Madras (now Chennai)- the city where I used to spend my school holidays when I was a kid; the city where I spent almost 8 years (M.Tech, Ph.D) pursuing my higher education in the esteemed institution IIT-Madras; the city where my grandpa worked and had a house (sadly sold off 20 years ago); the city where my parents got married; the city where many of my uncles, aunts and cousins had lived or still live !
I have pleasant memories of this first city of modern India.
It is always a pleasure to read anything about Madras/Chennai, especially if it has to do with its history and its culture.
The author Bishwanath Ghosh has come up with a delightful narrative about his life in this city.
A must read for Chennaiites!
Book Description [Source: Back Cover of the Book]
‘While in other big cities tradition stays mothballed in trunks, taken out only during festivals and weddings, tradition here is worn round the year.’
This is just one of the author’s many keen observations of Chennai. With mordant wit, this biography of a city spares neither half of its split-personality: from moody, magical Madras to bursting-at-the-seams, tech-savvy Chennai.
And, a minute into the book, the reader knows they are inseparable-and Bishwanath Ghosh refuses to take sides.
And yet, he tells us, while Chennai is usually known as conservative and orthodox, almost every modern institution in India-from the army to the judiciary, from medicine to engineering-traces its roots to Madras’s Fort St George, which was built when Delhi had only just become the capital of the Mughal Empire, and Calcutta and Bombay weren’t even born.
Today, the city once again figures prominently on the global map as ‘India’s Detroit’, a manufacturing giant, and a hub of medical tourism.
There have been sweeping changes since pre-Independent India, but even as Chennai embraces change, its people hold its age-old customs and traditions close to their heart.
‘This is what makes Chennai unique,’ says Ghosh, ‘the marriage of tradition and technology’.
Bishwanath Ghosh wears a reporter’s cap and explores the city he has made his home, delving into its past, roaming its historic sites and neighbourhoods, and meeting a wide variety of people-from a top vocalist to a top sexologist, from a yoga teacher to a hip transsexual, from a yesteryear film star to his own eighty-five-year-old neighbour, from the ghosts of Clive, Wellesley, Hastings and Yale to those of Periyar and MGR, two people who redefined the political skyline of Tamil Nadu.
What emerges is an evocative portrait of this unique city, drawn without reservation-sometimes with humour, sometimes with irony-but always with love.
Goodreads Rating - 3.71 out of 5 ( 120 Ratings; 35 Reviews)
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