I came to know about this book a few years before. It became part of my wishlist, aka as the long guilt road that I so painfully built with at least 500 books. When I started this group, I had discussions with my friends, and I understand that it is not easy for everyone to buy a book every month. My search narrowed to look for Kindle Unlimited books and the public library books. Though it was in my wishlist, I wouldn’t have selected this book had it not been part of the Kindle Unlimited.
I read the Tamil translation of S.Muthiah’s Chennai Rediscovered (சென்னை மறுகண்டுபிடிப்பு - https://www.nhm.in/shop/9788184932348.html). It is almost like a detective story unearthing the known places and finding a story behind each one of them. I know this book won’t do the same thing. I read some articles of Bishwant Ghosh, and the journalistic writing style is a mouth-watering one for reading essays. I also liked the way the book is titled. I grow up in the northern part of Tamilnadu where Tamarind Tree is a ubiquitous part of both rural and urban life. Tamarind City convinced me that Bishwant understood one of the essential threads of Chennai life. We know the Chennai eye hospital is world’s second such hospital and many such grand beginnings, and yet we continue to perceive Chennai as one of the conservative sleepy city of Modern, thriving India. So I like the way the book title extended “Where Modern India Began.”
It is a book where an outsider came, stayed here a long time, and wrote a long travelogue about Chennai. True to a travelogue, he picked and chose the topics that gave him comfort and substance to make it as a good read. At many places, I got reminded about Mark Tully’s book I read a few years before. It is exciting to see the likes of Muthiah and Sriram came as characters in a book about Chennai. Each chapter is full of many colorful lives like the film director who found the mansion for Bishwant, Triplicane middle-class woman who showed him the house where Ramanujan lived, the westerner who made madras, specifically Mylapore, a musical school, his childhood friend who accompanies him to Royapettah and North Madras.
The first chapter goes back to the very beginnings of East India Company setting up a fort and a port in Chennai. It is like a grandma’s story that makes you mouth-watering every single time despite being told umpteen number of times. Andrew Cohan and Francis Day became an indelible part of Chennai’s chroniclers and storytellers.
Apart from that first chapter, everything else is about the present day (almost throughout the 2000s) life of Chennai with a not-so-occasional trip down the memory lane. I have been to the NSC Bose Road and all the Mudali and Chetty streets on Black Town part of the Chennai since the 1990s. This place is like a gold mine for every historian of Chennai. You get a new story every single time. The story of the Beri Thimmappa who built the Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple and the present generations of his 250+ members lineage is one such story. The other one is Chandamama’s (Ambulimama) story. I will try to have a quick peek at Kilpauk Appah gardens next time.
The small section about writer Gnani is an unexpected one. He had to shift his O Pakkangal from one magazine to another because of political pressure shows both his ideals and our bigot politicians. It is almost like a tribute to him.
The story about Ratna café is an interesting one. A north Indian who became a connoisseur of South Indian Sambar is an interesting one. He is getting the spices from North India as well because of adulterated spices we get in Chennai. I remembered a story about how even Jayalalitha, despite such an influential person of Tamilnadu, couldn’t get unadulterated spices. More than that, he procured machines from Italy, Switzerland, and Germany that makes you idli and Sambar on an industrial scale. These countries don’t make or eat idli or Sambar. I read a story that Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu shared recently. The Tamilnadu farmer uses a knife that was designed and made in Germany to slice open a coconut. We have a long way to go.
How could you leave politics and Cinema when you are writing about Chennai? You have them to satiate your Tamil senses. Annadurai, Karunanidhi, MGR, Sivaji, Gemini Ganesan, Rajnikanth, Saroja Devi, and few others play a part in this collection of stories. The one exception is the famous Nagi Reddy. He is praised, correctly so, for his contribution for Ambulimama. Ambulimama must be the great Tamil Children Magazine for its range of stories and drawings. The Vikramadityan and Vedalam picture (https://devdutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/vikram.jpg) is etched in memory like no other from my childhood. The essay about the Chandamama and the artist Sankar is a rare gem.
There are many more stories on Chennai beach, December music season, triplicane Vadakalai and Thenkalai Iyengars and their historical disputes, the terrible tsunami of 2005, Bharathiyar, Srinivasa Ramanujam, T Nagar, Royapettah railway station history, etc. He picked some of his days’ sensational news as well to make a story for Chennai. I would say they are forgettable stories.
