AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 167 of 332 9 Whenever You See Colour, Think of Chennai… Wg Cdr C Ravishankar Genre: Reminiscence hen ‘Insider Trading’ is a serious, punishable offence in the stock markets, the Managing Committee would do well to declare ‘Insider Editing’ as one such serious offence, else the author of this article, who is a part of the Editorial Committee, would continue his unabashed and blatant plagiarism of an idea of an original contributor! From the all-pervasive superset called “The Collage called Chennai”, a subset pointing to “The Colours of Chennai” has been masterfully stolen, right under the noses of the Editorial Committee! For that matter, even a major part of the Tag line of a reputed paint manufacturer has been plagiarized as the title of this article! For the sake of editorial sanctity, let us call it a harmless and an inspired sequel, rather than downright plagiarism! Well, when a migrant Chennaite from Kerala could see so much of variety and vibrancy all around him, the thoroughbred Chennaite couldn’t handle the deluge of memories of the lively canvas of the city called Chennai. Here goes… Kites of Madras The ‘Manja’, the specially treated thread used for flying kites, when it unintentionally and accidentally killed a few unsuspecting passers-by, two-wheeler riders and children, literally sealed the colourful universe of kite flying in Chennai. The Police attributed it to the ‘Manja Menace’. North Madras used to be very active in this art form during the sixtees and seventees, which also regularly staged gang wars among groups in the suburbs. While Perambur used to be the manufacturing hub for kites, the operations headquarters kept shifting amongWashermanpet, Royapuram and Tondiarpet with local groups vying with each other for kite flying supremacy. In the market called "Mannady" in George Town, there used to be about a dozen shops selling kites of different colours and varied sizes during the Pongal season. A “Baana” kite is the biggest of them all, with one side of the square measuring 2’. If the colours of the kites presented a kaleidoscope, the ‘Manja’ thread colours presented a fascinating range. The Kite shops sold most of the ingredients for making ‘Manja’, with local groups adding their own proprietary bit in their secret and well-guarded recipes. The most favoured colour for Manja was “Mithai Rose”. While one of the major ingredients is an industrial adhesive referred to as ‘vajram’ in the local language, “Vaatlodu” which is nothing but powdered glass, used to W