Rural visitors in the hundreds. Connemara Library in the background.

Walking through the Archaeological Gallery.

Home food never tasted better!

Madras Museum in Egmore was a “must visit” site in the 1960s for visitors from all parts of India, particularly from the neighbouring States of Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala. Busloads of visitors would come to visit the Museum (popularly called ‘the place of dead things’) and the Zoological Gardens (‘the place of living things’).

The Museum had plenty of parking space, and the visitors would amble through the galleries, looking at the displays in awe. Very few would have paused and read the labels, as would have been expected. But they were mostly rural folk and a visit to Madras was a landmark event in their lives, not the text in the Museum. They all entered the galleries and came out the same way, to amble into the front park adjacent to the auditorium, then to the Bronze Gallery and the New Art Gallery, to see the famous Nataraja from Tiruvelangadu and the paintings. A highlight of the visit was having a snack or two. Then, a while later, was ‘lunch break’, to share what was in the ‘tiffin carriers’ they had brought along.

A snack or two is a "must".

Home food was something to relish under the shadow of the many cannons on display around the Auditorium Building.

Soon it was 3 p.m. and time for the buses to depart to the next place on the itinerary.

These photographs taken in 1962 show how simple folk enjoyed a city visit in those days.

Simple they may have been, but seldom was there a report of any displays being damaged.

– Dr. Akkaraju Sarma
Akkaraju1@gmail.com