City of stars: Humanity is losing sight of the celestial commons

One December evening I climbed to the mottai-madi, the bare terrace atop my parents’ four-floor apartment building in Chennai and waited for darkness to descend. The sun still hung low, an orange-red orb in the distance. Overhead, rose-ringed parakeets zipped towards their nightly roosts, squawking loudly – their day was done. Lone Indian flying foxes, fruit-eating bats, largely silent, were just setting out for their inverted day. They would glide under the cover of darkness. Alone, I waited for the nightly sky-show to begin.

In the distance, a large skeletal structure loomed – an abandoned parking garage, its insides darkened by mildew. A theatre, owned by TR Rajakumari, actor and star of the early black-and-white film era, had once stood in that spot. As a child, I watched the film Chandralekha in which Rajakumari played the village dancer who stole the hearts of both the crown prince and his lustful brother. It aired on a Sunday evening on television.

If you have seen the 1948 blockbuster – it was remade in Hindi as well, starting a trend – you will recall the beat of the spectacular drum dance near the end of the film. Maybe, you remember Ranjan, the swashbuckling villain, with his polished sneer and a...

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