WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXVI No. 10 September 1-15, 2016

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• Madras Week nostalgia

• Pictures of a celebration

• The Surf of Madras

• Runners & Cricketers

Does Marinareally needa sailingacademy?

Do we deserve civic improvement?

(Continued on page 10)

(By The Editor)

(Continued on page 3)

A different kind of celebration by the US Consulate General during the Madras Week.

It appears that the threats toour city’s beloved beach will

never cease. The State Govern-ment recently made an an-nouncement that a sailing acad-emy at a cost of Rs 7 crore, willcome up at the Marina Beach,ostensibly to help create an en-vironment where “world-classfacilities for water sports” canexist. The question is, giventhat the eastern face of ourState is one long coastline, canthis facility not be put up else-where?

Our beach grew to itspresent size thanks to the con-struction of the harbour in the1880s. And it must be admittedthat threats to it have alsogrown since then. In the early1900s, there was a plan to builda railway on it. In the 1980sthere was thought of having theMRTS cross it. A decade or twolater there were plans to con-struct condominiums for the af-fluent on the waterfront andsometime later a Union CabinetMinister announced that acommemorative tower wouldbe built there. Fortunately, allthese plans came to nought, butit appears that the flow of ideashas not yet ceased. Clearly, thesight of such a vast open spacemakes people in power come upwith schemes aplenty.

The latest in the series is thisidea of a sailing academy. Thewaterfront is already gettingcongested. Beach Road, whichwas at one time a vast andempty stretch, is getting in-creasingly clogged with ve-hicles. In the summer months,the Police are forced to declareas one-way various stretches ofthis thoroughfare in order to

deal with the influx of visitors.There is a terrible service roadthat all vehicles bound for SanThome are forced to take,morning and evening. This is athoroughfare that is most likelyin violation of coastal regula-tion zone (CRZ) rules, for itruns close to the sea. The fish-ing hamlets that have been herefor centuries have already com-plained several times about itbut to no avail. Now the origi-nal residents of the area willhave to put up with the sailingacademy as well. Will it not addto the congestion already pre-vailing here?

Chennai already has two in-stitutions dedicated to sailing.

Sadly, the answer is NO. Wehave for long blamed our

city’s Corporation and othercivic agencies for their inepti-tude in keeping our cityshipshape. We have rested con-tent after complaining aboutthe garbage, the poor roads andthe lack of pavements. But,when the authorities begin im-proving some of the facilities,we respond by rampant vandal-ism. Does this in any way be-come the residents of what issaid to be the cultural capital ofIndia?

Take for instance the boardsbearing street names. We havehad this initiative being imple-mented for the past two years.All of a sudden, long forgotten

(By a Special Correspondent)

streets began to come to life,neighbourhoods regained anidentity, and finding locationsbecame that much easier. Theboards were mounted on el-egant metal frames with thenames pasted on them usingadhesive sheets, thereby ensur-ing that when errors werepointed out, correction wasswift. The sheets were lumines-cent and so visibility at nightwas also easy. Our streets hadnever had it so good in a longwhile. But what we are now no-ticing is that in many places,these signboards have becomeconvenient sites for pastingposters. For a change, the politi-cal parties are not to blame. Incase you have not observed, the

number of posters of that ilk hascome down drastically in thepast few months, it being reli-ably learnt that informal ordersare in place to that effect fromup top. What we now have areposters that are commercial innature, pasted by newsagents,quack medication vendors andothers. Surely these people canpractise some discipline? Inmany places, the luminescentsheets have been ripped off,leaving a white board in place.After a while, the boards van-ish, the metal frame is then pil-fered and sold for scrap.

Those at the bottom of theeconomic scale are probably do-ing these act of vandalism. Theyprobably need that space for

advertising and also makemoney by selling the metalframe. But what about the well-to-do? They appear to be nobetter. We have seen a revivalof pavements in some localities.Efforts are being made to clearthese of encroachments, re-laythe stones and make them com-fortable for pedestrians. In orderto prevent people from parkingcars on them, many of thesesidewalks were fitted withbollards, some of metal and oth-ers of granite. This apparentlyhas not been to the liking ofthose who reside in the imme-diate vicinity, as that means

One of the most imaginative events markingMadras Week this year was a series of

videos by the US Consulate General in Chennaiwhich featured American staff participating ineveryday Madras activities like eating with theirhands in a ‘mess’ and tying jasmine flowers in ahouse.

A group of American staff and their families,which also included children, went to theKasivinayaga Mess in Triplicane, and ate thefood served on banana leaves with their hands.

“Eating a meal with your hands from abanana leaf is always special, isn’t it? And it’s acelebration, especially in South India! We aretrying to connect with the every- day rhythm ofMadras life by highlighting Madras culture,food, and traditions. This is the first video inthe Madras Week video series. SEVEN more tocome. Keep watching and make your Madrasconnections! Happy Madras Week,” read the

caption of the video posted by the US Consu-late General on YouTube.

The group seemed to have done their home-work, because they even had their banana leaf-etiquette on point. Before the meal was served,the leaf-plate was sprinkled with water and thencleaned using their hands, like they had beendoing it for ages. Then, with no forks or spoons,they ate a hearty meal, complete with chor(rice), sambar, poriyal (stir fried vegetables withgrated coconut) and pappadam.

With a couple of toddlers in the mix, balanc-ing eating with their hands and making sure thekids ate too, did take some manoeuvring, buteveryone seemed to have a great time. Therewere even some self-congratulatory exclama-tions on how the sappad sans cutlery should bedone again.

(See pages 5-8 for more Madras Weekcoverage)

2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

And so, Chief, here we areat the end of Madras

Week 2016. And what a weekit has been. And what a rangeof events – from talks ontemples in Vietnam to bookson science fiction, all launchedin the name of Madras Week.Never before has any event sounited such a diverse collec-tion of people under one ban-ner. As for the walks, Chief –what a number and what vari-ety – street walks (sorry Chief,what you think MMM meansis not what MMM means),food walks, tree walks, insectwalks, saree walks, fort walks,port walks, temple walks, walkwalks. And then you had thesecombo walks – saree andtemple walks, talks and walks,walks and talks, only walks,only talks, talks on walks,walks on talks … MMM sim-ply lost count after the first tenor so. So did the people whospoke, got spoken to, talked,walked and gawked. ToMMM, it was almost a Decem-ber Music Season redux withalmost as much debate overquality versus quantity.

Just like the December Mu-sic Festival, Madras Week getsits share of media attention,with reporters stalking eventafter events. And their thirstfor information was phenom-enal. When was Madrasfounded? Who was the MughalEmperor who built the palacethat became the GPO? Wherewere the stables at Kodambak-kam that gave it the nameGhoda Baugh? Was it notcruel of the British to build amoat just to keep Indians outof Fort St George? Who wasMr Cenotaph after whomCenotaph Road is named?Such wonderful queries,Chief.

We also had apart fromwalkers, talkers, gawkers andstalkers, some mockers as well.This year saw some peopleprotesting against MadrasWeek, and that is a sure signof its success. You, Chief, andalong with you MMM andother coordinators of MadrasWeek have been accused ofbeing in the pay of Rome. Arather prolix diatribe has itthat we are all in it to paint ourerstwhile colonial masters in arosy light thereby getting or-thodox Hindus to convert toChristianity. This tract wastitled ‘Madras Weak’; MMMbelieves that the appropriateword to come in next is usually‘sic’.

Yet another write-up, thisone an online petition, had itthat Madras was a bustling me-tropolis even before the Britishcame. MMM believes thatFrancis Day took the 19M busto travel to the Nayak for ne-gotiations and after they signedthe deal they went to Buhari’sto celebrate.

These detractors were, how-ever, enough to excite the me-dia, which is forever huntingaround for controversies.MMM received several callsfrom the electronic mediawanting what they refer to assound bytes. He bit them all offsoundly and refused to rise tothe bait. Controversies for-sooth! The debate, if ever therewas one, raged before an en-tirely indifferent public andthose who opted to celebrateMadras Week, continued do-ing so.

Having said that, Chief,MMM would like to remindyou of his share when Il Papasends you what he promised inreturn for our celebratingMadras Week. And no, MMMwill not settle for a bible and arosary. Meanwhile he looksforward to Chennai Week inSeptember when Telugu willget its due.

Madras Week – from Valsaravakkam to the Vatican

A historic wave

The number of historiansand chroniclers that our

city sprouted during MadrasWeek defied count. There wasa time, Chief, when you werethe only one. Now anyone withaccess to a fast internet con-nection to browse Wikipedia isa historian or a chronicler orwhatever is the appellation ofchoice. The newspapers de-scribed even MMM as one!And in that capacity MMMwent to town. He even sat injudgement over presentationson our city’s history – all down-loaded from Wikipedia, withMMM checking the samesource for veracity!

