Dakshina Chitra

The workshop on nutrition that I participated in Chennai was for five days; however, most of the sessions from the third day onwards were not relevant to my job. Instead of getting bored at the session hall, my colleague and I went to visit our office branch in the city and met with the officials. The meetings did not go well with so many people we were supposed to meet not turning up. On Friday afternoon, February 29, 2008, we decided to visit some tourist areas in the city. We were brought by the driver assigned to us to several places which not catch our attention. Finally, we visited Dakshina Chitra in East Coast Road, Muttukadu which is about an hour from the hotel. It is like a museum of sorts showcasing different types of traditional houses and crafts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. After paying the entrance, the staff gave us a map for our self-guided tour of the area. It is like a small village where you hop from one house to another. Inside these houses – fragments of which were part of antique houses somewhere – are dioramas of people engaged in what look like normal day-to-day tasks like weaving and cooking. Here are some photos I took during the visit.

Beautiful Windows

Intricate Doors

Sculptures and Carvings
The Hallway