Madras is home, Madras is heart, Madras is me: Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli

I am still getting used to calling the city Chennai. I have always called it Madras. This is where I have been all my life, says Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, national award winning actor.

Madras also was the reason I fell in love with the sport of cricket. Neighbours getting together to watch a match in one house made me curious about cricket. Every street had boys playing cricket on the road, and it made me want to try the sport. I used to be the only girl in the entire neighbourhood playing cricket with the boys on the road.

I grew up in West Mambalam. All my memories of the place are about being out on the streets and playing; all day with all the kids from the neighbourhood. That was a time when we knew every house on the street and could enter any of them to get a glass of water when we were tired or even a snack occasionally. As children, we knew more people from the neighbourhood than our parents.

Moving away from there to living near the beach has been wonderful as well. Like every single person in Madras, I love the beaches, and they have been an important part of my life. I have spent years watching the sunrise at Elliot’s beach while playing ultimate frisbee. We had national beach tournaments here and got clubs from cities without beaches to come and experience the joy (or strain) of playing the sport running in the beach sand.

As theatre actors and performers, we in Madras are lucky to be able to perform in one of the most beautiful venues that is the Museum Theatre in Egmore. I have enjoyed performing there with every chance I got. Being an actor, work sometimes takes me to corners of the city that I would have never had a chance to go to otherwise. Recently, I shot some scenes in Ennore and absolutely enjoyed being there every single day. Another shoot took me on top of the hill opposite the airport from which we got exquisite views of the flights landing and taking off. Every time I go to a corner of the city I have not been to, I become a tourist myself and have absolutely enjoyed it.

Every time I have gone away from Madras for a few days, I have missed the city and I wait to get back. Madras is home, Madras is heart, Madras is me.

(As told to Udhav Naig)