And so it was that MMMmade his way to a women’s col-lege where he was asked to sitin judgement over presenta-tions to be made by studentsand faculty on three greatwomen of Madras. MMM wasrash enough to say ‘yes’ butthen the invitation was from aperson who had dedicatedmuch of her life to selfless so-cial work. MMM had alwaysadmired this person and sothere was no way he could havesaid ‘no’. The college itself wasin one of those places in themid west, in a large suburb ofour city that could have wellqualified to be a Union Terri-tory by itself. MMM drove onand on and on. When he even-tually, reached the place, hewas accorded a warm welcomeand taken to the dais fromwhere he looked down on sev-eral hundred female faces.

A retired professor march-ed up and having introducedherself to MMM proceeded tothe mic from where she intro-duced Madras Week, herselfand MMM in that order. Shethen went on to say that it wasa matter of great regret to herthat Madras Week is entirelymale oriented and has failed tocelebrate any woman of thecity. This said, she glared atMMM who shrank into hisclothes and pretended to be in-visible. Around 400 pairs ofeyes, all female, looked at himaccusingly. Thereafter, theprof announced that to correctthis, the college and the otherco-celebrants had selectedthree groups to research thelives of three women. MMMwould now have to sit throughthese, presumably by way ofexpiation.

The first presentation wason an Irish woman who was areformer and freedom fighter

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

in India. This was by a teacherfrom another college. This waslong and loquacious, the kindthat omits no detail, howeverslight. After half and hour,and much shifting in his seat,MMM realised that thespeaker had come only to thesubject’s 50th year and therewere a good 33 left, all of themaction filled. Fortunatelysomeone sent a paper to thestage and then the rest ofBesant’s life was condensedinto a further ten minutes.

The other two speakersspoke for shorter durations.The second one was on awoman who reformed the lifeof widows. This was a mostunstructured and meanderingone that was besides full ofhowlers, English and factual.The third was on, of all people,a titled woman who was fromup north and whose connectwith Madras was at best tenu-ous. She studied here at Presi-dency College and married afellow student who, after join-ing the ICS, wound up a dis-tinguished career by becominga knight and the Governor ofthe Reserve Bank. He was oneof the many victims of the leg-endary rudeness of a Union Fi-nance Minister who was alsofrom Madras. It was onlymuch later that it struckMMM that the respectivelengths of the various presen-tations was directly propor-tional to what was there onthem on Wikipedia, that onesource which has given birthto several ‘historians’. Thechoice of the woman from up

north is still puzzling. Therewere, after all, hundreds ofother deserving women fromMadras.

Food For All

The Madras Week pro-grammes that ye olde

magazine conducts were alsorapturously received, Chief,though you, rather selfishly inMMM’s view, chose to make itonly to those events that inter-ested you – nawabs, cricket andgovernors on governors generalwho played marriage broker.MMM being more duty con-scious went to all. So did a gangof food predators that cameonly to eat at each of theseevents. And, by Francis Day!they did succeed in irritatingeveryone else who attended –the hapless staff at the hotelsthat hosted the events, theother guests and, at times, eventhe speakers. One of the last

named, a gentle soul who israther high up in Governmentcircles made it quite clear thathe would not want to be asso-ciated with the event if theseferal creatures turned up.MMM being of a more socialis-tic bent of mind preferred tomentally entertain himself byidentifying which animalspecies each of these foodpredators reminded him of.Here is a shortlist:

Woolly Mammoth – A largehairy creature with weak eye-sight who makes up for it by astrong sense of smell that de-tects when the food is served.He then uses his powerfultrunk (which no doubt hasevolved into his hands) to twistand manipulate his way intothe crowds and fill his plate.

The Boa – The female of thevariety is deadlier than themale and in keeping with this,the Boa is of the distaff side.The glare from her jewelleryblinds the others in the refresh-ments queue and, taking ad-vantage of it, she slithers herway in. She also hissed angrilyand spat venom about the wayin which women panellists at adiscussion on fashion inChennai were dressed.

The Vulture – Tall andbeaky, with a drooping expres-sion, this is a gentlemanlypredator that waits for othermore aggressive ones such asWoolly Mammoth and the Boato make way before it swoopsin on the kill.

The Gorilla – Big made,with a paunch and shamblinggait, it has a large mouth that

can chomp away at the tough-est of food offerings, including,in MMM’s view, a couple ofplates and knives. It hoversaround the refreshmentcounters long before the offer-ings are brought in, therebycunningly reserving for itselfthe first place in the queue.Having begun eating when thefood counter opens, it contin-ues doing so till the time theprogramme has wound to aclose. It also belches loudly inappreciation of what it haseaten.

The Love Birds – Thiscouple is always seen together.Two hearts that beat as one,two minds that think alike.They cleverly divide the labour– he stocking up on thesavouries while she foragesamong the sweets. Then he fillsin the water while she loads upon coffee. They then retire to acosy nest where they cluckhappily at their success, all wonby hard use of claws and beaks.They then bill and coo as theyeat.

The Porcupine – A satur-nine creature that not onlyrushes at the food but also in-sists on asking all the embar-rassing and prickly questions.It kind of met its match at a lec-ture on the life of a diva whereit asked the speaker as to whatthe attitude of the late terpsi-chorean was towards the birdsand bees. “Pro sex and anti ba-bies”, was the terse answerwhich shut the Porcupine up.

The Owl – A rather effemi-nate creature, it has a pair ofround, thick glasses that itpeers at everyone through. Butwatch it fly from counter tocounter, filling its plate in ahurry and you could get Olym-pians inspired.

The Sea Anemone – It getsthis name from a badly fittingwig it wears. A fixture at eventssince the time of Francis Day,it has lived entirely by attend-ing corporate events, claimingto be a journalist. It is invari-ably in the company of a her-mit crab that rarely asks ques-tions or converses, but does it-self well at the browsing andsluicing.

Given these creatures, wecould well have the Chief play-ing the role of Noah. The onlyconsolation is that these do notcome in twos, except of coursefor the love birds, and the seaanemone-hermit crab duo. Butit is MMM’s considered viewthat there is romance blossom-ing between the Vulture and theBoa. There was a certaintendresse in the manner inwhich he handed her her coffee,one for which he had to val-iantly fend off the WoollyMamoth and the Gorilla. Shetoo hissed not unappreciatively.Watch this space next year.

– MMM

September 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Madras – in a dedication & a news reportDr. A. Raman writing from Orange, N.S.W. Australia sends

us a couple of his findings which he says should interestreaders of Madras Musings particularly during “The MadrasWeek period”.

During my recent research on the evolution of pharmacopeiain India (and Madras), I chanced upon the PharmacopoeiaOfficinalis & Extemporanea by John Quincy, M. D., publishedin London, in 1722. I was pleasantly surprised to read the dedi-cation note (essay?) by Quincy in that volume. He dedicatesthis pharmacopoeia to Joseph Collett of Madras. Those inter-ested in knowing more about John Quincy are referred to theDictionary of National Biography (1885-1900), vol. 47, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Quincy_John_ (DNB00).

Dedication by Quincy to Collett runs to four pages. The textis interesting from the perspective of its wordiness and flamboy-ance. To illustrate my point, I quote a short section from hisdedication ‘essay’ here:

‘… We are Inhabitants on a transient Syftem of Matter,

that is neceffarily, from the conditions of its Exiftence, as

liable to Accidents and Decays, as it is to a total Diffolution.

And the Labour I have been at towards making eafy fuch

Inconveniencies, I cannot but with a particular Satisfaction

make you Tender of, as this great Diftance. You have com-

bated with all the Inclemencies and Tempefts of Seas and

Climates, to fill up that Station and Meafure of Duty,

affign’d by Providence: and with a pliable and well-

govern’d Conftitution, rather than a ftrong one, have you

been preferv’d through a Life of Toils and Danger. …’

[Note: read the above replacing ‘f’ by ‘s’ wherever necessary.]

Many of us would be familiar with the name, Joseph Collett,who was the President of Fort St. George in 1717-1720. Quincyconsidered Collett his mentor and the dedication of his book toCollett, therefore, does not surprise. Notable is that JohnQuincy had never been to Madras. Most of us should be familiarwith the suburb ‘Collettpet’ in Tiruvotriyur, which is namedafter Joseph Collett.

Many of us, I am sure, would have known of the MadrasGazette started as a weekly by Robert Williams (Company

Solicitor) to compete with the Madras Courier in Madras. Ifound the masthead of this weekly in the British Library websiteand am sharing it here with Madras Musings readers. The datein the masthead indicates that the Madras Gazette was opera-tional in 1809. Several library records indicate the starting dateof this weekly as 1795. But I found that a landmark event inIndian medical practice (not done in Madras) was reported firstin the Madras Gazette in 1793. So I argue that this weekly func-

tioned at least from1793, if not earlier.The citation ‘volumeXV’ in the reproducedmasthead also rein-forces the view thatthe start date was1793 and not 1795.

