CHENNAI: When S Muthaiah speaks about Madras, the city listens and it did on Tuesday too. The historian, along with photojournalist D Krishnan, spoke on the topic ‘Madras — its past and its present’ at the Stella Maris College for Women as part of the Madras Week celebrations. He also dwelt upon, in detail, aspects of his book titled Madras — Its Past and Its Present.“Madras did not exist before the British came to India. In the year 1639, 372 miles of what I call no man’s land was granted by Venkatadri Naik to the East India Company to set up their training settlement. That place has developed into what we now know as Madras. Then, there were only small fishing villages,” he began, before explaining how this practice of celebrating the Madras Day came into existence.“Almost eight years ago, two colleagues of mine — Sashi Nair and Vincent D’Souza — told me that ‘You write so much on Madras and its history, you need to create a greater awareness on the need to preserve the heritage of the city.’ That was when we decided to celebrate the Madras Day on August 22, the day the actual document was signed marking the birth of this city,” he explained. In the first year, there was just a four-hour meeting, which went on for many more hours. “Due to the interest we saw that year, we decided to increase it by a couple of days.” The following few years, the celebrations went on for a week, thereby bringing in the Madras Week. “In the last few years we have had even Madras Month being observed. But what is of concern is that these celebrations are not happening voluntarily,” he rued.Krishnan kept the audience spellbound with interesting details of how pictures were shot on glass plates in the 17th century.
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