Madras: get to know your city

Take this teaser.
You know where the present light house is in this city.
Yes, on the Marina beach, close to Gandhi statue.
Where was the older light house then?

Let me help you along.
If you have been to the Madras High Court campus, or even lingered on its fringe and looked up at the designed domes, you will get to see the remnants of the lights of the older light house on top of one of those domes.

But there was yet another light house. One which guided all the ships whch ran the trade of the East India Company.
Where was that?

Well, it was atop the building which is now the Fort Museum inside Fort St. George where the Secretariat is.

If you are driving north down the beach road towards Parrys Corner or further north, slow down as you approach the fort and look sharply to your left and you will locate the Fort Museum building, one of the oldest surviving in the fort campus which is going to seed.

Now if you know all this and more then you should be at the annual Madras Quiz that is scheduled for August 27 afternoon at P. S. School campus ( more info is posted at www.themadrasday.in).

It will be a fun event and since two people can make a team a good combo could be a 60 year-old who can crack the questions on ‘old’ Madras and a teenager who can go for the new Chennai. The quiz is just one of the many events which will celebrate Madras Day (August 22)

The list of events is growing by the day.
Kanimozhi, yes the poet-activist daughter of the chief minister, has just confirmed that she will present a talk on Thamizh poetry of the city while the Taj Coromandel plans to display pictures of vintage Madras in its lobby.

Oxford University Press intends to present readings from the books of city-based authors while an anonymous geek said he would like to have a web cam installed at Gemini Circle on August 22 and let all the home-sick Chennaiites have a fill of the roar and smoke and glitz and colours of the city centre - at least for the day!

Madras Day encourages people to do their own thing. In their place. In order to celebrate the city.

As you prepare for it, pick up a pen and on the calendar on the wall or on your desk, mark Madras Day against August 22.

By the way, August 15 is our Independence Day.