WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXVII No. 5 June 16-30, 2017

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• The vanished avenuesuseum

• Pelathope Days

• A 3-fold commitment

• The Ambattur IE story

A disaster waitingto happen

(Continued on page 2)(Continued on page 3)

How about we citizensHow about we citizensHow about we citizensHow about we citizensHow about we citizensdoing our bit?doing our bit?doing our bit?doing our bit?doing our bit?

A veryrarevisitor

struction violations and theabove-mentioned structure wasno exception. Permission hadbeen granted for just four floors,but the management had mer-rily added another four. An ad-ministration that either did notcare, or was in cahoots with theviolators, a judiciary that tookits own time to come to anyconclusive judgement, anowner who was only interestedin making money even if it

meant bending all the rules, anda vast horde of shoppers whokept the place going, not in theleast bothered that the placehad come up in contraventionof all ethics – all of them en-sured that no action was evertaken. In this lot, it is perhapsthe shopper who is to be for-given, for if he/she is to take thestance of shopping only inbuildings that are put up instrict conformance of the law,

then shopping as an activitymay have to be abandonedaltogether in our city.

The fire raged for two days.Given the way the building wasconstructed, fire tenders couldhardly reach it. Those in theneighbourhood had to be sum-marily evicted for no fault oftheirs beyond the fact that theychose to live next to a partiallyillegal edifice. Commuters wereput to enormous hardship ow-ing to blockage of traffic and thesmoke caused distress to manyin the area. Over 700 house-holds in T’Nagar were starvedof water and close to six lakhlitres of this precious commod-ity were spent on dousing theinferno. The only saving grace,as mentioned earlier, was thatnobody died, though somepeople, especially those in thefire service, did suffer injuries.The fire broke out early in themorning and so there were noshoppers and traffic on the roadwas also thin.

The aftermath saw the usualblame game being played out.The Minister blamed the ownerfor violations. The owner ad-mitted that his structure was incontravention of permits, butblamed it on bad advisors. Theelectricity and water supply de-partments blamed the courtsthat had granted stay ordersagainst sealing the structurethereby forcing the depart-ments to supply power andwater to this edifice. The courtshave not spoken, but if they did,we are sure they would blamethe committee of the ChennaiMetropolitan Development

� by A Special

Correspondent

� GARBAGE

Continuing from last fort-night, when the focus was

on our low sanitary rating, I to-day look at a major contribut-ing factor: Garbage, which dailyoverflows on to our streets.

It cannot be anyone’s casethat the ubiquitous piles of gar-bage are entirely the responsi-bility of the municipal conser-vancy agencies. Be it garbage orsewage, at one end is the publicagency that has responsibility tomanage and deal with them;but it is at the source that muchcould be achieved to reduce thevolume of waste generation andto facilitate easier handling ofthe load transferred to the pub-lic system.

Plastic packing materialforms a bulk of the material thatwe throw out. Shunning plasticbags might by itself substantiallyreduce the volume of garbage.Then, collection could do withsmaller-sized receptacles andmore number of them to ensurethat no bin is outside easyreach. Recycling and re-use ofvarious articles and packingmaterials and thinking manytimes before throwing themaway would also help reduce theload on the public system.

Clothes and other fancy articlespurchased by us are given bystores in large, colourful bags sothat when we carry them thebrand gets advertised. But theirdisposal becomes a problem.Perhaps, sellers as a matter ofcivic duty can make the bagssimpler and smaller and less of adisposal problem. Buyers shoulddecline bags difficult to dispose.Newspapers have been con-verted into carry bags. So whynot we start using them insteadof plastic?

Enhancing the capacity ofthe public collection and dis-posal system is not enough to

(Continued on page 3)

One late morning, a yearago, my friend Santha-

raman rang up to say he hadsighted a Brahminy kite – Halia-stur indus – in the skies of AnnaSalai. But I did not take it seri-ously because it had been yearssince a Brahminy kite wassighted in Chennai. I assumedthat he must have mistaken aBlack kite for a Brahminy kite.Nevertheless, he was confident.I was even more surprised whenhe informed me that the kitecarried nesting material as well.I had no grounds to believe him.A couple of months ago hecalled again to say he hadsighted the bird in the same areawith some nesting material.This time I took him seriouslyand agreed to take a look.

