JOIN USThe vibrant metropolis of Madras has just celebrated its 378th birthday.Publication of an anthology depicting the quintessential city in its myriad hues on the occasion is a fitting tribute. Madras on My Mind: A City in Stories is a laudable job executed with finesse by the editors. The contributors hail from diverse cultural backgrounds in different age groups; some are born in Madras, while others have made Madras their home and have lived up to the expectations. The writers form a motley crowd of veterans and first-timers. The stories cover about seven decades of Madras life. The common strand is ‘love for the resilient city’ that used to embrace every newcomer.
It is the multifaceted identity of Madras that comes alive through the volume. Some have had fairy-tale romance with Madras. The tinge of wistfulness for a bygone era that has crept into the anthology is unmistakable. There was a time when Madras used to be a melting pot of different cultures and the nerve centre of south Indian films. Later there were conscious efforts to transform the city from its cultural moorings.
For the writers, the city is still Madras, not Chennai. The stories go beyond the stereotypes. “This is not the Madras of mallipoo, filter coffee and classical music,” as the editors claim.
Experiences recollected are as varied as the authors. The husband-wife team of Chitra Viraraghavan and Shastri, who have co-edited the book, wanted all the contributions quintessentially Madras. The famous landmarks like Madras Central, Moore Market, Marina Beach, Mount Road, Spencer’s, Higginbothams as well as Gemini Flyover are all-pervasive.
The searing heat of Madras and the air that tastes salty are mentioned too. The characters are easily relatable to the city. There are those who are dazzled by the big city on their first visit. There are youngsters who find the city a gateway to freedom, an “enchanted fairy land fortunate to inhabit.” But they are unable to break free. There are others who have landed in the city chasing their dreams and come to grief.
Shastri’s experience of Madras is intertwined with the filmy world. His short story The Rice and Fall of Royal Ramana Rao is about a Nellore rice merchant who wanted to make it big in Kodambakkam. As the script went awry, he had to return in disgrace. Ramana Rao reaches Madras to join “arc-lit company of B N Reddi, L V Prasad and D Ramanaidu — visionary Telugus all, who had abandoned their ploughs for production schedules to blaze glamour-filled trails in the celluloid world.”
The opening story, Flowers on the Madras Train by Bujjai, is about a little boy from Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh who is mesmerised (in the 1930s) by “special trains, those amazing ones that could ply on roads, alongside cars and buses.”
Ram Narain’s Curd-rice Cricket is nostalgic about the heyday of Madras cricket and the knowledgeable cricket lovers. However, he misses the flavour of curd-rice cricket and the flair of the amateur cricketer of his time.
Harry MacLure’s Passing Show recounts through the eyes of a teenager the Anglo-Indian community’s struggle to preserve their distinct identity even as most youngsters choose to migrate. Their favourite haunts like second-hand book shops in Moore Market are before you. The House of Powders by Sanobar Sultana is on a complex relationship. My Mother’s Madras by Vamsee Juluri speaks of a Telugu film star’s son growing up in Madras and yearning to return to the city time and again.
Still Life at Marana Vilas by K Raja is about an art student’s ordeal to survive in the city, braving poverty. “Poverty was part of my life then. Many times, I filled my stomach with the aroma that drifted out of hotels.” Mind Your Tongue depicts Mittu Mama with a “shameless tongue that was forever craving food.” Though in the grip of poverty, he never lost his zest for life.
An IIT student’s adventure with marijuana that almost burnt his hostel bed is the theme of Aniruddha Sen Gupta’s Objects of Desire. The final piece, Water and After by P Balasubramanian, is a moving account of a person frantically searching for a marooned family during the deluge of 2015.
The story conveys the message that natural disaster is a great leveller... “There I was, a steaming plate of food in my hands, standing in knee-deep water, hungry...I ate. The sambar rice was surprisingly tasty.”
An evocative cover adds to the charm of the collection that will be enjoyable for both people from Madras and others alike.
Madras on my mind
Edited by Chitra Viraraghavan & Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
Harper Collins
2017, pp 206, Rs 350