FRom IANS
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Chennai, Aug 24 (IANS) It must have been simply fabulous to be Miss Madras in 1939. As the Tamil Nadu capital celebrates 368 years of its existence, dwellers in this bustling metro are recalling the olden days with nostalgia.
Madras (now Chennai) is the first love of 85-year-old Sheelagh Humphreys, the daughter of a Scottish officer here who was also a furniture designer. Crowned Miss Madras, Sheelagh had a shop called Wrenn Bennett in the Khaleeli building on Mount Road, the city's main artery, opposite Spencer's, another landmark.
'I don't know what they call it today, the whole city seems to have metamorphosed', says Humphreys.
Those were the days of the Spencer & Company - provider of the ultimate shopping experience - the Curzon's, Misquith's, Whiteaway and Laidlaw, all shops of excellent repute and highly patronised in a crowded Raj presidency.
There are still a lot of antique furniture, old curiosity shops, gun shops and clock makers like P. Orr & Co in the city, if one knows where to look for them.
According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), commerce shaped Thomas Parry's (who set up the industrial unit EID Parry) Madras. In 1856, Royapuram became the first train station in southeren India.
Of course, the Khaleeli building, named by its Persian owners, changed hands and is now known as the Aghor Chand Mansion. A decrepit looking Indo-Saracenic structure with its magnificent turrets crumbling has two guns at the front door leading to piles of rubbish.
Another grand specimen of Raj architecture falling to pieces is the Bharat Insurance Building, also on Mount Road, of great real estate value and a brutal example of great neglect by post-independence India.
Though much has changed, the Lattice Bridge Road is still known by this name though the bridge itself may be hard to find today.
There is also the story of the Barber's Bridge, a modern English translation of what people called the Ambattan Bridge. The bridge was actually named Hamilton Bridge but locals soon mispronounced it as 'ambattan' (Tamil word for barber). The new city authorities, hoping to remember the British, renamed it Barber's Bridge.
Despite such historical hazards, people like Humphreys love Madras. Married to an army doctor, George Humphreys, Sheelagh grew up on Jeremiah Road. 'A band played in those days in the Madras University senate hall as young British women visited the milliners in phaetons,' she recalls.
It is the city that crowned a shy 19-year-old Sheelagh, dressed in a blue dress, Miss Madras, at the then famous Victoria Public hall near the General Hospital.
<b>It was in 1639 - some say 1638 - that British merchants Francis Day and Andrew Cogan and their associate Beri Thimappa acquired three acres of land from the Vijayanagar ruler Damerla Venkatadri Nayak for the East India Company.
The plot was called Madraspatanam, a little north of the bustling seaside village of Chennaipattinam (beautiful city) on the east coast of India, trading in spices and cloth with the Romans 2000 years ago.
There was a Portuguese official on this coast in the 1500s, Madre de Sois, long before the British set up the trade post here. The Portuguese were the first to start calling it Madras.
It is also said that there was a fishing hamlet here with a headman named Madaresan who persuaded Day to name his trading outpost Madras.</b>
This week, Clive Hall in Fort St George is host to half a dozen exhibitors - from ASI to the Southern Railways - all displaying their collections of Madras memorabilia and pictures of the Raj days.
One can see coins and currency minted for the Madras presidency and listen to lectures on the history of the city. The walks include one through the old George Town, one through the Mylapore Santhome church and one through Fort St George.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Can our chennai members gather any inof on the three founders? I am interested in Beri Thimappa.
Never mind: Beri Thimappa
He is from Palakol near Machilpatnam!!!
AND
Search for an Indian Madras
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Chennai, Aug 24 (IANS) It must have been simply fabulous to be Miss Madras in 1939. As the Tamil Nadu capital celebrates 368 years of its existence, dwellers in this bustling metro are recalling the olden days with nostalgia.
Madras (now Chennai) is the first love of 85-year-old Sheelagh Humphreys, the daughter of a Scottish officer here who was also a furniture designer. Crowned Miss Madras, Sheelagh had a shop called Wrenn Bennett in the Khaleeli building on Mount Road, the city's main artery, opposite Spencer's, another landmark.
'I don't know what they call it today, the whole city seems to have metamorphosed', says Humphreys.
Those were the days of the Spencer & Company - provider of the ultimate shopping experience - the Curzon's, Misquith's, Whiteaway and Laidlaw, all shops of excellent repute and highly patronised in a crowded Raj presidency.
There are still a lot of antique furniture, old curiosity shops, gun shops and clock makers like P. Orr & Co in the city, if one knows where to look for them.
According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), commerce shaped Thomas Parry's (who set up the industrial unit EID Parry) Madras. In 1856, Royapuram became the first train station in southeren India.
Of course, the Khaleeli building, named by its Persian owners, changed hands and is now known as the Aghor Chand Mansion. A decrepit looking Indo-Saracenic structure with its magnificent turrets crumbling has two guns at the front door leading to piles of rubbish.
Another grand specimen of Raj architecture falling to pieces is the Bharat Insurance Building, also on Mount Road, of great real estate value and a brutal example of great neglect by post-independence India.
Though much has changed, the Lattice Bridge Road is still known by this name though the bridge itself may be hard to find today.
There is also the story of the Barber's Bridge, a modern English translation of what people called the Ambattan Bridge. The bridge was actually named Hamilton Bridge but locals soon mispronounced it as 'ambattan' (Tamil word for barber). The new city authorities, hoping to remember the British, renamed it Barber's Bridge.
Despite such historical hazards, people like Humphreys love Madras. Married to an army doctor, George Humphreys, Sheelagh grew up on Jeremiah Road. 'A band played in those days in the Madras University senate hall as young British women visited the milliners in phaetons,' she recalls.
It is the city that crowned a shy 19-year-old Sheelagh, dressed in a blue dress, Miss Madras, at the then famous Victoria Public hall near the General Hospital.
<b>It was in 1639 - some say 1638 - that British merchants Francis Day and Andrew Cogan and their associate Beri Thimappa acquired three acres of land from the Vijayanagar ruler Damerla Venkatadri Nayak for the East India Company.
The plot was called Madraspatanam, a little north of the bustling seaside village of Chennaipattinam (beautiful city) on the east coast of India, trading in spices and cloth with the Romans 2000 years ago.
There was a Portuguese official on this coast in the 1500s, Madre de Sois, long before the British set up the trade post here. The Portuguese were the first to start calling it Madras.
It is also said that there was a fishing hamlet here with a headman named Madaresan who persuaded Day to name his trading outpost Madras.</b>
This week, Clive Hall in Fort St George is host to half a dozen exhibitors - from ASI to the Southern Railways - all displaying their collections of Madras memorabilia and pictures of the Raj days.
One can see coins and currency minted for the Madras presidency and listen to lectures on the history of the city. The walks include one through the old George Town, one through the Mylapore Santhome church and one through Fort St George.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Can our chennai members gather any inof on the three founders? I am interested in Beri Thimappa.
Never mind: Beri Thimappa
He is from Palakol near Machilpatnam!!!
AND
Search for an Indian Madras