Around 6.30 am we reachedthe spot and scanned the skies.Blue rock pigeons and housecrows dominated the scene. Asthe sun ascended, a few Rose-ringed parakeets were seen.Then we saw a few Black kites.We then drove to the EthirajSalai as it was near the CooumRiver. We thought we mighthave a better chance of seeingthe bird there as Brahminy kiteslive mainly in coastal regions,estuaries, mangroves, and wet-lands, though we knew thatCooum does not support anyfish. Time moved on. It wasaround 10 am and we returnedto our original spot. We saw a

It was only a couple of issuesago that we had written about

the rot in Chennai’s real estate.One of the instances quotedwas a fire in a wholly unautho-rised structure that continuedto remain in occupation despitethe authorities sealing it. Thatincident claimed four lives. Thelatest episode, though fortu-nately not causing any deaths,was on a far bigger scale. We al-lude to the fire in a multistoriedgarment showroom in T’Nagar.

This is an area that hasbecome a showpiece for con-

(by The Editor)

CMYK

2 MADRAS MUSINGS June 16-30, 2017

These are times when in theworlds of politics and arts,

you can earn brownie points byprefixing people’s names witha ‘Doctor’ and suffixing themwith a ‘ji’. The latter, inciden-tally, appears to have pen-etrated the Tamil lexicon, atleast in Madras that is Chen-nai, for even the most rabidHindi haters use the ‘ji’ at allodd moments. Coming back tothe similarity between theworlds of arts and politics, itdoes not end with the Dr andthe Ji. Politics is said to be anart and as for art, it is full ofpolitics.

All these profound thou-ghts came to the mind of TheMan from Madras Musingswhen last fortnight he at-tended a seminar on hundredyears of dance or some suchtopic. MMM is rather vagueabout it chiefly because thespeeches that he heard did nothave that theme. It was more aquestion of a standard presen-tation that each of these pre-senters had, which they nodoubt flog repeatedly, force-fit-ting it in some way to suit thetopic for which they had been

he had no idea that the timehad gone by so quickly. Henever could keep track of time,he said, especially when he wasspeaking. He then promised towrap up in the next fewminutes and spent the next 15of them in thanking everyoneconcerned, all of them Dr ‘Ji’s.The Dr ‘Ji’s in the audiencelapped it all up and when,eventually, after what seemedlike an eternity, the speakerwaddled off stage, he wasgreeted with good applause.The Dr ‘Ji’s were happy thatthey had been referred to inflattering terms and let MMMtell you that when applyingflattery in the arts world youneed to do so with a shovel. Asto why several others in theaudience clapped was some-thing of a mystery to MMMuntil he came to know that thespeaker, or the drone in ques-tion, had in him the power togrant fellowships, researchgrants and an award or two. Hewas warmly thanked for hiserudite and scholarly presenta-tion.

MMM was billed threedown, but he realised that

Dancing Doctors & other Jis

given the way the programmewas going he would get his turnsomewhere around midnight.He therefore used his cajolingpowers and got himself up-graded to speak immediatelyafter the coffee break. Andhaving finished what he had tosay, well within the time allot-ted to him, he chose to depart.The next speaker was sched-uled to have a go and the firstslide depicted something fromthe 5th Century BC.

One-waycommunication

Sorry Chief, The Man fromMadras Musings is aware of

the fact that you do not like thesame story or topic to dominatethe entire length of this col-umn, but MMM is not yet donewith the above seminar. Thiswas organised by one of thoseGovernment bodies that havebeen set up somewhere upnorth ostensibly for the promo-tion of Indian culture. Andthey do so little that they canbe said to be In the Cause ofCultural Rationing. And onthis occasion, MMM had expe-rience up close of how theywork.

The first intimation wasthrough a phone call from awell-known dance personalityof our city, a woman ofgreat achievements and erudi-tion. She invited MMM tospeak at the seminar andMMM, delighted that such aneminent personage had calledhim, accepted at once. Thedanseuse rang off, thankingMMM and telling him that hewould soon hear from the

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

invited. How else can MMMexplain the fact that one of thekeynote speakers spoke en-tirely on the scenario in Indiandance in the 2nd Century CE?He remained steadfast to thattime period and even at theend of his presentation did nottouch on the dance scenario ofthe last hundred years. If thatwas not bad enough, his pre-sentation itself comprised im-ages of several closely typedpages being projected on thescreen, all of which he insistedon reading out in pitiless de-tail. In a way that was to thegood for the audience couldnot read a word – the type sizewas beyond the capacity of thehuman eye and the only wayout would have been topresent each member of theaudience with a pair of bin-oculars, the kind that orni-thologists use.