The Madras Ga-zette (1793) reporteda fascinating case ofthe earliest rhino-plasty (nasal recon-struction) by aVaidyan followingSusruta’s surgical pro-cedures, done onCowasjee (Kawasjee)in Poona in 1792.Cowasjee was workingas a cart man for theBritish army and, dur-ing the Mysore battle,

Tippu’s army commanders sloughed off Cowasjee’s nose. Al-though this story is widely alluded to in various medical jour-nals and text books, details of this reconstructive proceduredone on Cowasjee in 1792 was reported only in Madras Gazetteonly (see the original figure published in the Madras Gazette,1793).

The story goes thus: Thomas Cruso and James Findley,Bombay surgeons and Lt Col Ward witnessed the procedurecarried out by the Poona Vaidyan. A wax model representing anose was placed on the forehead (of Cowasjee) and a line wasdrawn around it. The Vaidyan cut around that line except astrip between eyebrows. After other surgical procedures, theincised skin flap was placed on the reconstructed nose. Curiousthat the skin flap securing was done by applying linen stripssmeared with ‘cement’ made of ‘Japan earth’ and water. In theimage of Cowasjee, a faint, angular line on his forehead can beseen. Obviously all was well with Cowasjee and he became amedical icon, widely spoken about in various then functionalintellectual journals, including those of medicine all over theworld!

Dr. A. Raman– araman@csu.edu.au

Observant reader

In ‘Quizzin’ with Ram’nan’(MM, August 16th), Ques-

tion number 8 reads as: “OnJuly 17th, the youngest PrimeMinister (aged 37) of the coun-try was sworn in. Name him andthe nation.”

Actually it was Pema Khan-du who was sworn in as theChief Minister of ArunachalPradesh on July 17, 2016.

S. Hariharanshariharan96@hotmail.com

Quiz master Ramanan writes:

Mea culpa! The observantreader is correct. It should havebeen Chief Minister and notPM as given by me.

Father remembered

This is with reference to theQuestion 9 in the quiz in

MM, July 16th.The question relates to the

presidentship of the CACCI –Confederation of Asian Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry.

Prior to Lakshmi Mittal, itwas held by my father Dr. D.C.Kothari, who spearheaded thisbody in the late 1980s.

He was also president ofFICCI in 1970, he was also theonly second Indian, and to dateever to be ISO President –1981-1983. This is the presti-gious International StandardsOrganisation (of ISO 9000)fame.

Maya D. Kotharikotmaya@gmail.com

DPI Campus buildings

As I read the report aboutthe DPI’s Campus (MM,

August 16th) remembered myfirst visit there in 1949 as a stu-dent of Teachers’ College.There used to be a lovely gar-den in the front (it has disap-peared long ago to make way forthe parking of vehicles. Therewere three buildings in the hugecampus besides the MLSLibrary Building.

Behind the main buildingwas the annex which the corre-spondent refers to as housingCARE. The quarters for theDPI was at the far end, on thebanks of the canal. WhenN.D.Sundaravadivelu becameDPI, he preferred to live in hisown house. S.V.Chittibapu, thethen Joint Director, occupied

Do we deserve civic improvement?(Continued from page 1)

they can no longer enjoy freeparking space. Many havetherefore taken to sawing awaythe bollards. As a result you cansee several pavements nowsporting stumps that can tripthe unsuspecting pedestrian.Many residents also encouragevendors and hawkers to set upshop on these sidewalks. Theseare seen as conveniences.

If these are the reactions tocommendable initiatives by theCorporation, we cannot expectour citizenry to do any betterwhen it comes to issues wherethe civic body is dithering atbest. Garbage segregation atsource, that Holy Grail, wassupposed to take off last month

after many earlier attempts thatremained non-starters. Thepresent steps appear to be nobetter. How have our citizensreacted? The way they havebeen doing for years, they now-continue dumping garbage at allavailable street corners, empty

plots of land and all water bod-ies! Even the best neighbour-hoods have not given a thoughtto this.

Is this how citizens of aworld-class metropolis areexpected to respond to civicinitiatives and issues?

the mansion. When the StateCouncil of Educational Re-search and Training was estab-lished, the DPI’s quarters be-came its office, in spite of itsunsuitability.

The first new constructionin the campus was the office ofthe Examination wing of theDepartment, later to become aseparate Directorate in 1968.

At the far end on the banksof the canal, were some oldbuildings which were rumouredto be the barracks of Lord Clive.Now a good number of build-ings have come besides a HinduTemple, a small church andprayer hall. The old worldcharm has been completely lost.

Similar seems to be the fateof the DMS Campus.

S.S. Rajagopalan30, Kamarajar Street, Chennai 93

MADRAS MUSINGS

ON THE WEB

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– THE EDITOR

OUR ADDRESSESFor matters regarding subscriptions, donations, non-receipt of receipts etc.: CHENNAI HERI-TAGE, 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 14. Madras Musings nowhas its own email ID. Letters to the editor can be sent via email to editor@madrasmusings.com. Those who wish to intimate change of address can also do so provided thesubscription number is quoted.For non-receipt of copies, change of address, and all other circulation matters: Madras Musings,C/o Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greames Road, Chennai 600 006. On editorialmatters: The Editor, Madras Musings, No. 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah,Chennai 600 014.No personal visits or telephone calls, please. Letters received will be sent from these addressesevery couple of days to the persons concerned and you will get an answer from them to your que-ries reasonably quickly. Strange as it may seem, if you adopt the ësnail mailí approach, we will be

able to help you faster and disappoint appoint you less.

ñ THE EDITOR

4 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

Madras – youare home

� by Tulsi Badrinath

In Madras, or Chennai, we aresimultaneously inhabitants of

a neighbourhood with itsshrines and local lore as we areto the larger idea of the city.

On August 22nd, 377 yearsago, a local chieftain displayingcustomary hospitality to a guestgranted a strip of sandy land toFrancis Day of the East IndiaCompany. Day was looking fora place to set up a factory andsource cheap cotton cloth. Thatland, comprising a few fishingvillages on the east coast of In-dia, secured by Fort St. Georgeand named Madras, became thenucleus of a sprawling nine-mil-

lion strong metropolis thatkeeps expanding. The graciousact by chieftain VenkatadriNayak was the proverbial inchwhich the East India Companyincreased to a mile, five villagesand then entire kingdoms

spreading over the Indian sub-continent.

In the narrative of thefounding of Madras are hiddenseveral truths special to the city.

We were at once modern andancient. We were global beforethe word became fashionable,the waves of the Bay of Bengalconnecting us with other conti-nents. In our interactions withpeople of different faiths, wesaw no reason to lose our stabil-ity and peace. In our neighbour-hoods, we combined the close-knit ties of a village with the ur-ban amenities of a city. And ourgenerosity of welcome remainsexemplary to this day.

If commerce formed the ba-sis of the early settlement,bringing travellers from all overthe world linking the British

with the Portuguese and otherEuropeans, as also the Arme-nian traders, their presence onlyenriched the fabric of faith inthe city. Not far from thetemple-settlement of Mylaporeis the Basilica of Saint Thomas,housing relics believed to bethose of the Apostle of Christ.The land for the tank at theKapaleeswarar temple wasgifted by the Nawab of Arcot, asymbol of the amity that existsin the city between differentfaiths.

The global link continues tothis day with the Americans ofFord, the Koreans of Hyundaiand the Japanese of Hondafame. Known for the excellentmedical care it offers, Madras isthe destination of hope formany patients, especially fromthe West Asia and Africa.

It is this long interactionwith people of other culturesthat has given Madras its ability

to absorb the modern, the newinto its way of life that isgrounded in solid tradition. Atthe same time, it is unafraid toembrace radical thinking of po-litical and social reform alongthe lines of the Self-RespectMovement.

While outwardly theGregorian calendar marches on,the city keeps its compact witha timeless Tamil calendar thatis based on agrarian and lunarcycles. Full-moon nights arespecial, as is the harvest festivalof Pongal. We fear the evil eyehere as much as we do thedreaded rahu kaalam, whentime is not in our favour. Thejust-passed month of Aadi isdevoted to the Goddess and thecoming of the monsoon. In thespecial month of Margazhi,which falls mid-December,roads and lanes are convertedinto canvases of tar when giantkolam-patterns are drawn dailywith rice flour, some spreadingacross the entire width of astreet. More than two thousandconcerts of classical music anddance are offered to the gods inthis most celestial of months.

