It was yet another day after the first national lockdown in 2021 that Carnatic musician R Suryaprakash happened to hear the call of a ‘kuyil’ (cuckoo) from the park near his home in Semmancheri in Chennai. The repeated call of the bird, however, brought memories of ‘Kuyil Pattu’, a poem written...
World Environment Day is a good time to take stock of how infrastructure in Chennai has developed historically and what its impact on ecology has been. This will help to plan for developing infrastructure in Chennai in future. Chennai, which lies along the coast of Bay of Bengal, is prone to...
At 73 years of age, Sundar Rajan symbolizes the renaissance that cycling in the south has had. For this retired engineer's legs, age is certainly only a number. A month ago, he rode 600 km from Chennai to Trichy and back on his bicycle. On World Cycling Day, inmathi salutes this veteran who has...
Arjun and Rishi are two young digital creators from structurally excluded communities living in the stigmatised regions of north Chennai. Even though both owned a smartphone each, their devices had only basic features. The duo knew their limitations, but they wanted to question the caste...
Realizing the value of thousand year Tamil Jain idols lying abandoned on a paddy land, a Ramanathapuram village came together to protect them. Sculptures of Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, and Mahavira, the last and 24th Tirthankara, of Jainism were lying abandoned on a paddy land in Mel...
Every day, the Blue Cross of India in Chennai receives calls from pet parents who want to ‘donate’ their dogs or cats to the institution, which rescues and rehabilitates orphaned, abandoned and disabled stray animals. When the volunteers deny their request, they get offended. In the dead of the...
Just like other writers, Sa Kandasamy left behind a vast collection of books when he died. What will happen to the books of a writer’s personal collection after his death? In most cases, they will end up in stalls that sell second-hand books, if not immediately. The heirs of the writers may not...
Was there any cultural link between Jammu & Kashmir, the northernmost state of India and Tamil Nadu, the southernmost? Yes, according to young research scholar Prathik Murali. "Kashmir was a centre for the study of philosophy having close connections with two of the greatest Indian...
Sallekhana: For the unaware, fasting to death may seem painful but it is one of the sacred tenets of Jainism. A tall, lean man with a visible rib cage lies on the bed with his left leg slightly folded towards his right leg. The elderly man is surrounded by Jain nuns who offer prayers, holding...
Native rice varieties of Tamil Nadu seems to be everywhere yet actually only somewhere. Rice has been closely associated with the cultural life of people since the Sangam era. Tamil Nadu had a great collection of native landraces (varieties) of rice, but they all lost their importance with the...
