Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze: Stories from a City That Never Forgets

Every city has a soul. Some reveal it in skyscrapers and neon lights. Some in wide boulevards and endless chaos. And then there is Chennai — a city that whispers its truths through the hiss of the surf on Marina Beach, the clang of temple bells at dawn, the aroma of filter coffee in steel tumblers, and the hearty cry of the sundal-seller threading his way through evening crowds.

Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze, the fourth book in the Heartbeats of India Series, is a love letter to this soulful city — to Madras-that-is-Chennai, to its people, to its paradoxes, and to the unspoken threads of nostalgia that bind us to a place long after we’ve left its streets.

If Maximum City, Minimum Time captured the chaos and tenderness of Mumbai, and Biryani Dreams served up Hyderabad with spice and sentiment, this book does something unique with Chennai. It slows down time. It lets the sea winds carry you across the city — from Luz Corner to Parry’s, from Mylapore’s veedhis to Adyar’s quiet lanes, from crowded buses to the broken bridge that stands like a witness to forgotten youth.

Why Chennai?

Because Chennai is never in a hurry to show you its magic. It asks you to listen. To pause. To look.

Walk its streets, and you’ll see contradictions everywhere: the IT corridors buzzing with global dreams, cheek-by-jowl with ancient temples still guarding secrets of the Sangam age. You’ll hear the slang of autos — “seri boss, meter podu” — blending effortlessly with the delicate cadences of Carnatic music floating out of December sabhas. You’ll see sprawling malls rise next to century-old bookshops still smelling of ink and dust.

Chennai doesn’t clamor for your attention. Instead, it seeps into your bones. And before you know it, you’re part of its rhythm.

This is what Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze captures.

The Stories Within

This book isn’t just about Chennai’s geography. It’s about its people. The aunties who guard recipes like family heirlooms. The auto drivers who double up as philosophers. The librarians protecting fragile palm-leaf manuscripts from being lost to bulldozers. The techies who chase dollar dreams but return home for Amma’s sambar. The estranged friends who find closure at the very edge of the city, where the sea swallows silence.

Each chapter is a standalone tale, yet together they form a mosaic of the city’s heartbeat.

• In “The Librarian of Luz,” you’ll meet a reclusive guardian of ancient Tamil manuscripts, caught between heritage and real estate greed.

• “Sunsets at Broken Bridge” takes you to Adyar’s hauntingly beautiful bridge, where two old friends reunite, carrying the weight of a teenage tragedy.

• And the finale, “Madras Manathil,” stitches together characters from earlier stories, colliding in unexpected ways during Chennai Day celebrations — a celebration not just of a city, but of memory, loss, laughter, and life itself.

Humour bubbles gently through these pages, as does heartbreak. Nostalgia tugs at every turn, but so does hope. Like the city itself, the book never stays in one mood for too long.

The Spirit of Madras

When you hold Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze, you’re not just holding a book. You’re holding pieces of Madras stitched into words.

You’ll hear the evening call of “thenga maanga pattani sundal” on Marina sands. You’ll feel the sticky sweetness of jigarthanda cooling you under a relentless sun. You’ll smell rain-soaked earth as the northeast monsoon lashes the city. You’ll smile at the “aiyo paavam” of gossiping mamas and aunties, and chuckle at the resigned sigh of a bus conductor battling coins and chaos.

And you’ll realize that this city is shaped by its people just as much as it shapes them. For every person who calls Chennai home, or has once done so, these stories will feel like slipping back into a well-worn cotton veshti — comforting, familiar, timeless.

Who Should Read This Book?

• If you have roots in Chennai, this book will feel like homecoming.

• If you’ve lived elsewhere in India, it will open a window to a city that rarely shouts but always stays.

• If you’re part of the global Indian diaspora, it will remind you of the taste of tamarind rice packed for long journeys, of Carnatic concerts in December sabhas, of the way Chennai lingers in your accent no matter where you live.

It’s also for anyone who loves stories — stories that are funny, heartbreaking, tender, and deeply human.

A City That Never Lets Go

At its heart, Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze is about belonging. About how a city holds you in ways you don’t always notice — until you leave, or until years later, when the smell of filter coffee or the taste of sambar brings it all rushing back.

Chennai is not a city that demands your love. It simply waits. Patiently. Quietly. Like the sea that laps against Marina’s sands every night, as it has done for centuries.

And once you’ve lived here, or even once you’ve read these stories, you’ll know one thing for sure: you can leave Chennai, but Chennai never leaves you.

Closing Note

With Sundal, Sambar & Sea Breeze, the Heartbeats of India Series continues its journey across cities — each book a reminder that India is not one story, but millions of small ones, stitched together by laughter, tears, spices, slang, and memory.

If Mumbai is the city of endless hustle, Hyderabad the city of flavours, and Ahmedabad the city of resilience, then Chennai is the city of heartbeats carried by the sea breeze — steady, strong, unyielding, and yet, always tender.

So step in. Let the stories take you by the hand. Let the sundal crunch, the sambar swirl, and the sea breeze whisper. Madras is waiting.

Paperback and e-book versions, both Indian & International are live now on Amazon.

For a complete list of all my book projects, click here.