If that was bad enough, thespeaker in question had quiteclearly decided that he was thesole presenter for the day. Hehad been given twenty min-utes, as had everybody else,but he chose to ramble on foran hour. The net result wasthat the time schedule wasshot to pieces. Not that it ap-peared to matter to anyone ex-cept MMM. The audiencedozed, glad to be in an air-con-ditioned room while the tem-perature outside was like thatof any oven set to bake. Theywould have slept on and thespeaker could have droned on,had not the major domo ofceremonies, waking mid-snore, took a startled glance atthe clock and announced teabreak. The speaker then cameout of his trance, declared that

Rationing Body mentionedabove. An e-mail arrivedshortly thereafter from theorganisation, thanking MMMfor accepting and stating thatas part of the rules, MMMwould need submit a detailedarticle on his theme, whichwould be included as part of apublication to be released afterthe seminar. To this MMMsent a reply stating that whenhe accepted the invitation hewas unaware of such a precon-dition and if this was compul-sory he would prefer to beexcused from attending theseminar as his time scheduledid not permit his taking onthe writing of such a detailedpaper.

There was complete silencethereafter and MMM assum-ing that his nomination hadbeen scratched, moved on toother things. But a couple ofdays before the seminar he gota call from a minion up northwhich wanted to know as towhere MMM’s paper was. Tothis MMM replied that he hadalready expressed his inabilityto write one and had bowedout of the programme. The

voice became all confused atthis and hung up. A day latercame another e-mail, askingfor MMM’s paper and givinghim details of the venue of theseminar and what time hisspeech was, etc. It ended witha request for MMM’s paper,which the email sender noted,was not yet received. All thisset MMM’s teeth on edge andhe called the dancer and askedher what was to be done. Shesuggested that MMM ignorethe missives and turn up any-way. Which is what MMMdid.

But the organisation hasnot yet finished with MMM.Two days after the seminarMMM received an emailthanking him for participatingand reminding him to send inhis paper as soon as possible.MMM wonders if not comply-ing could be a non-bailable of-fence.

Tailpiece

The Man from MadrasMusings did not know

that 94 was a landmark num-ber. Nevertheless, a certain setof people decided to celebrateit as a birthday event for a cer-tain nonagenarian. The mes-sage went out that the birth-day boy was not to be dis-turbed. This however, clearlydid not apply to the rest of thecity, which suffered cut-outs,posters, traffic hold-ups to fa-cilitate VIP movement andmore than the usual levels ofnoise pollution.

– MMM

A very rare visitor

pair of Shikra soaring and thenthere was a flock of Black kites.We waited for a few more min-utes and as it was late for ourbreakfast, we decided to leave.It was then we saw anotherflock of Black kites. Using mybinoculars I scanned them.Among them one bird stoodout. Yes, it was a Brahminy kite.I told my friend that he wasright. We both watched the birdas it flew above us and within afew seconds it flew past the roadonly to disappear behind thebuildings. I was surprised.

It was years ago that I hadlast seen a Brahminy in theheart of Chennai. I remembermy mother pointing out the birdand describing it to me when Iwas a child. She indicated itswhite head and chestnut bodyas diagnostic features and alsoexplained its role in the Indianspiritual world. In Tamil theyare called Garuda orSemparundhu. A Brahminy kitehas a bright chestnut body withwhite head, neck, breast andupper belly. Though juvenilesresemble Black kites, theirrounded tail is a giveaway fea-ture in contrast to the Blackkites’ forked tail.

This species, which was acommon bird in the coastalparts of Chennai, has slowly dis-appeared. Being feeders of fish,crabs and the like, they are par-tial to wetlands. Flying low overthe water surface or perching ona tree they catch their prey ortake away carrion. They buildcluttered but compact nests, us-ing sticks, grass and shore de-bris, usually in a forked branchof large trees, close to water.They restore and reuse the nestfor several seasons. The reasonfor their disappearance from theCity is not clear. May be theAdyar River or PallikaranaiMarsh do not support them anymore with prey base or they donot find nesting sites in a Citywhich has lost its large trees toskyscrapers and expansion ofhighways. But for whatever rea-son, they are now a rarity inChennai.

