Chennai

Template:Chennai infobox Chennai (சென்னை in Tamil), formerly known in English as Madras, is a city on the east coast of southern India. Situated on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, this capital of the state of Tamil Nadu is India's fourth largest city and the 35th largest urban agglomeration in the world. Its name was officially changed to Chennai in 1996, but the older name Madras is still widely used. The city is a leading commercial and industrial center in India, and has a diverse cultural heritage.

Geography

File:Satmap.jpg

A satellite map of the Chennai metropolitan area. Note the harbour, Marina beach and the mouth of the Adyar river along the coast. Note the Red Hills and Sholavaram lakes in the northwest, and the Chembarambakkam lake in the west. Note the radial roads and ring road.

Chennai is located at 13.04° N and 80.17° E, on the Coromandel Coast in South India, at the north-eastern tip of Tamil Nadu state. It has a long shoreline with the Bay of Bengal on the east, the location of the 13 km-long Marina Beach, and a large artificial harbour servicing sea-lines to Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The land on which Chennai is built is flat coastal plain. The average elevation is 6 meters above sea-level. Two rivers pass through Chennai, the Cooum (or Koovam) in the central part and the Adyar in the southern part. Both rivers are placid, and meander lazily on their way east to the Bay of Bengal. The estuary of the Adyar river is the habitat of several species, and is classified as an Ecological Heritage Site by the government. Two small waterways exist in addition to the rivers. The Buckingham Canal runs parallel to the coast, about 3-5 km inland. It connects the two rivers to each other and extends farther in both directions, upto Guntur in Andhra Pradesh in the north and just beyond Sadras in the south. The Otteri Nullah is an east-west stream that runs through north Chennai and meets the Buckingham Canal at Basin Bridge. There is some rowing on the Adyar river, but there is no boat traffic on the other waterways. The canal has not been navigable within city limits since about 1975 due to extensive silting, which is also a problem with the two rivers. The Adyar and the southern stretch of the canal were fully desilted in 2004. The Cooum has not been desilted due to its narrowness and several illegal hutments along its banks.

Several lakes of varying size are located on the western fringes of the city. Red Hills and Sholavaram lakes in the north-west supply most of the city's water. Chembarakkam lake (the source of the Adyar river) located 40 km west of the city, is another water source.

Climatically, Chennai lies on the thermal equator, which makes it hot and humid most of the year. The highest temperatures are attained in late May and early June, usually about 38° C (100.4° F), though it exceeds 40° C (104° F) for a few days most years. The coldest time of the year is early January when temperatures are about 24° C (75.2° F), though temperatures below 18° C (64.4° F) have been recorded. The average annual rainfall is about 1300 mm (47.2 inches). The city gets most of its seasonal rainfall from the north-east monsoon winds, from late September to mid November. Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal also contribute significantly, exceeding the regular monsoon rainfall in some years.

History

File:Mylapore.kapali.gopuram.jpg

The Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai, built by the Pallava kings in the 7th century CE

Records dating back to the First Century CE indicate that present day Chennai developed from a few scattered villages in the ancient province of Tondaimandalam. The province had its capital and military headquarters at Puzhaal, which today is a small village on the northwest fringe of Chennai.

The apostle St. Thomas is believed to have emigrated to India in 52 CE to preach the teachings of Jesus. In Chennai, he used to preach from a hillock in the southwest part of the city. He was subsequently assassinated around the year 70 CE. A small church was built on the beach, in what is today the locality of San Thome.

Over the centuries the city changed hands many times as various South Indian empires gained power in the region. The Pallavas were the most notable. They built several large temples in and around Chennai, including the Kapaleeshwarar temple at Mylapore and the Shore Temple in Mahabalipuram.

Modern Chennai had its origins as a colonial city and its initial growth was closely tied to its importance as an artificial port and trading centre. The Portuguese were the first to establish a port, that of Sao Tome or San Thome in 1522, pushing back the ancient Pallava port of Mylapore. By most accounts, they disinterred St Thomas from the beach church and buried him on top of the hillock where he used to preach from. The Portguese also built two churches - one on the site of the original beach church at San Thome, and one on the hill where St Thomas was buried. (According to one hypothesis, they destroyed the Kapaleeshwarar temple and built the church on top ([1]), but this hypothesis has been rejected by most historians of Chennai). The first church was rebuilt by the British again in 1893 and that version is now called the San Thome Basilica. The other church, built in 1523, still stands today on top of the hill, which is now called St Thomas Mount.

