The present generation knows this city as Chennai. But the love for Madras, the city known as before 1996, brought these young people to look at it in a different perception at various events hosted for them this August.
Many events oraganised for the young people, as part of the Madras Week drew interest among them. A few contests, quizzes, exhibitions, walks and stories, all about the city of Madras.
Walks and photowalks
On Aug. 17, a walk down Mylapore starting from the famed Luz Church took children along the stretch of Vivekananda College, Madras Sanskrit College, heritage houses on the street where the office of the Tamil magazine, Kalaimagal is located, Tiruvalluvar temple, Mundakakanni Amman temple. The streetscapes, the facades of heritage buildings and the temple for the Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar kindles interest among the young people.
The next day another group of children walked along the storyteller Sabita Sankar and the crafter Krishma Sankar from the Kannagi statue to the Gandhi statue on the Marina. Talking about the history and lives of people,of whom the statues were of, the children later arrived at the Children’s Club Society to create a scrap book all by themselves guided by Krishma and Sabitha. They took home rich experience, a lot of stories and a lovely memoir book.
Bamboola, a play school and activity centre in RA Puram took children on a photowalk at the Nageswara Rao park and on St. Mary’s Road.
Contests and quizzes
One contest that brings heritage and technology together for a presentation is the Multimedia competition on the heritage of Chennai. This year the contest was held on Aug. 20 and the students were given the theme – Heritage houses of Chennai. The traditional tiles houses with inner courtyards, thinnais, the Madras terraces, wells and tinted glass windows came alive in pictures with each team choosing a house that is at least 50 years old.
The team from AMM School, who made a presentation on a traditional house in the Kottur village near Kotturpuram neighbourhood won the Rolling trophy for the year. The teams from P.S. Senior school, Mylapore and Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar won the second and third prizes.
The culmination of the online game & contest titled You, me, Chennai was held on Aug. 24. Inspired by the game Scattergories, the event hosted by Thinktops was curated to know interesting things about Chennai as well think differently about the city and its elements.
A exclusive quiz in Tamil for the students studying in Tamil Medium was held on Aug. 24. Questions on the history, current happenings in politics, cinema, art and culture with interesting picture rounds saw the children participate with enthusiasm. Raja Muthiah School, RA Puram lifted this year’s rolling trophy.
Murugappa Madras Quotient Quiz, held on Sep. 7 was exclusive to school students. With 242 teams participating in the quiz, the team from P.S. Senior with Sankrith, Arjun Aravind & Nishanth, won the quiz. Quizmaster Dr. Navin Jayakumar was impressed with the answers the students had known about the city they live in.
Campus events
Exhibition of photos, books, drawings and assorted items was held at St. Joseph’s High School, Erukkenchery (MKB Nagar) on Aug.16 and 17, 2013. Students also contributed to the exhibition by bringing in the old photos and kitchen utensils.
The Pupil SaveethaEcoSchool, Poonamallee had a series of acts like drawing competitions, Rangoli and T Shirt design contests, elocution in their school. The events were open for the neighbourhood schools.
PSBB, KK Nagar came up with a lot of events, contests and quizzes for the Central Cluster and neighbourhood schools. There were music and oratorical contests, painting and kolam contests, Philately quiz and a Katha Kalakshepam.
Also was an exhibition of pictures of Madras with tidbits, trivia and notes, by P.S. Seshadri, philately educator at PS Senior School, Mylapore.
KRM Public School, Perambur had put up an exposition on Madarasapattinam.
Stories on Madras
The Children’s Space, Alwarpet hosted a storytelling session by Asha Sampath and Kavitha & Debjani on Aug. 18.
Spring and Zoom, KK Nagar celebrated Madras Day with an ode to the trees native to Madras. The children drew and wrote about the trees that sustain us everyday.
When YOCee’s student reporters get busy, the team at YOCee’s small office takes up the role of the reporters, does the rounds, writes copies and files reports. The team also posts useful info and ePapers produced in-house.