One evening, this January, I ventured up to the mottai-madi, the terrace, to welcome the onset of darkness. The sun was still an orange-red ball. Flocks of rose-ringed parakeets, whizzed towards their nightly roosts, squawking…
The same old grind, day and night. I couldn't take it any more. This time, I said to myself, I'll go to Pandharpur. Oh, I was serious, I didn't want to be left behind. But I…
“Luz House,” the very name had gravitas, a certain ring to it. My errand was in Baliah Avenue, only a few steps away from this landmark address in Mylapore. I had little time to linger. Still, the old-Madras style house sign – understated and elegant – made an impression on me. Was it an old house of commerce? Was it connected to the Luz Church nearby, or was it simply someone’s residence? The answer, I discovered, lay buried in layers of colonial history – and also held the key to the origins of cricket craziness in the city.
The Chess Olympiad of 2022 has just ended. We, in Chennai, can be proud of having hosted an international event in style. But believe it or not the seeds for this event may have…
For the longest time, I thought hedgehogs were simply critters from British children's books. But three different species of hedgehogs -- living, breathing mammals -- inhabit the Indian subcontinent alone. Of these, we know…
In 1914, a young college dropout from Chennai, who had reinvented much of modern mathematics, was discovered and invited to the University of Cambridge to lead the life of a scholar. Srinivasa Ramanujan worked with…