chennai central welcomes u

Built by the British some time back in the last century, the Chennai central is one of the major landmarks in Chennai. In any Indian movie, the first thing which they show in Chennai is the central and then comes the LIC building still the tallest building in Chennai ( that’s because the government is not giving permission for anyone to build a building taller than the LIC ). Anyway back to Chennai central. It is HUGE , there is no doubt about it and no other station comes even near it with respect to the looks, sheer size and the facilities ( whatever little that is there )- the Victoria station in Mumbai maybe- but this is not about any station, this is about the Chennai Central station. Like any other station people by the thousands (sometimes millions) come here everyday. Some maybe traveling, others may have come pick up their dear ones while there are a few, very few like me who go there just to be there (it sounds stupid! I know. Who would go to a station without any work). Whenever I am anyway near the central I hop in and have a look around and enjoy the scene there. It is not a comfortable place to be in the Chennai heat, the heat generated by so many bodies added to the Chennai climate makes it unbearable. Yet, the volume of people from different parts of the country one encounters there is astounding. There is life in a railway station which is not there in an airport. An airport is a dull place with nothing much of interest, one wouldn’t want to be there even when picking up someone, unless of course to escape the heat.

Sometime back the government wanted to paint the Chennai central white but the project was abandoned after some protests by the people. It is now restored back to its original brick red colour. The no of trains which come and go everyday is staggering and this no maybe rivaled only by vijayawada, it being in major station connecting the south central , southern, eastern and western railway. All major trains from cuttack and bhubaneshwar to Hyderabad, Mumbai ,kerala , Bangalore pass through vijayawada making it a busy station but it is small station and cannot match the central’s beauty. The architecture, the crowd, the trains and the just the atmosphere in the central station has made me a great fan of indian railways and Chennai central.