Though we sighted the birdin Anna Salai, we were not ableto find its nesting site. My friendsighted it again the next day.My friend Brown, a raptortrainer from the U.K. wasaround at the time. When I toldhim about the sighting of thisspecies he said he would check.

The next evening, Brown calledand informed me that he hadspotted the nesting site. It wasremarkable news. Being a fal-coner, he had used his trackingskills to discover the nest. Thenest was a shabby structurelined with debris like plasticcovers on the terrace ofSpencer’s Plaza.

I wondered how a single birdcould nest and breed. If the birdhad to nest, it should have itspair, I argued. We saw only onebird and we did not knowwhether it was a female or male.Brown speculated that the birdwas a male and an aggressiveone as well. He had seen it bick-ering with Black kites. It domi-nated them by involving inaerial acrobatics.

In general, Brahminy kitesare belligerent and have theproven ability to snatch fishfrom other birds of prey. There-fore, the aggressive nature ofthe bird may not be an indica-tion of its gender. However,Brown kept visiting the site tomonitor its behaviour, more im-portantly to find if it had a pair.Our search for its mate was fu-tile. It was a solitary bird whichmight be in search of a pair.

It frequented the area oftenand Brown said it usuallyroosted on the terrace ofSpencer’s Plaza. It was disquiet-ing to see a lonely bird buildinga nest, probably driven by its in-stinct, not knowing that therewas none of its species in theimmediate vicinity. I even won-dered if it would cross breedwith Black kites, though it wasimprobable. Nothing of thathappened in the next twoweeks. It was seen around thearea, but was not guarding itsnest. We even saw a pair of BlueRock Pigeons inspecting thenest for their own reasons. Thebird had abandoned the nest. Itwas also time for Brown to leaveIndia. When he left, he re-quested me to keep track of thebird by visiting the spot.

I did go there three times. Isighted the bird one evening alittle after five. However, myother two visits did not yieldany results. I was not sure if theBrahminy kite had found somemate or for that matter if itwould even show up again. WillChennai see this magnificentraptor again in its skies? A ques-tion only nature can answer.

– Picture and text byT. Murugavel

(Continued from page 1)

MADRAS MUSINGS ON THE WEBTo reach out to as many readers as possible who share our keeninterest in Madras that is Chennai, and in response to requests frommany well-wishers – especially from outside Chennai and abroadwho receive their postal copies very late – for an online edition.

Madras Musings is now on the web at www.madrasmusings.com

– THE EDITOR

June 16-30, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Garbage: WE have a role too(Continued from page 1)

Hobartin the NilgirisLord Hobart (MM, June,1st) was the son of a clergyman who

was also the sixth Earl of Buckinghamshire. During his hey-day in Britain, Baron Vere Henry was stoutly opposed to thecontinuance of the Crimean War. Perhaps that was why he wasshunted to Constantinople. On arrival in Madras, he became astrong proponent of a proper harbour for Madras.

Though Lord Hobart from the beginning advocated the causeof a better drainage system in Madras, it came to be implementedonly posthumously, as noted in the write-up. His rendezvous inthe hills was well-known in the annals of the Nilgiris. While inthe Nilgiris he stayed at Fern Hill (later to become the MysorePalace). Government House, or a separate governor’s residence,was unknown in those days. Lord Hobart initiated some“magnificent proposals” in 1874 for beautifying Ooty. TheGovernment staggered by the estimated cost and the difficultyin acquiring grounds about sixty to seventy acres in extent,torpedoed the scheme as “not suitable to the character of theground”. But Hobart Park in Ooty was created in 1875 tohonour the late Governor. Even as late as 1908, it was noted asthe most beautiful recreation ground in India and the biggest inany hill station in the country. It has disappeared now. HobartPark in those days was situated on the eastern edge of thepresent day Racecourse.

The Neilgherry Archery Club was originally started on thesite in 1869. It was the fore-runner of the Ooty GymkhanaClub. A polo ground, cricket ground and a nine-hole golfcourse soon followed. A race-stand was completed in 1898. Asthe pavilion for the race-stand came to be extended in lateryears, Hobart Park gradually lost ground. The present day roadfrom Coonoor (where there was also a settlement of theCrimean War Veterans) to Lamb’s Rock and Dolphin’s Nosewas named in memory of Lord Hobart.

