July in Chennai

July 1st 2019 was my first trip to Chennai India. That time everything was new, and I had no clue how to get anywhere on my own and was scared to death to cross the street even. Well July 2025 marks the 7th time I had gone to Chennai in just short 7 years. That basically means once a year trip but actually in recent 2 years I had gone to India more frequent due to business and dance needs. Long story short, why did I come back to Chennai having just gone back to the US from Chennai in January. Chennai does have my heart, and a strange sense of what might happen in the future, everytime I am about to go to India, I could start to see and smell the scent of Chennai, that feeling started in May, and I knew I was coming.

It wasn’t a leisure trip, in fact, it was the most hectic trip ever as I had hoped to just come and look at fabric and document what I wanted to show them to the tailors and they can purchase as the time comes when the music is ready for the dance production I am working on, but things change and sometimes they change faster than we think. I went to meet with 2 tailors. First tailor was nice but less experienced with dance productions like this and at this scale, and though his price was cheaper, I still went to meet with the second tailor who turned out to be a professional bespoke costume tailor who had stitched custom costumes for dance schools like Sridevi Nrityalaya, Apasara Singapore etc. Upon showing him the sketches, he knew exactly what I was looking for. His price was of course more, but I feel like I should not go cheap on the costumes and have it done wrong, rather if I was going to spend, I should have them done by more experienced tailors who have done dance productions like this. He told me I had to purchase all the fabric and borders and give them to him. I stepped into something I didn’t anticipate, and something I wasn’t experienced with since I am not a tailor, how much fabric to purchase for top, seat, dhavani, pants etc etc was like cracking physics problems to me.

With much confusion, I started fabric shopping the second week I landed in Chennai, first day I didn’t have much luck. I went to Akrithi Embroidery in Velanchery, they had limited stock and selection and half the store were under renovation, I could barely see any fabrics.

Day 2, I went to Egmore, having done my homework of which fabrics shop to visit and how to visit many in the same area on the same day. I started my journey at Thakurdas Choithram, but that turned out to be a failure since they are temporary closed…I then walked to Ridh fabric studios which I had heard on instagram a while back, but they also didn’t have what I was looking for. I found only some 17 meters of gold chiffon fabric. I walked the next store, Anmol dress material located near the government museum, it is situated in a small plaza with many small shops inside, a very typical Indian set up which you will find this kind of set up in every part of India. I did find Modal silk material with the print I thought suited for the Rakshas characters, I purchased 8 meters. A small win, but still a long way to go. I called uber to go to the next shop: Attic, but again they didn’t have what I was looking for, but the staff member recommended another shop- Matkatus, which was located in Valasaravakkam, far from Egmore, I called Uber and without hestitation, dealing with fatique and hunger at this point, I had just one goal in mind, find what I was looking for. It was nearly 3pm maybe when I got there, the shop didn’t have a facade, just a board saying Matkatus, but it looked like a house, I called the number listed on google, a female voice answer the phone on the other end in Tamil, I told her I couldn’t find the shop, she told me to just walk in the gate.

I walked in, a female staff greeted me, it was a tiny little store and there was no customer inside besides me, only 3-4 female workers and one male worker in the front. I looked at their modal silk fabric, not what I am looking for then Ajrakh cotton, it wasn’t suitable, then I went to the front to look at ikat material, my eyes were drawn to the green ikat that looked like the print I had found in the chinese Tang dynasty textile pattern book I had bought a while back, I thought this green can be used for the front blouse and maybe pants for the forrest spirit Dun Huang dancers, however I was confused, overwhelmed, and now dealing with a headache due to low blood sugar of not eating, I couldn’t think very clearly. I called Priyan for his opinion. First I couldn’t reach him, 5 minutes later, Priyan called me back, his voice is always warm and welcoming. He was traveling but still he guide me through the process of how to utilize the fabric, I had thought of using the fabric for top and bottom, but based on my drawing, he suggested I use the fabric for the front panel blouse piece and the panels on the bottom and select a solid color separately for the pants material. Haven taken his advice, I asked for 15 meters of the green fabric, but they only had 12 meters, I had to purchase 4 meters of a blue color ikat fabric. Oh I forgot to mention, before I called Priyan I had them cut 1 extra meter of a similar fabric and was ready to purchase 19 meters but I was very confused, Thanks to Priyan, I had only bought 16 meters at the end. Matkatus was too expensive, but I thought this exact design I might not find it elsewhere, so I went ahead and bought it. That marked the end of my day 2 of fabric shopping.