When the city of Madras ex-panded outwards from the 100-acre nucleus of Fort St. George,it did so by aggregating villagesinto its outer limits. The localhistories of these villages goback centuries, and there is avery strong link via customs tothese origins. Here, we are si-multaneously inhabitants of aneighbourhood with its shrinesand local lore as we are to thelarger idea of the city.

Adyar, for example, the areaI have lived in most of my life,has its own rich history andeven ecological and geographi-cal features unmatched by otherareas. It takes its name from theriver Adyar that widens into anestuary before flowing into thesea. On one bank, a swankycluster of high-rise apartments,very Nariman Point – and onthe other, the dense wooded

A Mylapore landmark that’s no moreIn the context of Madras Week celebrations it might be of

interest to recall a Mylapore landmark that has disappearedwithout a trace.

It was once a unique part of an integrated supply chain andwas much ahead of its time for its linkage, design and practicalutility. I refer to the Thannithurai Market. Thannithurai in Tamiltranslates as ‘waterfront harbour’.

I was in P.S. Secondary School, between 1940 and 1944, andwould watch boatloads of grain, vegetables, fish and fruit arrivingat the waterfront on the Buckingham Canal. As the canal wasjust by the side of the school, the latter even came to be referredto as Kaavaakkarai School – ‘canal side school’. To us boys hav-ing seats near the windows on the western side of classrooms, thespectacle of unloading and reloading was more riveting than theclass proceedings. We were told that the cargo came by this canalall the way from Bunder, 300 miles away, in present day AndhraPradesh. Bunder was another name for Masulipatnam, Masulafor short. The cargo discharged from the boats was re-loaded onto push carts and moved manually for just less than a furlong(‘furlong’, was the term used then for 220 yards or the equivalentof 200 metre or so) to wholesalers having covered stalls and stor-age spaces in the Thannithurai market adjacent to the presentday Hanuman Temple.

The wholesalers were, imaginatively, placed on the eastern halfof the market premises, nearer the water front, and the retail stallswere located on the western half with entry from the present roadleading to Luz. Competition was fierce, given the large number of

retailers – each retailer soliciting custom by promising fresher ma-terial at lower prices and correct weights!

The market itself was a sprawling area, but of a simple singlelevel comprising raised platforms with tiled roof. The unit mea-sure was a veesai, weighed out by hand-held balances. Theweighed quantity could be manipulated by a deft pressure oneside or the other of the holding hand. The weights bore certifica-tion stamps but the bottom of each weight could also be scrapedout to remove some of the metal to give a lower weight.Karuveppilai (curry leaves) and Kothamalli (coriander leaves)were given gratis to those bought major items.

My mother armed with me enough knowledge on how to testgood quality from bad, on bargaining strategies and on how not toget outwitted on weights! It was my duty in the house to procurevegetables from Thannithurai twice a week. I used to cycle withtwo jute shopping bags hanging on either side of the handle-bar ofthe cycle and return home laden with both bags full. I would alsobring back a few annas (each anna was six present-day paise) outof a mighty sum of two rupees that my mother gave me whilecautioning me to keep it secure and not let it drop on the wayside.

The power of money, the simplicity of life and the fantasticconcept of a supply chain linked by a cheap mode of transport,that the waterway was, are the only memories left of this bygoneera. The Thannithurai Market space is now occupied by a high-rise apartment complex with no trace whatsoever of a fine localbut great institution.

– N.S. Parthasarathy(Continued on page 9)

Some of the work displayed (above and below) at the splendid ChennaiWeekend Artists’ exhibition during Madras Week.

� Madras Week Nostalgia

September 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

� Four pages recalling a celebration

Sriram V’s Madras Week DiarySaturday 20/8/16

Went to the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation to speakon Sir CP in Madras. Saddened to know that thanks to

continuous raising of road levels and the floods of last year,water weakened the oldest part of The Grove, the historicresidence of the family. One part had to be brought down and isbeing rebuilt.

Went in the afternoon to participate in the Dr. Sir A.Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar Rolling Trophy Quiz conducted bythe Madras Gymkhana Club. Went as part of a team comprisingSharanya Jayakumar, Dr. Navin Jayakumar and GautamVenkataramani. Went with thousand guilty feelings – is this tooheavy weight a team? Ought I to go? And in a Gauravam liketwist there was my young son in the Madras Cricket Club team.On going there felt much better as every team had heavyweights. Our team won the trophy.

Sunday 21/8/16

Was at Fort by 6.30. The people rolled up by 6.45 and at7.00 we were at the gate only to be rather brusquely

informed that nobody can be let in till 10.00 am. Heightenedsecurity owing to Assembly session was the excuse, this despitea letter permitting us to enter that Vincent D’Souza had beenmoved heaven and earth to get for us. After some entreaties andrequests we were let in and then everything proceeded smoothly.

In the afternoon, Sarada went to participate in SreemathyMohan’s Golden Furlong of T Nagar, comprising Sundari Silksand RMKV. Apparently the shops had made wonderful arrange-ments to receive everyone and explain their wares. Snacks wereserved and there was valet service from one location to another.(How wonderful it would be if we had a battery operated carservice within the Fort to take people around.) This combinedwith Sreemathy’s natural exuberance made for a great tour. Inmany ways, Sreemathy has made possible the involvement ofthe retail trade in Madras Week. This began last year when shedid a Textile Tour of T’Nagar during Madras Week 2015.

In the evening off to Hotel Maris for the first of the MadrasMusings lecture series. This was by Kombai S. Anvar and thetopic ‘Madras under the Golconda Sultanate’. There was arecord turnout and Maris, which is known for its traditionalSouth Indian fare, put out a wonderful menu for its high tea –vadai, bonda, poli, kasi halwa, some species of bhajji and greatcoffee.

Wednesday 24/8/16

Karthik Bhatt called to say he addressed the HindustanChamber of Commerce on the history of Chennai. He was

gifted with a toaster. An ideal present for the good Bhatt isshortly to enter the holy state of matrimony. He can now ruleout toasters from the gifts list at the bridal shower.

I brooded quite a bit over the way the food vanished yester-day at the Crowne Plaza, the 80/20 rule being enforced – 20 percent of the attendees hogged 80 per cent of the food and if I amnot mistaken the plates and forks as well. I then came up with astrategy to handle the food riots this evening as and when theybreak out.

In the afternoon went to the beach to try the Indian Expressbus ride. Came away unimpressed. The bus was shabby to beginwith. It was hot inside and so I clambered to the open deck.Several others were there, including an MC who decided tomake it the most cheapo event possible. There were too manyhangers-on from the bus company, the newspaper and an eat-ery, all talking on cell phones and shouting instructions to eachother. The obligatory Sri Krishna sweets packet and a bottle ofwater was given to us and the bus lurched off down the Marinaservice road. Half way past the Gandhi statue it reversed andcame back to starting point. Nobody had a clue as to what wasgoing on. I got off at the Gandhi statue and communed with theMahatma for a while (he is my all time hero) and then drove off,a sadly disappointed but wiser man. It’s a pity that such a goodidea as that bus ride should have come unstuck in the execution.

In the evening went to Chamiers for Sadanand Menon’s talk.The place was bursting at the seams even at 6.00 pm. By 6.30 itwas getting fuller. I then put my food regulation plan into ac-tion. Having announced that refreshments were served I sta-tioned myself with the serving staff and kept an eagle eye onhow much each of the freeloaders was having. The Vulture triedhis best to get a second cutlet but was quelled by a single look.The Gorilla for some reason abstained from eating. I guess allthat hogging at the Crowne Plaza must have affected his stom-ach. Not so young as he was once, I suppose. In his heyday hecould polish off high teas on all eight days with a rare élan andbe none the worse for it. The camp one made eyes at me but tono avail. (See Short ’N’ Snappy for more details.)

These posters on Chennai are by Ravi Nair, architect.

In case anyone is interested, they may contact him at:

ravinaair@yahoo.co.in or +91 98410 99944.

know that the famed samosaswere being sold at all Buharioutlets ( there are lots of themnow and mostly doing well).

But you had to get there by4 p.m. I was driving past onein Adyar and it was 3.45 p.m.So we stopped by and pickedup a pack - cost Rs. 65.

I recall the times in the1970s when we gobbled themup at Buhari’s on Mount Road– they were sold at 10 paise apiece, crunchy ones and filledto the edges with mutton.They are still tasty.

I had thought of hosting aMount Road Walk this 2016season. When I do it I start atThe Hindu office gates andend at Buhari’s or LIC. Thereare loads of stories here.

Vincent D’Souza

Love that place!