By 1612, the Dutch established themselves in Pulicat to the north. Modern Chennai grew out of a small village when in 1639 a fishing hamlet called Madraspatnam was selected by early English merchants of the East India Company as a site for the settlement. It is believed that there were two hamlets called Madraspatnam and Chennaipatnam, which eventually merged due to expansion of the city. Some believe that the British favored the name "Madraspatnam" while the locals called it "Chennaipatnam", but this hypothesis is disputed. In 1639 the British East India Company was granted land between these settlements by the Nayak of Vandavasi, where they built Fort St George in 1640. The Fort was intended to strike shock and awe into opponents of British presence in India. It became the nucleus around which the colonial city grew. The Fort still stands today, and a part of it is used to house the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and the Chief Minister's office.

The city of Madras in 1909

In 1746, Fort St George and Madras were captured by the French under General Bertrand François Mahé de Labourdonnais, who used to be the Governor of Mauritius. The French are then described to have plundered the village of Chepauk and demolished Blacktown, the locality across from the port where all the dockyard labourers used to live ([2]). The British regained control in 1749 through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. They then strengthened and expanded Fort St George over the next thirty years to bear subsequent attacks, the strongest of which came from the French (1759, under Thomas Arthur, Comte de Lally), and Hyder Ali, the Sultan of Mysore (1767). The 1783 version of Fort St George is what still stands today.

In the latter half of the 18th century, Madras became an important English naval base, and the administrative center of the growing British dominions in southern India. The British fought with various European powers, notably the French at Vandavasi (Wandiwash) in 1760, where de Lally was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote, and the Danish at Tharangambadi (Tranquebar). The British eventually dominated, driving the French, the Dutch and the Danes away entirely, and reducing the French dominions in India to four tiny coastal enclaves. The British also fought four wars with the Kingdom of Mysore under Hyder Ali and later his son Tipu Sultan, which led to their eventual domination of India's south. Madras was the capital of the Madras Presidency, also called Madras Province.

After Independence, the city became the administrative and legislative capital of Madras State. The state was subsequently divided into parts. In 1953 the northern districts became the new state of Andhra Pradesh, and Bellary district was ceded to Mysore state. In 1956, Madras state took its present boundaries when the new state of Kerala was formed from Malabar district and the former princely states of Travancore and Cochin, and South Kanara district was ceded to Mysore. In 1968, the Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu ("land of Tamils"), partly to resist the imposition of Hindi as a national language by the Central Government in New Delhi.

In 1996, the state government renamed the city from "Madras" to "Chennai". According to most accounts, this was in accordance with "Madraspatnam" and "Chennaipatnam", but this is disputed by some.

British governors of Madras include:

• Elihu Yale (1687-1692)
• Nathaniel Higginson (1692-1698)
• Lord Macartney (1780-1785)
• Sir Archibald Campbell (1785-1789)
• John Holland (1789)
• Henry Pottinger (1847)

Economy

Industries

Founded as a trading outpost by the British East India Company in the early seventeenth century, Chennai is today a large industrial and commercial centre. The major centres of commerce in Chennai are Parry's Corner and T.Nagar, named after Thomas Parry, who set up the EID Parry company, and Sir P Thyagarayar, the founder of what later became the Justice Party respectively.

Chennai is the base for over 40% of India's automotive industry. Most of the automotive OEMs in India are based in Chennai, mainly in the Ambattur-Padi industrial zone. Several auto and tyre companies such as Hyundai, Ford, Ashok Leyland, TVS, Honda, and MRF have manufacturing plants in and around Chennai, causing it to be named "The Detroit of India".

The leather industry is located mostly in the southwest of the city. So many tanneries were once located there in a tight cluster that the ground water there changed colour due to chromium in the effluents. The locality (which has now been cleaned up) is now known as "Chromepet". Other major heavy industries are textiles and chemicals, located mainly in the northeast and northwest industrial zones.

