Madras Day: A City That Celebrates in Every Direction

   

August 22 is Madras Day.

And how do you celebrate a city like Madras? Definitely not in one particular way.

Madras cannot be fitted into one celebration, one event, one neighbourhood, one community or even one definition.  Right?

Today, celebrations are happening everywhere—perhaps in large gatherings, perhaps in quiet conversations, perhaps through food, music, photographs, stories, walks and memories. Every direction, every corner, every centre has its own way of celebrating Madras. And that is what makes the celebration so beautiful.

Madras belongs to its natives, certainly. But it also belongs to those who came here from elsewhere and made it their home. Migrants, students, workers, professionals, artists, entrepreneurs, families, visitors and newcomers—everyone seems to find a little space for themselves here. You can divide people into many categories. But when it comes to Madras, there is one category that matters:

People who have found a connection with the city.

Some were born here, arrived here with a suitcase and a dream, came for education, looking for a job, because someone they loved was here, came temporarily and stayed for decades. And some left the city but never really left Madras behind.

Madras in the five elements

If the five elements could speak, I am sure they would all have a Madras story.

Land would speak of its streets, old neighbourhoods, temples, markets, institutions and homes that have watched the city change.

Water would speak of the Bay of Bengal, the Cooum and Adyar, the Marina, the rains and the countless stories connected to water.

Fire would speak through the kitchens—through the flame beneath the coffee filter, the dosa tawa, the sambar pot and the many foods that carry the unmistakable Madras identity.

Air would carry music, temple bells, traffic sounds, conversations, beach breezes and the unmistakable sounds of a city constantly in motion.

And sky would remain the great witness—watching Madras rise, change, expand, struggle, celebrate and begin again every morning.

Together, these elements seem to say:

This is Madras. This is Chennai.

There is a "Madras" in everything

Perhaps that is why the word Madras has become a label of affection. With Madras as prefix, these all flourished – coffee, filter coffee, jasmine, mallipoo, dosa, sambar, music, cinema, textiles, checks, tiles. cuisine. style. And the list keeps growing. The word does not merely identify a place. It carries a certain character. A taste, A texture. A sound. A smell. A memory and A way of life.

You can walk into a traditional kitchen and find Madras. Walk into a music sabha and find Madras. Sit by the beach and find Madras. Enter a cinema hall, visit a flower market, watch a dosa being made, listen to a mridangam, buy a saree, sip coffee or simply stand at a busy street corner—and there it is again.

Madras, in another form.

A city that gives shelter

For me, perhaps the most beautiful thing about Madras is not any particular landmark.

It is the way the city has been a place of shelter, opportunity and joy. It has given people a place to study, work, build families, practise their art, pursue their ambitions and simply live. It has room for tradition and modernity. For the old and the new. For the familiar and the unfamiliar. For the person who has lived here for generations and the person who arrived yesterday. And perhaps Madras Day reminds us that a city is not made only by its buildings.

A city is made by its people, its memories, its food, its language, its art, its streets, its celebrations and the countless ordinary moments that happen every day.

So today, let Madras celebrate in its own many ways.

Let the artists paint it.

Let the musicians sing it.

Let the writers write about it.

Let the photographers capture it.

Let the cooks serve it.

Let the children discover it.

Let the old residents remember it.

Let the newcomers make their own memories of it.

And let every corner celebrate the city in its own language.

Because Madras was never meant to be celebrated in just one style.

It is too diverse for that.

Too colourful.

Too layered.

Too full of stories.

From coffee to flowers, from dosa to sambar, from textiles to tiles, from music to cinema, from the sea to its streets—Madras is made of all the things it holds within itself.

And perhaps that is the best way to celebrate Madras Day:

Not by asking what Madras is, but by asking what Madras means to each of us.

Happy Madras Day! 

Vanakkam, Madras.
Vanakkam, Chennai.
You may have changed your name, grown bigger and moved faster—but you still have a thousand ways of making people call you home.