The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A melting pot of myriad cultures, languages

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Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A melting pot of myriad cultures, languages

City Bureau

People who have migrated to Chennai have influenced everything; food habits, festivals….

PHOTO: M. KARUNAKARAN

SPICY SNACK: A roadside ‘pani puri’ stall on Ritchie Street. —

CHENNAI: Everyone from everywhere can not survive anywhere, but in Chennai they thrive. With the passage of time, these people from other parts of the country contribute in several ways to the socio-economic and cultural aspects.

The ever-expanding limits of Chennai make space for people, who don’t speak the language of this State. Settlers have brought in several things to be part of the culture and ethos of the city. They have influenced everything; from food to festivals, to clothes.

Migrants feel the city and its people have been receptive thanks to its cosmopolitan outlook. Linguistic clubs and associations organise festivals to create awareness about their heritage and traditions among the second-generation residents.

The city has a big Malayalam-speaking population. A resident of Anna Nagar, Murali Menon, said: “It does not feel like another city anymore as language is not a problem. With several restaurants serving Kerala cuisines in the city, I get to eat authentic food. I have associated myself with a few Malayalee clubs for get-together during festivals.”

However, there has been a decrease in influx to the city in the past decade as more people are seeking jobs abroad.

Though the Telugu community has shared the city with the Tamils for several decades now, the migration of youngsters from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has significantly increased in the last few years.

World Telugu Federation joint secretary Srilakshmi Mohan Rao said that beside high-profile people, labourers were also migrating in search of work. “Everything is available now, be it Andhra food, handlooms or Telugu cinemas,” she said. Theatres such as Casino and Pilot screen Telugu films and Ega screens Malayalam films.

The city also has a sizeable north Indian population. The IT boom and increasing job opportunities are major reasons for the increase in migration in recent times. Shobha Jain, who recently settled in Chennai, said, “People here are very friendly and make me feel at home. The only problem is communicating in Tamil.”

Former secretary of Rajasthan Youth Association Sanjay Bhansali said that beside the Marwari community, the city has been receiving people from Rajput and Choudhury communities. “Rajasthani settlers have moved out of their main business - finance to wholesale trade and manufacturing industry. They have brought in the Holi festival, designer silk sarees, pan and pani puri culture. New comers in the community continue to settle in areas such as Sowcarpet, Kilpauk, Vepery and parts of Anna Nagar, where the concentration of Jains and Rajasthanis is higher,” he said.

Sushymal Kundu, settled in Chennai since 1968, said while the old settlers could read and write Bengali, the younger ones who grew up here had learnt Tamil and English. “We are only 25,000 people spread out across the city. There are about six Bengali associations that do a lot of charity work. Madras Kalibari in West Mambalam, which has a Kali temple, is patronised even by Tamils,” he says.

The biggest reward of staying here is that his children do not differentiate on the basis of caste or religion. “They are cosmopolitan and are not parochial, much above me.”

Indu Padukai, a Maharastrian, who has lived here for 52 years, declares “it’s [Chennai] the best place to lead a married life. People have a broader outlook.” There are only 250 families in Chennai and another 250 visiting families at any given time. Traditional cuisine is not hard to come by as eating out was not popular with their generation. They cooked at home and shared native delicacies.

Since the State had a north Indian Governor in S.L. Khurana, north Indian residents did not find it difficult during the anti-Hindi agitations, says Harbhajan Singh, a Punjabi. Most settlers don’t see the need to know Tamil as locals speak some Hindi and English.

Someone said there was a little India inside each IT company.

Devaraj Sampathkumar, manager HR, HCL Technologies, said the company makes it a point to celebrate popular festivals such as Holi, Onam and Pongal. “There is no cultural shock as such for people, who come here from other States to work in the IT industry. And people do find others from their own linguistic backgrounds to chat with and English remains the common language.”

Dividing people on the basis of languages seems to be a thing of the past with Chennai becoming a confluence of various cultures. Varied languages and traditions have added positively to the cosmopolitan fabric of the city.

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