CHENNAI : Chennai is a word, Madras is an emotion’, they say. We firmly believe that emotions come from the heart, and in this case, it’s George Town, the place which was once considered the nucleus of the first modern city of India, where history beckons and every single brick, trail, structure, and person has a story to tell. In an attempt to document the several layers of history of the area and discover hidden gems, Ramanujar Moulana, founder, Cycling Yogis went on a cycling trail, covering the length and breadth of the locality, in a span of six months.
Talking to us, on the sidelines of the launch of the group’s third booklet, George town bicycle trails at Seafarers club, Ramanujar said, “The previous booklets were a learning curve for me and for this Madras week, I wanted to do something in George Town. This has been a place of interest for longest of times. So, I took my cycle and decided to explore it…after six months of pedalling across the area, every weekend, I finally had substantial content and history, to create this book.”
Situated on the Coromandel Coast, George Town earlier called as Black town by the British became the centre of Madras. The historical neighbourhood was originally the old native quarter that grew outside the walls of Fort St George to the north of the seafront. It was from here that the first colonial settlement in the city developed. The booklet covers 20 trails ranging from charity and choultry, food, market, and publishers, saints, vintage buildings to water bodies.
It is also supported with QR codes for each trail, which when scanned through smartphones enables the reader to access the GPS location of specific places.Talking about some of his favourite picks from the trail and cycling through George Town, an enthusiastic Ramanujar said, “Since most part of George Town is into wholesale business, the area turns itself on ‘sleep-mode’ during Sundays. So, on Saturdays I used to push my cycle through traffic and Sundays were purely explorative. So, I had ample space to see, visit and experience some distinct places.”
The Gopual Dairy in Phillip street, popular for their bun butter jam, Kandaswamy temple in Nainiappan street in Park Town, originally constructed by the Maari Chettiar in the 1670’s and schools which are over 100-years-old dotting the area, are some of his favourites from the trail.The booklet also contains a brief study on UNESCO World Heritage site of George Town in Malaysia. “The primary reason to have included George town in Penang is because, our George Town, can also be on par with those cities which have been declared heritage regions,” he said.
A first of its kind vintage cycle exhibition was also conducted as part of the book launch. A plethora of cycles, ranging from the English Raleigh roadster(1951), English Raleigh roadster with fork lock(1952), English Humber roadster(1949) to second world war BSA airborne cycles, artifacts and cycle lamps, like the Lucas silver king, were on display.