Infusing life into heritage stories beyond brick and mortar

Padmapriya Bhaskaran, writer and historian, said that the trend is a welcome one. “When you pack too many such walks during the Madras Day celebrations, people tend to miss some. People are looking beyond colonial history and are looking at their own streets or villages,” she said, citing Kombai Anwar, who has been doing walks in Triplicane and Royapettah, and Thirupurasundari Sevvel focusing on Anna Nagar, as two examples.

A few months ago, Padmapriya took a group of people around Velachery to the places of worship, including a half-buried temple. “Off beat themes like Saints of Mylapore that covered all religions interest a wider group of audience,” she observed.

Sreemathy Mohan, a regular at these walks and who has also conducted a few in the past, noted that the interesting aspect was that they have moved from places to people. “There are walks tailored around Gujaratis of Madras and its like. That would interest people more because there are very few buildings and monuments that can be seen from inside and not many are in a good shape. However, if you are going to narrate stories around the places with people at the centre, like the house where actor Chandrababu stayed, it is going to be a more interesting experience. It takes the stories beyond brick and mortar, infusing life into it,” she said.

Ahead of Margazhi, there have been walks like the one by history enthusiast and writer Nivedita Louis, who took people along Anna Salai with music binding all the halts. “Unless people are given a glimpse into their own history, they are never going to appreciate and value it. Decentralising these walks does just that.” In the past, Nivedita has done walks in and around Royapuram and Poonamallee.

Chennai is a treasure trove of history for foreign tourists, too, says Vijay Kamalakara, founder of Storytrails who has created heritage trails on the various aspects of the city. “People are surprised that Christianity has a huge legacy in the city. There is a huge history of its evolution here,” he said. The enterprise sees a good number of local people signing up for these walks and trails including food trails, jewellery trails and dance trails centred on Bharathanatyam. “When a person from Mylapore attends a trail in Mylapore, she is more appreciative of its history by the end of the expedition,” he said.