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After Zoho CEO’s thinnai tweet, social media users in city walk down memory lane

- ROCHANA MOHAN

CHENNAI: The humble thinnai or the raised front porch of traditiona­l homes in Tamil Nadu became the toast of social media on Sunday after Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu tweeted a picture of a traditiona­l south Indian home with a thinnai saying, “My favourite spot. The thinnai is built for a passer-by to enjoy. One of my goals is to restore this architectu­re.”

Soon, many took to Twitter to share about their thinnai experience­s. “Thankfully we still have the thinnai at my parents’ and I make it a point to sit for 10 minutes there. I still recall the night before packing off to Madras, staring at the sky from the thinnai knowing life wouldn’t be the same. We rarely get outdoor living in the city,” said Ashwin Ramaswamy, replying to the tweet. A transition­al space between the home and the outside, the thinnai is a multi-purpose area used across communitie­s. According to historian Thirupuras­undari Sevvel, who has conducted Thinnai Trails for seven years, the space was open to all. Based on the space constraint­s and proportion­s, thinnais can come in various sizes, and need not always be at the front of the house.

“Now, hardly anyone uses the thinnai . In cities, there definitely is a space constraint. But aside from that, people have become more private. The thinnai was both a public and private space. Now with gates and apartments, people prefer more seclusion,” said Sevvel.

However, in the lockdown, many people have found the space convenient to keep deliveries and a space for visitors to relax without entry into the house, she said.

With most people preferring apartments and individual homes coming up with compound walls and vehicle parking space, spotting a thinnai , in the new Chennai these days, is as rare as spotting a sparrow in the city.

 ??  ?? File pic of thinnai
File pic of thinnai

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