Am not native of Chennai,but i should admit i had fallen in love with this city.Had spent almost 8 years here,my marriage happened here and the husband is native of chennai,guess this is all enough to fall in love with this city.

 I have a special love for this place “Parrys corner”.For many,shopping or roaming out in Parrys corner may not appeal,but i simply love this place,for  everything that it has. I have been to this place for shopping lot many times, i did a shopping for my wedding card here with my FIL.

Parry corner is also famous for its old flame “Kothavaal savadi”(a vegetable market) ,i would probably love to shop from this kinda place instead of picking apples from a reliance mart.

Good old memories of shopping in NSC bose road,M.A Jacob’s,the Khadi craft,Godown street(  textile),kasi chetty for all those stationery and a good lunch either at Ramakrishna or Saravana Bhavan.Or just a evening visit there and getting your hands on some dessert from Nandhinee. There will be a mad rush during festival times and you would get your hands dusted there,very narrowed streets and most of them named after some chetty.

Heavy rush,Small bargains,fresh vegetables,tons of papers and note books,beautiful and cheap crockery stuff,all these could define the memory of the parrys corner what i saw.

I have not visited it in the last three years,but gladly the little sistah does some shopping there and in Washermenpet for clothes.I would love to shop in this kind of setting than a jazzy mall,artificially beautified.But living here in this country you have only limited choice to shop outside of Hypermarkets.Even in India these days Mall culture is fast spreading and i have been to the latest mall opened in Chennai with tight security just to watch Endhiran movie.

I remember this book, ” The last juror” by John grisham,where he explains how malls destroyed the local market. Having raised up in a small town TN,am only used to buy vegetables from “weekly sandhai”(local market which opens only once in a week) and monthly groceries from a big naataan kadai( grocery stores by a certain sect in TN) and daily or urgent needs from small naataan kadai and for stationeries from only a partiuclar shop and for jewellery a trusted jeweller known to the family.Now i could see Reliance freh mart and the like ones in my own town and people prefer going there instead of local market.

Yesterday been to the dining district here(Adliya) and was taken back to nostalgia of good old parrys corner.This district has lot of carpet and handicraft and flower shops,where you can get down and bargain just lurk around enjoying  individuality of each shop. Also i love the market here in Isa town souq, which just reminds us of any local market, with varied items and the little dust and rush which i wish to go with every shopping.

P.S : Tried to link up kothavaal savadi link in wikipedia,and found nothing,surprising..

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