Chennai Culture Guide: A City of Arrivals That Shaped It

Let’s face it, capturing a city as vast as Chennai can be a herculean task. After all, we all have some vague idea of what the place has to offer: scrumptious spreads, temples at every corner, a coastline that stretches on and on – all held like glue by the sweltering heat and a sepia tone that settles into your picture memories. Yet, it’s rare to meet someone who’s been to Chennai and experienced it in the same way. That’s because a city that keeps making room for eras, faiths, cultures, and people isn’t meant to be understood in a single visit. So if you’re here because another travel blog told you to see Marina Beach, you’re already closer to Chennai than you think. Ditch the guides and let’s step into the stories that shape the Chennai Culture.

Tradewinds & Faith Drawn by the promise of routes and an artificial harbor, the Portuguese first arrived in 1522 on the sandy shorelines and built the port of San Thome for St. Thomas who they believed preached here in the centuries before. They worked to restore what little familiarity existed – reviving Saint Thomas’ tomb and the Nestorian Church in Mylapore which echo their arrival even today.

1/34 stained glass panels

San Thome Basilica

Teak wood ribbed vault ceiling

Spain, The Vatican, and Chennai – these are the only three places in the whole world where basilicas are built over an apostle, San Thome being one of them. The pilgrimage site from 16th century is housed in the neighborhood of Mylapore where duality exists in the form of the 7th Century Kapaleeswarar Temple devoted to Lord Shiva. Incidental? I feel it’s another reflection of the city’s ease with coexistence.  Ledgers & Languages Armenian traders came in with ledgers, global networks, and business acumen making (then) Madras a thriving trade port. This small footprint on the Coromandel Coast opened access all the way to Manila and even Amsterdam – I mean, could you imagine silks, silver, and gems crossing countries seamlessly by the 1660s? What brought me closer to understanding them was a visit to the Armenian Church of Virgin Mary in George Town. I walked over many tablets with inscriptions only to learn later that these stone plates on the floor were actually tombstones, marking graves of almost 350 Armenians. The inscriptions often included iconography to denote their livelihoods too.

Inscriptions and Iconography on gravestones

The belfry with 6 heavy bells which are rung every Sunday

Khachkars or cross-stones

Following my curiosity, I learned:

• Being buried in the church grounds kept them in close proximity to the divine

• Placing gravestones as flooring, allowing worshippers to walk over them symbolized humility

• Carving inscriptions on khachkars or cross-stones meant daily communion alongside the living 
  

Permanence & Commerce If you ever visited St. Fort George, you might have already felt the spillover of the Armenian touch in the English settlement built in the early 1700s. That’s because they integrated into the fortress – offices, churches, administration, neighborhoods all started drawing the city around it like a magnet for trade and better opportunity. 

St. Mary's Church also known as Westminster Abbey of the East

Fragments from bombardments in the city

Spot where the same shell hit the city walls

I didn’t make much of the artillery and fragments from World Wars that were cleanly cataloged in the museum cases. There was one from the bombardment of Madras which I paused at wondering just how much the city has seen. Shortly after on my way back, my auto driver paused at a nondescript place from the museum to show me a stone sign where the shell hit the city wall. They were both parts of the same story and that told me just how the city carries its scars. Planning Trip: St. Fort George started off as a simple rectangular fortress and today houses the Secretariat and Legislative Assembly for Tamil Nadu. The museum & church is a small part of it and is open to the public after thorough security checks and guardrails within the fort. Carry a valid ID, avoid carrying prohibited items, and account for delays. Fabric & Finance By the 18th Century Marwari merchants moved inland through the south trade routes and settled in Parry’s Corner, particularly Mint Street. It’s one of the city’s longest and most active market roads, almost like a spine for trade in textiles, artificial jewellery, gold, and more. Today, in the evenings you can expect throngs of people who beeline for its street food and North Indian dishes.

Narrow lanes dedicated to trades

Influences of the Marwari community in Mint Street

Glass bangles wrapped up in newspaper in wholesale stores

Parry’s Corner is made up of almost 25 distinct streets, each dedicated to a specific, wholesale trade. From rare, imported goods on Kasi Chetty Street to colorful bangles on Perumal Mudali Street, there’s nothing this market doesn’t hold – provided you know where you’re heading. On ground, the lanes and names lose meaning, passerbys vaguely point so don’t be shocked if you end up stumbling on something you weren’t searching for. Take the Metro to Broadway and you’ll exit right where it all begins! Culture connect across borders: Being lost in the lanes of Parry’s Corner, Chennai reminded me of the Old Quarters of Hanoi, Vietnam where lanes were neatly organized for different purchases, like entire worlds held within themselves. Recipes & Resilience With the exodus of Tamil-speaking Burmese between 1960-80s, Chennai found itself making more room (and 150,000 at that!). The repatriated community bore influence on the city’s street food scene with ‘Atho’ – a Burmese cold noodle salad that can be sampled in the lanes opposite Burma Bazaar. The line of shops known for its grey market goods is actually where ages ago, livelihoods were made by selling anything they brought with them.

Atho cold noodle salad and soup made of banana stem

Burmese-descendent run street stalls

Egg bejo to accompany Atho or as a snack

Atho food stalls function without flair, representing migrated recipes that have adapted to local availability of ingredients and flavor profiles. Cold rice noodles are mixed with cabbage, chilies, and lemon (anything more is a secret). It is traditionally served with a soup made from banana stem, with a side of egg bejo (boiled eggs and fried onions). Look for them at 2nd Line Beach Road; only a handful of them are run by Burmese-descendent shop owners who will even chat with you while you indulge in their nostalgia. Chennai Culture is incomplete without its food options! Rupture & Refuge On the fringes of the city past landfills and towards the IT corridor is Kannagi Nagar – one of the largest resettlement colonies here in Chennai. After the tsunami of 2004, the area saw the relocation of countless lives cramped into new housing over flood-prone marshlands. Though it never features on any tourist list, I feel understanding the city is incomplete without this site. In 2014 St+art and Asian Paints brought colorful murals to the neighborhood making it an accessible art district.

Wall murals by international and national artists

The other side of the art, unkempt buildings

Art against poorly managed living conditions

Kannagi Nagar also features in the backdrop of films and documentaries as the underbelly of the city. During my visit, the murals were peeling and faded, having outlived their period of novelty. I didn’t see health clinics, hardly enough grocery stores. Between the walls were glimpses into real life trying to thrive – poor sanitation, inadequate water supply, and other administrative issues. This grim face of the city staring back with resilience and hope, was Chennai too. I'm sure of it now: Arrival is what defines the Chennai Culture. Harbors became ports, ports turned into settlements, and over time, markets and commerce corridors took shape. Instead of growing out of its eras, the city stacks them – allowing lives, faiths, and histories to coexist in quiet harmony. Perhaps that’s why they say, In Chennai, you arrive and become. The city already holds traces of us all.