Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Black and White


Velachery Road, at the milestone which read 'Tambaram 9 km' (going right)

Picture taken in 1966 during an idle drive on Velachery Road, towards Tambaram. The village of Velachery ended two buildings beyond my factory, after which the land sloped down from the road about six or seven feet on each side, creating an ocean during the rainy season. Today what was supposed to be the end of the village is a big bus junction, and a road leading to GST, the airport, and Nanganallur towards the west.  Toward the east the same road joins Lattice Bridge Road via Taramani and OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road), which at that time was a 15-feet wide, undulating, broken surface edged with unlaid Hume pipes for what was then called the Veeranam Project.

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Bhashwati wrote:

If your image is presented without its coordinates, it would appear to be a universe of its own.

A harsh landscape, with jagged edges, many crater like formations and an uneven expanse unshielded from blazing light (and heat it would seem).
However the two visible human inhabitants of this world seem sure footed and purposeful so the place cannot be entirely hostile to human life but has human life been kind to it or has it bulldozed it into acquiescing its multiple white black and grey nuances to the homogenised bland glare of "development".  

Also quite in keeping with the ancient photograph is the ongoing madras week celebration.

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