Perambur Heritage Walk, Chennai

Perambur is the suburban area of Chennai. I went to a Heritage walk that covered some important regions/ monuments in Perambur, recently. Perambur, is a relatively green area (see above photo for proof) and it’s quiet. I loved the ambiance of the place.

This photo shows Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine/Church. We visited more Churches, but I have only one clear photo! Perambur has a large Anglo Indian and Malayalee Christian community. It seems, in the earlier days, Perambur was divided into two – one side consisting of Anglo Indians and the other side consisting of Brahmins. But now the area is home to diverse population. Still, Perambur is home to the largest Anglo Indian community in TN.

This Mahatma Gandhi statue is inside the SRES Union office (I think it’s one of the Railway unions). The specialty about this place is: It was inaugurated and Foundation stone was laid on 3rd September, 1927 by none other than Mahatma Gandhi and Kasurba Gandhi!! 

Then we went to Southern Railway Institute Hall which is used for marriages and functions (open to public also), but the photos I took inside are blurred. Actually, I forgot to take my P&S camera and hence had to shoot with my pathetic cell phone camera! BTW, the above (and below) photos show the neighboring Railway Stadium.

This is mainly a cricket stadium for Railway employees and it has a small seating capacity for audience as well. But public is allowed to go inside for walking during the mornings. When we went, people were walking.

This photo shows the JRET Raghava Middle School, earlier a Thinnai palli (in which students sit on the verandah shown here and learn). Guess when this school was established? 20 19  1870!!! They teach both in Tamil and Telugu medium. Telugu medium in Chennai is rare, at least nowadays.

These pillars belong to a 100-year old building in which the Divisional Traffic Training Center is located. This office was constructed by the British. Actually a person from here explained something about this building, but I was busy taking photos! 🙂

You wondering what those stone people are doing on that stone hill? This is the Southern Railway State Bharat Scouts and Guides Golden Jubilee Monument. So the scouts and guides movement has crossed 100 years! You want to know who was its founder?

Here it is. Lord Baden Powell (shown above) was the founder of the Scouts movement in India. Then we went through the Perambur Carriage works station, which maintains the railway coaches manufactured by ICF – Integral Coach Factory (also located in Perambur).

In fact, Perambur has three railway stations! We also saw the Railway club, which, incidentally, is open to the public. The annual membership @ 15000 rupees per person is quite attractive considering they provide swimming pool, tennis, table tennis, indoor badminton courts, etc.

I thank Mr. Girish K, a resident of Perambur, who organized this walk as a part of the Madras Week Celebrations, 2014.

Destination Infinity

Photo(s) credit: By Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-4.0  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 )], via Wikimedia Commons.