Lady Hobart was a highly motivated missionaryenthusiast. Mary Catherine Carr, the daughter of a Bishop ofBombay, she married Lord Hobart in 1858. She pioneered theeducational mission for native girls at Ooty. The Church ofEngland Zenna Mission greatly promoted these efforts in latertimes. This work in due course, also launched the famousMission to the Todas. Its missionary, Catharine Ling, spent 48years (1886-1932 & 1938-40) with the Todas.

Rev. Philip K. MulleyAnaihatti Road, Kotagiri 643217

The English East India Com-pany (EEIC) established the

Bengal Medical Service in 1763.EEIC established similar servicesin Bombay and Madras shortly af-ter. By 1775, a Medical Board inCalcutta and Hospital Boards inMadras and Bombay began admin-istering public hospitals. At thistime, practitioners trained in West-ern medicine were few and far be-tween. The British qualified sur-geons working in India trained their‘assistants’ for 1-2 years and certi-fied them as capable of practisingWestern medicine independently.

To enhance numbers of sotrained medical practitionersand also to improve the qualityof assistants to British-qualifiedEEIC surgeons, the NativeMedical Institution in Calcuttawas started in 1824. At theCalcutta Sanskrit College,Ayurveda was taught further to‘some’ aspects of Western Medi-cine. At the Calcutta Madrassa,basics of Western Medicinealong with Unani-Tibbi weretaught. William Bentinck (Gov-ernor General, 1828-1835) wasunimpressed by the quality ofmaterial taught at the NativeMedical Schools, more so withthe calibre of the ‘graduates’. Hewas of the strong opinion thatthe quality of trained personnelwas far inferior and that medicaleducation needed to be fullywesternised. In 1835, the NativeMedical Institution of Calcuttawas abolished in 1835.

Did a Native Medical Schoolfunction in Madras in the 1820s?

In this context, I was pleas-antly surprised to read a reporton a debate at the East IndiaHouse (London) in the Orien-tal Herald and Journal of Gen-eral Literature (1826), pub-lished from London, which re-fers to a practice followed inMadras as ‘Madras system’ inthe context of medical instruc-tion to Indians.

The debater (name unavail-able) says:

‘In May, 1822, the Medical Board

represented to the Government,

that as considerable difficulty had

been experienced in procuring

Native Doctors to supply vacan-

cies in the different Regiments, it

would be advisable to establish

an institution for the purpose of

instructing the Natives and

qualifying them to fill up the

deficiencies; a superintendent be

appointed to teach elementary

branches of medicine (identified

later as Pharmacy, Physic, and

Surgery) and to preside generally

over their education. Mr.

Jameson [Dr. James Jameson,

who was the superintendent of

Calcutta Eye Infirmary in 1807-

1820], the secretary of (Calcutta)

Medical Board was appointed

superintendent.’

In such a context, the de-bater further argues that theMadras Presidency operateswithout a superintendent. Thedebater strongly verbalises hisdisappointment on what the ex-tra salary paid to Jameson wascosting the Company and

therefore the Native School ad-ministration be run without adesignated superintendent fol-lowing the Madras System. Thisdebate resulted in JamesJameson’s resignation of his po-sition as the superintendent ofCalcutta Native MedicalSchool. Peter Breton, who wasJameson’s predecessor, tookcharge again.

This debate raises the ques-tion: Did a Native MedicalSchool function in Madras,along with Calcutta and Bom-bay Native Medical Schools, inthe 1820s? The general under-standing is that no NativeMedical Institution was set upin Madras, although the MadrasAyurvedic College (later theCollege of Indian Medicine)was, through the efforts of theMohammed Usman-Srinivasa-murti Committee in the 1920s.

It will be interesting to knowif a Native Medical Institutionfunctioned in Madras, alongwith Calcutta and Bombay In-stitutions, and known other-wise. Moreover, a slim pridelaces my mind again, when Iread the terms ‘Madras System’used by the debater in Londonin the 1820s, wherein a Madrasmodel gains superiority overwhat was practised in Bengal.