Chennai's service sector was traditionally dominated by finance and banking. Since the late 1990s, software development and business process outcourcing have become very important. The "IT Corridor" is in the southeast of the city, along the old Mahabalipuram Road (which has been supplanted by the East Coast Road). Several technology parks have been built in the area, the most important being Tidel Park, built by TIDCO as a Government initiative. Several organizations such as World Bank, IBM, Infosys and Wipro have their BPO centers in Chennai. For a full list, see here.

Transport

File:Chennai-map.jpg

A map of the Chennai metropolitan area. The Chennai city itself is the dark inner area. Large parts of the outer region have been urbanized, especially along the roads and railway lines.

Chennai's economic development has been closely tied to its port and transport infrastructure. Five major roads radiate outward from Chennai:

• Erukancheri High Road to the northwest, becoming National Highway 5 to Kolkata;
• Poonamallee High Road (Periyar Salai) to the west, becoming National Highway 4 to Bangalore;
• Mount Road (Anna Salai) to the southwest, becoming National Highway 45 to Tiruchirapalli and interior Tamil Nadu;
• Madras-Tiruvallur High Road (MTH Road), built parallel to NH 4 to the west, leading to Tiruvallur;
• Beach Road to the south along the coast, becoming East Coast Road to Pondicherry and beyond.

The more important of the radial roads are connected to each other by two ring roads, the Inner Ring Road and Outer Ring Road. A major problem facing Chennai is urban sprawl. When the Inner Ring Road was built in the early 1980s, it used to effectively bypass the city and was valuable for rapid freight movement between the southwest NH 45 and the northwest NH 5. The city grew subsequently and subsumed the road as part of itself. The Outer Ring Road was built through the late 1990s to provide a better bypass. It currently links NH 45 with NH 4, and a second stage linking NH 4 with NH 5 is planned. Elevated roadways are also being built along several sections of existing roadway to reduce travel time.

The Central Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) was opened in 2001 in Koyambedu in western Chennai. The CMBT is the largest bus station in South Asia, and serves as the terminus for all intercity buses from Chennai. The CMBT is located on the Inner Ring Road, obviating the need for intercity buses to enter the main city.

In addition to the roads, Chennai has a complex rail network for both passengers and freight. Three important railway lines radiate from Chennai Central station:

• West to Avadi, thence to Arakkonam, and eventually Bangalore or Mumbai;
• North to Ennore, thence to Gummidipoondi, eventually to Delhi or Kolkata;
• Looping east to the harbour, then southwest through the city to Tambaram, thence to interior Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

These railway lines are also used by commuters on suburban trains. In addition to these train lines, there is an elevated MRTS railway system, which is intended to provide a loop around the city for commuters who currently use city bus services. The MRTS is operational between Beach and Tiruvanmiyur (about 40% of the total planned length). The section between Tiruvanmiyur and Velacheri is under construction, and a stretch from Velacheri to St Thomas Mount has been approved. A suburban stretch from St Thomas Mount to Tiruvottiyur is being planned.

Chennai is connected well by air to most cities in South East Asia and the Middle East. It is connected to major aviation hubs in Europe. The city is served by the Chennai International Airport.

Most of Chennai's intracity transport requirements are met by its extensive public transport system. The bus services, which are run by the government-owned Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), are efficient but can get very crowded at times. The bus service, which plies about 1478 buses on 375 routes, move an estimated 4.2 million passengers each day. ([3]) In addition to the bus service, private call taxis and autos are extensively used. Rental cars and two-wheelers are used too.

People and culture

People

File:Chennai.ranganathanst.jpg

Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar is usually packed with shoppers. Powered vehicles are forbidden on this street.

The majority of the people in Chennai are Tamilians, with a sizable Telugu minority. English is widely spoken, and is used almost exclusively in business and education. The Tamil spoken in Chennai uses English words very liberally, both for basic words like "time" and "office" and certainly for all technical words like "carburetor" and "vacuum gauge".

Historically, Madras under the British used to be the capital of the Madras Presidency, which covered most of the area now occupied by the modern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, excluding the princely states enjoying British patronage. Madras thus inherited a rich mix of languages and dialects, most of which have corroded with time. Marwari moneylenders and businessmen from northern India (mainly from Gujarat and Rajasthan) settled in and around north Chennai in the 1950s, many of them in the locality of Sowcarpet, which is a polyglot mix of sahukar (Hindi for "moneylender") and pettai (Tamil for "neighbourhood"). Chennai has become therefore cosmopolitan over time, becoming a melting pot of cultures and traditions.

