Soon it will be Christmas and memories of old Madras during X’mas come flooding. What stands out in my memory is the countdown display put up at lovely old Spencer’s. 25 days to X’mas, 24 days to X’mas ... the display would read as the time shortened. It wasn’t as if you couldn’t do the math yourself, but somehow this display captured your imagination and made you look out for it. Once past the beautiful driveway leading to Spencer’s, you alighted at the portico leaving behind the then busy Mount Road traffic and walked past the pharmacy (where Polio drops would be administered) and cafe and entered a different world altogether. The store would wear a very Christmassy look and was well stocked with plum cakes, chocolates, streamers, gifts and baubles that anyone celebrating Christmas would need.

Not far from Spencer’s, VTI used to be a one-stop shop for all kinds of handicrafts long before the Government emporia took its place – though I remember ‘Handicrafts’ in the Shanti Theatre vicinity with a woman store manager Raji. At VTI, too, Christmas used to be very much in the air during the Season. Smocked frocks, pretty socks which were ordered for school use (they would be nice and airy and looked as if they were crocheted) charity boxes, special X’mas cards and crafts from all over India were things that caught your eye.

Moore Market was the other place where you felt the X’mas spirit. Thanks to Universal Book House, Moore Market used to be a regular stop for me, going with doctors in the family who would shop for medical textbooks. You could walk through its corridors and shop for books, old and new, clothing for adults and infants, footwear, bags, birds to keep as pets, tools and just about anything .What a landmark we have lost!

As for X’mas and New Year cards, the joy of receiving handwritten greeting cards from loved ones and sending them likewise was unrivalled. Lists of friends were drawn up and hardly anyone was taken off the list unless, of course, he had passed away. There were Higginbotham’s, CLS (Christian Literature Society) and ELS (Evangelical Literature Service) where you could buy cards much before Side Effects in Eldorado, Landmark and the Archies’ stores set up shop. Even pavements opposite the High Court and Purasawalkam sold cards that were easy on the pocket. Some cards here were even recycled only with the message on the inside replaced.

To reach overseas friends and family in time, people would go to the main post offices to weigh and have stamped their gifts and cards. With almost a dozen pen pals, this was a fun thing to do – choosing light weight but typically Indian gifts that could be easily mailed in those days before the private couriers.

As for bakeries, Mount Road had McRenett’s, Bosotto’s and Universal Bakery, Purasawalkam, home to many Anglo-Indians, had many others. (I don’t remember having seen the Bangalore Iyengar Bakery back then.) Whitefield in Purasawalkam was from where our bread was home-delivered by a cyclist with a tin box on the carrier and what a scramble there would be for that crisp, square crust decorating the top. Back then, bread was part of a hospital diet and something that people usually ate when they were sick. Sliced bread hadn’t become so commonplace and some of us had bread slicing machines at home to do the job. Purasawalkam was also full of footwear shops, like Bellino, and shops selling readymade garments for a complete Christmas shopping experience.

Those of us who went to convent schools learnt a lot of Christmas carols (at Church Park Convent from no less a maestro than Handel Manuel). ‘O come all ye faithful’, ‘Little Jesus sweetly sleep’, ‘Silent night’, ‘Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat’, ‘Jingle Bells’, the list is long. There would be a clamour to hold and turn the page for Mr. Manuel who could sight read. His fingers would fly over the piano and he would almost conduct an orchestra as he signalled with a wave of the hand or a nod of the head making the class a lively experience. Younger students often visited the crib that was set up in the Assembly Hall and remained completely charmed by it.

Clubs like the Madras Gymkhana Club had a Children’s Xmas Party (they still do), fancy dress contests, the Boxing Day Dance, Carols Night (for which event there was and is a strict dress code and members didn’t complain!) and the New Year’s Eve party which were all looked forward to. Gifts would be bought, wrapped, labelled and sent to the Club office in advance – to be distributed by Santa Claus who arrived minus his reindeer and sleigh but in modern transport. A merry-go-round, Punch and Judy, besides games like coconut shy and ring throwing upped the fun quotient.

There weren’t too many hotels advertising bashes for New Year’s Eve, so the ones at the clubs were looked forward to. Tamil New Year was in April (sic), so Hindu temples weren’t as busy as they are now on January 1st.

Elsewhere, organisations like the Madras Musical Association would sing carols in the run-up to Christmas. Small groups of local residents would go around singing in different localities and collect money. Christmas was also the time for charity and to remember organisations like the Friend-in-Need Society. Churches like the St. George’s Cathedral, St Mary’s Church and other churches of a certain vintage twinkled as they were lit up colourfully and had well-attended services.

Today, as elsewhere in the world, X’mas has become somewhat commercial, and Madras has become overcrowded, more pan-Indian (we are not all Madrasi, we are all padosi), but somehow the spirit of the festival and memories of Christmas in a Madras of times past still remain fresh.

Christ on the Cross – as Nature sees it

Not from Madras... but a contribution for the Christmas Season from K.V.S. Krishna’s photo album is the picture above. He narrates:

This bit from a Liana woody creeper, moulded by nature, resembles Jesus Christ on the Cross. The forest undergrowth at Pakenam divison at Carady Goody Estate, Vandiperiyar, Kerala, where I worked was being cleared to plant Cardamom around 1973 when this rather tall and intricately entwined creeper with two feet long beans was spotted by me and stirred my imagination with its natural grace and structure. I felt called to work with it to produce the symbol that has captured the hearts of people for centuries, a symbol of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice to redeem mankind. Motivated and energised by what I saw, I got down to debarking and polishing the creeper with transparent varnish dipped in turmeric. This was a quick process for nature had done all the hard work, and all that was required of me was to bring forth its majestic beauty.

I gifted the creeper to the Carady Goody Tea Estate Church in 1975. The cross was dedicated to A.V.T. Thomas, founder of AVT Company, and his son J. Thomas. Tea prunings also can offer pieces of art that call us to respond to nature’s creativity. I had done more than a hundred of them.

K.V.S. Krishna
kvskrishna@gmail.com