 'Jayakanthan's Madum'
 To understand the antiquity of Alwarpet area, one should visit 'Alwarpet Village'. The area bordered by Eldams Road and Chamiers Road is full of old-style tiled houses and provision stores. Even today, this place is infested with cattle and the streets are often slushy with their dung. Buses ply on roads like Bharathidasan Salai and Appadurai Salai, named after Tamil scholars. Travel on these roads is sure to test the fitness of one's spinal cord. The area has the city's largest earthenware market.
Alwarpet's Pillaiyar temple and Teynampet's Subramaniaswami temple are very famous and attract large numbers of devotees. The pomp and splendour that can be seen in the Subramaniaswami temple is absent in the Pillaiyar temple. Vaasthu experts believe that the location of the Pillaiyar temple in a triangular corner is the reason for this.
 Adjacent to this Pillaiyar temple is a Peepul tree. The house next to the tree was a meeting place for the famous writer Jayakanthan and his friends and in time came to be called Jayakanthan's "madum" (mutt) by one and all. With a minimum of seven or eight writers assembled there at any point of time, it is still a matter of great wonder how Jayakanthan brought out such masterpieces.
The two localities Vanniya Teynampet and Vellala Teynampet in this area happened to be close to two film studios, namely Gemini and Shobanachala. Consequently, a number of people employed in the film industry used to live in the small lanes here. Of them, director Bharathiraja is familiar even to the present day generation. The residents were mostly dancers, supporting and small role artistes.
The dancers would be at work in the studios on days when not on location shooting in Sathanur or Mamallapuram. Their enthusiasm and laughter at work were something totally divorced from the stark realities of their daily life. Surely, all of them are worthy of the
'Kalaimamani' title.
Teynampet has an extraordinary organisation named ''Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam'. Originally, the place belonged to an eminent advocate, patriot and Congress party leader Srinivasa Iyengar. All national leaders from Mahatma Gandhi to today's Moopanar have paid a visit to his residence. Srinivasa Iyengar's daughter Ambujammal established a rehabilitation home for destitute women in the same house. The home is still functioning in a small and simple way.
Ashokamitran
(Translated by Sujatha Pradeep)
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