My love for Nungam-bakkam Railway Sta-

tion and Sterling Road is in-creasing day by day. So muchto look back: Loyola College,the interior roads off SterlingRoad, and how NelsonManickam Road subway wasbuilt in 1983 !

Saranya Narayan and UshaVariyath Kumar unravelledthe heritage of tree-ladenSterling Road which leads toTank Bund Road and furtherto Nungambakkam RailwayStation and beyond. People,institutions and memorieswere delightful fodder for thispresentation.

Hitesh

Showing the banners

The Inner Wheel Clubs of Madras circulated 12banners to eight schools and then displayed

them at Nageswara Rao Park during Madras Week.Members were present during peak usage hours

distributing sweets to visitors and telling them moreabout Madras. The response was encouraging.There were people doing spot jogging while readingthe banners, people taking photographs for theirchildren (and they were asked to bring their chil-dren – and many did).

Sushi Natarajsushi_1952@yahoo.co.in

Some warm words

Former chief urban planner Arockia Doss callsme. To say how happy he is to see Madras Day

flower and go places. He says he likes the fact thatso many people are involved. And hopes it impactson the city’s major issues and projects. Doss was oneof the bosses at CMDA and tried to accomplish afew things. Now retired and recovering from a pain-ful spinal problem, he keeps a tab on the city fromhis bed.

It’s encouraging when senior people appreciatethe process called Madras Day.

* * *Buhari’s & samosas

At Mount Road some one mentioned Buhari’sand its mutton samosas on the sidelines of a

recent Madras Week event. That is when I got to

6 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

� One man who single-mindedly celebrates the city is civil engineerand philatelist D. Hemchandra Rao. He does all he can to designand produce a Special Postal Cover every Madras Day, keen tomark the day for posterity.

Often, Rao has to debate with the Postal Dept. and raise mon-ies to do this.

This year, his cover is themed on the first lighthouse in Madras– atop a merchant exchange inside the Fort which is 220 years oldthis year.

Rao also released a set of My Stamps on the city’s four light-houses – great stuff for collectors.

You should get hold of a cover or a stamp. The cover costs Rs.70.Contact Rao at 98408 70172

Rao’s one-man show

� This year, there were over thirty Walks during Madras Week, which only indicates that many morepeople are willing to research and curate walks, at least at this time of the year.

The city, though, does not have volunteers who offer Walks through the year, so tourists do notget to see the less known, or the other, side of the city.

The positive side about the Walks has been that many young people (see above) have been signingup to explore parts of the city.

And educational too – a young bunch of architects have curated their themed walks that exploreMylapore, which predates the city and is struggling to retain its old houses.

Tiripura Sundari (extreme left) of Nam Oor, Nam Veedu, Nam Kadhai and the group of walkers she led through thelanes of Aminjikarai.

Selfies during the Heritage Walk at High Court organised by INTACH,Chennai.

The walking experience

� You do not need history-rich places to base a Walk on. Anything that reveals the area, the city, thetown to curious people can make for an immersive tour.

So I wish we had more Walks in Chennai and more people who volunteer to research and curateWalks.

In recent times, this is happening. In small measure though.Foodie Sridhar V. has curated half-a-dozen Food Walks. He not only takes people on Walks (he

does not charge guests but you must pay for what you order and eat!) but also maps them so touristsand you and I can pick up the map and make your way to the food joints in Sowcarpet and in Mylapore.

Sreemathy Mohan continue her series on showcasing the textiles destinations in our city. Thesecond in the series took place during Madras Week 2016.

Another Walk enthusiast, Kishore has shown interest in curating a Walk in Gandhi Nagar. In thepast, senior residents of this area have hosted Walks in this area but only for a particular cause.

Kishore’s interest was triggered by an old Gandhi Nagar layout map that was published on socialmedia. We have chatted about recording social history here but I also hope he can curate a Walk.

We need to have at least 20 people who specialise in Walks in various parts of our city. More so inareas like Perambur and Royapuram, Vepery and Pallavaram.

Then, we will be able to showcase the less-known side of our city to people who want to know moreabout our histories.

– Vincent D’Souza

Food Walk organised by Sridhar V. at West Mambalam.

Marshall’s Road, Egmore, walk led by Sudha Umashanker.Textile Walk of T. Nagar: led by Sreemathy Mohan which included Pothys, RMKV and Sundari Silks.

September 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

On left, Odyssey’s ‘Author of Chennai’ display at its entrance and, above, a children’s drawing competition that itorganised in progress.

Odyssey bookshop’s Ashwin has done a great service for city-based writers. He showcased their books that arestill in print at his Gandhi Nagar store during Madras Week.

And you could hear the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that the authors kept uttering at this promotion.At a prominent space in the store, the tables occupied some 30 odd titles. Ashwin also offereds a cloth bag

that featured the covers of these books to shoppers who bought two books by Chennai authors.And on some evenings, young writers were present chatting about their work.Odyssey’s Madras Week-long programmes included many events for children too.

Chennai authors and children get Odyssey space

An exhibition on Tirukkural by architect M. Dhanasekaran which was organised by Madras Literary Society... and a couple of the exhibits.

On the last day of a special exhibition on the tramsof Madras*, Winston Henry, antiquarian, is a busy

man. He’s showing people around an his exhibition butdoesn’t hesitate to answer a call from anyone interestedin his collection. Chirpily, he begins to explain his trystwith trams in his nine years of collecting.

Buildings weredone, books were done– it was time to find anew subject of study.“Old books held thekey to photographs,maps and clippings ofnewspapers,” he says.Access isn’t easy, butWinston has an easyleg in thanks to yearsof collecting and run-ning his heritage estab-lishment – the W&HBook Search thathouses 10,000 books.

*Madras was, in 1895, the

first in the country to

have an electric tram

system.

An antiquarian and his trams

Above: A tram opposite the High Court, 1935. Top: A tram dating to 1940. Insert: Atram ticket stub from 1940. Pictures courtesy: Winston Henry.

The youth choir reaches out

The Madras Youth Choir performed for Madras Week at Prathyasha, ahome for HIV infected children run by Mellow Circle Choir. MYC taught thechildren a song Poo Vaenuma, which they performed.

8 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

Age no bar to knowing your treesNizhal – Friends of Trees organised several Tree Walks this year. In these two pictures, young volunteer Harshita is

seen providing information about a Purasai tree during one of the walks.

Storytelling on theMarina and at the Savera

The former with the Story Telling Institute and the latterwith Jeeva Raghunath

The Asan Memorial School exhibition featuring the Keralites of Chennai.

The Armenians of Chennai, an exhibition at the Russian Cultural Centre during Madras Week.

Pictures from two of the many contests during Madras Week – above winnersof the Multimedia Presentation Contest for City Schools conducted by MylaporeTimes and, below, the winners of the INTACH Quiz.

September 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 9

� More Madras Week Nostalgia

It was 1960. Amidst the chirp-ing of birds and screeching of

crows, Sister Thanga Mary wasteaching multiplication tablesto a restless and disinterestedbunch of girls of Class 2 at St.Ebba’s School for Girls inMylapore.

Thud… came anothersound of a wood apple that hadsuccumbed to the forces ofgravity at the end of the corri-dor where the classroomsended. She could sense the dis-traction among her studentsand could almost hear themsalivating as soon as the bellrang announcing the end of themathematics class, the girlswould rush out and pick thefallen wood apples from nearthe pond, clean the exteriors,break each open and cherishthe sweet and sour fruit alongwith its crispy seeds.

Cathedral Road stretchesfrom the Music Academy, pastSt. Ebba’s and Stella Maris Col-lege, to the erstwhile Wood-lands Drive-in (currentlySemmozhi Poonga) before pass-

CathedralRoad

Wood Apples on

� by

Jayanthi Gopal

ing below the Anna flyover andmerging with NungambakkamHigh Road.

In the early 1990s, at StellaMaris College too, where I wasa student, there were woodapple trees, tall and lined upagainst the compound wall onthe green patch of land behindthe canteen that also doubledup as the NCC ground.

Unlike my mother who, as alittle girl at St. Ebba’s, grew upeating the sweet and sour woodapple fruit, I do not rememberhaving the luxury of too manywood apples falling on theground or being relished by meor my college mates. The treeswere far and few between andlined up along the compoundwall adjacent to the highlypopulated Teynampet HighRoad perpendicular to Cathe-dral Road. The gardener tookdedicated care of the land-scaped garden and the trees onthe campus, so that nature’s

bounty was beyond the reach ofthe some 3000 and odd studentswho studied at the College.

Fast forwarding a couple ofdecades later, in 2013, I visitedmy alma mater. No, I am notsomeone who gets involvedwith alumnae networks and col-lege reunions. Actually, I wassummoned on official work tothe US Consulate General inChennai. I did not want to takechances with the high andmighty at that feared office, so Iarrived early for my appoint-ment. About three hours early!

