Madras Musings

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S.S. Vasan, wife Pattammal and son Balasubramaniyan at the terrace of Gemini House. Picture Courtesy: Musings Archive.

Tales from Gemini Studios

Recently, my American nephew asked if we could visit Gemini Studios, the next time we both find ourselves in the old hometown Madras, present-day Chennai. I tell the American teenager the studio had stopped making movies even by the time I was in my teens....

Amrutanjan and The American Legend

Chennai can be proud of having hosted the FIDE Chess Olympiad of 2022 in style and at such short notice too. Believe it or not the seeds for this event may have been sown fifty years ago, in the United States. In 1972, at the...

Bionote

The poem Bionote, K.Srilata says, was written on a sort of impulse. “It was triggered by a comment I heard from a friend of mine – quite a culture-vulture himself – about another writer based in Bombay. My friend said that this writer was “so Bombay”,...

Castor, Pollux and T.R. Rajakumari

One evening, this January, I ventured up to the mottai-madi, the open 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 loudly. Lone flying foxes were setting out silently for the...

Luz House

The name engraved on yellowing marble called out to me. “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....

The Bird That Changed a Canal’s Course

In 1836, T.C. Jerdon, a 25-year-old surgeon, arrived in the Madras Presidency. After training at the General Hospital, he was sent to treat troops battling insurgency in a district nearly halfway to the Calcutta Presidency. Once the rebellion was quelled, he joined his cavalry regiment...