A. Ramanaraman@csu.edu.au

tackle the dirt and toxins gen-erated by an increasingly high-consuming society. It is alsocomplex and capital-intensive,needing massive infrastructure.The strategy of reducing wast-ages at source – individualhouseholds and industrial andother institutional entitiescould be more impactful, lesscomplicated and productive ofdramatic results. As the propor-tion of people living in apart-ment complexes increases, it iseasier to get collective compli-ance in garbage managementand even to ensure that theyconvert into compost them-selves instead of transferring itto the municipal system. In adifferent context, it was esti-mated that the daily generationof sewage was of the order of675 mld compared to the effec-tive available treatment capac-ity of 437 mld, an insufficiencyin processing capacity of 35 percent. Reducing wastage at thesource by this percentage isachievable by just doing with-out plastic alone. With this,insufficiencies of treatment ca-pacity and of an undergroundsewage network can be over-

come without much capitalcost.

A recent visitor to NewZealand cites how that countrytackles garbage. Households arerequired to place the waste ma-terial, duly segregated, in bagsat the gate for the collectingagency to pick them up. Spe-cially marked paper bags for thispurpose are issued by the mu-nicipality and made available atall stores for a price. A good partof the price goes to the collect-ing agency through the munici-pality. Thus, households aremade to pay for this serviceaccording to the amount of gar-bage off-loaded by them andprivate collecting agencies arecompensated by the number ofbags deposited by them at thecollection centre. Such innova-tive practices are aimed atestablishing an accountabilitylink.

Many international hotelshave started asking their gueststo voluntarily re-use bath tow-els for a second day and acceptchange of sheets at lesser fre-quency – all to save water. Athomes, there is much scope forthis and similar practices. Anexaggerated sense of cleanli-ness, unconnected with the realneed, results in luxurious use of

an increasingly scarce, life-giv-ing material made available tous at practically no cost – thatis, water! Dripping pipes, luxu-rious hose baths to cars everyday – a common sight, believeme, in large complexes wherewater is no one’s property –indiscriminate volumes of waterfor multiple baths every day,excessive use of detergentsmaking recycling more difficultare all taking us towards criticalwater situations. Pricing water,such as to discourage wastefuluse, recycling for garden useand for charging naturalaquifiers may become inevitablein course of time. Brackish wa-ter is used in cities likeSingapore and Hong Kong forwater closets carried through aseparate line. Garbage aside, weas citizens can contribute sig-nificantly to save water. Thisshould be possible for us withthe God-given sea by our side.

Responsible consumptionand adherence to disposalnorms in dealing with the after-math of consumption make thejob more manageable for mu-nicipal agencies. It is time weconcertedly focused on our ownroles, for a change, shifting thefocus away from the usualtargets.

punitive action, but in regulari-sation of illegal structures, inexchange for a fee.

All of this has exposed therot in the entire business of con-structing commercial buildingsand T’Nagar is the worst of thelot. What is saddening is thatno action has ever been takenand probably never will be. Inthis context, it is worthwhile tonote that we wrote an editorialin 2008, when a fire broke outin another illegal structure,next to the present one. We arepublishing that below. Thatbuilding was soon back in busi-ness, as we are sure the presentone will also be.

DISASTER(Continued from page 1)

Authority (CMDA) that theyhad formed to go into the mat-ter. The CMDA said its moni-toring committee was quite ac-tive – it had met 62 times, withthe last meeting a day before thefire. What was not said was thatthe meeting, like all earlierones, had partial attendanceand was inconclusive. In short,nobody was really to blame. Butwe did have a four-storey build-ing sprout another four floorsand merrily carry on businessfor several years, cocking asnook at the law. Ours is an ad-ministration that believes not in

4 MADRAS MUSINGS June 16-30, 2017 June 16-30, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

NOSTALGIA AS HISTORY – 2

(Continued on page 7)

CHARIVARI – 2

From Civilianto Police Chief

Ram Mohan’s family wereTelugu-speaking Brahmins andhis father, G. Gopalakrishnan,was, what else, a lawyer. Afterliving in various places inMylapore earlier, and a shortstint in Pudukkottai, where theyheaded when Madras wasevacuated, the family movedinto a rented home in Pelathopein 1942. They paid a rent of Rs.40. The family was quite big,four boys and two girls. And asthe normal family size in thosedays was four children, the par-ents and a couple of grandpar-ents, there were plenty of chil-

One of the most entertain-ing among this group of

books is G. Ram Mohan’sPelathope Days. Pelathope is anarrow residential street close toKapaleeswarar temple inMylapore and is said to be as oldas the temple or even older. To-day it looks more or less the sameas a hundred years ago, exceptthat it is far more congested.Pelathope gets its name fromwhat was surmised to have beena grove (thoppu) of pala (jack-fruit) trees before the grovemade way for houses. Known tobe a street full of lawyers, judgesand doctors, Pelathope is a sortof microcosm of the world ofMylapore middle class life.

