Polachery: A trailer packed with pauses

Though sandwiched between two busy arterial roads, Polachery and Sonallur have retained their pastoral quality

Film trailers concentrate fast-paced action scenes leaving out brooding pauses. Imagine a trailer that does the opposite. It would have trouble pulling the crowd into the aisles. A “trailer” about Sonallur does this unthinkable act, but gets away with it. In fact, despite the “lapse”, it is lapped up generating considerable “viewer” interest for the “film”.

This trailer is Polachery, a locality in the bowels of what is called the OMR region. It gives a sneak peek into what lies ahead of it — Sonallur, more connected with Vandalur-Kelambakkam High Road than the OMR region.

Sonallur consists of hamlets separated by patches of reserve forest — one can also view it the other way round and still be spot-on.

On Polachery Main Road (which starts the journey to Sonallur where Sonallur Main Road takes over and completes the journey all the way to Vandalur-Kelambakkam High Road), a lake compresses delicious pastoral and natural scenes into a neatly tied package of pauses, pregnant with meaning and beauty.

Here is a quick run-through of what this small patch in Polachery has to offer.

Two residents are gathering palm fronds for a fire-walking exercise at the local temple. Overhead, baya weavers — the male baya weavers, to be specific — are wearing nests hanging from palm fronds.

From Polachery Main Road, one can see the skyline painted with an undulation of towering structures, suggesting the invasion of modernity. On the road, there is a clatter of hooves. It is a herd of cattle: in contrast to imported cattle, these are small-sized and of native origin suggesting a continuity with tradition.