Day 3, my goal was to cover the shops in Perry’s, first stop would be M. R. Fabrics, and T. Mangharam next to it within 2 minutes apart from each other. I left around 10:15am and arrived at M. R. Fabrics at around 11am, it took me a few minutes to find the shop, shop banner was small, I followed the banner to a step of narrow steps to upstairs and found a relatively small shop. I asked them for Ajrakh print, the staff member couldn’t understand what Ajrakh was, so I had to show a picture. Funny thing is Ajrakh is pronounced as it is, perhaps it is his lack of knowledge, but being a staff member at a fabric store, shouldn’t he know the names of the fabrics? Anyways, I looked at their brocade fabrics and their printed fabrics, nothing fitted into the pattern or the fabrics I was looking for, so I left shortly after. Next door is a building with a proper shop and shop facade says T. Mangharam. I walked in, first floor is sarees and suits, second floor is fabrics. I turned towards my right shoulder, here is their brocade fabrics, I quickly locked my eyes on 2 sets of brocade red fabrics. The shop staff took out the fabric, I took pictures and sent the fabric pictures along with the costume design to Priyan, Priyan is always very helpful. He asked me a couple of questions regarding the design, and helped me decide on a print. That print was exactly something I have been looking for, diamond shapes in gold with small blue prints and it suited the motif of the pattern I drew, circles with small blue print, and since the dhavani is gold, the gold in the red compliments with the gold in the blouse very well. That was successful, I then asked them if they had matching color bottom material, they showed me red printed soft material that matched the color of the brocade red fabric I had just selected. I immediately asked for 17.5 meters, and they had enough in stock. Next I asked for the same print in royal blue for 17.5 meters, unfortunately the printed fabrics they didn’t have enough in stock, they showed me similar blue colors in the same print, but I felt like it was a bit of a mis match, so again I asked Priyan, just at that moment, shop staff said they have the same exact fabric in plain royal blue. Priyan suggested when tailor stitched the pants, he can mix the printed fabric with the plain, so it doesn’t look too plain. I purchased maybe 9 meters in printed royal blue and rest in the plain shiny royal blue. Small win win situation. I thought I was done shopping, booked a uber and went home.

After I got home, I asked the tailor if he could purchase the rest of the material, he said he could if they are plain material, so that means anything with some sort of pattern I have to purchase, this snowballed my work. I have to purchase fabric for almost all the character except for maybe one character that is Buddha. I texted the tailor and asked him how many meters for sleeves, dhavani, seat, part top, and panels on the pants and calculated how much fabrics I needed for each character that took me nearly 2 hours to document and I thought to myself. I will go back to T Mangharam again tomorrow and get most of my fabrics there. Since I had very limited time, I didn’t have the liberty to compare prices with varies shops. T mangharam was fine for my needs, so I had decided to just get my fabrics there.

Day 4, I went back to T Mangharam and started off getting the fabrics for the tiger costume. I went through my document of each character, how many meters for each piece of the costume and did my best to purchase the appropriate fabric. From 11am to 3am, I was at T. Mangharam. I came home with 5 full bags of fabrics and needed help from 2 staff members to help me carry them out to an auto. It was a successful day, however my day was not over. After getting home, I quickly ate and showered and got to work. I had to modify my document to write down the material that has been purchased, take photos and put them in the document and figure out how much material is left for me to purchase. It took me another 2 hours to take photos, sort out the fabrics and document. In the meantime, I had to figure out where I should go tomorrow. I decide to go to Nalli 100 and Finesse Exquisite Lace store both located in T. Nagar. In this situation, I have to be extremely organized and meticulous, or else I will not be able to accomplish my goal.

