After Zoho CEO’s thinnai tweet, social media users in city walk down memory lane

Soon, many took to Twitter to share about their thinnai experiences. “Thankfully we still have the thinnai at my parents’ and I make it a point to sit for 10 minutes there. I still recall the night before packing off to Madras, staring at the sky from the thinnai knowing life wouldn’t be the same. We rarely get outdoor living in the city,” said Ashwin Ramaswamy, replying to the tweet. A transitional space between the home and the outside, the thinnai is a multi-purpose area used across communities. According to historian Thirupurasundari Sevvel, who has conducted Thinnai Trails for seven years, the space was open to all. Based on the space constraints and proportions, thinnais can come in various sizes, and need not always be at the front of the house.

“Now, hardly anyone uses the thinnai . In cities, there definitely is a space constraint. But aside from that, people have become more private. The thinnai was both a public and private space. Now with gates and apartments, people prefer more seclusion,” said Sevvel.

However, in the lockdown, many people have found the space convenient to keep deliveries and a space for visitors to relax without entry into the house, she said.

With most people preferring apartments and individual homes coming up with compound walls and vehicle parking space, spotting a thinnai , in the new Chennai these days, is as rare as spotting a sparrow in the city.