Place to go: CRDS Center, Thimmavaram, Chengalpet (55 kms from Chennai)
How to go: Take the bus from Asarkana, St.Thomas Mount or take one of the regular shuttles from Tambaram railway station.
I chose the latter. Traveling from St.Thomas Mount to Tambaram takes about 30 minutes in the Electric Sub-urban trains (called EMUs). From Tambaram, the frequency of trains to Chengalpattu depends on which time of the day it is. (During peak morning and evening hours, you can catch a train every one hour).
It takes an hour to reach Chengalpet from Tambaram.The Chengalpattu railway station is a quiet one - striking contrast to the busy and over crowded stations of Mumbai.
“Will you take me to Kallarai Thottam (Cemetry Garden), Thimmavaram?” I ask one of the auto drivers (Muthu), and looking at his puzzled look, his friend shouts “CRDS da dei”. Muthu readily agrees , “Muppadu rooba aavum saar” (“Thirty rupees, Sir”). Post-tsunami, the CRDS has been visited by a lot of people – volunteers (part-time, long-time), people from CARITAS India, other relief and rehab workers, “disaster tourists” in search of stories and the likes. So, the drivers know, just by looking at you why you are here.
The auto passed underneath the newly-constructed flyover, which, strangely has no posters – “Mana vizha”, “Iyarkai Eidinar”, “Captain azhaikirar”, “Suvishesha nar cheydi kootangal” or some movie posters that so ubiquitously plaster the walls of Chennai. The fly-by-night-poster guys must have realized the uselessness of marketing on this fly over which does not attract or retain any eye balls.
The first thing that catches my eye is the signboard and then to my right, the big white-walled cemetry and hundreds of crosses (on graves). The statue of Jesus erected in February this year, in memory of those who lost their lives in the disaster, reminds me of a similar place in my School- St.Michael’s, Coimbatore where, we used to pray every day.
