MB#67: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 1968 𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙨 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙧 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙮 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮.

[MemoirBlogthon #67] A family trip to the 1968 India International Trade Fair in Chennai became one of my most formative memories, linking tradition and technology in one grand sweep. My father's thoughtfulness, from a holy pilgrimage to a treasured mechanical gift, taught me how important it is to share an experience with someone else.

MB#67: How the Chennai Fair Sparked My Engineering Curiosity

The International Fair That Built a City

When I reflect on the trips that truly shaped my childhood, one stands sky-high in my memory: the family road trip to Chennai (then Madras) in 1968. At fourteen, I was a wide-eyed teen, and my father, Sri Susarla Subrahmanya Sastry, decided to turn a religious pilgrimage into a massive lesson in global industry and architecture.

The trip itself was a grand loop. We traveled first by train to Tirupati for the sacred Balaji darshan, spending a reflective overnight stay on Tirumala Hills. From there, the car journey to Chennai felt like crossing a boundary into the future. We stayed with relatives at their apartment in the IIT Adyar area, making the trip a true family affair.

But the real destination was the India International Trade and Industries Fair (IITIF), held in the area now known as Anna Nagar. Over three days, we spent five hours each day lost in that two-hundred-acre showcase. It was my first glimpse of the metropolitan world. The event was the famous fair with the motto "Prosperity through Industry," and it felt like stepping into a science-fiction book. We saw the first elevator built in the region and the Gnat fighter planes and were mesmerized by the Swiss musical fountain show.

I'll never forget the Dr. Visvesvaraya Tower, which was built for the fair and remains a magnificent, spiraling column even today. Walking up that 12-story, 135-foot-tall watchtower with my father, the whole exhibition spread out below us like a postcard, made me feel incredibly small yet connected to the world.

The most personal memory, however, didn’t happen at the fair itself. My father, realizing my keen interest in mechanics, took me to the prestigious Spencer's department store on Mount Road. In that huge, historic mall, which was a landmark symbolizing urban sophistication, my father bought me a mechanical and electronic assembly kit. This wasn’t just a toy; it was a treasure unavailable in our hometown of Vijayawada. It was a tangible link to the technology and engineering I had just seen at the fair.

That single gift, paired with the experience of the fair, defined my early view of the world. When I returned to school, my friends hung on every detail of my stories—not just about the pilgrimage, but about the soaring tower and the sheer scale of the international exhibition.

Even now, the memory of 1968 resurfaces whenever I see a post or hear a name associated with Chennai. It taught me that my father wasn't just interested in my academic progress; he took a deep, active interest in showing us the world's complexities and ensuring we had the tools—literal and metaphorical—to understand them. This was, without a doubt, one of the best trips I ever shared with the towering personality that was my father.

MB#67: Quiz

MB#67-Question: Built during the International Fair, the watchtower is now a landmark. The name of this 12-story, 135-foot tower?

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• A. The Nehru Tower.
• B. The Gandhi Memorial Column.
• C. The Dr. Visvesvaraya Tower.
• D. The Anna Tower.

MB#67:: Quote

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." – Saint Augustine.