more. They claim to be part of a group that has been in business for over 90 years. 

I am sure some deeper digging will reveal their tagline - of being #1 in the country - is also true!

Sea harvest

In a way, this is like the picture of fruits I posted a few days ago. And in a way, these are also 'off-season' right now, because of the 61-day fishing ban from 15 April to 14 June. The idea is to keep the industrial fishing boats away and allow the fish stock to be replenished. I'm not sure how this is actually enforced, because I can't imagine how the fisherfolk will manage without any source of income for two months. The government subsidy - or subsistence allowance - may not be adequate. 

Prices have consequently shot up; fresh catch is up by about 40%. Maybe you'll be better off by temporarily changing your diet from fish to fruit. But do keep in mind that if you were French, you would actually call these fruits de mer!

Old favourite

Namakkal would probably top the list of (hen's) egg-producing districts in the country. The undivided state of Andhra Pradesh contributed to almost a third of India's eggs, but before and after its split, the second spot has been held by Tamil Nadu, with a little over 20 billion eggs a year. When you consider that Namakkal accounts for 80% of this, you might be able to figure out its importance in the egg world. 

On sweets, however, Namakkal would not be the first name that comes to mind. I can't think of any sweet that can claim a Geographical Indication tag for Namakkal, but these folks seem to be staking a claim for kamarkattu to be it. That's my fancy, of course, for they only claim to have originated from Namakkal, from the legacy of Namakkal Sellappa, whose sweets have been around since 1987, according to the founders of this shop.

Kamarkattu is a start-up; keeping with the times, they're bringing old flavours in organic fashion. They give no indication of having been badly hit by the pandemic. Set up in 2018 by Chandru and Carthic, both from Namakkal, Kamarkattu has expanded to five outlets in Chennai. The city seems to be their only market for the moment, but surely Kamarkattu can find takers in many other locations!

 

Protein fix

There are some stereotypes that take a long while to go away. One such is the image of the south Indian as a vegetarian. Maybe most will describe themselves as such, for there are relatively still very few who eat meat every day of the week.

Sundays are most often meat days; and stalls like this one in the Saidapet market, make a killing that day. It might not look very hygienic, but this is where a majority of the non-vegetarians would shop. The meat is fresh, and the shopkeepers know what you are looking for. Anything from 100g to a few kilos is easily provided for!

 

Diamonds are for... rent

India is the second largest jewellery consumer in the world. I daresay Chennai contributes a lot to that ranking. And it is said that a huge reason for buying gold is the Great Indian Wedding, no matter what state it is in, or what the faith of the bride and groom is. Apart from being guarded and handed down from generation to generation, gold jewellery is also made to order for the bride-to-be. That was somehow a key feature of the wedding, that there would be a lot of gold on the bride. (And a bit on the groom as well, maybe!)

It is therefore unimaginable that jewellery could be rented for a couple of days, to deck up the bride on her wedding day and having it brought back to the store for a fraction of the cost that an individual needs to spend. But here it is, in living colour. 

The Old Prabhu Jewellers of Mylapore established their business in 1978. They were operating out of this address for a very long time. I haven't been in the vicinity of this business for a couple of years, but I think it still remains at this place. As is de rigueur these days, they conduct their business on the internet, and here is where you can find them! 

Re-creation

SPR City's "Market of India" says that its aim is to recreate the magic of some of Chennai's traditional market-places by adopting their practices while doing business in a much more spacious and modern setting. This is a good thing in theory; but we know that unless there is some kind of a regulatory push, such a setting will not be favoured by the traditional traders of GP Road or Ritchie Street. We've seen that happen with Kotwal Chavadi, or more recently with the pavement vendors on Pondy Bazaar.

It is likely SPR City recognizes this as well. They have tried to cast present day Ritchie Street or Sowcarpet as being cramped and dingy through the dioramas they have created in the central arena of the marketplace. 

Here is one which - I believe - is trying to bring a feel of current-day GP Road. Holds your attention for a moment, but then, as with most now-regulated public places in India, the first question that comes to mind is: where are the people?!

Why's the twist?

On Musiri Subramaniam Road, just before you turn off to Vivekananda College on your left, you should open a keen eye to your right. That way, you will spot this rather non-descript shop at the corner where you would turn to get to the Luz Church. The shop is a throwback to the 70s and 80s, run by two gruffly-friendly brothers who seem to have been there forever. In recent times, they have a younger helper and post-covid, they seem to have spruced up the signage with a fresh coat, even if the shop itself remains as it has always been. 

