Never miss another music concert or dance performance, thanks to free maps by Hashtag Urbanism.Commissioned by Uber, these hand-printed maps also have interesting nuggets about sabhas in the city
CHENNAI: This season of Margazhi is magical indeed. Sabhas all around the city invite throngs of seasonal rasikas, and sabha mess outdoing themselves with newer varieties of sweets and karams. In fact, sabha-hopping has never been so exciting! But just how many sabhas are there in the city? How close or far from each other? Do they all have a mess? Google Maps may not have the answer — which is why a research and design studio in Chennai, Hashtag Urbanism, took it upon themselves to make sabha-hopping a smooth and pleasant experience! Commissioned by Uber, as one of its projects under UberKUTCHERY, the handy printed maps are a boon to the novice rasika.
Available at most sabhas, for free, the illustrated pamphlet acts as a tourist guide indicating active sabhas and important music concerts to catch all in a quirky and vibrant orange and white design. “We did a lot of research on the history of the music festival and its importance locally and globally. Did you know it is one of the largest music festivals in the world!?” says Preetika Balasubramanian, one of the founders of Hashtag Urbanism explaining that each sabha contributes to creating a micro-culture within Chennai, and is very crucial to our city’s identity. “Our team of illustrators also worked towards creating an original map that can actually be very relevant every year as a guide to the festival if the Municipality or the organisers take that up!” she smiles.
The Hashtag Urbanism team took over two weeks to research, analyse and design the map, and seem to have unearthed a lot of information along the way. “The first week was spent on research and data collection on Margazhi, the artistes and the events around Chennai. Scrutinising the data was the hardest thing to do, as it was immense,” says Siddarth PT, co-founder, Hashtag Urbanism.
A section of the pamphlet focuses on interesting facts about the Margazhi season — for instance, did you know that during Margazhi season, scientifically, the ozone layer is closest to Earth and hence breathing in fresh early morning air is highly beneficial to health? “There are million things to know about Margazhi, and most of us youngsters are dispassionate to take the thread forward,” he notes.
Over 15,000 copies of the map were printed and circulated through newspapers in Mylapore, Triplicane and surrounding areas. It is also available for free in all the major sabhas in the city like Vani Mahal, Parthasarathy Swani Sabha, Mylapore Arts Centre, etc. A veteran rasika, Padmanabhan from Mylapore, cannot stop gushing about it! “It’s a wonderful initiative. It’s also heartening to note that youngsters are taking interest in the Margazhi festival, and promoting it among their generation too. The map’s design and handy-ness is a fun way to look at the festival!” he says.
Both architects, Siddarth and Preetika feel that through a map, it is possible to document a city and its nuances permanently. “Maps are the only means to create a sense of pride and ownership to the city or place we belong to. In my view, a home in child’s memory is equivalent to a city in its dwellers memory, and a map nourishes that memory,” says Siddarth.
After travelling and visiting Europe, they noticed that every city had its own map which was available for free at any corner. “Chennai, like all Indian cities suffers from not being documented at all. We also try using maps as a tool to take the unnoticed urban subjects, issues and arguments to a layman in an interesting way,” says Preetika.
Hashtag Urbanism curates an online catalog of maps made by architecture students and graduates (available on their website). “We want to tap into the potential of GIS mapping/data systems and convert the data into custom-made maps. Quirky tourist maps of other cities in Tamil Nadu are in the works,” says Preetika.