The villu to keep it going
Subbu Arumugam on a time when artistes were revered for their craft, and the changes that lent the city new character
Where we grew up (in Tirunelveli), Chennai was considered a faraway place, called ‘vadakathi seemai'. We were a satisfied, artistic lot, with great love for Tamil (even the boy working in a grocery store could recite the Tholkappiyam and Manickavasagam ) and leaving home was never on our minds. It was N.S. Krishnan who brought me to Chennai in 1948, to help popularise Gandhiji's life story, using Kalki's Maandharul Oru Deivam , based on My Experiments with Truth . The show premiered in M.S. amma's house in Kilpauk.

A hundred years ago, Saint Ramalingar called Madras a city with values ( Dharumamigu Chennai ). And, that was how it was when I came here. I used to stay at NSK Nadaga Sabha, on Venkataraman Street in T. Nagar, along with about a hundred artistes. There were actors, but poets were more revered.