To kill time, I walked acrossto Semmozhi Poonga,Chennai’s newest botanical gar-den. Blame it on my luck, but itwas a Tuesday and the Poongawas closed for its weekly holi-day.

Stella Maris was only abouta couple of minutes’ walk fromthe poonga. It was vacation timeand there was hardly any activ-ity in the College. This suitedme well, because socialisingwith strangers is not exactly mycup of tea. SMC had notchanged a bit, at least exter-nally, since my time. The greyfaçade of the main block which

houses the arts departmentflanked by the science blockswas exactly as it was all thoseyears ago. It must have been thesame in my mother’s day. Noth-ing much had changed.

Huge tracts of land that mayonce have been wood apple or-chards were carefully preservedby institutions like St. Ebba’sand Stella Maris. Christian in-stitutions pretty much ownedmost of the land along Cathe-dral Road.

The trees on the Stella Mariscampus have now been labeledand given botanical names bythe environmentally-consciousstudents who came after myyears in college.

I went to check if there werewood apple trees still there nearthe canteen. A new block hadcome up there, but I did man-age to spot a wood apple tree.A raw and ill-formed woodapple fell from the tree, perhapsas a souvenir for me to carryaway as a memory of my collegedays. I was thankful for that.

It was Woodlands Drive-inthat hosted the most woodapple trees on Cathedral Road.When the 99-year-old-leaseWoodlands had ended in 2008,the dispute over control of thatland was keenly watched by oldcitizens of the city who fearedcommercial development asone of the few lungs in the city.Among those who expressedtheir opinion was a group of ur-ban planning experts and envi-ronmentalists who sought toprotect the wood apple treesand other precious varieties of

trees that the locals were so fa-miliar with during their visit toWoodlands over the previous40-60 years.

Thankfully they won thebattle. But I was told the majorobjection came from the adja-cent US Consulate Generalwhose security staff objected toany highrises surrounding theconsulate general. And, so, inNovember 2010, SemmozhiPoonga, Chennai’s own botani-cal garden, came into existencewith 500 varieties of species oftrees and shrubs newly nurturedand, more importantly, about80 trees already in existence,some of them more than 100years old, to be protected.

This nostalgic reflection onwood apples was triggered byfinding to my surprise, while Istocked up vegetables and fruitsduring the weekend for theweek ahead in Bangalore. I sawa fruit-seller selling wood applesfrom his cart. At Rs.10 a piece,this was cheap given the cost offruits in our neighbourhood.The wood apple trees on Cathe-dral Road from the time mymother grew up in the 1960sand I grew up in the 1990s maybe on the verge of extinction,but elsewhere they are growingand thriving, albeit for commer-cial interests.

Many more people enjoy thesweet and sour taste of theVilampazha Pachidi (wood applepachidi). Amma and I relivedour respective childhoods thatevening after shopping in Ban-galore by breaking open a woodapple and eating it raw.

calm of the Theosophical Soci-ety. This view symbolises to methe old of Chennai and the newof Madras.

It is in walking down thestreets and alleys of localitiesthat you savour the many de-lights of Madras. Hot idlis andfresh chilli bhajjis made in thenumerous food carts on thestreets; tender coconut waterspurting at the flash of a sickle;jasmine flowers sold by a veryhuman unit of measurement:the flower seller’s fore-arm;

fresh-from-the-sea vanjaramfish-fry; tea and biscuits at thestall.

Closer home, the fragranceof filter coffee wafts from thekitchen three houses away. Ican tell the time of day by myneighbour’s coffee-drinkinghabits. Two houses away, anoctogenarian plays the flute ev-ery evening, stubbornly coaxingnotes from bamboo. Next door,the sound of retching an-nounces a pregnancy fasterthan words. As in a village, noone’s life is private. No one isanonymous either. And per-

haps it is this quality that makesMadras truly special. We knowour neighbours.

In the mad rush of daily ex-istence, we might sometimesforget to demonstrate this fact.But it only takes a disruptionsuch as a power-cut, a tsunamior the recent floods of Novem-ber and December 2015 to re-mind us of our ties to the localcommunity. Of the many talesof adventure and survival thatwere told after the floods, thedominant narrative was onewhere people, whetherneighbours or strangers, cametogether to help.

I heard the most touchingstory of a small-time buildingcontractor who risked his life tohelp an elderly, cantankerousbachelor to safety, even thoughdays earlier he had been on ac-rimonious terms with him forbeing paid too little. It is thisspirit that makes those who leftto live elsewhere still return toMadras, year after year. It is thisthat makes us, who live here bychoice, call it home.

Madras – you are home(Continued from page 4)

Wood apple tree at Stella Maris College.

Till September 30: Faces of Cre-ativity, an art exhibition by YusufArakkal. Showcasing 135 Indianartists’ portraits from AmritaSher Gil to the present, includ-ing the work of the artists fromthe South like Santhanaraj,Dhanapal, Adimoolam, Hari-dasan and others. (at Dakshina-Chitra.)

September 10: R. Gopu will speakon Babington’s Surprise – TheThird Rajasimha inscription atMamallapuram. The talk is aboutan inscription in ‘Rustic Nagari’script at a mandapa in the TigerCave area of Mamallapuram, inaddition to two well-known in-scriptions there in PallavaGrantha and Nagari. At MadrasLiterary Society, 11.00 a.m.Members free. Rs. 50 for non-members.

10 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

(Answers on page 12)

(Current Affairs questionsare from the period August1st to 15th. Questions 11 to20 pertain to Chennai andTamil Nadu.)1. Which globally popular travelcompany has decided to merge itsChina operations with its rivalDidi Chuxing, with the new en-tity being valued at $35 billion?2. Who recently transferred toManchester United for a worldrecord transfer fee of £89m?3. Why did the Greenland Sharkmake news recently?4. Name the ‘Iron Lady ofManipur’ who ended her muchpublicised, 16-year-long hungerstrike for the repeal of the ArmedForces (Special Powers) Act inher State?5. On August 3rd, the historicConstitution (122nd Amend-ment) Bill, 2014 was approved bythe Rajya Sabha. What does itpertain to?6. Who is back as the Prime -Minister of Nepal after holdingoffice in 2008-2009?7. How did Havildar HangpanDada of the Assam Regimentmake news recently?8. Who on August 15th becamethe only second Indian artiste,after M.S. Subbulakshmi, to per-form in the General Assemblyhall of the United Nations?9. What big change with regardto the annual Budget did theFinance Minsitry give nod to onAugust 14th?10. Which ‘Maharatna’ entity re-cently launched a Rs. 100-crorestart-up fund to mark as its Dia-mond Jubilee year?

***11. Name the eminent Gandhi-an, the daughter of ‘Sriman’Srinivasa Iyengar, who translatedthe Ram Charit Manas into Tamiland set up the Srinivasa GandhiNilayam for destitute children?12. What is the present name ofthe modified version of the build-ing once called Somerford?13. Name these two eminentKnights of the city: one afounder-chairman of ICICI and arepresentative at the UN and theother a Chairman of UNESCOand WHO.14. What is located in a buildingonce called Grassmere in Egmore?15. Who is said to have authoredNannul, which is considered themost significant work on Tamilgrammar after Tolkappiyam?16. What is common to Nutmeg,Ottimo-Cucina Italiana, Tran-que-bar and Royal Vega?17. Madras’ biggest fire thatkilled 400 occurred 130 years agoduring an annual carnival.Where?18. What major discovery didJohn Smith, an Officer of the28th Cavalry of the Madras Regi-ment, make in April 1819?19. Which suburb of Chennai isthe initial M in the former ChiefMinister, M. Bakthavatsalam’sname?20. In 1922, which composer-singer made his appearance felt inChennai thanks to the munifi-cence of one A.K. RamachandraIyer?

Riding thesurfof MadrasMadras, like the rest of the

Coast of Coromandel,possesses no harbour. The com-munication between the ship-ping and the shore is carried onexclusively by Masoola boatsand catamarans. The form ofthe boats is exhibited in the ac-companying sketch, taken fromthe beach at Madras: they arehere represented, as they usu-ally appear when waiting foremployment, lying high and dryon the sand; that on the leftshows the manner in whichthey are pushed off; the menwho are employed in launching,climb into the boat, with aston-ishing ease, as soon as it isafloat. These boats, which arefrom twenty to thirty feet inlength, and about six feet indepth and breadth, are con-structed of strong planks, bentby means of fire; stitched to-gether, through holes drilled allround the edges, with thread orcord of coir, the outer fibrouscovering of the coconut; insidethe boat, the stitches enclose asort of calking or wadding ofstraw, rendering the seams wa-ter-tight. Masoola boats aregenerally manned by ten hands,eight men at the oars, one at thehelm, and a boy to bale out thewater: they strike their oars

with great regularity, keepingtime by a song kept up by onevoice, the whole company join-ing in chorus at the end of eachstanza.

