CHENNAI: What would you do on a cloudy Sunday morning? Get some extra blankets and go back to sleep? Well, the history buffs and photography enthusiasts in Chennai had other plans. Striding down the pavement on Marina beach, a group of 50 people kept their cameras busy all morning. The Chennai Photo Walk group conducted its 100th walk along the beach, focussing on the statues. City Express catches up with Ramaswamy Nallaperumal, the organiser of the event.
“The 100th walk is very special. Chennai, well, I would still like to call it Madras, has rich history, culture and many tales that are yet to be reach public domain. This walk is more about documenting the history, what the city is today and also celebrating it,” he explains. What started in November 2007 with a bunch of people trying to walk and click the streets of Chennai, now has over 13,000 members on social media (blog, Flickr, Google+, Facebook).
We often walk past the statues on the beach without a second thought. R Shantaram, the group chronicler, throws light on the history of a few of these statues on Marina beach. “The Triumph of Labour and Gandhi statues were the first ones to be put up. They were installed in 1959 and the statues of other personalities including Avvaiyar, Thiruvalluvar, Bharathiyar, Bharathidasan and Veeramamunivar were installed during 1968 to mark the first World Tamil Conference,” he recalls. “The Kannagi statue as we all know, is famous for the controversy around its erection in 1968 and re-ercetion in 2006,” he shares.
As we walk down, reading the citation embossed under each statue, we come across a Thirukkural couplet under the statue of the poet Thiruvalluvar. “I bet most people wouldn’t have noticed this under the statue,” exclaims one of the members. While the statue of the turbaned Vivekananda stands tall, one of the members says, “I still have the picture of this statue without the turban. I wonder why people recognise him only with his turban!” Ramaswamy turns to us and says, “This is one reason to document the city. It’s constantly changing. What the city is today might not be the way it looks tomorrow.
G V Balasubramanian, who has been a part of the group since the first photo walk, reminisces about the first walk. “It was a walk that covered Mylapore and the group travelled by MRTS to Beach station, then walked on North Beach Road, visited the Church on Armenian Street, Museum at Fort St George and later the Church on the Fort campus. The 100th walk is a special occassion for us and we’ll continue having walks that celebrate the heritage of the city,” he says.