Timeless traditions of Chennai and some new ones

My childhood memories of Chennai are very beautiful (except for the hammering we received from some of our older cousins). I grew up influenced by some great Tamilian stalwarts like Dr.Radhakrishnan, once President of India and a erudite, versatile man of letters, principles and a true visionary. R.K.Narayan was splendid in some of his novels which brought out the beauty and timeless traditions of Chennai. Some of the world's greatest physicists and mathematicians were tamilians (CV Raman) and had contributed immensely to their field.

I loved the malli pu or jasmine flower the fragrance of which wafted through the hot breezes that blew throughout the day as literally every street corner had a malli pu vendor stringing together the little white flowers meticulously.
Also babies and young women smelled heavily of turmeric pastes and sandalwood too!. In those days kids and young girls wore the pattu pavdai - long silk skirts from the famous city of Kancheepuram and I remember as a ten year old - spinning myself like a top till the skirt billowed out and then sitting down abruptly with the skirt fanned all around me like a balloon. I also remember playing with very cute wooden toys, an entire kitchen and utensils made from beautiful teak wood in myriad colors and all kept inside a bamboo box. They looked and smelled beautiful. Chennai's auto too - little two seater vehicles with a hood thrown above also it seemed to have come from the pages of a fairytale- they had little seats opposite the adult ones where little kids squished and sat and yelled in delight as they swayed from side to side.Summer vacation was usually spent with my father giving us arithmetic ( we called sums) to do for us and all the cousins. He used to love solving them himself and quickly thumbing through to the last pages for the correct answer!! The food items too that my grandma created fired the imagination- besides the rugby shaped idlis and the crisp flat dosas there was the uttahapam - white soft pancakes with a huge mound in the centre creating a trough that ran in between it and the curled up edges - into this trough that ran all around went sweet fragrant coconut water and it was truly divine.But now Chennai seems to have metamorphosed in the reverse - it seems to me it has gone from being a beautiful butterfly a spiny scary caterpillar - kids disco dance and gobble macdonalds burgers as if it were the food of the ancestors and say everyting is 'cool' when temps are blistering over 120F outside -- well it is a small world and getting smaller LoveJJ