Day 5, I started for Nalli around 10:15am and arrived at 11am, it was a Saturday and T. Nagar is busy as usual, the weather was hot with the sun blazing. Me on the street of Chennai stands out like a sore thumb because I look different but hey who cares, being different is a good thing. The only thing that bothered me is that sometimes people assumed I was Japanese, not always the case, but at least 2 people asked me. After getting to Nalli, I thought it would be a quick trip without much material needed, I underestimated how much material is still left to purchase, after nearly 1.5-2 hours, I left with 3 bags of heavy fabrics, this scratched my plan to go to the borders shop, there is no way I can carry this much stuff throughout the store. I would have to come back tomorrow. I went home, reworked my document and highlighted how much borders I should purchase only to find out most shops are closed for Sunday including the lace store I was planning on going, this put me into a dillema of whether I should skip my Saturday evening karanas choreo class to get this job done or I should wait till Monday and risk having a tight schedule. However dance seems to always take a priority and it’s a rare opportunity for me to take in person classes in Chennai, so the decision wasn’t a hard one. I went to my Nritya Sangraha class and decided to not stress too much about it as it will get done on Monday.

Day 6, since I could not go to the lace shop, I had decided to go to Kapaleeswarar temple to pay my respect to Lord Shiva as it is a ritual that everytime I come to Chennai, I must visit Kapaleeswarar temple at least once. My roommate and Japanese friend Maya decided to join me since her morning class is canceled. It was a hot day, pavement was hot and temple was crowded with people doing darshan. We got in the line, as surprisingly as it was, the line moved rather quickly, and we had to shove through a mountain of people to get a glimpse of the lord. I was slightly annoyed and kind of pushed the lady in front of me a bit to get them moving. It wasn’t graceful but the proper Asian way and how I grew up, dealing with crowds then push people around. This was all too familiar and not foreign to me. We went clock wise at the temple and paid our respect to each residing deity in the temple and even patted a calf. At the end of the visit, we sat down and I saw a picture on the pillar and decide to copy the painting onto a piece of paper. I normally carry pencils with me, but luck had it, I didn’t that day. My friend Maya offered me her pen and tore out part of her journal for me to draw on. Maya is a genuine soul, she is very sincere and kind, a really good kind of friend to have and cool person to hang out with. When I create art, I get lost in the moment of creating, sitting in front of the pillar, undisturbed by the noise and surroundings, I kept on drawing, however people keep on blocking the pillar and I had to ask twice for them to move our of the way. One elderly man stopped by and asked if I was an artist and told me his son is also an artist, he wanted to take a photo of my drawing and then handed me his card. He had a kind smile, he warmly told me with exciting tone of voice that today is his 25th wedding anniversary to his wife, who was standing next to him, smiling at me kindly. I told him congratulations and shook his hands. We left the temple around 1pm, Maya seems to be in a rush as she said she had to be back home at 3 to get ready and help her guru with Abhai function that night, the pravasi festival for NRIs which I also applied but didn’t get selected. All for the better as I couldn’t have done both anyways. I wanted to get a brass coffee filter as my business partner Vipin had requested, Maya on the other hand went to Sri Amman Gold Plated Work in a rush to get something. I shopped at street vendors buying small hair clips, hair pins, safety pins and nada (finally). I saw a street vendor who sold stainless steels kitchen toys and also coffee filters…I video called Vipin, asking him in Hindi which ones he wants, after selecting one and 2 tumblers, I was just about to pay, Vipin called again asking if they are good qualities. I said quality is ok, not so great as it is from the street. He said it is better to get a proper one from the store, I told him that I won’t have that kind of time to go to a store specially for a coffee filter. The thing I didn’t understand was why he insisted buying one in person, many good quality coffee filters available online he could purchase and have them right away. Anyways, after a small shopping, me and Maya went to Saravana Bhavan for food. I ordered meal while she got noodles, she doesn’t seem to be that fond of south Indian food like I am. She told me she likes Maharastrian food because her mother in law makes good Maharastrian food.

After lunch we booked an auto and went home. I had to hand wash my salwar cotton sets because no washing machine readily available in the apartment and I was out of practice sets to dance in. After that I took a little nap as evening I had planned to see Roja Akka’s performance at the Pallava festival in Besant nagar, 18 minutes by walk from my place. Around 5:30pm, I started draping my new cotton kalamkari saree and getting ready to go out soon. 6:15pm I left the house and took the main street road which pass right by Vani akka’s house. I got there by 6:40pm and was told to wait outside because previous performance was still going on. Ranga and her family showed up the same time as me, and shortly after, all the Bharatanatyalaya girls showed up one by one. Then came Vaishu’s amma, by sheer chance I asked her if she knew of any good border shops for clothing. She suggested Noori lace (means 100 laces in Tamil), she said it is a small shop but they have everything and their price is also very economical. I had already spent much money buying fabric and didn’t feel like burning another $500-$700 on borders, so I decided to go to Noori lace instead of Finesse Exquisite Lace because I know for sure Finesse will charge more for their borders as it is a bigger shop.

