Parantharami Mani

  Anyone passing the main road connecting Mylapore to Alwarpet must have noticed that the road they are travelling is named Luz Church Road.  Why is it so?  There is a old church apposite Nageswararao Park in a small lane called Kennedy Street. This church in the Local parlance is called Kattu Koil due to the fact that this area was a forest area covered with wild bushes, trees and plants more than a century ago.  It is called Luz Church.  Legend has it that a group of Portuguese sailors who were caught in a storm in Bay of Bengal in the early decades of the 16th century landed near Santhome following a Light which brought them to this spot.  As a measure of their thanksgiving they constructed a Church here  and called it Luz Church.  Luz in Portuguese means Light. A tablet on the right hand side wall of the church informs it was consecrated in the year 1516  AD. The church is also called the Church of Our Lady of Light. This is supposed to be the oldest church in the Indian sub contin

The mylapore teppam festival is going to be held from 7th Feb to 9th Feb for 3 days. On all the 3 days the urchava moorthies chandrasekara, muruga and ambal will be taken in the tank in decorated flotilla.  It is one the big festivals in the month of Thai attracting a big crowd.  The temple tank of Kapaliswarar originally belonged to the Nawab of Carnatic and was gifted to the temple by the nawab in the 18th century.  The granite steps and the parapet wall surrounding the tank  was constructed in the early years of the 20th century starting from the year 1910(24th January 1910) and was completed in the year 1925(26th January 1925).. This is revealed in the tablet on the north east corner of the tank which is now covered by a transformer.  The small mantap on the western side of the tank also bears a date of 1920 of the donation made by a noble man for constructing the mantap.  The tank was without water a few years back but thanks to the copious rains and the rain water drainage  sys

Hai, It has been quite a long time since i last blogged. In the meantime I got transfered to chennai and is presently working in Chennai. Life in Chennai as compared to Delhi is pretty relaxed with less travelling. Used to travel around 35 kms a day in delhi where as here in chennai i travel hardly 15 km a day. Nowadays I am busy with my elder daughter who is taking her 12th board exam in march. This blog is only to tell that i am in chennai now. I will be back shortly.