For a few hours in a day, usually towards end January or early February, an entire street in the quiet neighbourhood in Kotturpuram transforms into a carnival – with bright lights, music, food, and games, filled with the chatter of friends and neighbours, and ever-present shoppers buzzing from stall to stall.
The Nawab Garden Residents Welfare Association (NGRWA), a registered and audited organisation, was established 12 years ago, with the aim of getting the residents of Kotturpuram together to address local concerns, and to promote a sense of neighbourhood and community. A primary purpose was to make our neighbourhood a safe, clean and self-sustained place to live in, as we continue our journey to make the locality a zero-waste zone.
Community meetings were held from the very first year, mainly to spread awareness about concepts like composting, wet waste and waste segregation. Talks on sustainability were held, where speakers like the ‘Grand Old Lady of Besant Nagar’, Kamakshi Subramanian (popularly known as ‘Kamakshi Paati’) talked about civic issues.
In the process, we realised that we need to bring in an element of fun to get residents to participate.
And thus, the annual carnival came into being. This event involves all the residents in the seven roads that make up this locality, with a total of around 350 homes, including apartments. The participants range in age from babies in strollers to super senior citizens, not forgetting the various pet dogs who often accompany their owner-parents, clearly curious about these strange goings-on among their human families.
The carnival, offering music, games for children, and of course, the various food and artifact stalls, draws everyone out into the chosen street, which is cordoned off, making it free of traffic and safe. Friends and neighbours stroll about, children run free, and the neighbourhood springs to life, while the trees and walls on that chosen street are draped with lights.
What began as a means for residents to get to know each other has evolved over the years, growing in size and in the number of events, presenting a platform for the considerable local talent we have.
From a few games, a little music and some home-cooked cakes and cookies, we now have a stage in the middle of the street, with our seniors and children entertaining the community with music; while other residents, many of them youngsters, showcase their talent in baking and in making wonderful home décor accessories, including pottery. Our neighbourhood restaurants generously offer their support, selling their specialities, and residents are only too happy to sample everything. We have a number of committed NGOs in our locality, and it has been a regular practice with us to ensure they have stalls which showcase the impressive work done by them. We also hold kolam competitions and other sports events for the staff in every home and encourage them to participate in the event.
This year was particularly special – we had none other than Chennai’s historian V Sriram give us a fascinating talk about the history of Kotturpuram, presenting nuggets of information which even long-term residents had been unaware of. The evening was also made special by singer Karthik Kumar, a differently abled young man, who gave us a melodious rendering of vintage Hindi and Tamil songs.
Our neighbourhood children’s choir displayed their musical talent as well.
The carnival has now become a gala event and promises to grow bigger and merrier year after year, fostering a much-needed sense of community and belonging.
— by Subhashini Raja & Chandra Prabhakar