YMCA

Last Sunday morning I visited the YMCA complex. This sports complex in Nandanam, Chennai (Madras) was a real life-saver for us kids who grew up in the neighbourhood. Life in the 1970s and the early 1980s was a time was a TV-less, internet-less existence. Which meant we had to spend time playing outside.

The YMCA was (and still is) a sprawling campus with a sports college, a school and multiple grounds meant for different sports disciplines - football, track and field, hockey, cricket etc. To the south of the campus lies the lush green golf club belonging to the Cosmopolitan Club and to its east/south-east flows the Adyar river.

We hung around a lot, especially during summer holidays, on the banks of the river, chucking stones into it, climbing trees, trying to catch a lizard or try to catch some fish with improvised fishing "rods" (made up of a string and a bent safety pin with earthworms as bait!) from a nearby artificial pond! Didn't think much about cruelty to animals and stuff...But that apart, it was a wonderful time! At the risk of sounding cliched, it does seem a long time ago when life seemed, well, different.

I was so glad that very little has changed, although one can see that the place seems a little run-down and less vibrant, primarily because I didn't see many kids around.

The YMCA offers a membership (the parking attendant quoted some ridiculously low figure that I need to verify) to use its facilities. I intend taking up one so I can maintain the connection to this wonderful place that was such an important part of my childhood!