Celebrating Chennai – That was Madras
Today is Chennai Day. No. No. Madras Day. Yes, the word Madras has left has an indellible mark in this great city that most of us still love to call it Madras. Forget us. There are a host of institutions in the city which refuse to change. The Madras Christian College is still very much the same. The Madras Medical College for a brief while changed its name to Chennai Medical College (CMC) only to revert back to the original as CMC was confused with the Vellore one. The prestigious IIT is still called IIT Madras. Forget these even, even the juduciary stills calls itself the Madras High Court. So, then why Chennai. Can’t we go back to the glorious old Madras please and no better occasion to do this name change than the city’s birthday. But whatever, Madras or Chennai there is no place in this world like this and like I always say ‘Sorgame enralum athu namma oora ppola varuma’.
‘Sorgame enralum athu namma oora ppola varathu’. I am writing this with a sense of happiness for madras day and nostalgia for missing it from Gurgaon.I am reffered to as a Madarasi in delhi in the last 2 months I am here.I spent 25 years in IIt Madras,living there in the quarters provided to my Mom.This is the first time I am away from Madras for a long period of time.Miss it man.Long Live Madras…..
‘Sorgame enralum athu namma oora ppola varathu’.Yes I do agree I Madras is apt. I am writing this with a sense of happiness for Madras day and anguish for missing it from Gurgaon.I am reffered to as a Madarasi in Gurgaon in the last 3 months, I am here.I spent 25 years in IIT Madras,living there in the quarters provided to my Mom who still works there.I was in Madras the whole of last week after 2 months.The feeling I had inside me when I reached Madras c’ant be explained in words.This is the first time I am away from Madras for a long period of time.Miss it man.Long Live Madras…..
Vinod, me too. Wish Chennai is Madras again!
Just like an established company suffers due to name change after a merger, I hope Chennai does not. I think we should just stick to Madras. Everyone in the world still think its Madras whereas some in Chennai think its Chennai.
Interesting. I like Madras too. I will always call it Madras. Different people have different versions of how the city got the name. One story, Madras (of Portugese version which was changed to Madras by the British) and Chennapattinam (another city close to Chennai) were merged together by British. They stuck with Madras as it was easy for them. So Chennapattinam was lost and also became Chennai. What is interesting is, chennapattinam means Beautiful city (which is true) in Telgu. The city name was renamed becos they wanted a tamil origin name. But we actually have a telgu origin name. Thanks Karunanidhi. Thanks for fooling Tamil people.
Interesting article about Chennai
http://in.news.yahoo.com/060824/43/66wyf.html