On Sunday evening, I make my way past families sitting under the trees at Gandhi Mandapam, children running around the lawns, and people on benches immersed in their phones to a small group engrossed in their books.
This is not a unfamiliar sight as most green spaces across the city are becoming havens for the city’s residents across ages to read, journal, and create art. Walk through the Dr. Visvesvaraya Park or the Anna Nagar Tower Park as it is known among locals, and you are sure to spot a group, noses in their books, or another not too far off immersed in journalling. At the Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore, on every alternate Sunday, you are likely to stumble upon a neat array of books and a group of children and adults reading. Meanwhile at the Adyar estuary, in Tholkappia Poonga, amateur artists dabble in paints and pencils as they attempt to capture the hues of the sky on canvas.