Ram Mohan moved into ahouse in Pelathope with hisfamily when he was five and leftthe street only when he was 24.He writes, “The purpose of mywriting this book is not one ofrecording the events of my life.I am well aware that it will notbe a matter of interest to any-one. My purpose is to recordsuch of my memories and im-pressions from my life as wouldgive the reader an idea of whatlife was like in those days in atypical middle class Hindu fam-ily in Madras city.” And this heproceeds to do very well in-deed, despite the fact that hewrites entirely from memory.This simply produced paper-back has charming line draw-ings that complement thechatty, humorous style.

Brodie’s Road. The street endedin a dead end. All the houseswere street houses, packed sideby side, but each had its own dis-tinct personality. Their onlycommon feature was that the ex-terior walls were all lime washedin either white or yellow. Thestreet was also earlier known asVedanta Desikar Street and wasassociated with the festivalhonouring the Vaishnavite saint.Every year the idol of the saintwas brought to Pelathope inprocession, and the residents of-fered worship to the idol before itproceeded to the temple beyondKapali Temple.

The junction where Pela-thope meets Ramakrishna Muttroad is a shopping hive today.Ram Mohan writes that even inhis time, the place was a com-mercial area, although not quiteso crowded. “For many years, tillabout the late 1950s, it housed a

part is not that the prices were solow then. After all, incomes werealso low and money’s value wasmuch higher. The remarkablepoint is that the prices were sostable. During the first fifteenyears or more of the period I havecovered in this book, the pricesand rates for all the items did notchange one bit. The price of acup of coffee in our Udipi hotelwas two annas when we movedto Pelathope and about fourteenyears later when decimal cur-rency came into being, it waschanged to thirteen paise. Thatwas an increase of half a paisa,since the exact equivalent of twoannas is twelve and a half paisas.All the Udipi style restaurants inMadras did it. People wrote an-gry letters against the ‘price rise’to the editors of newspapers com-plaining that the hoteliers wereexploiting the customers underthe guise of changing over todecimal coinage. … I often won-der how the Finance Ministersof that era managed to keep in-flation at zero level for years onend. Were there some wizardsrunning the Finance Ministry?Or was it a natural outcome ofthe overall stability of society it-self?”

Most of the shops mentionedby Ram Mohan have now disap-peared. But Sathyam Studio, thephoto shop and Murthy Pinmen,the laundry, remain there (at thetime of writing, 2010).

All the children went to thesame primary school. After thatthe boys went to P.S. HighSchool and the girls to LadySivaswamy Iyer Girls’ School.The primary school might havehad a name but as the elderlyBrahmin running it had a long,

LOST LANDMARKS OF CHENNAI– SRIRAM V

Where have all theavenues gone?

It’s a blazing summer with adrought compounding it. Most

of Chennai’s roads are devoid ofany kind of tree cover and withthe heat radiating from the sky,the buildings, the roads and thevehicles make for a local versionof hell. At a time like this, it iswith a pang that I read a reportof the Municipal Corporation ofMadras, dating to 1868. It has,among other things, a page onhow the civic body set about cre-ating tree cover along certainroads in the city, thereby quali-fying them as avenues.

The part of Mount Road be-tween Government House (nowPeriyar) Bridge and Wallajah(presently Quaid-e-Milleth)Bridge was named Napier Av-enue and was lined with PeepulTrees. This is the road that cutsright across the Island and itssouthern edge goes past whatwas once Napier’s (now MayDay) Park, which probably ex-plains its name. There are plentyof photographs of the dense foli-age that once existed on thisroad. Today, it is a wide thor-oughfare but devoid of trees.Napier was Governor of Madrasin the 1860s.

Coleman Avenue wasnamed after J.G. Coleman whowas a partner and later sole pro-prietor of McDowell & Co. Atthe time this avenue was beingcreated, he was President of the

Municipality of Madras. Thisstretch was from Parry’s Cornerto Fort St. George, a space nowoccupied by the subway thatruns parallel to the High Courtcompound. Coleman Avenuewas lined with casuarina trees.

