Madras Institute Of Development Studies

You will find us at 79, 2nd Main Road in Gandhi Nagar. Adyar is a busy area, but this particular street stays relatively calm compared to the main junctions. Our building is where a lot of thinking and reading happens. We have a lot of researchers and visitors who spend their days looking through old records or writing up their findings about how things are changing in the state. The library is probably the busiest part of the building, though "busy" here usually means people sitting quietly at wooden tables for hours. We have a lot of shelves filled with reports and journals that have been collected over many years. The air is often thick with the smell of old paper. There is a small garden area out front that we try to keep tidy, though the Chennai heat makes it a challenge sometimes. We have had to fix the roof a couple of times after the monsoon rains, and the walls could probably use a fresh coat of paint soon. It is a functional space without any unnecessary frills. Most of us who work here have been around for a long time, so we have our set ways of doing things. We have meetings in the back room where the fan clicks a bit, but it keeps us cool enough. It is just a steady place for people to come and do their work without being disturbed by the city.