The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A trip down memory lane

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 19, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A trip down memory lane

Staff Reporter

Students taken to places of historical interest

CHENNAI : For 50 students, who participated in an excursion to places of historical interest in Chennai on Sunday last, it was a day well spent.

"I am proud to be an Indian," was the response from Karan, a Standard IX student from GSS Jain Vidyalaya in Vepery. He speaks Hindi and English and his father is a sari agent in Chennai.

"It was an inspiration," said D. Akshay Surana of the same class. "I did not know so many movements had taken place here though I am from Chennai," said C. R. Sriram.

In school dramas, he has played the part of V. O. Chidambaram.

In 12 hours on that day, they visited 25 places, but even at the end the children were still chirpy. Bharat Sewak Samaj organised the visit, taking students of various schools from Perambur Southern Railway Employees' Association to Gandhi Mandapam in Guindy.

They visited V. O. C's house, Bharatiyar's house in Triplicane, Tilakar thidal, where salt Satyagraha was held, the place where Gandhi and Bharati met (Hotel Chola has been built on the spot), the spot where bomb was hurled from the ship Emden and the Hindi Prachara Sabha.

Of the teachers who accompanied the students, only one teaches history.

B. Sivabala, a physics teacher, said, "This is the first time I am visiting Bharati's house though I live in Chennai."

The group visited Gaiety Theatre where in 1939 the police beat up the viewers and threw them out because they insisted on watching `Thyaga Bhoomi', a film on Independence Movement; and the Flower Bazaar Police Station in Parry's where protestors were beaten for raising slogans against the British.

Harijan colony

The students also visited Hari Narayanapuram, a Harijan colony that marked the entry of Harijans into temple, and Fort St. George.

Former Member of Parliament Kumari Ananthan explained the significance of the memorials. Bharat Sewak Samaj, set up by Pandit Nehru on August 12, 1952, organised the trip to mark its anniversary and the success has encouraged it to conduct more trips in future, the organisers said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu