Madras Day celebrations have grown beyond imagination, but is this enough caring for a city we love?
Well, the Madras Day celebration catalysts or coordinators have come a long way since 2004 when it all began. I still remember driving around the city with Vincent D’Souza, tying the odd bits together when calls would come every few minutes asking us what Madras Day was all about, whether it was a competition, whether it was a sort of drama, and what people were expected to do. Madras Day was actually Vincent’s ‘brainchild’. We then roped in S. Muthiah, city storyteller, and we let him lead from the front. Gmail had just started then. There were no smartphones. We did what best we could with feature phones, keeping in mind that outgoing calls were charged by the minute; incoming calls were just made free. The best way to spread information was by word of mouth and having leaflets and programme sheets distributed to individuals, schools, colleges, bookshops and other stores. The one thing that backed all this up was the press conference we would usually have a couple of w...
