passage to chennai
Sandhya Mendonca talks about her latest coffee table book on Chennai and how it brings together different narratives on one common ground.
Q. You have put together coffee table books on different cities so far. What makes Best of Chennai Volume 2 different?
A. Its edge is in its crispness. It waxes eloquent on the city’s culture and is yet precise where it needs to be, and hence, an easier read. Even in terms of the production, we went for a soft cover with a double layer. It’s only 600 gms; you can carry it in your bag or tuck it under your arm.
Q. How did you make this coffee table book a balance between extensive information and reportage?
A. Knowing the city, there are several things you can take a verbal shorthand on, but we had to keep the international reader in mind, and scoop out unconventional aspects that define it. For instance, among the many photos of Chennai that our photographer, Badri, sent us, one was that of a Marwari woman feeding pigeons on the beach. I immediately assumed it was from somewhere in the west coast, till he revealed that she was indeed a local who came to the Marina beach every day for this little ritual. I found it to be a fascinating story and representation of the city’s diversity.
Q. You have featured established organisations in the city, alongside some newer ones. What is the role of these start-ups in putting Chennai on the global map?
A. We went through and reached out to as many as 15 start-ups. We were looking at the ones that were really game changers and had pushed the envelope with their founding idea and execution. For instance, websites like Vakilsearch, which give legal advice online; founders of Chargeme, who have made a revenue model out of making invoices and one of my favourites—Invention Labs—that has reached out to children with disabilities.
Q. How long did it take to put this book together?
A. I started working on it about a year ago—sometime in last July. Just when I started seriously focusing on it, the floods hit Chennai and everything was stalled. I pulled it back temporarily, but when I did resume work, there were some remarkable stories of humanity and resilience from the floods that could make the book something I never imagined it to be.
Q. Where did your fascination for new places stem from?
A. My parents were avid travellers. My father, especially, used to keep aside savings just for this. I can say with certainty that my own hunger for new places and their unique stories comes from there.