Culture

Chennai is a major cultural hub. It is known for a branch of Indian classical music called Carnatic music, and a classical Indian dance form called Bharatanatyam, which is also the official dance of Tamil Nadu. An important cultural centre for Bharatanatyam is Kalakshetra (Sanskrit for "place of the arts"), located on the beach in the south of the city. Founded in 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale after an encounter with Anna Pavlova, Kalakshetra is a cultural hotspot with thousands of students from many countries learning the "Kalakshetra style" of Bharatanatyam, in addition to music, painting and other fine arts.

Every December, Chennai has its five week-long Music Season. The Music Season was started in 1927, to mark the opening of the Madras Music Academy. It used to be a traditional month-long Carnatic music festival, but since then it has also diversified into dance and drama, as well as non-Carnatic art forms. The traditional role of the Music Season is to allow aficionados of Carnatic music to appreciate performances by renowned artistes, and also to provide a good opportunity for promising young artistes to display their talent and skill. During this time, a large number of Sabhas (music halls) organise Kutcheris (formal concerts). Artistes come from across India and from the international Indian diaspora to play during the season. The event has grown over the years; there were over 1200 performances by about 600 artistes in 2004-05 (about 700 vocal, 250 instrumental, 200 dance and 50 drama and others ([4])). The Madras Music Season has been described as Asia's biggest cultural event.

Apart from the rich indigenous culture of the city, Chennai also has a vibrant Western cultural scene. A recent trend has been schools that teach ballet, jazz and other forms of traditional and modern western dance forms. There are a number of active theatre and dance groups that give performances on a regular basis. Rock shows are also a regular feature. The Unwind centre hosts a show every Friday night. The June Rock Out, conducted every year, brings in rock bands from around the country to participate. Chennai also has a number of home-grown rock bands who mostly play covers of popular Western rock music. For instance: Moksha, The LBG, Buddhas Blown, No Idea, Shadow Symphony, Sound Sleep, Tin Leaf, and Powder in the Ashtray. Some of these groups also play their own music, most notably The LBG.

Chennai has a large film industry nicknamed Kollywood, after the locality of Kodambakkam where most of the movie studios are located. The movie industry is usually held responsible for making about 300 Tamil movies a year.

Cuisine

Chennai is known for traditional Tamil cuisine. The staple food of most of the population is rice. This is usually steamed and served with about two to six accompanying items. Typically the items are sambar, dry curry, rasam, kootu and thayir (curd) or moru (whey or buttermilk). Lighter meals usually include one or more of pongal, dosa, idli or vada, and are often served for breakfast or as an evening snack. Many meals are chased by a hot filter coffee, the signature beverage of the city. Another popular beverage is strongly brewed tea found in the thousands of small Tea Kadais found across the city.

Other cuisines are also popular in Chennai: Indian, European Continental, and Chinese cuisines have been around for a long time. Mexican, Thai ,and Mediterranean cuisines have made their entry in the past few years. A growing trend is fusing traditional Tamil cuisine with elements from other cuisines from around India and the world. This results in both spicier versions of foreign dishes (such as Szechuan Chicken Masala) and remixed versions of traditional Tamil dishes (such as Cheese Mushroom Uthappam), increasing the diversity of city cuisine.

Architecture and urban planning

The Government Museum in Egmore is a good example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. It was designed by Henry Irwin, and completed in 1896.

Chennai has a very heterogeneous mix of architectural styles, from ancient temples built by the Pallavas through the British era to features of 20th century urban planning. Chennai has a colonial core in the port area, surrounded by progressively newer areas as one travels away from the port, punctuated with old temples, churches and mosques.

The colonial legacy of Chennai is apparent in the vicinity of the Chennai port. South of the port is Fort St George. The stretch between the Fort and the port is occupied mostly by the High Court buildings and several clubs, some of which have existed from the British era. A little south of the Fort, across the Cooum river is the Chepauk cricket stadium, another British staple, dating from 1916. North and west of the port is Georgetown, where dockyard workers and other manual labourers used to live. Georgetown is now a bustling commercial center, but its architecture is significantly different from areas closer to the Fort, with narrower roads and tightly packed buildings.

The Ripon Building, which houses the Chennai Corporation, was completed in 1913. It was named after former viceroy Lord Ripon (1880-1884).

