Woodlands Drive in was not just a restaurant. It was an institution, pardon the cliche.
It is indeed rare to find an open space like this in the middle of a city. Thre was so much space to park any number of cars and bikes in the shade of the large number of trees that flourished there.
I remember going there from my college days in the early sixties. It was not just a great place for good and affordable vegetarian food, it was not just a place where your kids got pony rides, it was where people met each other regularly for years and years and exchanged news and yarns and shared many a laugh while being served in their cars by what seemed to be the same team of waiters.
So many people were regulars and off and on you could spot a celebrity like the singer P.B. Sreenivas, who was there almost every day, wearing his trade mark cap and poring over a sheaf of papers.
Unfortunately the lease ran out.and the Horticultural Society, or whoever, got their land back.and the Drive in Restaurant has to shut down.
May be the owners of Woodlands will find a way to serve their delcious butter masala dosais from some corner of the spacious grounds, but it looks highly unlikey that all those parking areas will ever be available to us again.
Lasr friday was indeed a sad day for Madras