Whatever it is, join in

Madras Week, which started off as Madras Day seven years ago to celebrate the founding of the city on August 22, 1639, now seems like becoming Madras Fortnight. This year, Madras Week is being celebrated between the 15th and the 22nd of August, but it looks like the celebrations will carry on till at least the 29th.

Growing from about 15 events in the first year, last year’s celebrations featured over 100 programmes, including talks, quizzes, exhibitions and performances, all centred on the theme ‘Madras’. This year, there are already around 50 programmes scheduled.

A few people interested in the history of Madras that is Chennai have been responsible for encouraging this celebration of the founding of the city by schools, colleges, various organisations, and groups of like-minded individuals. Participation is purely a voluntary effort by those wanting to organise programmes during the Week. The role of the informal group of coordinators is only to encourage such participation, try to organise publicity for the events and, where possible, arrange venues. For any advisory help, if needed, and for answers to queries, if any, please contact editor@madras musings.com or mylapore times@vsnl.com or write to Chennai Heritage, 5 Bhattad Tower, 30 Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai – 600 014, or to Mylapore Times, 77 C.P. Ramaswamy Road, Alwarpet, Chennai – 600 018.

This year too the city hotels will be enthusiastic participants. To begin with, the Taj Group of Hotels, The Park, Green Park, the Welcomgroup Park Sheraton Hotel and Towers, and the GRT Hotels and Resorts, Chennai and Mahabalipuram, will be hosting various programmes. More hotels are expected to join. The coordinators are hoping that they will also host exhibitions and organise food festivals. Schools with heritage clubs are already talking about hosting events and competitions centring on the city as their theme.

As has been the practice in past years, Chennai Heritage, the publishers of Madras Musings, will be hosting eight talks at various locations on subjects related to the city. The speakers are high-profile individuals who will share their experiences of living in this metropolis. Many of these speakers will be speaking elsewhere in the city as well as, for instance, in Vadapalani and Anna Nagar. The coordinators continue to hope, as they did last year, that there will be hosts volunteering to organise talks in North Chennai as well. The Roja Muthiah Library in Taramani is planning several talks in Tamil. And the Gymkhana Club and the Madras Club are also planning to host speakers and organise other programmes during the Week for their members and their guests. Other clubs are expected to follow suit.

Over half a dozen heritage walks are being organised this year. Some of them will be down Mount Road, Broadway, Vepery, and in and around the Chenna Kesava and Chenna Malleswara Swami temples. Under planning is a unique tour of George Town at night. And Nizhal will lead Tree Walks. The Madras Naturalists’ Society too is likely to organise a couple of walks aimed at bird watching. And a couple of groups are planning photographic walks.

Mylapore Times, led by Vincent D’Souza, will be organising a wide range of events for Madras Week. These will include walks, contests and talks. Further details will be regularly updated on the site www.themadrasday.in. Sashi Nair will be organising events at the Green Park Hotel and Jaigopal Garodia School. And Nandini Muthiah is planning programmes in Kilpauk and Purasawalkam. Asan Memorial School already has several programmes planned and so has Vanilla Children’s place.

INTACH will be focussing on events for schools in connection with Madras Week and an all-Tamil Nadu ‘Know your Capital’ quiz contest is being planned by it. This year, the Alliance Francaise is planning to have even more events than last year to celebrate Madras Week, and the Goethe Institute - Max Mueller Bhavan, the Association of British Scholars and the Coin Society are planning several events.

S.R. Madhu is getting the Rotary Clubs to participate with their usual enthusiasm. The Rotary Club of Madras South is planning to devote all its August meetings to Madras Week. A series of music and dance programmes is being hosted by Chennai Heritage and the Freemasons at the Freemasons Mini Auditorium in Egmore. And Forum Art Gallery plans to start the Week on August 13th with words, songs and a Chennai Art past and present exhibition. As these lines are being written, more events are being discussed and finalised.

The Madras Day/Week coordinators are announcing these plans well ahead so that other organisations/individuals/volunteer groups who wish to celebrate the founding of this city, which has contributed so much to every one of us, will have ample time to plan their events.

To ensure that your programmes receive the publicity they require, please send us information about your plans by July 24th and August 8th to editor@madrasmusings.com. There will be programmes issued to the public on August 1st and August 16th as well as Press publicity during that period.