“I am going to get some Madras kadhambam. Does anybody else want one?” a colleague excitedly announces. “Is that food?” I gingerly enquire. She rolls her eyes and asks me to find out for myself. So, on a sweltering April afternoon, I am sent to the Flower Bazaar in George Town. It’s 3 pm and the road leading to the street selling flowers is brimming with people. Once you enter the street, it’s even more packed with buyers huddled over baskets of colourful flowers, haggling or just choosing a selection for their own bouquets.
You are first hit by a cloyingly sweet scent mixed with the smell of old, wilting flowers and fumes from the traffic. M Dhanasekaran stands by his shop, expertly coiling strings of flowers. “So, you want to know about Madras kadhambam?” he asks, assuming the air of a pedagogue. “It’s Chennai’s gift to the world,” he says, sounding dramatic. “I am not sure who started it and where exactly in Chennai it originated, but once flower sellers got the hang of it, they never stopped making it,” he adds. His stall displays jasmine, red and orange roses, jaadhimalli, tuberose, kanakambaram and strings of kadhambam. “We sell around 1,000 mozhams of these in a day. We even supply to some of the flower markets in T Nagar and Mylapore,” adds Dhanasekaran.
This particular string is called kadhambam because it is made up of different-coloured flowers. The kadhambam can also be customised to suit the wearer’s specifications. “Typically, we first use green followed by orange, white and purple, with a red rose on the sides.” Kanakambaram and gundu malli are the flowers he primarily uses, besides the herb maragu.
To weave one mozham of kadhambam, it takes 10 minutes, twice what it takes to string others. “Since I’ve been doing this for 30 years, I can do it faster,” he smiles. And, what is it that makes the kadhambam popular? “I think the fact that you don’t have to choose just one flower. You get variety in one mozham and it’s great to wear to weddings and functions,” says Dhanasekaran.
A mozham can cost anything between ₹15 to ₹40, based on the flowers used.
