Thursday, August 12, 2010

Young people capture the spirit of Madras

What is Madras to the young Chennaiites?
Though the children are used to referring to the city as Chennai, they look for interesting history about the places they take a walk down on the roads of Madras.

At the two photowalks that YOCee, a website for Chennai kids organised as a pre event of Madras week celebrations, the children captured the spirit of the city through their simple aim and shoot cameras.

When I approached N. Ramaswamy to lead the photowalk for kids, he was excited. Ram is a dedicated blogger chronicling the city in pictures through his blog http://chennaidailyfoto.wordpress.com.

The walk on Aug. 1 started at the famed Ratna Cafe in Triplicane and the kids walked shooting all that is Madras to them, through Pycrofts Road.

Over the next weekend, walking on the Poonamalle High Road was a different experience for a set of students from Maharshi Vidya Mandir, Chetpet, who participated as a group in the photowalk. Along with a few kids from Kilpauk were a couple of children from Mylapore and Adyar. They travelled all the way early in the morning to reach Ega theatre, the start point of the walk at 7 a.m.

The photos taken by children at these walks have been pooled and are printed for exhibition during the Madras Week at four different venues.

Three academic institutions - Maharshi Vidya Mandir, Lady Willingdon School, Anna University (School of Architecture) and the Alliance Francaise Madras have come forward to host exhibition of the photos.

A true coming together of celebrating the spirit of Madras.

No comments: