Horses, cows, bullocks, buffaloes - they were all pretty common sights on the streets of Chennai until about 20 years ago. It has been quite a while since I've seen a horse graze on the by-lanes of the city. This one was just 50 metres or so away from TTK Road, behind the Benjarong restaurant - so very much heart of the city, in Alwarpet.
The law abiding owner has made sure that the horse has been tethered on the side away from the 'No Parking' board!
This shop (is that really what it is?) sign on TTK Road has intrigued me since I first noticed it about 4 years ago. It indicates a completely new theory of diagnosis and cure, one that is based on study of the wallet rather than of the anatomy. Haven't seen crowds milling around it, waiting to be cured of their ailments for Rs.5 a pop, so maybe there is something deeper to the "5 Rs Health" after all. 
In many places, they don't know about it at all. In several others, they do it behind closed doors, when the day's work is done and it is time for some relaxation. But it is only in Chennai that they do it in the open, through the day, with many onlookers.
No wonder then, that Chennai is home to the only Arjuna awardee in this sport, a 10-time National Champion and two time World Champion, whose name would make almost any non-Chennaiite go, "Hunh??". Did Maria Irudayam make the sport popular in Chennai or did he reach his destiny because of the game's popularity in Chennai? And how about Ilavazhagi, the newest world champion, also from Chennai?
It really doesn't matter. Carrom is so common in Chennai, and so apparently easy, that even a first time visitor to India falls for it in no time. There's Tim, on his second day in India, chasing the whites, blacks and red!!
Somehow, making an extra effort to ensure safety while crossing roads is something that very few Chennaiites like to do. In the days when the IT corridor was still Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), people getting to the other side were a speed-breaker; but IT corridors should not stop for anything and road-crossers have now been given overhead walkways that thankfully do not look out of place on the road.
All these walkways are near the MRTS stations. Obviously. But, considering the platforms at these stations are elevated, wouldn't it have made more sense to also enter the walkway directly from the platform? Was that thought of at all? Here's a view of the Indira Nagar station, with the walkway in front of it. With most of the station buildings themselves not having been completed, it would have been far better to have made that platform-entry provision now, rather than break down walls a few years later.
The only National Park in the world that is completely within a city (it is also supposed to be the smallest National Park in the world) is the Guindy National Park (GNP) in Chennai. But if you are in Chennai, you don't have to go to the GNP - some animals come home!
While there are flyovers coming up at several places, the construction activity at those places has made regular traffic much more difficult than it was earlier. That's only to be expected; but to me it seems that the Panagal Park area is a little less congested than it used to be. I'm basing this on shaky ground - 2 trips through the area last week and neither of them during the peak hours.
For those who would have data to refute my anecdotalism, the good thing is that it looks like this flyover should open up in about 6 weeks. There are still a couple of more flyovers that are under construction, but all that activity would be completed by the end of the year. And then the next round of digging will begin, for the Chennai Metro - a city builder's work is never done! 
Being the only 'place of worship' so close to the headquarters of the Metropolitan as well as the State Express Transport Corporations, it is easy to imagine that whenever a new bus was brought in, it must have been taken to the nearest deity, Muniswaran, for the pooja. It is no surprise therefore that over time, this rather non-descript shrine has acquired a niche expertise in guaranteeing the welfare of vehicles and drivers; this Muniswaran is now something like a patron saint for those citizens of Chennai who make a living with their driving skills.
But a couple of incidental points surprised me. One was that my driver, Chakrapani, is firm in his belief that it is only because of his role as a protector that the Muniswaran near Pallavan House is called the 'Bodyguard Muniswaran'; the other was that for a famous - and reportedly much revered patron saint - the temple of 'Bodyguard Muniswaran' (not much more than a roof over an idol on the footpath) did not seem to be crowded at all. Maybe I was there too early in the day.
There's a story behind Chakrapani's theory for 'Bodyguard'; but I believe the explanation is far simpler. Pallavan Salai, before it was called so, was known as Bodyguard Road. So there.
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