There are usually threewaves to be passed betweensmooth water and the shore ;these waves frequently rise tothe height of six feet and up-wards, and, breaking with acurl, the highest part of thewave falls over first, leaving akind of hollow underneath. Un-

less well managed, even aMasoola boat would be over-whelmed: any other kind ofboat would perish.

The boatmen, accustomedto the surf, are very skilful inavoiding its violence: when theycome towards the first wave,they rest on their oars in totalsilence, and the helmsman di-rects the boat into the mostfavourable position; when it be-gins to rise on the wave, they atonce burst out singing, Ale, Ale,

“A wave, a wave,” and pullaway with all their might, tillthe wave has expended itself ;while the passenger does well tocover himself from the spraywith his boat cloak. They thenrest, waiting for the succeedingwave, which is passed in thesame manner, till the boat isthrown almost dry upon thebeach, and the men jump out tosecure it from being carriedback.

In passing the surf, I have of-ten noticed that the wave, be-fore it is expended, strikes theboat so severely, as to excitesome apprehension ; and therehave been instances of the boathaving been dashed to pieces byits force, with the consequentloss of the lading, and endan-gering of the lives of the personson board. The boats employedin embarking or disembarkingpassengers are therefore oftenattended by catamarans.

A catamaran (in Tamulkattamaram, from kattal, “ totie or bind,” and maram, wood,”literally tied wood, or timberlashed together) is a raft, fromtwelve to fifteen feet long, bythree to five feet in breadth,composed of three spars or logsof light wood, lashed together;and managed by two or threekareiars, or beachmen, personsof the same caste as those em-ployed in the Masoola boats.*

When the surf is so high thatMasoola boats cannot venture,catamarans are used to commu-nicate with the shipping, usu-ally anchored two to four milesfrom the shore: the men secureletters, or small parcels, in theirconical caps, formed of the leafof the palmyra-tree: larger pack-ages, covered with canvass orwax-cloth, are lashed to theraft; and they fearlessly ventureinto the most tempestuous seas.Though sometimes washedfrom the raft, their dexterity inswimming and diving enablesthem to regain it ; and the lossof a man, in this perilous occu-pation, is of rare occurrence.

Besides these important ser-vices, the catamarans are gen-erally used in conveying themails, in stormy weather, fromthe coast of Coromandel toCeylon, a passage of sixty miles.They are also used by the fish-ermen, all down the coast. Onfishing excursions, they gener-ally go in a party, setting outearly in the morning, well sup-plied with nets and baskets.When outside the surf, theycarry a neat three-cornered sail,and proceeding many miles tosea, do not usually return tillevening.

I remember to have seen theCaptain of a vessel, driven by aheavy storm from her anchor-age off Negapatam, while hewas ashore, set out in quest ofher, seated on a chair lashed onone of these catamarans. Hethus crossed the straits, whichdivide Ceylon from the Conti-nent, and succeeded in findinghis ship.

* The kareiars, or persons thus em-ployed on the beach at Madras,amount to many hundreds, residingchiefly at Royapooram, a village tothe north of the town : they aregenerally Roman Catholics. AMasoola boat can make three orfour trips to merchant vessels in thecourse of one day. The regulatedcharge for each trip is fifteenfanams, or near two shillings andfour-pence sterling. Vessels of waranchor at a greater distance fromthe shore; consequently, a trip tothem is charged double theamount, and two trips only aremade in the day. When in full em-ploy, therefore, these men do notgain more than one shilling eachper day. Small as this sum appears,they have of late years contributedout of it to liberally, as to raise forthemselves a large and substantialchurch, in Royapooram, the erec-tion of which cost several thousandpounds.� Thanks to R. Bhaskarendra Raofor sending these excerpts.

� Excerpted from Madras, Mysore and the South

of India: A personal narrative of ‘A Mission to

those Countries’ by Elijah Hoole, published in

London by Longman, Brown in 1829.

The Royal Madras Yacht Clubis more than a century old andthriving. Younger, and doingwell too, is the Tamil Nadu Sail-ing Association (TNSA). Thelatter has in fact petitioned theCentral Government for betterfacilities in the harbour. Whycannot the State Governmentchannel its funds through theseorganisations? Would it not bebetter to strengthen existing fa-cilities rather than set up whatcould become a rival entity?

Lastly, has everybody forgot-ten the havoc wreaked by thetsunami just around 12 yearsago? The beach was one of theworst affected in Chennai cityand if casualties and loss of lifewere kept to a minimum it wasonly because there were no per-manent structures in the vicin-ity. With a sailing academycoming up here, are we notthrowing open possibilities of adisaster on a larger scale?

It would be best to leave thebeach free of all such ‘develop-mental projects’.

It is worthwhile pointing outthat while we are full of schemesas a people, there has been noluck in building adequatenumber of even the most basicof amenities such as toilets.That is what is needed heregiven that this is a popular spotfor the masses. A sailingtraining centre catering to afew, even if felt necessary, canafford to move outside the citywhere the training can beconcentrated on and not thesideshows.

Is sailing academy needed?(Continued from page 1)

Landing in Madras in the early days.

‘Masoola boats’.

September 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 11

Chennai

Runners

– & othersOver the last few years, the

number of the city’s resi-dents engaged in a daily run hasseen a steady increase, despiteChennai’s weather, with 365days of summer seemingly animpediment to the experience.The most prominent of theclubs mushrooming in the cityis Chennai Runners, which hasover 2000 active members and18 chapters across the city. It isan open-to-all club that usesmany tools to keep its membersupdated – Facebook, Whats-app, Twitter, and Googlegroups. Almost every locationhas a dedicated running groupin its surroundings which willtrain, mentor and motivate youto run. Other groups in the cityinclude Zen Runners (employ-ees of Cognizant), Dream Run-ners (a community of familiesfrom Besant Nagar) and CoolRunners (a group of runnersfrom the YMCA).

Chennai’s is a lovely runningcommunity, cosmopolitan tothe core. Even if your legs arenot strong enough, various run-ning groups will train them tobecome strong. Once you arepart of any of these groups, youwill get hooked to running forlife. They will guide you and ad-vise you, help you run betterand faster.

Isn’t Chennai too hot forrunning?

We have four months ofpure bliss for runners. Novem-ber to February, when the

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weather is just perfect for run-ning. The preceding fourmonths, from July to October,are not bad either because it isthe rainy season and it hardlyrains in Chennai for 20 days outof those 120 days. That leaves ahot and humid period fromMarch to June, but early morn-ings between 5.00 and 7.00 isstill bearable. You have theroads all to yourself, and the sul-try and warm Chennai weatheris the coolest then But the good

news is that if you train in thetough conditions of Chennai,you are assured of doing well inan event in any other city in In-dia/World.

Where are the places to runin Chennai?

For starters, there are thebeaches. From the iconic light-house at Marina Beach, you cancut a straight path all the waydown past the Napier Bridge tothe west, Theosophical Societyfor an enjoyable five-km run.The sea breeze and the poten-tial for people-watching makethis a great option.

On Sundays, while the restof the world sleeps in, manyrunners meet at the Anna Uni-versity parking lot at 5 a.m. By

5.15, the parking lot is empty.They pass through the BoatClub, and then move ahead toElliots Beach via the quiet lanesof Theosophical Society. This10 -16 km (depending on whereyou turn back) running routebrings you back to Anna Uni-versity. There is inside the Uni-versity a well shaded 2.5 kmloop that is quiet and beautiful,with proximity to the 400 mtrack for speed workouts.

If you are a beginner youmay have many questions?

What do we wear? Forshort-distances and short dura-tion (say 30 minutes), a loose-fitting cotton shirt/kurta andexercise shorts/pants are goodenough. For long distance, youmay be better off spending on acouple of synthetic shirts thathave the ability to rapidly wicksweat away. As for shoes, youneed to experiment a little andfollow your body’s cues.

Is it okay to walk during arun?

Absolutely! There is no re-quirement that you should runcontinuously. In fact, most run-ners, irrespective of the racecategory, invariably take walkbreaks. Also, many a time,walking is a great way tobegin.

Am I too old or heavy torun?

Pretty much anyone can run.Running seems to arouse allsorts of fears in people like is itbad for my knees? Consult adoctor, ease slowly into the ac-tivity, practise moderation, andtake precautions for specificconditions. Runners acrossages, gender, weights, andthose with ashthma, diabetes,etc., swear by how much run-ning has helped him.