Roja akka’s program started shortly after 7pm, I sat in the front row on the very right side. It was a very small black box theater, can seat less than 100 people. It was emotional to see akka on stage again after a tough year fighting cancer. During her toughest times, akka never stopped teaching, even though she did stop striking Tattukazhi in class and stopped playing nattuvangam for programs. Roja akka is like goddess descents to earth to me, she is so loving, kind, down to earth, dedicated to her art and a genuine soul. Akka performed 4 padams, 2 javalis and a small surprise item at the very end. One can read each emotion on her face and feel each heart beat of the Nayikas she was depicting. After the program, I got on stage and bid goodbye to akka and gave her a big hug, I walked home.

Day 7, by early morning tomorrow I have to head to the airport, I had to get whatever I needed to finish done. On Google it says Noori Lace opens at 9am, I got there at 9:20, couldn’t find the shop, I called the phone number listed on Google, the person told me shop opens at 10am only and is located in Fatima Plaza next to Ramraj Cotton. Now I got 40 minutes to kill, what to do? Couldn’t find any cafes anywhere…sometimes it still baffles me that shops open late in India. In the US most stores would be open by 9 or 9:30 already. I walked around aimlessly, this is not a cheap area, I walked into a shop and bought some pistachios, they were Rs 1036 which is around $12, it’s too expensive. After that I walked into another shop but their clothing was too expensive, even kids dresses were above Rs 2000. Enough of stores, I sat down in front of the plaza and decided to kill time until plaza opens or else will just keep on spending money. Finally 10 o’ clock rolled around, I walked into the plaza, most shops are still not open yet. I found Noori lace quickly, however it was still not open, I decided to wait in front of the shop until it opens. Around 10:10, a man showed up and opened the shop. I walked in, truly a small shop, but all shops in Plaza are like this and that’s why the prices are also better than bigger shops. Owner is a muslim man and he spoke Hindi, that makes my life easier, I started selecting the borders etc starting with character one, then 2, then 3 until character 22. The shop owner made his money for the entire week I think, he was very happy at the end, however gpay of course didn’t work. I had to go to a bank. First bank didn’t work and I had to go to a second bank. This trip I encountered many problems with Gpay, santander mobile app not working, can’t zelle, can’t transfer then sometimes ATMs fail too. It could be very stressful. However I was able to accomplished what I came here for. With a heavy bag of tons of borders, I came back home and started packing. 5 boxes stacked to the top and the next challenge I had to solve is how to courier them to the tailor in Tambaram. Tailor suggested Porter, I googled porter, however it had a weight limited on the website. I then went upstairs to the owner Shanthi akka, her husband then told me to download porter app. After downloading the app, it went pretty smoothly, I booked a 3 wheeler which at the end turned out to be an auto…Indian style haha. I loaded 5 boxes into the auto and took a picture and sent it to the tailor. One hour later auto driver called me asked me in Tamil where the shop was. How could I explain that in Tamil. He neither spoke English nor Hindi, so communication was difficult, I had to again asked Anna for help. After almost 40 minutes of back and forth, and rs 100 more, we got the problem sorted and tailor received the boxes. Stress is now off the table, however I still had to shoot one dance reel, and pick up stuff from 2 tailors. Maya and I successful shot the dance video, however I left my speaker on top of the car and lost it…there was just too much on my mind, and I wanted to get everything done and bags packed already. Early morning flights are too stressful as I don’t do well at night, this has been one hectic trip of first losing tripod then speaker but in the end, I had accomplished my goal, so what’s lost is lost, I bought another speaker on Amazon india for $9 and a tripod for $5.

After swiggy order, I went to sleep at 9:30, woke up at 11:30pm and did final pack up and left the house at 12:51am for the airport. Journey back home was much smoother than journey to Chennai. It took me 44 hours to get to chennai due to flight delays and one missed flight but 22 hours to come back to Boston.

What a trip. I normally don’t keep journals but I felt like this one was worth documenting. Chennai, dusty, dirty after rain, crazy drivings but many untold stories and always carries a piece of my heart. I will be back in 2026, till then I shall carry a piece of Chennai masala on the tip of my tongue.