11-05-2025
From a quiet locality to a bustling place
This Chennai locality, known for its cement concrete paved streets, used to be called Kovil Nagaram. It still is very famous for its temples.
'After the Anjaneyar Temple came up in the late 1980s, many more temples were established in Nanganallur. There is the Sri Arthanareeswarar Temple tank where 'Maha Periyava' Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi took a dip and said a Lingam was under the water. The idol was retrieved and was established in a temple. We have the Guruvayurappan Temple, the Hayagrivar Temple and the Narasimha Temple,' says Kavignar Navalpakkam Narasimhan, 80, a long-time resident of Nanganallur, who is collecting funds, along with friends, to construct a temple for Sri Mahalakshmi at Pallikaranai.
No names for streets
A retired employee of the now-defunct Tamil Nadu Department of Lotteries, this devotional exponent and avid follower of Kavignar Kannadasan moved to this locality in 1986 from West Mambalam after his children were born. 'My father-in-law had a house here. Since my wife was also working, we moved here. At that time, there were no proper streets. You could see a lot of open space and vegetation. We could see the Palar water literally flowing on the streets. Some places even had farming. It was R.S. Bharathi of the DMK, who laid roads with concrete,' recalls Mr. Narasimhan, who has seen his quiet locality change into a bustling place.
'Unlike many other localities in the city, this area has no names for streets. We only have numbers. When I organised an event long ago, I printed the invitation and had mentioned the street's name as Hariharan Hospital Street. It was on 29th Street. There were a few objections. I did that since there was a 29th Street at nearby Thillai Ganga Nagar, too, and people would get confused. Dr. Hariharan was a famous doctor here and he started consulting for just ₹3 in those days,' says Mr. Narasimhan, whose family hails from Navalpakkam, a village near Tiruvannamalai, known for religious exponents.
Venerating a poet
Mr. Narasimhan says he was Kannadasan's follower since the days that he came out of the Tamil Desiya Katchi. 'I would attend all his programmes. This was along with film director Sridhar and novelist Thamarai Manalan. I remember the lines of the poem which Kannadasan recited in honour of the unknown freedom fighters during the silver jubilee celebration of Indian Independence. He was an amazing poet. We were also common visitors at former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj's residence.' Mr. Narasimhan, who is now recuperating from a surgery, spends his time arranging programmes for other artists and Upanyasam exponents.
(As told to Deepa H. Ramakrishnan)
