Regular Articles

• Vol. XXXIII No. 13, October 16-31, 2023

City needs more reservoirs – macro and micro

-- by Sriram V.

The monsoon is just around the corner, and it will hopefully be bountiful. The water situation presently is comfortable with Metro Water officials saying that the city has enough of this precious commodity to tide over one more year, irrespective of how the monsoon fares. The Chembarambakkam reservoir, one of the largest sources of water […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 13, October 16-31, 2023

Chennai to get 13 new pedestrian plazas

-- by A Special Correspondent

Touting the success of the T. Nagar Pedestrian Plaza, the Greater Chennai Corporation announced earlier in August that it will build 13 pedestrian plazas as part of the Chennai Mega Streets project and with funding from the World Bank. According to a Times of India report, the project will develop 50 kms of pavement into […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 13, October 16-31, 2023

Heritage Watch: Vanishing Heritage

A few months ago I posted a small story on my Facebook wall on an old heritage building on South Mada Street Mylapore, where Dr. Parvathi Padmanabhan used to have her clinic. The owner of the property tried to rent it out but to no avail. After a wait of a few months it was […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 13, October 16-31, 2023

Our Readers Write

A misattribution A letter titled TMP and Dr. A.L. Mudaliar published in Vol. XXXIII, No 11, September 16, 2023, was misattributed to Mr. K. Balakesari, when it was written by Mr S.S. Rajagopalan. We regret the error. Associate Editor Jayendra Panchapakesan – A socially conscious filmmaker (Vol. XXXIII No. 12, October 1-15, 2023) Superb. All […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 13, October 16-31, 2023

Short ‘N’ Snappy

– (Wo)MMM

T-shirt shenanigans The Woman from Madras Musings thinks she is not alone in surmising that parents always – almost always, anyway – tend to side with the hapless bride or groom that has married their dubious son or daughter. (Wo)MMM is told the allegiance stems from a sense of deep gratitude, which she supposes is […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 12, October 1-15, 2023

Can heritage be commemorated with plaques instead of renaming roads?

-- by The Dy. Editor

Every once in a while, our city’s Corporation Council passes resolutions renaming some road or the other. While some of these are fuelled by mere whims and no logical basis, there are some renaming exercises that are undertaken with a serious view to commemorate a prominent citizen who lived in the vicinity. These are much-deserved […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 12, October 1-15, 2023

Festival Fallout: Environmental pollution from public festivities a growing concern

-- by A Special Correspondent

According to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), this year Chennai saw over 1,300 pillaiyar idols immersed in spots around Kasimedu, Thiruvottiyur, Pattinappakam and Palavakkam, marking the end of Pillaiyar Chathurthi. The next day, the city woke up to around 50 idols and a slew of debris that had washed ashore due to low tide. The […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 12, October 1-15, 2023

Our Readers Write

The SMC poem I read the reproduced poem and supplementary cartoons extracted from the Stella Maris College Annual of 1950 thanks to the efforts of Karthik. I enjoyed the reproduction. However, I wished that either Karthik or you had clarified that this artwork by Kasthuri Bai was done from the SMC then located in Santhome […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 12, October 1-15, 2023

Short ‘N’ Snappy

– MMM

Mails from Far and Near It has been quite a while since The Man from Madras Musings penned this column. Madras Week intervened and that took up space in the paper. And MMM is happy to be back, with more news. But first, let us see what the mail bag has brought. Readership in China, […]

• Vol. XXXIII No. 11, September 16-30, 2023

Can the railways please highlight heritage while modernising?

-- by The Dy. Editor

Just as we at Madras Musings were rejoicing over the positive developments at Bharath Insurance Building (see Heritage Watch), there comes a blow by way of development plans at the Central Station as announced by the Indian Railways. While it must be acknowledged that the place needs to improve on all fronts by way of […]