Tennis Ball Cricket match is a different kind of ball game played every year in Dhandeeswara Nagar. This match is played in a brightly-lit stadium and goes on until about 10 or 11 in the night, under the patronage of Stalin. Yes the very same Stalin who is known as Kalaignar's successor and is fondly called as Thalapathi and rising star. M. K. Stalin, the Mayor of Chennai. Another piece of information for the record. Stalin is a resident of Velachery.

Dhandeeswara Nagar is known as Velachery sandhai or market. The area has all the elements that go to make a market. In those days the market was full of smaller shops. Modern departmental stores have replaced them now. The inevitable computer training centres are displaying their name boards in every nook and corner. Many fast food joints have appeared in the scene. Till a few years ago, there was a distinction between teashops and hotels. A teashop is a small room where people sit on crude benches and have their tea in glass tumblers. Teashops provided minimum comfort for the guests or 'customers', as they are known. The word hotel in English denotes a place that provides both boarding and lodging. But it has a different local flavour. It means a slightly large eatery. Nowadays the teashops are euphemistically called fast food joints. Velachery has a large number of fast food joints.

Velachery has a large number of Christian residents. There are a variety of reasons for this. The main reason is the proximity of Raj Bhavan. Britishers were the Governors of Chennai till India attained independence. The Race Club is also close by. Britishers were occupying important offices in the Race Club. From the kathipara Junction, the military zone starts - the Officers Training Academy, Military Hospital, et al. All these were places where the British occupied key positions. This would necessarily mean horse races, golf, polo, grand feasts, parties, dancing, and a variety of entertainments that would require many assistants. Naturally these British officers preferred to employ Christians as their assistants. Another fact was that only Christian cooks knew the knack of satisfying the British palate. This was true not only in Chennai but all over the country.

Therefore, if a British officer resided in a bungalow, a minimum of twenty Christian families would move to the vicinity. Although the Britishers left the country long back, the families continue to live in the area, their numbers multiplying with the passage of time. Many Christians of these families are occupying positions of importance in the society now.

                                                                                                                                                                              Ashoka Mithran

Retro Chennai from Asoka Mithran looks back at Chennai, in fact the Madras as it was known and existed. The column traces the city's lifescape at various points of time.