Some residential areas like Tiruvallikeni (Triplicane) and Mayilapur (Mylapore) have several houses dating from the early 20th century, especially those far removed from arterial roads. Many of them were built in the traditional Tamil style, with four wings surrounding a square courtyard, and tiled sloping roofs. In sharp contrast, the apartment buildings along the larger roads in the same areas were built in 1990 or later.

Many other old buildings are still fully functional and host government, business or educational establishments. For instance, the General Hospital moved to its current location in 1772 (it opened to Indians in 1842), the Presidency College was built in 1840, the Royapuram Station dates from 1856, the Central Station dates from 1873, the High Court was completed in 1892, the Ripon Building (which houses Chennai Corporation and the mayoral offices) dates from 1913, and the Southern Railway Headquarters was built in 1922. Many of the colonial era buildings are designed in the Indo-Saracenic style.

The Central Station was built in 1873 and remodeled in 1900. It became the city's main railway station in 1907, taking over from Royapuram.

Other roads and localities have undergone significant change in the late 20th century. Many areas along the western stretch of the city were planned development efforts, such as Ashok Nagar, KK Nagar and Anna Nagar. Several areas south of the Adyar river, including Kotturpuram, Besant Nagar and Adyar itself, have been developed only since the mid 1960s. Characteristic features of all these localities are their unusually wide roads and Cartesian grid layouts. Many of these places were remote suburbs when they were first developed.

LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) building

Current urban development efforts are concentrated along the southern and western fringes, largely seeking to benefit from the growing IT corridor in the southeast and the new ring roads in the west. The extent of the city's sprawl is indicated by the fact that the area administered by Chennai Corporation is 174 sq km, while the total urbanized area is estimated to be over 1100 sq km.

Parks, beaches and wildlife

Parks

The Guindy National Park in the south of the city is the country's smallest National Park, with an area of 2.76 sq km. This is also a rare National Park that is located completely inside a large city. It hosts a variety of endangered deer (spotted deer, black buck), snakes (pythons, boas, cobras, kraits, vipers) and other endangered animals (tortoises, turtles) ([5]). The adjoining IIT campus also holds many deer, non-poisonous snakes and monkeys. This park plays a vital role in cleaning the city's atmosphere, and is several degrees cooler than the city in summer.

The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (better known as "Vandalur Zoo") is located southwest of the city and covers an area of 5.1 sq km. The Zoo was formerly located in the city under the name "Madras Zoo", and was the oldest zoo in the country (established 1854 ([6])). It was moved to its current suburban location in 1980. It has about eighty species on display, and includes a lion safari and two aviaries.

South of the city, along the East Coast Road, is located the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which hosts several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and also turtles and snakes. It is considered an important institute for herpetological research, and performs services such as snake venom extraction for preparing antidotes.

Beaches

Facing north on Elliot's Beach in Besant Nagar

The Marina is the city's longest beach, and its 13-km length is often subdivided into more manageable units. The northern part of the beach (immediately south of the Cooum river) is called the Marina beach, and is followed by the San Thome beach, which lies north of the Adyar river estuary. South of the Adyar, the first section is called Elliot's beach or Besant Nagar beach, and is followed by the Thiruvanmiyur beach, the Kottivakkam beach, and the Neelangarai beach. The beach is visited by most people in the late afternoon and evening, when the sea breeze effect is at its strongest. It is also favored by joggers at dawn and by couples at night.

The southern stretches of the beach, from Thiruvanmiyur to Neelangarai, are favored by the endangered Olive Ridley turtles to lay their eggs every winter, as are other beaches in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. At that time, many conservation volunteers work on the beach during the night to protect the eggs or to remove them to a hatchery. Hatchlings are usually released to the sea in March or April.

Education

Chennai is the location of several colleges and universities in a wide variety of disciplines. The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1959), located in the south of the city, is well-known for its engineering program. Located diagonally across the street is the main campus of Anna University (1978), which formed from a merger of the College of Engineering, Guindy (1794), the Madras Institute of Technology (1949), the Alagappa College of Technology (1944), and the School of Architecture and Planning (1957). A large number of colleges in Tamil Nadu offering programs in engineering, technology and architecture are affiliated to Anna University.

