Although its fine to have a celebration for Chennai, I feel its ridiculous to celebrate the 368th birthday of a city that even has around it (if not anything else, as a proud reminder) the great sculptures of Mamalapuram. We are guilty of limiting our history to what has been made of us by the foreign rulers. It is twice the sin 1) letting ourselves be ruled by others for this long a time 2) celebrating this.
Its also an irony that the Old Mahabalipuram road is now touted as an important road signifying the economic growth of Chennai. This could have been the very place where the glorious kings planned their various expeditions and strategies.
we have older places in chennai than mahabalipuram.
what we are celebrating is the concept of developing one city from a host of small villages. madras is an immigrant city with 99 percent having roots from else where. madras is not a city alone. its a conglomeration of cultures from tamilnadu and even andhra. inspite of the cauldron of cultural mix, it has developed its own inherent culture too. thats what we are celebrating
when you look into history races do conquer each other and mix. if the british had not come chennai would not have been ruled by cholas or pandyas but by a muslim nawab nominated by a mughal emperor. madras 300 years back was a muslim run town, then came portugese, then british. (the nawab of arcot trace their lineage to the caliphs and thro them to the prophet.) so the point of foreign run doesnt rise. venketesh
We do have older places, only we do not celeberate their greatness let alone even know their significance. While celebrating the formation of Chennai is just fine, we could do well to also focus on a lot of other places as well.
i do appreciate your sentiments. but madras day celebration include all of them. v.sriram cobducts musical heritage walks to the houses of eminent carnatic peoples residences (of 100 years back). meticulous research was done to find them because most are now flats and commercial complexes. the celebration has very little to do with european culture- and a lot more with our inherent ones. venketesh
and about showing the value of the pre british buildings. a lightning struck kapali temple in chennai day before yesterday. dumbstruck thousands worry on their faces queued to see it. should be seen to bbleived. venketesh
. a > lightning struck kapali temple in chennai day before yesterday. > dumbstruck thousands worry on their faces queued to see it. > should be seen to bbleived. > venketesh > heard of this ...thought most temples has lighting arrestors/conductors. even then they have stood for so many years even without them - amazing how it could happen now...heard some statues on the vimana were damaged as well...