In Chettinad, the holiday comes with homework

I expected a holiday. I got a lecture.

We sit cross-legged on the floor, notebooks open, as architect Sashikala Ananth pulls a measuring tape out of her handbag with the delight of a conjurer. She begins to measure a wooden pillar at AR House, its surface worn smooth by centuries of use. As she runs through a series of calculations with her audience, the logic behind the compelling visual rhythm of Chettinad’s 200-year-old mansions becomes evident: they are built on precise math.