PRADEEP CHAKRAVARTHY,WHO GREW UP IN HOMES THAT WERE STEEPED IN HISTORY,IS NOW DOING HIS BIT TO PROMOTE THE SUBJECT AMONG CHENNAIITES
As you walk into Pradeep Chakravarthy's 60-year-old bungalow in T Nagar,a sudden empathy for his passion for history hits you.The home is strewn with artefacts that scream history and carry with them a silent patina of tales and memories.The stone steps have just been washed and the morning is just getting started in this home.When Pradeep begins to talk about how he came to take on history as a passion,you come to realise that he really means it when he says he loves history."Its very simple actually,"he begins."My childhood was spent in my grandmothers old house and my school.Both were havens of all things historic.My school was housed in a building that dates back to the 1890s."he says. "People talk about secret passageways and hidden treasures in old castles.I experienced all this live in my grandmothers house.There was an entire floor dedicated to all the junk the family had collected over the years,"he explains.It was tremendous fun exploring these labyrinths. Despite working with a leading city-based software company,he continues to be almost evangelical about his love for history."The way I look at it is that people and problems remain the same.The only thing that changes is the way we live,"is what he believes. "It's addictive,the whole process of trying to give people an image of life so many years ago and more importantly,make that image accurate,"he explains."I want history to be relevant to the present too,in a proactive way.We can definitely take a lesson or two from past civilisations,"he says.Today,heritage has become the niche of a select few."The tradition that was alive until a few decades ago no longer exists,but I'm trying to do my bit to keep it alive,"he says.History is tucked away in unexpected nooks of the city.His heritage walks are testimony to these nooks and topping off his love for this vast and fascinating subject is his book on the Tanjore temple."All I want is for people to be aware of what we have"