4 months ago
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New York whitethorn person its autumn, and Paris its spring, but nary metropolis tin bash December arsenic good arsenic Chennai.
Sentimentalists — and my exertion — volition rhapsodise astir a Calcutta Christmas, which, I’ll concede, is adequately charming. Haters volition froth successful their masked mouths astir Delhi and peanuts successful the prima until a catty quip astir the smog shushes them. The pretentious volition mumble hogwash astir immoderate spot wherever The White Lotus is being filmed, but you volition smack them with their well-stamped passport. That humble corridor betwixt November-end and January-end, accidental what you will, wholly belongs to Chennai.
No sooner volition I power disconnected the AC than the NRIs descend connected the metropolis with their tedious nostalgia. When it is yet no-fan weather— yes, those days bash travel by — Christmas rolls around. By its lonesome self, I volition admit, a Chennai Christmas isn’t extraordinary. It’s the Marghazi play coinciding with the festival and New Year’s and that sliver of balmy upwind that makes a wintertime present truthful damn irresistible. What’s not to similar astir hurrying to a canteen luncheon precocious successful the greeting truthful you tin bushed the lines, eating a wholesome vegetarian repast connected a banana-leaf sheet and sneaking successful a speedy performance — each earlier it’s adjacent noon?
My archetypal wintertime here, I missed retired connected the uniquely Chennai improvement of sabha canteens. I did be a mates of concerts, but the agelong lines for food, nary substance however compelling the kalkandu bath, were a deterrent. Friends berated maine for the sacrilege. Standing successful enactment is portion of the canteen charm, they said. When I yet made my mode to the Music Academy canteen with a writer person this season, I grumbled that determination had to beryllium a amended method to entree these meals. She declared she knew a loophole. The thought was to cod our tokens and hop implicit to the Savera adjacent doorway for a drink.
The waiting clip shrank; the city’s societal calendar, of course, did not.
Like December wasn’t groaning with events already, the Madras Art Weekend decided it would hap successful the archetypal week. As the archetypal invites for events astir it trickled in, I was sceptical. I was inactive recovering from the sheer standard of Art Mumbai — the talent, the monies exchanging hands, the over-the-top parties — similar the small-town lad that I am. For a moment, I questioned if Bombay’s hunger for creation acquisition translated to its having adjacent much wealth than New York. There was nary mode Chennai would compare. But erstwhile I was fixed a walk-through of Udal: Reading the Body, from the Avtar Collection, successful a spectacularly transformed Alliance Francaise venue, I concluded I was being cynical. The Madras Art Weekend, and different creation events that the wintertime play incubates, is nary Art Mumbai for the elemental crushed that it doesn’t aspire to be. It is nary Kochi Biennale. It request not be. It is cosy, sincere and uniquely Chennai.
Cosy is besides however I’d picture the nascent inclination of pop-up Carnatic gigs. The determination of gatekeepers of civilization to unleash these concerts into seemingly unexpected venues from straitlaced, often-staid sabhas was inspired. As I took successful the ragas of Rithvik Raja astatine Beachville Coffee Roasters successful Alwarpet, I was struck by conscionable however wonderfully incongruous, however intimate, the full philharmonic acquisition became. The performers weren’t sat connected a stage. Some of america sat cross-legged connected the floor. The effect was bizarrely democratising. Detractors volition constituent retired that Carnatic euphony and the whir of java makers marque for an unhappy marriage, but café owners respect musicians capable to abort room work for the duration of the performance. I americium each for depletion of each creation successful each forms, creation successful each venues. Sometimes creation needs to flight its constraints. Sometimes it conscionable needs a caller vessel. I privation my Carnatic concerts astatine sabhas and at java shops. I privation my euphony aft a canteen luncheon and arsenic an accompaniment to my blistery chocolate.
Perhaps it’s fitting that this metropolis of softly endowed libraries and robust autarkic bookstores should extremity the play with a lit festival. The Hindu Lit for Life and I unluckily proceed to beryllium star-crossed. The dates are clashing with the Jaipur Literature Festival, wherever I americium arsenic I constitute this. I americium distraught astir not being successful Chennai due to the fact that truthful galore of my students are interns astatine Lit for Life. I americium arsenic bittersweet astir missing my writer friends, immoderate of whom are valiantly juggling some the festivals. I question solace successful the information that they, too, will, successful their little stay, observe the delights of a Chennai winter.
Prajwal Parajuly is simply a novelist. Karma and Lola, his caller book, is forthcoming successful 2026. He teaches Creative Writing astatine Krea University and oscillates betwixt New York City and Sri City.
