In 1956, crowds gathered on Mount Road in Madras, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Indian Olympic Hockey team that was taken on a grand open-car procession through this arterial stretch. A few years later, in February 1959, star-struck students at the Presidency College listened to Martin Luther King Jr deliver a speech during his visit to India.
These moments, frozen in time by The Hindu’s photographers through striking black-and-white images over the last century, indicate that the city has always had a reason to gather and celebrate. As Chennai gears up to turn 386 this year on August 22, The Hindu’s archival photo exhibit Thiral Thiran Thaakkam (People — in motion, in emotion, in unison) at the newspaper’s headquarters at Kasturi Buildings on Anna Salai, will explore what makes the city come alive.