Running is a great enablerand a great leveller. Enablerbecause it opens your eyes veryquickly to benefits of being fitand taking care of your health,and Leveller because any onecan run, the roads are free, youdon’t need fancy gear or gadgets(jump stop by at Marina beachon any given morning and youwill catch sights of mamis jog-ging in a salwar/saree and amaama running barefoot in aveshti/lungi.

The Wipro Chennai Mara-thon

Some of the most enjoyablerunning events are conducted

in Chennai. These included theDream Runners Half Mara-thon, Dawn to Dusk, Dusk toDawn, Cool Runners HalfMarathon and Chennai TrailMarathon and the marqueeevent of the city, the WiproChennai Marathon.

In a short span of time, fouryears since the first edition ofthe Wipro Chennai Marathonwas started by Chennai Run-ners in 2012, the event hasgrown leaps and bounds. Whileclose to 6000 runners partici-pated in the inaugural edition,the 2015 edition saw over16000 runners hit the streets!

The success of this event hasalso resulted in other eventsgetting popular. On any givenSunday you can be assured thatthe Marina Beach area will behosting a running event! Manyof them in aid of social causes,like the Terry Fox Chennai run(for Cancer awareness) and theDawn to Dusk Marathon heldfor the causes of Liver Diseases.– (Courtesy: Matrix, the journalof Sanmar Group.)

� by A Special

Correspondent

� A report from the Madras Naturalists’ Societywhich had opposed the project because itthreatened to degrade the Cheyyur Lagoon.

The 4000 MW coal-fired Cheyyur UltraMega Power Project (UMPP) will be finan-

cial disaster for the consumers, the Tamil NaduGeneration and Distribution Corporation Ltd(TANGEDCO) and the State government ac-cording to a report by the US-based Institute ofEnergy Economics and Financial Analysis(IEEFA). It suggested that Tamil Nadu aban-don the Cheyyur project and focus on eliminat-ing the transmission and distribution losses.

It said the issue was not the availability ofpower generating capacity, but the grid trans-mission and distribution losses. For the year2014-15. The Aggregate Technical and Com-mercial (AT&C) losses were 24.4 percentwhich was much higher than the global grid av-erage (6-8 percent). Loss incurred in transmis-sion and distribution of electricity is one of theimportant factors of TANGEDCO’s indebted-ness,” said Jai Sharda, a financial analyst atIEEFA, and one of the authors of the report. Hewas speaking at a media meet early by August,

Latest on the Cheyyur Projectin which activists fighting against the projectalso took part.

According to the report, India’s overallpower deficit had fallen from 3.3 percent in2014 to 1.2% in 2016 and Tamil Nadu wouldnot face power deficit for the next three to fouryears. “Tamil Nadu is set to become power sur-plus and has no need for such a massivebaseload capacity enhancement,” said the au-thor Sharda.

The report estimated that power from theCheyyur plant would cost Rs. 5.93 a unit, whichwas higher that the average per unit cost ofpower generated from the solar power plant (Rs.4.01).

“Apart from land acquition, the fuel-costpass-through would expose consumers and theelectricity board to tariff volatility and furtherincrease in coal cess would add to this votality.”Jair Sharda said.

This was necessarily reported by the MadrasNaturalists’ Society Bulletin. The MN’s was oneof the the NW, that had appeased the projectstating the private plan would degrade theCheyyur Lagoon.

From the Marina lighthouse to the War Memorial and back!

12 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2016

When Testswere NOTplayed atChepauk

Published by S. Muthiah for ëChennai Heritageí, 260-A, TTK Road, Chennai 600 018 and printed by T J George at Lokavani-Hallmark Press Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Edited by S. MUTHIAH.

Madras Musings is supported as a public service by the following organisations

Published by S. Muthiah, Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Printed by Anu Varghese at Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006, and edited by S. Muthiah.

Bata India LimitedAmalgamations Group

Rane Group

Hotels Resortsand Palaces

Sundram FastenersLimited

Since 1856,patently leaders

— A WELLWISHERUCAL AUTO

PRIVATE LIMITEDTVS MOTOR COMPANY

The HinduGroup of PublicationsF.L. Smidth Limited

Answers to Quiz1. Uber; 2. Paul Pogba (from Juventus); 3. They are now the long-

est-living vertebrates known on Earth, scientists say; 4. Irom Sharmila;5. The adoption of the Goods and Services Tax; 6. Pushpa KamalDahal ‘Prachanda’, 7. He was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India’shighest peacetime military decoration, 8. A.R. Rahman, 9. The Rail-way budget will be merged with the General budget, 10. ONGC.

* * *

11. Ambujammal; 12. Chettinad Palace; 13. Sir A. Ramaswami andLakshmanaswami Mudaliars; 14. The Tamil Nadu Archives; 15.Pavananthi Munivar; 16. All are restaurants at the ITC Grand Chola;17. People’s Park; 18. Ajanta Caves; 19. Minjur; 20. Papanasam Sivan.

Cricket in the city is soinextriably linked with

Chepauk (or M A Chidam-baram Stadium) that it is some-times difficult to remember thatTest matches were played nothere but at an unlikely venue –the Corporation Stadium, thesite of the present Nehru Sta-dium – for nearly ten years inthe 1950s and 60s. Chepaukhad hosted Tests from February1934 to December 1952 beforethe shift to the CorporationStadium in January 1956 for theTest against New Zealand. Thelast Test played there, in Febru-ary-March 1965, was alsoagainst New Zealand. In be-tween India played seven otherTests – against the West Indies,England, Australia and Paki-stan.

Just nine matches but therewas action, records and historicevents packed into them. Thevery first Test saw the famous413-run first wicket partnershipbetween Vinoo Mankad (231)and Pankaj Roy (173) which isarguably Indian cricket’s proud-est statistical achievement ongrounds of longevity. It stayedas a world record for 52 yearsbefore Graeme Smith and NeilMcKenzie raised the bar to 415for South Africa againstBangladesh in 2008. Inciden-

tally, Mankad’s 231 was thenthe highest individual score byan Indian in Tests. India wonthat game by an innings and109 runs, at the time their big-gest margin of victory, after pil-ing up 537 for three declared,then their highest total in Tests.

I also recall Hasib Ahsan’smarathon bowling for Pakistanin 1960-61. The off-spinner

sent down 84 overs for figuresof six for 202 as India piled up539 for nine declared, setting anew record for India’s highesttotal in Test cricket. Also re-membered is the fire thaterupted in the eastern stands(they were makeshift thatchedroofs those days) which causedplay to be abandoned some 20minutes earlier on the fourthday when a section of the spec-tators spilled on to the field ofplay.

The following season saw ahistoric event – India clinchingtheir first series triumph overEngland. Having won theFourth Test in Calcutta by 187runs for a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, India duly kept its

appointment with history bywinning the Final Test by 128runs, Salim Durrani’s ten-wicket haul being the highlight.

There was another worldrecord set in the next Testplayed at the Corporation Sta-dium. Against England in 1963-64, left arm spin bowler BapuNadkarni sent down 21 succes-sive maidens during England’sfirst innings on his way to theeye-rubbing, mind-boggling fig-ures of 32-27-5-0. The follow-ing season saw the Nawab ofPataudi emulating his father’sfeat of scoring a hundred in hisfirst Test against Australia. Theskipper’s knock was, however,in vain as Australia overturneda 65-run first innings deficitinto a 139-run victory with Gra-ham McKenzie having matchfigures of ten for 91. The majorhighlight of the last Test playedat the Corporation stadium wasan unbeaten 102 by VijayManjrekar in his last innings inTest cricket. But perhaps thebiggest drama concerning Testsat the Corporation stadium wasoff the field.

Polly Umrigar, the appointedcaptain for the Fourth Testagainst the West Indies in Janu-ary 1959, resigned the night be-fore the scheduled start follow-ing a misunderstanding over se-lection matters. Parleys bet-ween Umrigar, senior playersand Board officials went onthroughout the night in an ef-fort to get him to withdraw hisresignation. But Umrigar re-mained adamant and, finally, afew hours before dawn VinooMankad was appointed in his

Indian Openers Pankaj Roy (left) and Vinoo Mankad, who put on a then world record 413-run partnership for thefirst wicket, returning to the pavilion during the Fifth Cricket Test against New Zealand at the Corporation Stadium,Madras, in 1956.

place. The spectators who knewnothing of the drama only sawthe closing act – Mankad walk-ing out with Gerry Alexanderfor the toss.

Incidentally many Indianplayers never played a Test atChepauk, their international ca-reers being restricted to matchesat the Corporation Stadium.The list includes VijayManjrekar, Nari Contractor,Bapu Nadkarni, RamakantDesai, M.L. Jaisimha, BudhiKunderan and Naren Tamhane.

� by Partab Ramchandpartabramchand@yahoo.com