Thursday, June 23, 2016

Time machine

The time machine has the fascination of almost everyone.

In 1895 H.G.Wells wrote The Time Machine. Very recently we had the Tamil movie 24
which also was made on the time travel concept. One should not forget that in the movie the
extent to which one could travel backwards in time was restricted to 24 hours only.

We cannot actually go back in time, but our thoughts and memories can!!

In the early part of the twentieth century, the area now known as Gopalapuram in Chennai had just begun to come into being.

"Go" refers to cow. It would almost be difficult for man to survive without milk. India is the largest producer of milk in the world. "Gopal" is Lord Krishna, the one who takes care of the cows, a cowherd so to say...

The area beyond Chola Hotel was full of bamboo trees....

Some of my elders have in the past told me that during some digging operations the idol of
Venugopalaswamy was found and it is this which is in the present Venugopalaswamy temple in
Gopalapuram.  So the area got to be known as Gopalapuram. (This however needs authentic corroboration.)

In the sixties and early seventies Madras was just what many people referred to as  "Big Village".
There was no TV, no cell phones, no internet....

My school was just 100 metres or so from my house. It worked between 10 AM and 4 PM.
I could hear the bell ringing from my house. Peaceful atmosphere. No pollution. No noise.
While playing in the Corporation Playground we could hear the Church bells pealing from
the Cathedral Church which was almost a kilometre away!

...to be continued

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