Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXXIV No. 10, September 1-15, 2024
Archives: Vol. XXXIV No. 10, September 1-15, 2024
And what a Madras Day it was!
-- by Sriram V.
The latest edition of Madras Day, was it 17th or 18th we forget, was hectic and demanding for those who were catalysts, but it was immensely satisfying chiefly because of the manner in which it seems to be accepted as a reason to celebrate. We are seeing a certain spontaneity in the putting together of events and also a freedom in celebrating it sans any narrow definitions. This is exactly what was expected of a city celebration, and we are happy that it is catching on. At Madras Musings, Madras Day/Week celebrations ended on August 25th, but we are sure that events are still going on elsewhere. There is even a run planned as late as September 8 by The Hindu!
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s message for Madras Week, posted via @mkstalin on X (formerly Twitter).
There is a separate page in this issue
Madras Week – A growing opportunity for customer engagement?
-- by Varsha V.
Chennai is basking in the afterglow of yet another lively Madras Week which saw a vibrant line-up of events to celebrate the city. What began many years ago as a fledgling initiative has arguably grown into an annual festival that belongs to the people. Madras Week is seeing growing participation across various age groups and demographics, which in turn has helped create space for a fabulous variety of public exchange on topics civic and cultural – or example, Madras Musings hosted ‘Queering Chennai’,
Chennai Heritage-Madras Musings Lecture Series for Madras Week 2024
The Madras Musings Madras Day 2024 programmes began on Saturday, August 17 and continued till August 25. We give below a brief report on the events.
August 17 : Forgotten Games of Chennai, by Vinita Sidhartha.
To the speaker, board games of the historic kind have long been a passion. She has spent several years researching them and resurrected several of these for transfer on to the modern board format. Kreeda, the entity that she has set up to propagate traditional games maintained open house throughout Madras Week this year for visitors to play these games. It was therefore appropriate that Madras Week events began at the bright premises of Kreeda. Vinita Sidhartha made a presentation on how she has gone about her work and gave details of a few games that she discovered at temples in and around the city, and also under the famed butter ball at Mamallapuram. After the talk those present were treated to traditional Chennai snacks and then proceeded to the games area. Over the course of the week Kreeda saw a steady influx of visitors who tried their luck at the games that their grandmothers would have been pros at.
August 18: Chennai’s Ecology – Drab, Mysterious or Baffling? Talk by Jayashree Vencatesan.
A cozy group gathered at the lovely Hanu Residences at Poes Garden to hear Dr Jayashree Vencatesan speak about Chennai’s ecology. When Sriram V made the introductions, he promised the audience that they were in for a treat, the speaker being an expert famous for turning common beliefs on their head. It is safe to say that the ensuing presentation lived up to these words of praise – Dr Jayashree’s witty talk on the city’s ecological personality was a breath of fresh air amidst the virtuously despondent narratives that tend to plague the topic.
Dr Jayashree explained that Chennai has an incredibly diverse ecology that deviates from the layman’s ideal of lush greenery, earning it a rather unfair accusation of being dry, arid land. Apart from trees and waterbodies like lakes and rivers, the city’s landscape also has wetlands, grasslands, hillocks, and of course, an enviable coastline. The Chennai we know, she said, was quite literally built upon a foundation of water – an astonishing fact that deserves not celebration, but introspection.
Madras Week Events
Walks
Walk at Madras Club led by Sriram V, organised by the Club for its members.
Madras Week Events organised by Government institutions
Poster from the Madras Week Celebrations by the Greater Chennai Police.
