Madras @382 -Tributes to a city

 

Welcome, dear reader 

This blog explores the connection between books, memory and the city of Chennai. One of the primary attractions for me in this city is the sheer number of books available in this city. As a student, I used to frequent second-hand bookstores near Loyola College. The name of the book store was Indira bookstore. The owner used to have special prices for the students of Loyola. After supper, I along with my friends used to walk to Choolaimedu market and Indira bookstore was a pitstop on the way. We used to take the train to Central Station to find second-hand textbooks in Moore Market and sometimes even visit the shops selling used books in Triplicane. When I became a salaried person, the places for hunting books became wider. I along with my colleague started visiting the Landmark bookstore in Nungambakkam and Higgin Bothams in Mount Road. My habit of visiting the used books never left me, even now I used to visit the Moore Market Complex. Books are printed memories and there is no literature without memories. The famous writer Benyamin has reminisced about his association with a book store in Manama, Kingdom Bahrain where he used to frequent. Like Alfredo instilling the power of the visual image in the mind of the young boy in Cinema Paradiso, books are the objects for dreams, imagination and memories. 

Chennai - the city, Madras - the emotion 

Madras Month - What are we celebrating? Nanditha Krishna wrote this article in the New Indian Express on Saturday. She is a historian, environmentalist, and writer based in Chennai. She has co-authored a book with Tishani Doshi titled ‘Madras Then Chennai Now’. Another book she wrote is Madras-Chennai. In the article she laments about the way heritage buildings in Chennai are not preserved the way they ought to be. One example that she cites is the Bharath Insurance Building which is she describes as a 'beautiful, old, Indo-Saracenic building’ on Mount Road. The condition of the building is so bad, that it may collapse soon. The article contains interesting trivia about the name Chennai. The city is named after Chennappa Nayakar who was a Telugu and had never visited Madras. She is aware of the fact that the heritage buildings are renovated and restructured with a blind disregard to their former glory. Examples given are the Moore Market Complex and Spencer’s building. She differentiates between ‘tangible heritage and ‘intangible heritage’ According to Nanditha Krishna, Chennai has successfully preserved its intangible heritage like music, art and literature. The article is a clarion call to protect the tangible heritage of a city that is fast developing. The article ends with a disturbing but pivotal question - So what are we celebrating? Memories and Nostalgia? The author also pays homage to the renowned historian - S Muthiah. Nanditha Krishan ends the article with a message she received on WhatsApp - Chennai is a city, Madras is an emotion. 

Celebrities spotted! 

Chennai being a cinema city, the chances that you may encounter a film celebrity is high. I have met some celebrities in the Loyola College campus like Aravind Swami who used to play cricket on the college ground. The Malayalam actor of the yesteryears Seema ( Wife of the celebrated movie director I. V. Sasi) used to visit the campus for her evening walks, sometimes along with her son. Her cameo role in the movie Nadodikattu as herself is still a great cinematic memory. It was while staying in Valsaravakkam before our adventure to Bahrain, that we ran across stars like Urvasi and Riyaz Khan. Valsaravakkam is a place near the so-called headquarters of Tamil cinema Kodambakkam where tinsel dreams are made and unmade. The most precious memory is that of meeting Shanthikrishna in Starmark Phoenix City Mall before the COVID-19 outbreak. It was a memorable experience and all the movies that she had acted in flashed before our eyes. It is not just movie stars that I have met. Chennai being a literary capital, I have seen my authors in flesh blood during the Hindu Lit Fest. Attending book launches also is a way to meet authors. The most recent event which I attended was the book launch based on William Dalrymple’s ‘Anarchy’ at Taj Connemara. Even though these memories are personal, they can be even a collective one because movies are part of the collective memory. Every actor reminds us of the world of cinema and its digital presence. Examining digital memories is also an interesting part of Memory Studies. During one of my trips to the American Library ( USIS) I was fortunate enough to meet the great Girish Karnad. He was more than happy to sign the autograph for me.

