[Thanks – The Madras Day]
It’s ironical that ‘Chennai’ is celebrating Madras Day today. More ironically it completes a year of years. Don’t worry to calculate it is the 365th year[ending] since it was founded in 1639.
It was on that day, in that year, that a sliver of land, where the Fort. St. George and the secretariat now exist in Madras – now called Chennai, was sold to the East India Company.
The deal was struck by Francis Day, his ‘dubash’ Beri Thimmappa, and their superior, Andrew Cogan, with the local Nayaks.
It is believed that this deal was made on this day and these three men are considered to be the founders of this city.
The city has been witness to many firsts in India and been home to great men, institutions and developments. And such a day should focus on the city, its history, its past and its present.
I can never say I’m frantically attached to Chennai/Madras. It’s much more to that. Like others who love Madras, I’ve just love my home town. It’s the most lovable place in the world. I’ve been badly missing Chennai for sometime now and it was only last week, I was intending to ramble here on that. I was planning to list down the things that I miss in Madras. One of the prominent things is the cofee, the crowd and ofcourse the Marghazhi Kutcheri. Even today, while driving back, I was listening to Sanjay Subramaniam and felt so nostalgic. And as the festival season fast approaches the crowd on T.Nagar, the diwali shopping and above all that the friends and folks out there. Anyway let this not end as a crib.
The 365th Madras Day celebrations began last year. A meeting was also held at Amethyst where I rightfully missed to meet Rushdie and ofcourse Padma. More to that Ramnath did say that I missed a lovely lecture by S. Muthiah on Madras aka Chennai. I still repent for that when I read a Rushdie‘s book.
Whoever says, I love Madras, raise your hands !! Here’s mine.
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