Trivandrum through Vinu's eyes

I come from a little advanced village called Trivandrum, aliasThiruvananthapuram. Some news writers lovingly also call it Ananthapuri.

Yes,starting from the Sripadmanabhaswami kshethram in the heart of the city of "shesha- nagam", Trivandrum is a small little city with its own problems and pleasant surprises.Not very far away from Sri Padmanabha kshethram is "PazhavangadiKovil".
It must be from where "Pazhavangadi Ganapatikku thenga adichu" comes, or so it sounds. Closeby is Rajadhani complex. An agglomeration of buildings which include theaters, kalyanamandapams, and hotels. And right in front of all this is the soft spoken East Fort bus stand.Trivandrum Railway station has a single line of broadgage line leadingto it, and has 3 platforms. It is worthwhile mentioning that Trivandrumstation is one of the cleanest stations I have seen. The reason is simple. Not many trains go beyond Trivandrum, and so the bulk of the population which is on the train to Trivandrum gets out of the station within minutes of the arrival of the train.
The place from Overbridge and SMV school to the Railway station is thecenter of "thattippu" and "vettippu" in Trivandrum. It is not much. Maximum loss can be just about a Rupee or two.North of the railway station and on the eastern side of M.G. Road isthe where all the tutorial colleges like " Our College" (They have a way of advertising themselves as "Auwwar College") and Victory College and Model College and other one zillion colleges located.
From Overbridge to Secretariat, all along the M.G. Road are shops, which are the best businesses in Trivandrum. One particular I remember is Shanker's Coffee as Shanker, the son of the owner was a well known panchaara at Mar Ivanios College. And everyday evening, the "panchaara + vaayinokki" gang used to meet there, and beginning with Rajeev who used powder and perfume, to Shibu who believed that girls should get "naturally" attracted, there were all sorts of romeos. The all pervading smell of coffee dampened Rajeev's spirits as his expensive French perfume was not reaching the targets.
Ahead is Karunakaran/Nayanar's territory. Depending upon the front inpower, the talk and style of functioning of the "rashtriya netavu" to the traffic constable outside varied. Triveni department store and Union Bank of India buildings are far away from the road and hence do not provide shade to the poor commuters waiting at Statue Junction.Left side of Triveni Department store is "Fruit Territory". One cannotpass that way without getting a call from a vendor, and brushing 3 or more houseflies.
Northern side of Sarkar HQ is the Police Control Room, lest should thepoor pothujanam lynch the ministers in frustration. Next to that is the Accountant General's office where they never finish accounting for all the money that has been wasted by the sarkar, both central and state. Spencer Junction and Canara Bank towers are famous landmarks, about200 meters from Accountountountountount General's Office. They both are there only to provide more incentive for the Indian Coffee House goers.
Next to them are the Jacobite Church, called Spencer Pally, (Mr. Spencer was laid to rest in England and went to an Anglican Church. He had never spent a shilling of his savings on anything except his grandson's toys. One of his famous last words has been "Look a shilling!") and the University College, which in all brochureswill appear as "H.H. University College" (H.H. is not Head Hunter, butis His Highness). Opposite to University College is the mysterious Sanskrit College. I never met anyone who knows anyone from Sanskrit College.
If you are adamant of driving the vehicle straight on M.G.Road and not intere sted in taking turns, you are likely to land up in VJT Hall. (Victoria jubilee town hall, yes yes, that Victoria, as we say in Trivandrum, even before the tourist has expressed his idea about which Victoria it is) On the other side we can find Palayam Market and the adjacent stores like Krishna Stores, Good Morning Stores, And all the smell of fish + meat + rotten vegetable and fish + everything you can think of, has diffused into the atmosphere.
Closeby is a temple-mosque-church combination existing to indicate thatTrivandrum was not communal once upon a time. Ahead are the MLA Quarters and Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, namedafter Chandrasekharan Nair, the retired I.G., who was 84 some years ago, and Sukesh was running around to hold the party of his valya-appooppan's birthday.
Next to the MLA Quarters is the "Kerala University Senate" and Senate Hall, which was the center of neural activity of all the 'vyaja' doctors the Univ. produced. Museum, Public Library, Kanakakunnu Palace onwards upto Kowdiar is said to be one sector of Trivandrum which is beautiful, and often admired.That section does look like a state capital. Not to forget the G.V.RajaStadium in memory of Colonel Goda Varma Raja, who got football to Trivandrum.And gone are the days of Titanium, and Premier Tyres playing. Now both the teams have literally asked all new players to join Kerala Police on their behalf.
The western part of Trivandrum is the Beach-Airport-Veli-VSSC sectionwhere people go exclusively to spend leisure time, be it in the name ofrocket launching or seeing the deep blue sea. This part is marked withlong, straight roads where higher level romeos like Baby John's children and Vakkom Purushothaman's boys and Balakrishnapillai's son and others have bike/car races.
Eastern part of Trivandrum is the Pappanamcode-Karamana-Vazhuthakkad-Pangode-Poojappura-Thirumala-Section. This is a very large sector andhas every right to be called as a city on its own. It has the Tharangini studios to Central Jail to Women's College. Vazhuthakkad is a sector of female juliets. You can see clean violation of human rights of poor humble males who land up there.
Northeastern Part of Trivandrum is Sastamangalam, Oolanpara,Perorkkada, Vattiyoorkkave, PTP nagar, Jawahar Nagar, etc. It has everything from the residences of ministers to "Bhranthaashupatri" to Hindustan Latex. PTP nagar was originally an Onam-kera-moola which turned out to be where the ministers flocked, and soon all the buses started running towards PTP Nagar, PTP stands for (poor) Pattom Thanu Pillai...
Southern part of Trivandrum is Thiruvallam-Kovalam-Manacaud section.Yes, this is one of the best hunted place by all tourists. It is worth going to Kovalam once in a lifetime, the only place where white sand, black granite rocks and deep blue sea, are in harmony with the 50 billion tourists and vendors who litter the shores, from cigarette butts to candy wrapper.
Northern part of Trivandrum is Pattom-Keshavadasapuram-Ulloor-Paruthippara-Nalanchira-Sreekaryam-Pongummoodu section. It is mostly residential like the northeastern and northwestern parts. However it has Kerala Public Service Commission Office to M.G. College to Mar Ivanios College to Engineering College there.
Northwestern part is Chakka-Kannanmoola-Medical College-Kumarapuramsector, or as I call it, the medical sector. Medical College, Cosmopolitan Hospital, G.G. hospital, and one million other medical facitilies I have heard are located here. This is where doctors, who do private practice like "AADU Vakkates" near Vanchiyoor Court across the canal.
A description of Trivandrum is never complete if we miss main centralpart.
The Model School-Arts College- Chengalchoola-Central Stadium section, it is perhaps the cradle of all student politics in Trivandrum.
This is Trivandrum. This is where I live. This is what I dream..Welcome to Trivandrum.