Tamarind City Quotes

“Yet, there is a Chennai that hasn’t changed and never will. Women still wake up at the crack of dawn and draw the kolam—the rice-flour design—outside their doorstep. Men don’t consider it old-fashioned to wear a dhoti, which is usually matched with a modest pair of Bata chappals. The day still begins with coffee and lunch ends with curd rice. Girls are sent to Carnatic music classes. The music festival continues to be held in the month of December. Tamarind rice is still a delicacy—and its preparation still an art form. It’s the marriage between tradition and transformation that makes Chennai unique. In a place like Delhi, you’ll have to hunt for tradition. In Kolkata, you’ll itch for transformation. Mumbai is only about transformation. It is Chennai alone that firmly holds its customs close to the chest, as if it were a box of priceless jewels handed down by ancestors, even as the city embraces change.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“The expression ‘pleasant weather’ may be an oxymoron for Chennai, where the climate is famously split between hot, hotter and hottest,”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“For the parents, the pride in having a child settled in America seems to far outweigh the pain of them resigning themselves to a soundless and lonely life. Occasionally, they get invited to America, mostly to babysit a newly-born grandchild, and once they return, they show off their knowledge of America to fellow morning-walkers. Fellow walkers too would have similar stories to share. Through such stories they live vicariously the lives of their children—it’s their way of escaping the dreariness back home. But”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“The Marina, after all, is not just the most important landmark of Chennai but also a temple by itself—the sea being the presiding deity, always reminding you that no matter how powerful you may think yourself to be, it considers you no different from the shell of tender coconut lying on the sands. By”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“Most often, you don’t need to understand the language for your ears to detect that a poet is saying something beautifully profound—words have their own rhythm that is independent of the script. Bharati,”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“The only wealth of an army officer, once he retires, is the treasure-chest containing anecdotes that he would have accumulated during the span of his service. What”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“Iyengar considers himself a notch above the Iyer in the social pecking order, and that the Iyer, instead of disputing the claims of superiority, resents the snootiness of the Iyengar.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“Triplicane, whose capital is the Parthasarathy temple, is the traditional home of the Iyengars. Mylapore, with its nucleus at the Kapaleeswara temple, is the traditional home of the Iyers. Separating them, like the English Channel, is the predominantly-Muslim neighbourhood of Royapettah.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City

“Robert Clive, one of the architects of British India, got married in St Mary’s Church. But that was much later. The very first marriage recorded in the register, on 4 November 1680, is that of Elihu Yale with Catherine Hynmer. Yale was the governor of the Fort from 1687 to 1692. It was during his tenure that the corporation for Madras and the post of the mayor were created, and the supreme court, which evolved over time into the present-day Madras high court, was set up. But despite an eventful stint, Yale was sacked because he used his position for private profit—he was engaged in an illegal diamond trade in Madras through an agent called Catherine Nicks. Yet he stayed on in Madras for seven more years, having packed off his wife to England. He lived in the same house with Mrs Nicks, fathering four children with her, and a Portuguese mistress called Hieronima de Paivia, who also bore him a son. He finally returned to London in 1699, an immensely wealthy man. As he busied himself spending the money he had made in India, a cash-starved school in the American colony of Connecticut requested him for a donation. The Yale family had lived in Connecticut for a long time before returning to England in 1652 when Elihu Yale was three years old. So when the college sought financial assistance, he shipped across nine bales of exquisite Indian textiles, 417 books and a portrait of King George I. The school kept the books and raised £562 from his other donations and, in gratitude, decided to rename itself after him. Thus was born Yale University, with the help of ill-gotten wealth amassed in Madras.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Tamarind City