Speaking to the young man, I learnt that the shop has a formal name: "Lakshmi Cool Bar". GoogleMaps tries to be more helpful by adding that it is also called "Mani kadai" (Mani's shop). Neither of those names feature in this board, according to which the shop is "Oliver Twist"!

Apparently, the younger of the two brothers was a voracious reader in his youth, and Charles Dickens was a favourite author. He was therefore insistent on getting a Dickensian connection to the store's name. The sharp turn in the road is the inspiration for the 'Twist'. But can you guess why 'Oliver'? Ah, yes, that's correct: before it was given its current name, the road was called Oliver Road! 

The shop that never moved

For at least 45 years, the address 4-6/181, Kutchery Road had only one occupant, one so famous that no one needed the address to find it. It was the fixed point on the Kutchery Road compass, the only true north that one needed to navigate that road.

The Dabba Chetty Shop started its business with a slightly different spelling, as you can make out from the photo. It was spelt 'Dubba', then, and it didn't start off with the country (herbal) medicines that it later became synonymous with. Krishnaswamy Chetty tried his hand at selling hardware and assorted equipment, when he set up the shop in 1885. But he seems to have very quickly pivoted to purveying herbal medicines, including concoctions made of his own research. It is not very clear if the existence of such an outlet spurred Chetty's Iyer namesake to start his Ayurveda dispensary a little further along Kutchery Road, or if it was the dispensary that helped Chetty's shop gain prominence. In any event, from about 1905 onwards, this was the go-to place for 'delivery lehiyam' (post-natal medicines) and Deepavali lehiyams (to offset the heaviness of over-indulging in festival sweets). Krishnaswamy Chetty used to store the various powders and other ingredients in tin boxes, neatly stacked over each other; that led to the store's colloquial name, which in a stroke of genius, was adopted as its brand.

Krishnaswamy Chetty, Rajamannar Chetty and then Kanniah Chetty; the shop passed from grandfather to grandson, and then, in the 1970s to Kanniah's son Koonala Badrinath, who runs the shop with his wife Shobana. He had no intention of moving from here; in fact, in the many years since this picture was taken (2016), he had put up an awning over the signboard and modernised the space a bit for customers to be able to walk in. But two weeks ago, on Christmas eve, a notice was pasted on the shutter, saying the shop has moved to No. 9, North Mada Street. Just a little distance away, of course, but there is no saying if it would be able to move back. That is entirely in the way the Chennai Metro comes up on Kutchery Road!

Mane space

Let us pretend that you were walking along the northern pavement of Sir Thyagaraya Road, Pondy Bazaar, on a busy afternoon. Naturally, you can't see the signs of the shops because they are right overhead. You look at the displays. And then you suddenly find this little shop door with a couple of stools put out in the front. No glass frontage, no mannequins on display. An old timer sits on one of the stools, contentedly looking on at life passing by. The wooden doorframe, set back from  the street, has the word "Kerala" written above it. Peeking inside, you are greeted with a row of empty chairs, display racks and shelves, for all the world looking like a reading room of sorts.

Welcome to the oldest salon in Chennai. It has been 76 years since Sankunni Nair hung up his shingle in Madras. Kerala Hairdressers is now managed by Sankunni's grandson Sandeep. It does not have the slick design or the chirpy conversation of a newgen coiffeur. You are considered a regular only if your first visit to this establishment was as a kid hanging on to his dad's hand - or if you bring your son over for his haircut. It is that kind of a place, where time stops to swap stories of the city, where the English and Tamizh newspapers provide the stage for the clientele to dissect the news for its relevance - and irrelevance - to the patrons.

Don't get fooled into thinking you can just walk in here anytime you feel the need to have your tresses trimmed. It just so happened to be a lazy weekday afternoon. If you have to come in on a weekend, or after office hours, you had better be prepared to wait and enrich the buzz of conversation with your observations. Else, it will be a long, lonely wait for you!

Business centre

Like many other businesses of the time, this one also started out as a family enterprise. Rather, as a one-boy business. Still in his teens, Ezhumalai decided that he had picked up enough in his six-year stint as a helper in one of Rattan Bazaar's workshops to go solo. In hindsight, it was probably a wise move for him to set up his workshop at Royapettah, quite a distance from Rattan Bazaar. As its name implies, this was the go-to place for cane furniture; opening a workshop there might have turned the full blast of competition on Ezhumalai. By basing himself in Royapettah, he cut the distance between the traditional furniture market and his customers,who were mostly based in south Madras.

