'Chennai's iconic buildings inspired me to draw'

I’m a Chennaivaasi and have a lot of love and emotions for my city. I’ve so many fond memories of my school days — my friends and I used to travel in MTC bus from Nanganallur to St Thomas Mount as only one bus will be there from our area. It was a fun-filled journey and we use to have rose milk or goli soda at the St Thomas Mount bus stand.

With my pocket money, I used to go to Ranganathan Street, T Nagar, for buying TV video games cassettes and also visited Bhat's hotel and eat cut mangos sold in the pavement kadai. 

A few years ago, I used to watch cricket matches at the Chepauk stadium with my dad. Watching Sachin Tendulkar playing in the stadium was a huge thing those days. Getting an entry ticket after a long wait was like a dream come true moment for me. During my college days, I took the suburban train with my friends. Small onion samosas and verkadalai will be superb in local trains.

In Chennai, my most favourite hangout places are Besant Nagar and Marina beach. Ramajayam fondly called Mor Thaatha has been selling the best buttermilk on his bicycle daily from 7 pm to midnight at the Thiruvanmiyur beach for the past ten years. Kolkata chat in Alwarpet and Kulfi Nagaraj in Triplicane are my other favourite spots.

Chennai has the second largest number of heritage buildings after Kolkata; not many are aware of that. These iconic architectural heritage buildings have inspired me as an artist. Recently, I did a stamp series as a tribute to this beautiful city. Since postal stamps are unique I decided to present how Madras has evolved through the series.