HERITAGE

With ornately carved arches, Rajasthani-style false balconies and decorative brackets, it is easy to mistake this quaint little building for a mini palace. Cloaked by the flamboyant Gulmohar outside, the Madras Literary Society, a treasure trove of archaic books and venerable first editions from the 16th century patiently waits to share its hidden gems with the curious visitor. The history of the Madras Literary Society can be traced back to the College of Fort St. George set up by the British East India Company in the early 1800s to help English engineers get accustomed to the vernacular language, practices and…

Here is the first story to kick off our month-long celebration of Madras Day! Happy Birthday Madras! Sriram V is 75 walks old!! A name synonymous with Chennai heritage, Sriram marked this milestone with a tour of Dare House, the distinguished Art Deco building on Parry's corner, which is the headquarters of the Murugappa group. (A list of all 75 walks can be found here) Meenakshi R: Between Walk 1 and Walk 75, tell us what has changed. Sriram V: I did my first walk in 1999, in Mylapore. In those days there was no social media or apps to…

Namma Bengaluru has been going through rapid transition these past couple of decades. From a sleepy pensioner's paradise, it has morphed into a bustling metropolis causing and caused by the city’s neighbourhoods growing, changing and evolving. Yet, each locality, each neighbourhood has many stories to tell – it could be of the park that was built over five decades ago or of the place where authors of the city would meet to chat or of the place so far off that autos would charge 1 ½ times the metre rate to go there. There are so many stories that these…

“From a needle to a computer, you will get everything here,” said a lungi-clad old man, who was selling rare copper coins (half anna from 19th century) at the Friday Pallavaram market. With a brief pause, he chuckled, “Except a girl to get married to.” Fresh vegetables, various varieties of fish, antique coins, old newspapers, eggs, chicken, batteries, computer spare parts... the list goes on. True to the trader’s words, the weekly Sandhai (market) that takes place every  Friday on the Old Trunk Road of Pallavaram brings a village to the city. With just an umbrella or a wet cloth…

In 1983, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared April 18 as World Heritage Day to celebrate and preserve the shared heritage and history of the globe. On this day, countries around the world salute all that is left behind by generations before them for a continuity to their way of life. But 75-year-old Devendra S isn’t interested in global affairs.  He is more worried about the fate of legacy his community has preserved for centuries now. Devendra belongs to the Thigala community - the keepers of Bengaluru's oldest festival - Bengaluru Karaga. The pride of old Bengaluru,…

When things don’t work well its always tempting to say “Let’s privatise”, though the experience of privatisation hasn’t been all that great – particularly when dealing with public facilities like health, public transport, water supply or waste disposal. The same logic seems be at work with the recently announced policy of the Government of India to allow privatisation of urban heritage, a move that has evoked extreme reaction from both ends of the spectrum. Some believe privatisation will be a good way to increase efficiency and generate income while others see it as a step signifying abdication of responsibility by…

According to recent media reports, the Public Works Department has trained its sights on a heritage building. The 83-year-old Janata Bazaar, which has been listed as a heritage building under the Revised Master Plan 2031, stand on premium property in Gandhi Nagar. The PWD, however, has branded it as "very dangerous" for human occupation and has proposed to bring it down. This has the heritage conservationists up in arms as the building who insist that the building can be restored to its former glory and is only suffering from neglect.  The building which was inaugurated by the Yuvaraja of Mysore…

The Annual Panguni Thiruvizha is here again! The festival will begin with Dhwajarohanam (flag hoisting) on March 22 and conclude with Thirukalyanam - the celestial wedding of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal, on March 30, 2018 The annual festival takes place in the month of March at the Mylapore Kapaleeshwarar temple. The highlights of this very prestigious temple festival are the Thiru Ther (temple chariot) and the Arubathu Moovar day, when the divinity of the aura around Mylapore multiplies with the 63 Nayanars being carried around in a procession in colourful palanquins. Thousands of people come from all over and outside Chennai to behold the Arubathu…

Today (Tuesday, 20th Feb '18), I took the children of Pramiti School, aged between 8 and 12 years, to the Government Museum on Kasturba Road. It took us nearly an hour in the traffic to get to the Museum from J P Nagar. So when we reached the Museum, we had to take the children to the toilets before the visit. I was told that the Museum building does not have toilets and was asked to go to the Venkatappa Art Gallery next door, so we took the children there. The staff kept on giving us instructions to "put a…

Mention Mylapore and the most prominent images that pop up are the iconic Kapaleeswarar temple and the lively Mada streets bustling with activity around it. The temple and its tank steal the show, and rightly so as the village of Mylapore and its agraharams grew organically around these two iconic structures. But, hidden behind the stretch populated by roadside vegetable vendors and the rows of parked cars lie vestiges of a glorious past – richly detailed, quaint little houses which have managed to withstand the test of time. A short walk into the narrow alleys around the temple literally transports…