THE CHENNAI CHROMOSOME
A journey through the city’s changing fortunes
Madras/Chennai sneaks up on you when least expected. A city long ignored on the tourist routes suddenly materialises in The New York Times’ top destinations at number 26. Who would have imagined that? Two citizens, Nanditha Krishna and Tishani Doshi, along with publisher Pramod Kapoor, did foresee the city’s rise to such heights, and with perfect timing published their weighty coffee-table book, Madras Then/Chennai Now. Admittedly, it’s not the first book on this city. The immaculate historian, S. Muthiah, has published many on his city, including the pictorial Madras Past and Present.
To emphasise the past from the present, the book has two covers, depending on which period the reader wants to explore first. It’s a bit of a wrestle as you turn it over to start again from the back. Or the front. Whichever, it is a beautifully produced book, with both photographs and paintings.
The Then is quite magical, richer too in the wide choice that goes back to the days of the sailing ships anchored off Fort Saint George. There’s a painting by Jan Van Ryne from 1754, an imaginative rendition of the fort, considering the artist also included Saint Thomas Mount, impossible to see from shore. What makes it different from other books on the city is the scope of the artwork. Nanditha Krishna has drawn on the archives of the British Library, The Royal Geographic Society, Getty Images and many a private collector. She has researched and written detailed notes on every image.
As there were no cameras to capture the brilliant colours of the south, the British employed watercolours to preserve their time in the city for posterity. In one drawing by William Tayler from 1842, five servants attend to an Englishman reclining languidly in his cane chair—one cuts his hair, another serves breakfast, a third holds the mirror for him to gaze at his face, a fourth massages his weary feet. The fifth is a young boy holding a fan. No wonder the Brits loved India. On the opposite page, rope dancers and tumblers perform in the fort.
Then along came the camera with its sepia re-