A monument to neglect, this memorial to a once-popular X’mas destination

We keep taking note of Heritage Week celebrated every year between November 19th and 25th. But does anything concrete emerge from it in Madras? Do we hear of anything accomplished, anything restored? Year after year, it is only promises of what’s going to be done, no mention of anything done. All we find is continuing sagas of neglect, like those seen in reader K. Mohan Raj’s pictures featured above taken during Heritage Week. He writes, “When parking my car at Central Station, I chanced upon this miniature of Moore Market, once famous for old books and knick-knacks. The memorial replica, built where the original was destroyed in a major fire some three decades ago, is now in a sad state of neglect, with shrubs and weeds growing all around it, trees fallen by its side, and the structure itself badly damaged. It is incumbent on the authorities concerned to make it again the prominent memorial it was intended to be, so that it gets noticed by passers-by and travellers, giving them a glimpse into what was a happy slice of Madras history for nearly a hundred years – particularly at Christmas time.”