Why am I interested in musicians who meet on a terrace in T’Nagar to jam on a weekend and musicians who head to Bay Leaf to listen to some retro and classic rock music?

I am not looking for talent.

I am trying to see how musicians can put their heads together to write songs on our city. And then put their hands to the instruments.

Koothu artistes are doing a lot of this sort. More so, after Tamil film makers turned to them for inspiration, ideas and curation as more and more films base their stories in Kasimedu and Royapuram.

It is that time of the year when a group of us start working on the annual Madras Week celebrations – held to celebrate the founding of this city of ours.

August 22 is Madras Day and our focus is on the August 16 to 23 period when we encourage everybody to host an event that celebrates Madras that is Chennai.

This is perhaps the largest of its kind of events that is voluntary, informal and starts from the grassroots. That it has remained so is gratifying.

We are keen to seek out busybodies and community heads who are not yet in the Madras Week spirit and are eager to kick off their own events.

Srividya who works with city NGOs is enthusiastic about planning a mela at a college campus which will star the city’s earliest charities – showcase their history, the work they do and put on sale anything that people may want to buy or support.

Quizmaster Sumanth Raman hopes to curate a ‘Best App for the City’ contest and is keen to get one big time IT company which will not only offer a few great cash prizes but also spend on some promos to get all our smart geeks to work for this contest.

The neighbourhood social histories as an idea which has taken some root in Anna Nagar may well sprout in Pudupet. People who used to live in the four streets that make the west zone of this neighbourhood of Egmore and still carry fond memories of street cricket, Saint Anthony’s festival, Christmas parties and tiled houses are eager to put old pictures, stories and records together.

So the call is going out to all of you who can curate an event that is about your area, your community, your line of activity – an event that banks on the past and looks at the future. An event that makes Madras what it is.

I am scheduled to meet a school HM and some fisherfolk leaders in Royapuram. To broach ideas, seek support, create venue partners...

Meanwhile, we are on FB (Madras Day), and at www.themadrasday.in. Mail us at themadrasday@gmail.com

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One Madras Week event curated was a tour of the churches in San Thomè. It wasn’t easy – one of the nuns gave us a mouthful when I led the group into this 16th Century, Portuguese-built church.

Walks and tours are a great way to explore neighbourhoods. And I am happy that many young, enterprising people are curating tours during weekends.

One group is of passionate photographers, another loves to cycle and a third is made up of foodies while there is one on Tamil heritage.

Recently, the Chennai Food Walks group explored eating joints in Mylapore. They touched Rayars and Kalathi to gorge on steaming idli-vada and drink ice-cold rosemilk, but its curator, Sridhar Venkataraman, tells me a few new eateries, ‘hot’ for food, have been included in the group’s Walk list.

This group has done Sowcarpet and Purasai, Triplicane and Mambalam. And there could be more to come – Anna Nagar and Perambur, Tambaram and Mirsahibpet.

But this can happen only if residents of the area share information, help do a recce or be the leader of the pack.

Walks can be educative and fun.

Can someone curate a shopping tour of Pondy Bazzar? For bindis and saree falls, glass bangles and soft toys. Or, with the D’Monte Colony film tickling people, a Haunted Spaces tour? (Courtesy: Mylapore Times)