DakshinaChitra – A cross cultural living museum in Chennai, Tamilnadu

Series Name – Welcome to Chennai
Hello Everyone,
Today is Pongal/Makar Sankranti . I am starting my new series “Welcome to Chennai” on this pious day. So first of all I should wish everyone Happy Pongal/Happy Makar Sankrant /Happy Lohri (Sorry Belated, as this post will be published later).
Chennai – City where I am currently residing. We came to Chennai in the year 2009 from Delhi. Delhi and Chennai are totally different cities. Major difference we faced here was Language. Initially it was like a foreign land for us or you can say we were foreigner here. Slowly slowly we tried adjusting ourselves or Chennai had adjusted us as per Chennai life. Jeans /T-shirt got replaced by Salwar suits & Sarees, Hair accessories were replaced by Veni (real Flowers), Cholle Kulche got replaced by Idly,Dosa and Pongal, Bhaiya replaced by Anna and finally our tag of North Indian got replaced by ourselves as Chennaites. But, I must admit that today I am in love with this city, no matter even I am still a learner in Tamil language ,no matter we never get a chance to see temperature below 10 degree , no tasty north Indian foods , but Chennai is Chennai.

So , I am here to take you to a trip of Chennai. Hope everyone will enjoy this post and my feelings and experience towards Chennai. I am also sure that in this series you will surely explore few new interesting places which are not very much advertised on internet.
First place I would like to take you is Dakshin Chitra – As name suggests, it means a “picture of South”. Dakshin Chitra is a non profit community service project of the Madras Craft foundation for the promotion and preservation of the cultures of the diverse people of India with emphasis on Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Opening timings: 10 am – 6 pm
Closed on : Tuesday
Address : ECR (East Coast Road), Muttukadu, Chennai – 603118
Phone no: 044 – 27472603 , 27472783
Website : www.dakshinachitra.net.

We went to DakshinaChitra in the month of December 2010 by our car. The entry fee for DakshinaChitra is Rs 75/- (adult) and Rs 20/- (Children between 5 to 12 years) and Rs 30/- (student between 12-18 years). Although this place is located at the outskirts of Chennai (or to be precise 45 kms from the city) it is very well connected from city. Regular buses and taxis are available for going to this place. This place can be very well visited if you are visiting Mahabalipuram or Pondicherry and can spare 1-2 hours in between.

So after purchasing tickets we entered inside the DakshinaChitra. On our left there were shops selling crafts item .Also at the entrance we found Jagannath Puri’s idols kept in the courtyard area. We were then informed by the staff there that they were celebrating Orissa craft festival so craftsman’s from Orissa has come here to exhibit their art and culture.

On the right side of us there was also a restaurant, library and toilet blocks . All these were small beautiful ground floor structure with paved roof. We skipped going first to Library and moved straight. On our right there was  Amphitheatre. As we moved further we found small shops selling craft and art items. Also there were stall teaching how to make terracotta toys, palm leaf decoration, puppet making etc .They term this area as “Craft Bazaar”. After spending fifteen minutes at Craft bazaar and purchased nothing we proceeded further. There were proper sign boards or direction boards were fixed on paved path to guide visitors. We first went towards Tamilnadu Section. Also we had pamphlet in our hands given to us along with ticket so we were very clear on which way we should go.

As soon as we entered inside the Tamilnadu we had this feeling as if we had entered into some small village of Tamilnadu. Beautiful Chettinad style houses and other houses were showcased at that section and that too in a real size. There were replicas of 6 varieties of Tamilnadu House (Merchant house, Agriculturist house, Potter’s house, Basket weaver’s house , Bramhin House, Weavers house) at the Tamilnadu Section. Also there were halls dedicated for art and textile exhibition and a replica of Ayyanar Shrine was also made at this section.

It was for the time I was seeing Tanjore painting. It was so beautiful . So I decided to learn how to make Tanjore painting. But when I actually started I realised that it is very fine art and it is not my cup of tea. Somehow I finished my Tanjore painting in 2.5 months. For those who are not aware of, Tanjore painting is a major form of classical South Indian painting from the town of Thanjavur , Tamilnadu. Gold foils are used for making this painting.

So, we had finished Tamilnadu section and then we moved to our next section Kerala.
Kerala section again had replica of varieties of house like Hindu house , Christian house and Activity hall.

This finishes our Kerala section and we returned towards Reception area as Karnataka and Andhrapradesh section was on other side. On the way we found Small Park where children’s play equipment like slides and sea saw was available. All of us were very tired and hungry so we sat down at one of the Houses of Kerala Section.
After coming near to reception we were informed that Karnataka and AP section work is not yet fully complete, so we thought of skipping these two sections. We then went to Gallery and craft shop near reception, did some window shopping and came back to our car.

This finishes our day at DakshinaChitra which was quite interesting, informative as well as tiring as one has to walk a lot. From here we straight headed to Sangeetha Restaurant at Adyar for doing our pet puja with mouth watering South Indian meals.
As Dakshina Chitra is far off from Chennai one can club points like MGM Dizee world (Amusement park), Muttukadu Boat point along with Dakshina Chitra.

I will soon add a post on Muttukadu and MGM Dizee world in the series.
“ Welcome to Chennai” …to be continued…

As I am a Greening person professionally as well as personally, I decided to do a bit from my side to save earth in my each post. So here is a tip to save our mother earth to all Ghumakkars as well as to all who all will read my post.Hope everyone will like my small initiative.

Change incandescent bulbs into CFL .It will save lots of energy as well as your electricity bill.