Last week, in preparation for Madras Week, Rajiv Kripalani of ChennaiLive 104.8 FM invited to me to a podcast. I made it clear that I do not want to talk about my journey in heritage, or about place names or pin codes. And so, in revenge, he asked me about AI, about which I know next to nothing. That led to a discussion on how the city’s development was moulded by technology. And as I pondered over it, I found patterns.Technology is defined as scientific knowledge and/or equipment needed for a particular industry. And my narrative below is based on this. Weaving was the first technology that our city possessed and for which the colonials came. The centres of weaving were more in the hinterland but with time, Chintadripet, Colletpet (Kaladipettai), Saidapet, Mylapore, and Mambalam became strategic locations too. The various mints of Madras brought in their own tech requirements, and Tankasalai/Mint (now Thangasalai) Street commemorates the last of them. Interestingly, though the mint here never printed notes, it was printing technology that became the mainstay of Mint Street for almost a century. Numerous printing presses of the typesetting variety flourished here, resulting in most of the city’s famed publications beginning life here.