Tamil Heritage Trust
25 Jul 2026
*Madras Week: Chennai observes August 22nd as Madras Day. It was on that
day in 1639 that the East India Company represented by Francis Day,
Andrew Cogan and their dubash Beri Thimmappa, struck a deal with the
local Nayak rulers to establish a settlement on a piece of land where
Fort St George stands today. What started as an anniversary
celebration in 2004 has morphed into a month-long festival, still
referred to as Madras Week, that showcases the history and heritage of
Chennai / Madras.
Tamil Heritage Trust is happy to set this year's Madras Week*
celebrations rolling with a talk about the history and heritage of
Chennai / Madras. Madras was the starting point of railways in India. The first
railway line was proposed in 1832, completed in 1835 and became
operational in Madras in 1837.
In his talk "Lineside: The Origin and Legacy of Railways in Madras", naturalist, photographer and heritage enthusiast 'Poochi' S Venkataraaman
explores the beginnings of the railway system and showcases its
evolution through vintage photographs and historical snippets. He
will also help us understand how the railways developed around Madras
and South India with interesting stories about the experiments and
innovations unique to Madras.
The online Talk in English at 5.30 pm IST, 1 Aug 2026.
To receive your link for the talk, please register at: bit.ly/THT_Register
S Venkataraaman, popularly known as Poochi Venkat, hails from a
family of playwrights, editors, artists, and writers, notably R.K.
Narayan and R.K. Laxman. His interest in visual arts began after
receiving a gift of his uncle’s cartoons and later discovering a hidden
film movie camera which had been used by his father. While in school,
Venkat started a mini photo lab at home, earning additional pocket money
by printing and selling photographs to friends and neighbours.
Subsequently, his focus shifted to Sound and Electronics, and he chose
to pursue a career as a Sound Engineer, designing and manufacturing
audio systems.
In 1991, he returned to photography full-time, combining it with print
design. His early assignments involved reprography which required macro
techniques. In one such assignment, he had to duplicate nearly 200
slides of micro-fauna which led to a photo-scientific research on
spiders. In 1998, during a photo-research assignment in Chennai’s Guindy
National Park, the forest officials admiringly called him “Poochi
Venkat” to mark his dedication in documenting creepy-crawlies! That name
has now become the trademark for Venkat and his macro work!
Over three decades, Venkat has handled various genres of photography
like Macro, Perspective, Architecture, Repro, Medical, Corporate and
Low-lux to name a few. He has worked as a professional medical
photographer for dentists, surgeons, and professors, mainly because of
his comfort level with intense surgical procedures in hospitals.
Venkat also works as a video editor. In the last 18 years, he has worked
on 70 short & documentary films, and one feature film. He
specializes in the style of Photo-Films which have been screened across
the world. His experience in sound engineering helps immensely in
post-production.
Tamil Heritage Trust
tamilheritage.in
tamilheritage.in@gmail.com
youtube.com
919444823681
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