Page 578 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

576  SOUTH INDIA

e Guindy
National Park
S Chennai. Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel Rd. £ Guindy station. @
Tel (044) 2432 1139 (wildlife warden).
Open Wed–Mon (Snake Park and
Children’s Park only). & Raj Bhavan:
Closed to public.
Once a distant suburb, which
was nearly twice its current size,
Guindy has now been engulfed
by the fast-growing metropolis
of Greater Chennai. Originally
A Bharat Natyam dance lesson in progress at Kalakshetra part of the private forest
surrounding Guindy Lodge, a
q Kalakshetra were trained here. At the end portion was officially declared
of each year, a festival is held the Guindy National Park in
Thiruvanmiyur, East Coast Rd.
@ or taxi. Tel (044) 2452 0836. and performances are staged 1977. This predominantly dry
Open 8:30–11:30am Mon–Sat. in an auditorium designed deciduous scrub jungle of acacia
Closed college hols. _ Kalakshetra like a koothambalam, the is interspersed with larger trees
Arts Festival (Dec/Jan). traditional theatre of Kerala such as sandalwood (Sant alam
temples (see p643). album), banyan (Ficus bengalensis)
This pioneering institution and jamun (Syzygium cumini). Its
for classical dance, music and most famous residents are the
the fine arts, established in w MGM Dizzee herds of endangered blackbuck
1936, was the brainchild of World (Antelope cervica pra), introduced
Rukmini Devi. A protégée of in 1924. Among its 130 species
Annie Besant, she was deeply East Coast Road, Muttukadu. of birds are raptors such as the
influenced by the progressive Tel (044) 2747 2129. @ honey buzzard and the white-
views of the Theosophical Open 10:30am–6:30pm Mon–Fri, bellied sea eagle. Winter is the
Society (see p575). At 16, she 10:30am–7:30pm Sat, Sun & public best time for bird-watching,
hols. & ∑ mgmdizzeeworld.com
scandalized conservative society when migrant birds visit the
by marrying George Sydney Located on East Coast Road on forest. A Children’s Park and
Arundale, the 40-year-old the outskirts of Chennai, MGM play area at the northeast corner
Australian principal of the Dizzee World offers high- has a collection of animals and
Society’s school. The couple’s energy entertain ment for all birds. Also located within the
extensive travels exposed the family in a lush, green park is the Madras Snake Park,
Rukmini to the world of Western setting against the backdrop established in the 1970s by
culture, especially dance, of Muttukadu beach. As well Romulus Whitaker, the American
inspiring her to study ballet as exhilarating rides for various zoologist, who also set up the
under the great Russian ballerina age groups, the park features Crocodile Bank outside Chennai
Anna Pavlova. Back in Chennai, a water park with aqua slides (see p582). Today, the well-
she again defied tradition by and a wave pool, Marry World, maintained Snake Park houses
learning and performing the which caters for children, and numerous species of snakes,
classical dasi attam, hitherto the an amphi theatre, where among them king cobras, vipers
domain of devadasis (temple entertainment is staged. and pythons. Other reptiles
dancers). The International
Centre for the Arts, which she
set up for the revival of this
dance form, now called Bharat
Natyam, (see p33), is today
Kalakshetra, the “Temple of Art”.
The school is set in a vast
40-ha (99-acre) campus, where
classical music and dance
are taught according to the
traditional methods, by which
a guru imparts know ledge to a
small group of students. Some
of India’s best-known dancers,
including Yamini Krishnamurti,
and the institute’s current
director, Priyadarsini Govind, Group of chital deer crossing water
For hotels and restaurants in this region see p702 and p717

576-577_EW_India.indd 576 26/04/17 11:55 am