There are three railway stations in Chennai, carrying the name Perambur. Perambur Carriage Works, Perambur Loco Works and Perambur. The first rail coach factory of independent India is located in Perambur. The largest railway hospital is situated in Perambur. A large number of quarters for railway employees, railway institute, railway cricket grounds… You turn your head just anywhere in Perambur. You will see something or the other connected with the Railways dotting the entire area. Just in case you are not able to distinguish these buildings and places, there is one inimitable factor common to all these places connected with railways. It is the black steel fence that the railways put around their properties. You can just not miss these black fences in Perambur. If one measures the length of these fences, it should run to several kilometres in Perambur.

It was 45 years back that I became familiar with Perambur. My sister’s husband was working in Military Accounts. When he was transferred to the office in Avadi, he shifted his residence to Patel Road in Perambur. He lived there for about three or four years. Either my mother or myself would visit him every week to see my sister and her children. There was only one bus running in those days to reach Perambur. It was route number 7 starting from Parry’s Corner plying via Moore Market, Choolai and Pattalam. In case one wanted to use the train, one should alight at Park railway station, walk across the road to reach Central. And entrain the Avadi local leaving Central every ninety minutes once. If I start from my residence in T. Nagar at 10.00 a.m., I would reach my sister’s residence in Perambur by about 1.00 in the afternoon. Reach there at 1.00 pm and then start from there immediately by 2.00 or 2.30 so that I can reach my residence back, late in the evening.

There are many buses plying from different points in Chennai to Perambur. But to this day Perambur remains without a proper bus terminus.

Life in Chennai is so full of surprises, wonders and amazements.

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.