The University of Madras (1857), which has three campuses in the city, offers a range of programs in liberal arts, science and commerce. In addition, a large majority of city colleges are affiliated to the University of Madras, and collectively offer programs in medicine, law, science, and commerce. Some such older institutions are the Presidency College (1840) and the Madras Medical College (1850), both of which affiliated themselves to the University of Madras on its formation.

Other educational establishments include the National Institute of Fashion Technology (1995), the Institute for Financial Management and Research (1970) and the Madras School of Social Work (1952).

Sports

Cricket is the most popular sport in Chennai. The M.A.Chidambaram Stadium (formerly known as Madras Cricket Club ground or Chepauk Stadium) in Chepauk was built in 1916. It seats 50,000 and is home to the Tamil Nadu cricket team. This stadium is noted for its appreciative crowd, which often surprises visiting teams with its good sportsmanlike behavior ([7]). The Chemplast Cricket Ground in the IIT Madras campus is another important cricket venue. It seats a small number of spectators, being surrounded by forest on three sides, and has been described by Sachin Tendulkar as "the most scenic in India".

The Egmore Stadium for field hockey seats 4,000 spectators and has an astro turf field. The Tennis Stadium in Nungambakkam seats 7,000 spectators and has 6 courts. This stadium hosts the ATP Chennai Open every January.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Periamet seats 40,000 and hosts soccer, athletic and volleyball competitions. The Aquatic Complex in Velachery seats 4,000. The city also has a good squash court. All these facilities were built in 1995, when Chennai hosted the South Asian Federation Games.

The Guindy Race Course for Horse racing was set up in 1777. Motor racing events are held at the Sriperumputhur (Thirupperumputhur) track for cars, and the Sholavaram track for motorcycles.

The city has three 18-hole golf courses: the Cosmopolitan Club has a golf course in Nandanam, on the banks of the Adyar river; the Gymkhana Club golf course is located within the central section of the Guindy Race Course; and the nearby Guindy Links. All three clubs were established between the 1870s and 1880s. Golfing in Chennai is usually done between September and February, when the ground is moist.

Problems facing Chennai

As of 2005, overpopulation is the single largest problem facing Chennai. This manifests itself in four main secondary effects:

• Urban sprawl
• Pollution
• Large slum population
• Strained natural resources

The city's population has grown from 1.54 million in 1951 to 4.2 million in 2001. The population of the metro area is expected to grow from about 6 million in 2001 to about 9.5 million by 2011. Due to structural and legal constraints in the city, tall buildings are not generally favored, especially if they are residential buildings. Most residential buildings in the city are four storeys or shorter. This has caused the city to spread outwards by a large extent. The area administered by the Chennai Corporation is about 172 sq km, which is a small fraction of the total 1177 sq km currently urbanized.

Consequently, the average commute distance and number of vehicles on the streets have both increased, the latter factor also being aided by the city's strong economic growth. Air pollution is quite serious, and is very unpleasant in combination with the high heat and humidity. The Cooum and the Adyar rivers are both heavily polluted. The Cooum in particular has been severely polluted with sewage from slums on its banks, effluents from some business establishments, and plastic bags.

As of 2001, about 25% of the city's population were classified as living in slum conditions. The overall literacy rate is about 80%. Nearly all the illiterate people in Chennai also live in slum conditions.

The city's water supply has also proved inadequate for its population, and an over-reliance on annual monsoon rains to replenish the reservoirs has compounded problems. There had been some attempts to pipe in water from various rivers, but they have proved largely unsuccessful. A large part of the city now buys water commercially from tankers, and rainwater harvesting has become an essential practice.

Famous people born in Chennai

• Engelbert Humperdinck, pop singer
• Nasser Hussain, English cricketer
• Pete Best, early Beatles drummer
• A. R. Rahman, music composer
• R.K. Narayan, writer
• Viswanathan Anand, chess grandmaster

External links

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Administration

• District of Chennai - Official government website for Chennai District.
• Corporation of Chennai - Official website.

History

• Archive of historian S. Muthiah's articles on Chennai, published in The Hindu
• Vintage pictures of Madras: [8], [9]

Weather and tourism

• Weather Underground: Chennai (Madras), India Forecast
• Chennai travel guide at Wikitravel

General city information

• ChennaiOnline.com
• SpiritOfChennai.com
• ChennaiBest.com