A City’s Platter 

Chennai is synonymous with good food. The variety of food that is available in this coastal city is indeed a treat for the palate. Vegetarian food is the most popular and sought after variety in the city. There are some excellent restaurants which have become our favourite spots for hot dosas and idlis. The authentic taste of these dishes can be discovered in these places. The Namma Veedu Vasantha Bhavan at Phoenix City Mall is our favourite. When it comes to North Indian food, we like the Kapila Dasa restaurant inside the EA Express Avenue Mall. We satisfy the craving for some authentic Kerala food we frequent Ente Keralam and Kumarakom restaurant. The street food scene in Chennai is as popular as the so-called posh restaurants. The Muniyandi Vilas restaurants, Velu Military Hotel along Sundari Akka Kadai are all part of this more pocket-friendly scene. What I have given above is nostalgia and a deeply personal write-up on food zones. There is much more to the topic than this personal rambling. Recently, the Center for Memory Studies at IIT M organised a workshop on the topic Food, Memory and Machines. The topics discussed were highly academic and were bordering on memory and food anthropology. Food-centred memory studies is a vast area of study and it is linked to topics like forms of identity, nationalism, and consumer capitalism. 

The Fun We Had 

Milan Kundera’s book ‘Ignorance’ contains a detailed discussion about the word ‘nostalgia’. To quote from the book ‘ The Greek word for ‘return’ is ‘nostos’. ‘Algos’ means ‘suffering’. Nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. The city of Chennai was my second home for almost ten years. I came back to the city after 10 years and I have experienced change. One place which used to be a regular place for hanging out was the Spencer Plaza in Mount Road. Revisiting it was like visiting a ghost town. Most of the shops were closed and to see the book store Landmark closed was heart-wrenching. These days we have Starmark but the bonding which we felt in Landmark is not there. Landmark started as a book shop in a basement near Kodambakkam High Road. For lovers of music and books, it was the most happening place in town. The movie-watching experience also has changed. In the past, it was Sathyam theatre in Royapettah. Today it has shifted to the malls with better technology and seating arrangement. We used to frequent two theatres apart from Sathyam, one was Ega and the other one was AVM Rajeshwari. Both these theatres were in the near vicinity of Loyola Hostel. The fun we had moving to the theatre and the return will never be forgotten. 

Libraries in Chennai 

This post was inspired by the phone call which I received this afternoon from British Council Library. The phone call has served as a mnemonic trigger for this post.  Chennai being an educational hub is famous for its libraries and learning centres. Two libraries which I used to frequent in Chennai is situated on the same road - Mount Road. The USIS library is near the Gemini aka the Anna flyover is a well-guarded building with round the clock vigil. As a student in Loyola 20 years ago, the library was much more accessible. USIS was the place where we used to go almost every Friday for the film show. It was open to the public and I remember watching movies like Driving Miss Daisy and Deliverance there. Movies shown were in the 35 mm film format. The walk back to the Loyola were always filled with animated discussions about the movie. My last visit to the American library was to listen to Paul Salopek, the man who walked more than 21,000 miles as part of the National Geographic assignment - Out of Eden Walk. The feeling of walking into the British Council Library is something unique. Situated near the Thousand Lights Metro station, the BCL has fewer security restrictions and there is a lovely coffee shop inside. These days the library suffers from overcrowding and lack of silence. Even-though, today we have the option of borrowing e-books from the library, a visit to access the physical books is still a memorable activity. I have memberships to both these libraries and as long as stay in Chennai, I will keep renewing the membership. That’s my way of paying tribute to the two libraries which played a significant part in my student days in Chennai. 

Building Memories of a city. 

The heritage buildings of Chennai can be roughly divided into three sections. Dravidian structures, Colonial-era buildings and the Indo-Saracen architectural style. A style that is a blend or synthesis of Islamic designs and Indian materials developed by British architects. The Madras High Court which is built in 1892, is an example of the Indo-Saracenic style. The Senate House in the Madras University campus and the College of Engineering building in Guindy are examples of this style of architecture. The Chennai Central Railway station takes inspiration from both Gothic and Romanesque styles of architecture. It was built in the year 1873. The Government Museum or the Egmore Museum has different architectural styles. Victoria Public Hall is another building that is a fine example of British Architecture in Chennai. Fort St.George was completed in the year 1653 and currently functions as the administrative headquarters of the legislative assembly of the state of Tamil Nadu. The Ripon building was constructed by Lognath Mudaliar is a fine piece of neo-classical building. The city of Madras or Chennai is a commemorative space. The heritage buildings act as memorials that reflect and reinforce the past. A visit to these buildings is a major lesson in history and memory studies. The questions regarding identity and heritage can be discussed against the backdrop of these colonial-era buildings.