Old Masters
T. Janakiraman was born on June 18, 1921, in Thevangudi near Thanjavur.(The T of T. Janakiraman does not stand for Thanjavur, where most of his stories are set. Nor does it stand for Thevangudi near…
A writer meets his idol
At the age of 14, Dilip Kumar had become a wage earner for the family. They were members of a mercantile community from Gujarat. These immigrants to Tamil Nadu lived in Coimbatore and Chennai, the…
Sita Paatti in New Orleans
If you want to be fluent in a language, experts say, you should relocate, briefly, to a place where the language is spoken exclusively. It will force you to find the words to interact with…
Sarayu Hostel, IIT Women
Picture courtesy of Heritage Center, IIT Madras. Picture taken on 15, July 1966, at the inauguration of Alakananda Hostel at IIT, Madras Janaki Seshadri is to the immediate left of Ujjal Singh, Governor of Tamil…
Quark
Picture Courtesy -- Heritage Center, IIT Madras Quark, a boardless eatery at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, was an insider destination. Deep inside the campus, flanked by hostels, the canteen would open late in…
Erdos visits Madras
Picture Credit: Krishnaswami Alladi "Erdos in Mylapore, Madras" On a winter’s day in January 1975, two men walked down the sandy stretch of the Marina Beach in Chennai. It was still afternoon, but there was…