It’s August 22, time to celebrate the birthday of Madras, the mesmerizing city. Eight years ago, the idea of celebrating Madras Week began as a four-hour-long celebration of the city and today it has transformed into an elaborate fortnight-long celebration.
Madras Day focuses on the city, its history, past, present and the core team motivates communities, groups, companies and campuses in the city to host different events.
Why August 22!
It was on this day August 22, 1639 – British trader Francis Day signed the lease for the tiny strip of beach he had obtained from the disintegrating Vijayanagara Empire to build a permanent trading post of the East Coast. His favourite spot was where Fort St. George stands today.
Soon the construction began and that marked the birth of the city of Madras.
In 2004, it was journalists Shashi Nair and Vincent D’Souza who came up with the idea to celebrate the birth of the city every year.
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5 things I love about Chennai:
Public Transport: So much so that, I almost never drive. Buses, trains and share-autos, I am all for them. And being the poor-kid that I am, I love it even more, because it’s cheap.
Technological Prowess. Stating the obvious.
The History: More specifically, the “whither-to”s and “where-forth”s of a location, any location in Chennai – so to speak, you’ll be surprised to know what significance that small portion of the earth under your feet holds.
Sathyam Cinemas: Be it watching “Vettayadu Vilayadu” or “Downfall” or “Ice Age 2″, albeit the ticket-pricing, what with their 110 years of World Cinema happening, Sathyam is doing Chennai proud, bringing the best of World Cinema to one of the best cities in the World.
The moderately-Conservative people: Go down South and you’ll know what I mean.
5 things I hate about Chennai:
Driving: But you wouldn’t want me to elaborate on that.
Nelson Manickam Road: Accident prone, cramped, nauseating is putting NM Road in a nutshell. If you happen to travel by that road in the evening between seven and eight and you never lost your cool even once, then I envy your patience-level.
The ways in which people dispose garbage: There’s a word in not-so-pure thamizh that indicates a black spot on an immaculate object – “Dhrishti pottu”. Even the cleanest and greenest street will have garbage dumped in its corner. Walk a few short paces away and you’ll find an empty ONYX garbage box.
What people call “Kollywood” and what comes out of it.
The wannabe school-kids: A trait only the students of a certain school/group of schools in Chennai possess. If I were to mention the name of the school, I will possibly be hanged, drawn and quartered or beheaded. A few of them, thankfully grow out of their silly selves, and many of them carry it till the end of their lives. Suffice to say they will easily annoy you. Worse, they’ll most likely assume, being the stereotypes that they are, that you think they are a spot on the city’s rich “culture”, even though you know inside your head that the two are disparate entities. Retards. Worse still, lot of forty plus people try very hard to put their kids into “that school”.