When I completed reading this book, many things came to my mind. There are lovely stories by Bharathi Mani on his Delhi life. I almost fell in love with Delhi through his stories. I loved the stories of Mark Tully that covered various parts of India. I will remember some of the stories of Bishwant Ghosh as well. It is a time well spent in Chennai.
I read the Tamil translation of S.Muthiah’s Chennai Rediscovered (சென்னை மறுகண்டுபிடிப்பு - https://www.nhm.in/shop/9788184932348.html). It is almost like a detective story unearthing the known places and finding a story behind each one of them. I know this book won’t do the same thing. I read some articles of Bishwant Ghosh, and the journalistic writing style is a mouth-watering one for reading essays. I also liked the way the book is titled. I grow up in the northern part of Tamilnadu where Tamarind Tree is a ubiquitous part of both rural and urban life. Tamarind City convinced me that Bishwant understood one of the essential threads of Chennai life. We know the Chennai eye hospital is world’s second such hospital and many such grand beginnings, and yet we continue to perceive Chennai as one of the conservative sleepy city of Modern, thriving India. So I like the way the book title extended “Where Modern India Began.”
It is a book where an outsider came, stayed here a long time, and wrote a long travelogue about Chennai. True to a travelogue, he picked and chose the topics that gave him comfort and substance to make it as a good read. At many places, I got reminded about Mark Tully’s book I read a few years before. It is exciting to see the likes of Muthiah and Sriram came as characters in a book about Chennai. Each chapter is full of many colorful lives like the film director who found the mansion for Bishwant, Triplicane middle-class woman who showed him the house where Ramanujan lived, the westerner who made madras, specifically Mylapore, a musical school, his childhood friend who accompanies him to Royapettah and North Madras.
The first chapter goes back to the very beginnings of East India Company setting up a fort and a port in Chennai. It is like a grandma’s story that makes you mouth-watering every single time despite being told umpteen number of times. Andrew Cohan and Francis Day became an indelible part of Chennai’s chroniclers and storytellers.
Apart from that first chapter, everything else is about the present day (almost throughout the 2000s) life of Chennai with a not-so-occasional trip down the memory lane. I have been to the NSC Bose Road and all the Mudali and Chetty streets on Black Town part of the Chennai since the 1990s. This place is like a gold mine for every historian of Chennai. You get a new story every single time. The story of the Beri Thimmappa who built the Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple and the present generations of his 250+ members lineage is one such story. The other one is Chandamama’s (Ambulimama) story. I will try to have a quick peek at Kilpauk Appah gardens next time.
The small section about writer Gnani is an unexpected one. He had to shift his O Pakkangal from one magazine to another because of political pressure shows both his ideals and our bigot politicians. It is almost like a tribute to him.
The story about Ratna café is an interesting one. A north Indian who became a connoisseur of South Indian Sambar is an interesting one. He is getting the spices from North India as well because of adulterated spices we get in Chennai. I remembered a story about how even Jayalalitha, despite such an influential person of Tamilnadu, couldn’t get unadulterated spices. More than that, he procured machines from Italy, Switzerland, and Germany that makes you idli and Sambar on an industrial scale. These countries don’t make or eat idli or Sambar. I read a story that Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu shared recently. The Tamilnadu farmer uses a knife that was designed and made in Germany to slice open a coconut. We have a long way to go.
How could you leave politics and Cinema when you are writing about Chennai? You have them to satiate your Tamil senses. Annadurai, Karunanidhi, MGR, Sivaji, Gemini Ganesan, Rajnikanth, Saroja Devi, and few others play a part in this collection of stories. The one exception is the famous Nagi Reddy. He is praised, correctly so, for his contribution for Ambulimama. Ambulimama must be the great Tamil Children Magazine for its range of stories and drawings. The Vikramadityan and Vedalam picture (https://devdutt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/vikram.jpg) is etched in memory like no other from my childhood. The essay about the Chandamama and the artist Sankar is a rare gem.
There are many more stories on Chennai beach, December music season, triplicane Vadakalai and Thenkalai Iyengars and their historical disputes, the terrible tsunami of 2005, Bharathiyar, Srinivasa Ramanujam, T Nagar, Royapettah railway station history, etc. He picked some of his days’ sensational news as well to make a story for Chennai. I would say they are forgettable stories.
When I completed reading this book, many things came to my mind. There are lovely stories by Bharathi Mani on his Delhi life. I almost fell in love with Delhi through his stories. I loved the stories of Mark Tully that covered various parts of India. I will remember some of the stories of Bishwant Ghosh as well. It is a time well spent in Chennai.
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