Nanganallur, Chennai

I am a red-blooded Madrasi (Chennaiite, for the PC folks) - I was born in Hyderabad but my family moved down to Nanganallur when I was just 8 months old...and thats where I grew up. And unlike many of the younger generation, I grew up appreciating the benefits of an independent home. No messy community living for me...no flats, no apartments, no sir. Hey, how can I appreciate apartment-style living, when I grew up in a house, that was in the midst of lush green paddy fields, which provided so much open space.

When I was growing up, Nanganallur was that TamBram (Tamil Brahmin) suburb, and people who could afford to commute to the city, would move here for the fact that the local municipality had bothered tapping the waters of the River Palar, to provide drinking water supply. But what was left unsaid, was that it was then, the perfect suburb. Peace and quiet, away from the city, and literally an oasis of green - what with agricultural lands and coconut palms everywhere the eye can sweep. And oh, before I forget to tell ya, it is also a mini-Kancheepuram. A mini temple town. Famous for as long as I can remember for its Raja Rajeswari Temple and the Dakshina Mantralayam (Shri Raghavendra Mutt) and the Ardha Nareeshwara Temple, it provided peace and tranquility, relief away from the stresses of everyday life.

Anyways, the point of this post is that, this morning I received a message from my friend in Madras (Chennai). She had gone to visit the Shri Viswaroopa Adi Vyadihara Bhakta Anjaneya Temple, in Nanganallur. To the uninitiated, this is the big temple that has come up in Nanganallur in the past decade, and now ranks as possibly the most popular temple in the metropolitan Madras area. And it is also a prime example of commercialization that has hit Nanganallur quickly and in huge waves. People who would not have otherwise given one second of their thought to Nanganallur, now go about thinking..hey...lets go visit the Anjaneya temple there.

If you go visit Nanganallur now, it is almost unrecognizable as a town of peace and quiet. Heck even the Metropolitan Transport Corporation went ahead and established a bus stand for the town - something that the residents had been clamoring for, for over a decade and half. People are everywhere, it is crowded quite like Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar. And, the Alandur Municipality, with its weird decision making abilities, decided to re-route the Palar water supply to Tambaram, and left Nanganallur at the mercy of Chennai's famed Metrowater.

Development has not left Nanganallur as what it used to be..an oasis of peace. Instead, it is now just another overcrowded suburb of that great urban sprawl that Chennai has become.

I have seen the town grow in front of me. I have seen the rock being brought in to Nanganallur - that same rock which was later exquisitely carved into what is the current Bhakta Anjaneya. I have seen the unborn idol soaking up in the pit that was specially designed for the carving. I have been part of a time when it was served by just one measly bus service - the 18D. When the Pazhavanthangal suburban railway station was not even in existence. And boy, most all things that we wished for when we were the earlier residents of that town, are slowly coming to fruition. Proof that you gotta be careful of what you wish for, eh?

For all that it maybe, it is still one place that no one can change it - my hometown, the little village that became a town, while making a man out of me.

From Talakanancheri Village of the taluk of Meenambakkam to the current day avatar of Nanganallur...its been a long journey. Vive Nanganallur!