Madras Week to focus on participation

With a fresh mix of events, the Madras Week celebrations will be held from 21-28 August.

Sujatha Shankar of INTACH Chennai Chapter, which will also conduct some programmes for this year’s celebrations, said a host of events have been planned, from quiz and essay competitions to photo contests.

“We are involving both school and college students for many of the events. The idea is to bring in heritage awareness. We want people to volunteer and participate as much as possible and so, all the events held by INTACH and most other programmes too will be open to all. We welcome local communities to hold events to generate awareness of their locality. We are planning way ahead this time since we would like to see more participation.”

A discussion on the city’s heritage will be conducted where college students will discuss the importance of heritage in today’s context and strategies to promote heritage-based urban development, she added.

Historian S. Muthiah said everyone from the city should be part of celebrating Madras Week. “The focus of the celebration is to involve everyone and discuss why the city is important. Virtually, everything in modern India began here. Also, this is purely a voluntary function,” he added. Historian V. Sriram said there will be more heritage walks this year.

For details, write tointachhennai@gmail.comorthemadrasday@gmail.com