The quaint Crown Bakery on Bazaar Street, Mylapore is easy to miss. But just try their loaf of bread, and while at it, also find out the story behind the bakery; the taste and the tale are sure to captivate.

Established by one Kanthasamy Mudaliar in 1905, it is easily one of the oldest functioning bakeries in the city. But the family that runs the bakery is descended from Manickadevar, who used to help Kanthasamy Mudaliar at the bakery. “Kanthasamy Mudaliar literally adopted my father because he was without refuge as a three-year-old in Madras,” recalls M. Srinivasan, Manickadevar’s eldest son.

In 1943, amidst fears of Japanese bombing, Kanthasamy Mudaliar asked all the workers to return to their native places. “Everyone left, but my father had nowhere to go. He opted to stay on at the bakery. When the owner left, there was just a bag of flour and sugar. My father ran the bakery for two years until the owner returned. By then, Crown Bakery was well established and my father had stocked more than 20 bags of flours and several more bags of sugar.”

But as a loyal worker, Manickadevar returned the keys to the bakery to Kanthasamy Mudaliar and the latter’s family ran the bakery till the 1970s. But after Kanthasamy’s death, his widow decided to return to her native place. “On the day they left, after packing everything, she called my father just as we were about to head home,” Srinivasan says, his eyes welling up. “She gave him the keys to the bakery. His loyalty had been rewarded.”

Today, Crown Bakery operates on a very small scale. They just bake a few items fresh every day, opting to keep out artificial sweeteners. It is a matter of pride that keeps Srinivasan going against the odds, especially after his brother M. Sukumaran’s death last year.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Madras 375 / by Karthik Subramanian / Chennai – August 27th, 2014