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Madras Day: A hand-me-down from the kitchen
In the run-up to Madras Day, The Hindu Downtown will be presenting a series of articles showcasing Madras as it is ensconced in the everyday things of Chennai. These are not major monuments, but minor markers of the past that are often ignored because they have woven themselves intricately into the fabric of Chennai and are in plain sight.
A chance discovery
More than three decades ago, V. Prabhakar chanced upon old pages of newspapers in the unlikeliest of places — within photo frames.
Today, these pages offer a rare glimpse into the caverns of time.
Prabhakar, who was in his mid-20s, was cleaning photo frames with a Ravi Varma print when he came across pages of New India (formerly The Madras Standard which was first published in 1841). One of them has the dateline June 14, 1919.
“I chanced upon this when I opened the frame,” says Prabhakar, adding that a layer of newspaper is kept behind the photo to hold the frame and keep it stiff.
An antique lover, Prabhakar finds these pages a rare treasure. “One page has a clipping that says Dalai Lama is coming to India,” he recalls.
“To Let” advertisements dominate the pages. One is about a bungalow with electric fittings, stable and outhouses at Taylor’s Road, Kilpauk.
Another “To Let” advertisement boasts about a spacious godown in Malayappan Street, near old Beehive Foundry, Broadway paved with Cuddapah slabs.
Madras Day: The city from a personal journal
Another advertisement, this one by Kishinchand Chellaram (a well-known textile store of those times), invites the public to the opening of its new outlet at Rattan Bazzar Road.
These clippings are preserved in a poly propylene cover.
Prabhakar is proud of this possession and has also been very lucky to lose and find them. “From Egmore to Anna Nagar to Puducherry to Tiruvalluvar, I have moved houses, three to four times, and have misplaced them only to find them later,” says Prabhakar, who is a key member of Chennai Vintage Bicycle Club.
A hand-me-down from the kitchen
This is the story of a hand-me-down kitchen vessel that stirs up memories of ancestral traditions. Karthiyayini Prabhakaran got this modest-looking brass container — ‘Pithali Thookku’ or ‘Palagaara Thooku Vaali’ — from her mother-in-law more than 50 years ago.
It evokes memories of Deepavali celebrated during Karthiyayini’s childhood.
Karthiyayini’s ‘Pithali Thookku’
“A few days before Deepavali every year, this thookku would be brought down from the loft, scrubbed clean till it shone bright and left out in the open to air-dry. Women would gather by late noon to fry batches and batches of ‘thenkuzhal’. Lined with newspaper, this thookku will be filled to the brim with flavourful and crispy murukkus,” says Karthiyayini in a mail shared with The Hindu Downtown.
The Perambur resident has three such vessels of different sizes, which can store four to five kilos of sweets and savouries. Last year, she got them burnished.
Discovering Madras in the bustle of Chennai
In olden times, when new brides went home they were sent sweets in such brass vessels. “Silver was not so trendy then,” she says.
Karthiyayini still has memories of the shiny palagaaram thookku hanging from a hook in her mother’s kitchen.
She says, “My mother used to say that my grandmother’s favourite was half-fried thenkuzhal with a chewy texture. Sure, she got a batch of half-fried murukkus to relish with hot coffee. This, I heard, is to keep hunger pangs at bay till she completes the frying routine. Another Deepavali palagaaram of yesteryear, maa laddoo, would also find a place in this ‘thookku’.”
Filter coffee, anyone?
Living in a 85-year-old house can mean getting to hear fascinating accounts of what transpired within the house in the past. And there is the physical structure itself: it can present vignettes of vintage architecture. Invariably, such houses would have retained family heirlooms, which would be pieces of history themselves.
At Aruna Subramaniam’s house in Alwarpet, a wooden chest designed and made by her husband’s grandmother holds a piece of history.
“It was probably designed in the early 1930s, and was meant to store her silver vessels that could also be transported, very often in bullock carts,” says Aruna, managing trustee, Bhoomika Trust India.
“As her husband was in Salt Customs and Excise Department, they used to travel a lot from Ganjam in Orissa to Nanguneri in Tamil Nadu. The wooden box serving as a safe they took it on these trips.” The box is partitioned into different compartments. These partitioned sections are lined with velvet on the inside. Back then, it was Madras Presidency, from Orissa up to Kerala, including Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Coffee filters from Mayavaram have also survived time in this house. She says, “They were bought for use during family functions, which were always held at home to serve coffee for large gatherings.”
Readers are invited to write in to [email protected] about such markers of time. It could be a lamppost, a very old milestone marker or an antediluvian bus shelter that has survived time.
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