#madras375

 This was originally posted on Facebook for Madras Day. #Reposting

Three hundred and seventy five years have passed with this city harbouring change, welcoming the new and preserving the old. This Madras Week, everybody has been sharing what Madras means to them - both the people who have lived here all their lives and the ones who have had the privilege of calling this place 'home' for at least a few years. One thing is common for them all - everybody has some experience that makes Madras irreplaceable and special to them. :') Here is what Madras means to me -

  Madras is the filter-coffee-dabara-tumbler obsession. It is the idli-vadai-dosai with chutney-sambhar craving. Madras is sitting on the floor, cross-legged and having a three-course meal on a banana leaf; a meal which, ironically, starts with a banana served with sugar. It is also the panju-mittai (cotton candy) and masala appalam at trade fairs, as well as the hot beach bhajjis - the mere sight of which might give an outsider diarrhoea, but is always the best and mandatory food on a trip the beach for Madras people!

  Madras is the numerous trips to the beach, always starting with getting completely drenched in the water, followed by the balloon-shooting competitions, frisbee games, going on the rattinam, and finally finishing with a smoked corn and/or ball ice-cream from a random stall on the sands. Madras is the palm-readers incessantly troubling you, asking to read your future while you're sitting on the sand and enjoying the sea-breeze.

  Madras is having been all around the city, and even to ECR and Mahabalipuram on your father’s Suzuki with your mother and brother sitting behind him, because cars weren’t so common back then. Madras is the stereotypical succession of school excursion destinations, starting from the Guindy Snake Park and Vandalur Zoo in primary school, followed progressively by Dakshin Chitra, Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry as you grew older… Madras is climbing all the rocks around and feeling like Indiana Jones and exploring all the caves littered around Mahabalipuram!

  Madras is about complaining when your parents dragged you to carnatic concerts where people always seemed to go “tha da ri na na…” and dance recitals as a kid; the same things you started appreciating as you grew older, recognizing them as a part of your heritage. It is the place where, thanks to your parents, you have at least a half-baked knowledge of not only the same Carnatic music but also of Bharatanatyam, our age-old, traditional dance form.

  Madras is visiting the umpteen stalls put up around Mylapore tank during the Thaer and Theppam (chariot festivals; the latter being one in water), the beautiful sights of which never fail to astound those who see it for the first time as well as those who see it every year. Madras is about shopping for murals to put up on your Golu steps during Navarathri, as well as watching the fireworks show from your terrace at night during Diwali.

  Madras is about conservative but exquisite dresses and jewellery that hold a certain charm which makes every visitor to this city want to try them on… Madras is about external beauty which only expresses a fraction of internal beauty... It is also about the shopping challenge in T.Nagar during festival times!

  Madras is the cycle races with friends and cousins, and playing street cricket that always ends up breaking somebody’s window… Madras is Chepauk and CSK. (Whistle podu!)

  Madras is the gethu feeling you got the first time you watched a night show at Satyam as a kid. Madras is Satyam cinemas, and Spencer Plaza (where you still get lost, despite having been there more than 10 times!).

  Madras is the feeling of riding the 'maadi train' (MRTS) the first time as a child; and also standing on your terrace 'thinnai' and waving to the guard on the train. It is also about kite-flying from the same terrace in February, trying to outdo your neighbours.

  Madras is the coolness of Bessy and the calmness of the Theosophical Society. It is as much about the concerts at Bessy and Hard Rock Café as it is about the Margazhi music season. Madras is also the vibrant theatre and stand-up scene, that caters to one of the best audiences for the same in the country.

  Madras is about culturals and inter-school rivalry that forms an integral part of high-school life. Madras is about always cramming for exams in the last minute and then breaking your head over entrance exams. It is the IIT/AIEEE/AIPMT/CA classes where you only go to hang out with friends… It is also a place where 90% is often not a great score as far as academics are concerned. (:P)

  Madras is the scorching 40 degrees in Summer and the annoying mosquitoes in winter. But it is also the delicious buttermilk, payasam, paanagam and the ever-favourite thayir sadham.

Madras IS categorizing people as ‘thayir sadham(s)’. :P

  Madras is the madras slang that only Madras people get! :D

  Madras is about wanting to escape from here, but the feeling of knowing that it’s yours, and it’s home all the same.

  Madras is the perennial film-fever and religious worship of Rajni and Kamal. It is also about Jigarthanda – both the drink and the movie. :P

  And finally, Madras is about being intolerable to criticisms against the city by outsiders no matter how many problems you may have with the place yourself. For, after all,

Madras is an emotion. It cannot be explained; it needs to be experienced. :')