Was Madras Day/Week that lasted from August 2nd to September 10th a success? With about 150 events, a few thousand participating, and plenty of Press coverage getting many more to talk about the occasion, it certainly could be considered a success. Particularly noteworthy, and reflecting wider recognition, was that some of the city’s newspapers and magazines had special features or supplements and these – and some other publications as well – hosted full page ads wishing Madras that is Chennai a very happy birthday. The New Indian Express, in fact, devoted a page every day during the Week to reports of events. All this was another sign of success.

As was another welcome feature, the Coordinators of Madras Week had for some time been wondering whether there was enough spontaneity of what was essentially meant to be a voluntary celebration, or whether many of the events took place only in response to appeals from the Coordinators. This year the happy feature was that several events were organised without the Coordinators even being aware of them. The Yacht Club, College of ­Engineering alumni, the School of Architecture (Anna University), the Government Museum, the Madras Medical College, Women and Children’s Hospital and the Regional Eye Institute, IIT Madras, the Indian Overseas Bank, the Everwin School in Kolathur and the SOS Village in Tambaram were among those who, on their own, organised popular exhibitions, walks and talks. If this spontaneous participation is a sign of things to come, we would think that Madras Week is a period that is getting embedded in the minds of people and will in future generate its own steam.

Walks too were many more in number this year and were, after quizzes, the most popular programmes. If only more volunteers from different parts of the city came forward to be trained on leading walking groups and keeping them interested in history, Madras Week can develop into a month of walks; there is so much of ­Madras that’s unexplored by all those interested in history. We are sure that those already leading walks will be only too glad to train newcomers. There has been some comment that charging a fee was “restricting” participation in some walks. Participation is in no way restricted, but longer walks need vans and with these walks throwing in breakfast, the fee charged just about covers these expenses. That the charge has not proved restrictive could be seen from the fact that more people took part in a couple of these long ‘walks’ than in any ‘free’ walk. The venue needs to be interesting and the storyteller needs to be able to build on that interest for walks to be successful, whether there is a fee or not. One other aspect of the walks this year was the need for police permissions. With many more such walks likely in the future, it would be nice if the police could make permission-granting for heritage walks an across-the-table exercise rather than one that involves due process of red tape. The police officers and men who accompanied some of these walks were among the most interested participants and couldn’t believe how much this city had to offer; we’re sure, they’d gladly support the case for such walks and encourage instant ­permissions.

There has also been some concern expressed by a few that there are too many programmes and that clashes of times have depleted audiences. We would think more the merrier, particularly if they are distributed all over town instead of in a central locality. Programmes in different parts of a large city would enable people in each of these parts to participate in locally arranged events ­instead of having to travel long distances to a core area. For ­instance, the day-long programmes at Hotel Green Park, Vadapalani, had large audiences – mainly comprising residents of the area and its surroundings. The secret of success of programmes outside the centre of the city lies in the organisers encouraging local audience participation, like Namma Arcot Road and Mylapore Times do. In fact, more programmes locally supported are what Madras Day/Week should be generating in the years to come.

This is true in the case of exhibitions too. We’ve heard it said that after the crowd present at the inauguration there were hardly any visitors during the rest of the duration. This is true of almost any of the usual exhibitions, even those in art galleries. The solution in the case of Madras Week exhibitions is what the ­Association of British Scholars did for their exhibition (of maps); they invited a dozen or so schools to look around and, thus, had several score students every day learning from the exhibits. Spending some energy not only on organising events but also on drumming up audiences, would seem to be the way to go; once you get a reputation for putting up interesting events, a crowd will respond to that reputation.

We also heard some that some efforts did not receive any coverage in the Press. With so many events, the media undoubtedly has to pick and choose what it thinks is most newsworthy, given that it can feature only two or three events a day. Constrained by space they are likely to give many an event a miss. But event organisers should ask themselves whether they are organising events for publicity or they want to create more awareness about the rich heritage of Madras amongst the participants in their events. On the other hand, with Madras Week becoming virtually a Madras Month, the Press could do a bit more for events organised outside the core Week, even while being selective.

But at the end of it all, the one incident that remained with us was of four or five men in their late 30s-early 40s, men who hardly looked the heritage-caring type, buttonholing us at the end of the week-long Chennai Heritage-Freemasons’ sight and sound performances and telling us, “What fine performances. Even the Freemasons’ lectures were interesting. We attended all seven shows and now wonder why the hall was not full every day.” It’s unknowns like those in this group who keep our faith alive that ­Madras Week will generate its own crowds in the years to come, that it will grow year by year and create a greater heritage awareness in the city. That such awareness is growing was attested to by the numbers that signed the appeal to the Chief Minister asking for a Heritage Act. Many waited in a queue after each event to sign the appeal instead of rushing off. People do care about their heritage, they made it obvious. We do hope the Chief Minister feels the same way when the appeal reaches her.