Those set of stairs definitely belong to a palace. Wait a minute…is that at the Madras High Court? The ornate red-pink wall looks strangely familiar; we’ve seen it somewhere…it’s the Government Museum Complex! At Madras Miniatures, an art show by columnist, author, and translator Pavithra Srinivasan, the city’s heritage structures are given a whole new perspective. They are the result of Srinivasan’s travels through the city, specifically North Chennai. “That’s where everything happened,” she says, referring to how the city grew.
The exhibition features 61 of Srinivasan’s miniatures, most of them in black, done with micron pens. The author sketched them to be incorporated in a book on historical fiction for young adults that she’s working on. “I’m planning to bring it out soon,” she says, walking us around Madras Literary Society where the exhibtion is showing.
Most of the heritage structures that Srinivasan has chosen are part of our everyday lives. The Agurchand Mansion on Anna Salai, Wallajah Mosque in Triplicane, the Central Railway Station, the Moore Market, statues of King George V and Thomas Munro... We drive past them regularly, but they take on a special quality in the framed form. Srinivasan is a lover of the city and it shows. She has also sketched scenes that are intrinsic to the Chennai landscape — a soan papdi seller on the Marina, a lady painting pots on Kodambakkam High Road, an ornate chariot used at weddings parked near Victoria Public Hall, a fisher woman grinning by baskets overflowing with dried fish. A sketch of a sample of zardozi work that Triplicane is famous for, also finds pride of place, along with newer structures such as the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital on Anna Salai, Broken Bridge, the compound wall of Stella Maris College on Cathedral Road which the students have painted in bright colours, and a view of the Chennai Harbour with its cranes and containers. Srinivasan has captioned her sketches with a little bit of information about the place.
Srinivasan was a resident of Velachery and Valasaravakkam, and now lives a quiet life in a farm in Tiruvannamali. A change, she feels, has made her love for Chennai even stronger. For, we long for what is far away.
Madras Miniatures is on till June 16, 11 am to 4 pm (except Friday) at Madras Literary Society, College Road.
