Madras, a place where women found home, and freedom: Author, professor Kalpana Karunakaran

Chennai/Madras means a great deal to me and the older generations of women in my family. I have just written a book on my maternal grandmother, and ‘Madras’ is in the title of the book !

For my grandmother born in 1911, Madras meant the possibility of six precious years of school life. She studied at Lady Willingdon School on Marina Beach. And for my great-grandmother born in 1897, Madras was the city to which she escaped and where she lived apart from her husband, experiencing the relative freedom of city life and the heady atmosphere of the Freedom Movement for six years. My mother, born in 1939, was an active organiser of factory workers and a familiar face and name during the massive May Day rallies that the city witnessed in the 1970s and ‘80s.