On Sunday, children who came to Yellow Bus to celebrate ‘Madras Week' in Besant Nagar despite the rain had a glimpse of what their parents and grandparents enjoyed when they were children.
Having grown up on a surfeit of television and in some cases computer games, it was exciting for them to ride the bullock cart. The children also tasted traditional snack items such as morkoozhu and kozhukattai.
At the event, adults demonstrated traditional games such as pallanguzhi, ezhu kal and adu puli attam. The aim was to give children an idea of Madras of yore, Yellow Bus director Hema Chari said.
“The pallanguzhi helps in mental arithmetic. It is sad that children are more glued to the computer these days,” said Deepa Chakravarthi. “They were awe-struck when we showed them to spin tops.”
Winners of essay, poetry and painting contests conducted earlier in the week on themes revolving around Chennai were given prizes.