One of the things I brought home from a visit to Denver-Colorado is the memory of a pleasant afternoon spent at the City of Chennai Park on South Quebec Street, Cherry Creek North Drive. It was named Madras Park, but was rechristened Chennai after the city got its new name, said the locals. It is “namma” Chennai that it is named after, they assured me. The naming is part of a sister act. Thirty years ago, in 1984, Chennai became Denver's seventh sister city, and joined the Denver Sister Cities International (DSCI).
“It was the Indo-American Association of Madras, the life and soul of Dolly Simon that set the ball rolling for this,” said historian Muthiah. Simon triggered an avalanche of correspondence, negotiations and discussions with the then Denver Mayor McNichols, which ended with his successor Federico Peña sending a resolution to the Denver City Council, which unanimously approved it. And on January 16, 1984, Madras and Denver were reborn as sibling cities as part of the DSCI programme. At the Chennai end, the effort was supported by the then Municipal Commissioner.
Does this version of rakhi-bandhan mean anything beyond naming places and birds/animals like Krishna the peacock at the Denver Zoo? I called up Karin Schumacher, chairperson, Chennai-Denver Committee, DSCI. Since 1984, CDC has sponsored a variety of events every year, she said. There is the annual Gandhi Memorial Lecture (started in 2001) to mark Gandhiji's birthday; the “City in a Suitcase” programme in which committee members give presentations about India to schools, churches, and other community organisations; book discussions and readings saw Ageless Body , Timeless Mind , Freedom at Midnight , and Long Walk to Freedom read and discussed; committee-sponsored shows include events at Indian restaurants and shows of Indian music, dance, fashion, food bazaars — events to give the foreign-born sister a full-day peek into Indian culture. CDC has sponsored an exchange student from India in the past and plans to develop this programme to allow student exchanges in both directions. It raised funds for tsunami relief, for building a clinic, a day-care centre and a school for Udavum Karangal, and for scholarships in memory of Anthony Parimannath. “The Indo-American Association is our counterpart in Chennai,” she said. “People from IAA have come here, and members of CDC have visited Chennai. We have attended IAA meetings and been hosted for dinner and receptions.”
Members remember Dolly Simon and Denver House, her residence in Chennai. “Before she died, she made it clear that Denver House was for those who came from Denver for study purposes,” said Muthiah. But it has since been caught up in litigation. “When the founding officer-bearers of the association, and then Dolly Simon moved on, the relationship virtually died.”
DSCI isn't ready to go with that. “As with actual siblings, there's no one way to define the relationship,” argues Mary Kane, president, Sister Cities International, in an interview to Eric Jaffe of CityLab. “It's not unusual for things to go dormant as they have in Chennai, when a new administration takes office. Ending agreements just because they don't seem to be working at the moment, may offend the other nation; beyond that, things often pick up again with time.” All it needs is for someone in that community to restart/regenerate a relationship.
“I'm currently president of the Board at Denver Sister Cities,” mailed Gayle Stallings when she heard of my call. “I hope to visit Chennai, next year, if the committee's plans for a delegation trip come to fruition.”
Our neighbours are no longer just those in the cul-de-sac, says DSCI. The sister city concept should be viewed as a larger version of a neighbourhood block-party. “We’re serious about what we do because it’s through the City of Denver Mayor’s office.” Mary Kane suggests that we view ourselves as citizen diplomats. “Foreign affairs do not have to be done just by the State Department. It actually works better if we bring it down to our individual communities and the people in the communities.” Researchers go so far as to wonder whether sister cities represent “the first evidence in real-world social relationships (albeit in its institutional form) for the death of distance” in human communication. For more information, go to www.denversistercities.org
