Children's day

Nehru's birth anniversary... Naidu Hall is presenting a gift hamper to all kids shopping there today.

Had to go to the Moore Market reservation office to get a few train tickets. Stood at Counter 43 - for senior citizens, physically handicapped and press persons. I wonder why press people are clubbed with the old and the infirm - it must be our mental state!

The legendary Moore market was once a flourishing market for 2nd hand goods but it was ravaged in a fire much before I set foot in Madras. I had first passed through Chennai in 1990 I think. Our excursion team to Hyderabad had spent a day in the Railway waiting room. Our warden sister had allowed a few of us to even venture out into the lanes nearby. We fell in love with the stone complex housing the Southern Railway's headquarters and clicked away in abandon.

The General Hospital on the other side of the road looks grand after the renovation, ditto about the bus shelters complete with granite benches. I sat down on one of them but had to vacate it in no time - I hadnt anticipated the stench of shit behind. The madmen loitering around must be the culprits. They should be institutionalised. Mount Road is teeming with lunatics and drugaddicts, posing a threat to women especially.

I once suffered the monologue of a mad fellow dressed in a loin cloth, Gandhi-like, for about 5 minutes. He then went away only to pounce back to give another discourse on whatever it was - by then, the men around decided it was time to shoo him away. The fruit-seller at the bus stop was the bravest and the fella slunk away.