When Ezhumalai launched his furniture business in 1937, the air must have been full of patriotic fervour. "Jayabharatham" resonated with the spirit of the times. It was probably that zeal which led him to train young men and women the art of re-wiring the cane strands onto the furniture frames. Some of them became competition, but the majority became his employees. Ezhumalai realized that if he had to expand his business, he would have to look beyond the city of Madras. His workforce could handle the volumes, and sales were driven through printed catalogues which were distributed free across the Presidency. Until his death in the late 1970s, Ezhumalai was actively involved in the business.

These days, when one thinks about buying furniture in Chennai, the place to head to is Royapettah. That change, from Rattan Bazaar to Royapettah, was brought about by this one man. And his successors have sustained that change. In 1989, a decade after Ezhumalai's passing away, his son Rajendran changed the proprietor-run business into a corporate entity. Now known as JFA Pvt Ltd, it has spun off a few brands and also niche products. The third generation is also into the business, which now has its presence in several parts of the city - but this building, on Royapettah High Road, is close to where it all began!

Kerala cutting

Why do so many hair dressers in Chennai refer to Kerala in their names? Is it only because the founder is from Kerala? Or is there something more to it?

Coloured board

This printer advertises scanning and colour 'xerox' (that's the word for photocopy) in its more modern display. But what catches the eye is the old enamel-on-blue board of the business.

And to top it, the board talks about 'Madras', not Chennai!

Elephant in the room

In the middle of the mall, actually. The elephant made of papier mache and plaster of paris stands in the middle of the Express Avenue mall. All decked up in anticipation of the festival season. 

The ambari on the elephant's back carries an image of the Goddess Lakshmi. With the shopping season in full swing, guess both images are needed for the visitor - Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth to provide the moolah and an elephant to cart away all the stuff that would be bought during the season!

Blue board store

Here we have another of the 'blue boards' that were the last word in store signage several decades ago. It is not an enamel board, and it has other colours than just white letters on a blue background. That's probably some of the concession to modernity that Shri Nataraja Stores made when they opened for business. The board has been around for a while; the city's English name is still being used on this one.

There is still a lot of tradition around the board, as befitting an old shop in Triplicane. The mango leaves adorning the board is not something that you would find in the modern trade. And yet, they are not so traditional to have the store opened at the crack of dawn!

Going, going...

Auctions in Chennai bring to mind only one name: Murray. That name was borne by a gentleman who, in January 1915, was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court. Three other names he had, for he was fully Sir Victor Murray Coutts-Trotter; and it took him another nine years to become the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. During his tenure as the Chief Justice, he learnt that the firm Dowden & Co., auctioneers, was shutting down and moving back to England. The courts needed an auction house and Sir Victor looked around for one. He finally sounded out S. Vedantam, who was working with Dowden & Co., about the need to set up one. 

Vedantam took the justice's approval to name the firm after him. And so was born, in 1927, the firm Murray & Company. Whether the Hon'ble Justice had any stake in it is unclear, but very soon, Murray & Co., was appointed as the Receivers for the Madras Presidency. With business growing, operating out of a small office on Thambu Chetty Street, near the Court, was not good enough. A branch was opened on Mount Road, within the grounds of Kushaldas Estate. 

That branch, was in these premises, tucked in behind the LIC building. A year ago, the building was deemed unsafe for occupation and that, probably more than anything else, forced the firm to move away to Mylapore. Over the 87 years of its existence, Murray & Co. has handled several auctions, both public and private. They have sold a hospital, a king's residence, army surpluses... pretty much everything that is fit to be sold. Given a few months, they would probably have been able to find a buyer for it themselves!

Takeaway store

That is the theme for the month, but what is a store if it is not to take things away from? This one in West Mambalam doesn't stop with the usual coconut biscuits, murukku and peanut candy, but lets you know that it offers food for thought as well.

Though, with that spelling, one would be taking a big chance on what is going to be actually taken here!

First of the month, it is the Theme Day again. Head over to the collection of theme day pictures from CDP bloggers around the world!

Look again

No,  this is not a timeline or a wall. It is just a part of the social media spilling out on to the roads. Sydenhams Road, to be specific. 

Can any social media outfit match the range of merchandise offered by this shop?