My Musings

We came to Karpagam Avenue, 3rd Street, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai 600028 on 31 August 2005 from 77/85, Aspiran Gardens, 2nd Street, Kilpauk, Chennai – 10 where we lived for 3 1/2 years from Feb 2002. The house owner at Aspiran gardens was Mr Ratnakar Shenoy and at Karpagam Avenue Mr Ravikumar. The landline at Aspiran garden was 2644 4995 and at KA 2461 6845. This house at KA is a 3-BHK and very convenient. Being near to Mylapore, Mandaveli, MRC Nagar, RA Puram was a boon to us. Particularly Mylapore, which is just 25 minutes’ walk from KA. Vijaya and I used to frequent the South Mada Veedhi and Giri Traders almost daily. We visited many temples in Mylapore, RA Puram like Sri Kapaliswarar, Sri Velliswarar, Adi Kesava Perumal, Madhava Perumal, Veera Anjaneyar, Vinayakar, Iyappa, Saibaba koils. We used to visit many Sabhas, like Chettinad, PS High School, Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Asthika Samajam, Sri Parthasarathy Sabha (Bheema Sena Garden) etc etc. There is no place in Che...

Giri Traders Mylapore Last week, during our “walk-and-shop-around-Mada-Veedhis” routine, we saw a North Indian couple frenetically searching for a Pooja-mani (bell). They were obviously searching at a wrong place. Overhearing their talk, I wanted to be a Good Samaritan and directed them in Hindi to visit the Giri Trading Agency at the Sannadhi Street nearby. Shortly afterwards, we too ambled across to this GITAA and could see the couple there with a satisfied and happy look.This mail is about Giri Trading Agency, GITAA for short. There was this TVS Giri Iyer living in Matunga, Bombay. Year around 1951. He wished to gift a Sandhya Vandanam book to a upanayanam-boy but couldn’t get one in Matunga of those days. He got a brain wave then – why don’t I start a bookshop in Matunga that would have Tamil religious books? Thus started the tradition of Giri Trading Agency, in 1951. They used to purchase books in Madras and get them by parcel in Bombay.The shop started growing and they felt the n...