Strolling around SADRAS
It isn't the most salubrious time of the year or day to go wandering along a fishing village on East Coast Road . 10 AM on a bright September day. We hurry past ASI's blue signboard warning visitors against damaging the Protected Monument . But there is no sign board announcing the name of the monument itself : DUTCH FORT , SADRAS It is silent as a graveyard as we linger by the portal to admire the handsome white washed tower (belfry?) crowning it . Looks like it has been replastered and painted only recently. The brick walls on either side , though unplastered, are undamaged . Some periwinkle shrubs in full bloom add a touch of cheery contrast. Two heavy iron cannons flank the entrance, one bearing the distinct V mark on its weather-beaten surface. V from the logo of VOC - Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie ( The Dutch East India Company), the World's first Joint Stock Company , a trail blazing trading enterprise that had, in its time , eclipsed all other Europ