Heritage Walks

If there is one activity that has really blossomed owing to Madras Week celebrations, it is the heritage walk. Absent from the Chennai cultural scene at least till 1999, though it was always very popular elsewhere, it has since grown manifold.

This year, during Madras Week, apart from the walks that were led by your editor, there were plenty of others and the topics were wide-ranging and interesting. The Madras Naturalists Society and Nizhal did their walks connected with nature. Vincent D’Souza came up with some great topics – Mount Road at duskand Three Churches of San Thome being two, apart from his walks at Fort St George. We sincerely hope his Auto Shankar walk happens sometime soon. Sridhar Venkataraman did his food walk and Sudha Umashanker conducted a walk at George Town. Satyan Bhatt, the PR consultant did a walk at Purasaiwalkam reliving his childhood memories. Tripurasundari Sevvel organised walks at the DPI campus and Anna Nagar. Ramanujar Moulana had cycle trails during Madras Week. There may be others whom we have missed. The big step in inclusivity was taken by Srivatsan Sankaran, who being hearing impaired himself, did a series of walks with special focus on commentary in sign language. The city is really waking up to its heritage, in all neighbourhoods. This is a most heartening development and may it only grow in the years to come.