Wednesday 1 May 2013

Happy Labour Day

As luck would have it, I just did this sketch last sunday. How appropriate and convenient to post on Labour Day. The statue on the left is one of the northern-most along the Marina and a personal favourite. Its called the Triumph of Labour.

The grand looking building at the back is the University Senate House built in the 1870s by Robert Chisholm. It has beautiful proportions, intricate ornamentation and chettinad egg plastered walls that are as smooth as polished stone.

Crumbling and neglected for many years, it was restored at great cost with the help of INTACH and conservation architects a few years back. A lot of people came forward and supported this. The idea and the hope was to see it being used again, opened out to the public for exhibitions and gatherings. But now that the restoration is complete it is back in the hands of the Madras University and it's hierarchical power structure. I hope that at least interested public are allowed to visit in the future

The TV tower seen behind everything is from the good old days of Doordarshan.

It was blisteringly hot that morning and I huddled under the shade of a tiny hand cart which was closed and boarded up. This time I got a lot of interesting comments from passersby who were free and happy with their advice. Someone asked if he could take my picture. I asked if he wanted a picture of me or the sketch and he said "of you doing the sketch". Thank you.

7 comments:

  1. KB! I love your sketches and your blog.. OMG!!!

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  2. Hey thanks Jo! That was quick! And thank you for visiting :)

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  3. Lovely sketch and a very interesting write-up.

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  4. Really like what you're doing ! Been glancing at & reading your posts every now & then ... just felt like dropping by to say Kudos! today :)

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  5. Thanks Balaji and hey Roy! Thanks for visiting and commenting! Do you have a blog? Am sure Garima will tell you how happy we bloggers are to see comments!

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  6. And .. I'm back. No, I ain't got no blog, but I did write a couple of posts for a friend's cycling related blog some time back. In one there was a lot of math & graphs (gear ratios in cycles) and the other a 2nd anniversary review of my bike. Bored you enough?

    I'll certainly keep you in the loop when I start writing about something less geeky.

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  7. Ha ha Roy, geeky maybe I can handle, but gears and wheels...... you know how I am about anything on wheels.

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