Ladies’ Mile is an interestingname and this evidently was atthe eastern end of the Island,flanking the Cooum. This wasplanted with trees of various spe-cies. Victoria Avenue, to be linedwith jamun trees, is a little diffi-cult to identify, but would ap-pear to have been near here. Thedocument has it that this was theold Wallajah East EsplanadeRoad, which connected St.Mary’s and Wallajah Bridges.But with St. Mary’s Bridge itselfno longer visible, locating thisroad would have been well nighimpossible were it not for the in-defatigable researches ofHemachandra Rao. He says St.Mary’s Bridge took its name fromSt. Mary’s Cemetery on the Is-land. It ran across the Cooumjust next to this burial ground,close to where the BuckinghamCanal met the Cooum. Thisbridge later came to be toppedby the Stanley Viaduct andoverbridge. According to Rao,vestiges of the old St. Mary’sBridge can still be seen if you arewilling to brave the slum that hascome up under the Stanley Via-duct. The Eicher Map shows

Burial Ground Road as connect-ing Quaid-E-Milleth (earlierWallajah) Bridge and the spotwhere St. Mary’s Bridge oncestood. This road too is not acces-sible now owing to the denseslum that exists on it, but in itstime this must have beenVictoria Avenue.

Easier to locate is Cooum Riv-erside Avenue. This was fromLaw’s Bridge, the pedestrianwalkway that connectsChintadripet with E.V.R. Salaijust where Ripon Building stands,to Government House Gate(which is where the Assembly-turned-Multi-Speciality Hospi-tal now is). Now known asDeputy Mayor KabalamurthyRoad, it had portia (puvarasu)trees planted on it. The otherend of Law’s Bridge was at thegates of People’s Park, for in 1868none of the landmarks we know– VP Hall, Ripon Building, Cen-tral Station or Moore Market –existed. The tree-lined avenuethere, full of portia trees, ex-tended all along Sydenham’s(now Raja Sir M.A. MuthiahChettiar) Road right up to DeMellow’s Road, making it a verylong avenue indeed.

Popham’s Broadway Av-enue, lined with portia andneem trees, is easy to locatethough no trace of it survivesnow. It began at the St. Xavier’s

It is today known as the Arignar Anna Poonga but for long it wasRobinson Park. The man after whom it was named was Sir

William Rose Robinson, KCSI, of the Madras Civil Service. At thetime the Indian Charivari carried his caricature and profile, he wasthe acting Governor of Madras, following the sudden death of theincumbent Governor, Lord Hobart (MM, June 1, 2017).

Born on June 28, 1822, Robinson graduated in 1841 fromHaileybury College, the institution from where so many of theempire’s administrators graduated. He joined the Madras CivilService in 1842 and according to the Indian Charivari, his first as-signment was as Assistant Magistrate, Canara. From there hemoved up the ladder, becoming in 1856 Acting Magistrate, Malabar.Known to be a hard-working officer, his career may not have risenout of the ordinary had he not been suddenly appointed InspectorGeneral of Police for the whole of Madras Presidency in 1858. Hefound his true calling and thoroughly remodelled the force, makingit the best in India. Reward was swift, for he became Member, Boardof Revenue, Madras and Additional Member, Viceroy’s ExecutiveCouncil as Representative for Madras. Thus it was that whenHobart died, he was asked to step in as Governor. His tenure,however, according to Charivari, was marked by masterly inactiv-ity.

The assignment was in any case temporary and he handed overcharge in December 1875, to the Duke of Buckingham & Chandos.This was apparently not without a pang as Charivari would have it,for Robinson had hoped to be officiating Governor when the Princeof Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, came visiting in Decemberthat year. Charivari dealt more kindly with his wife, saying she wasknown for her good works. Born Julia Thomas, she was the daugh-ter of another old Madras hand, James Thomas of the Civil Service.

Robinson was knighted in 1876. Shortly before he left Madras in1879, Robinson laid the foundation stone for the park that wouldbe named after him. It had a fine botanical garden and a largefernery presented by A. Armoogam Mudaliar. The management ofRobinson Park, which still offers a green lung in Washermenpetand Royapuram, was transferred to the Municipality on February1, 1899. It was in this park that on September 18, 1948, ArignarAnna declared the formation of the DMK. The park is now there-fore named after him.

On retirement, Robinson settled in London, near Hyde Park,where he passed away on April 27, 1886.

(Continued on page 6)

PelathopeDays

dren in the street for RamMohan and his siblings to playwith. There was a lot ofneighbourliness and lonelinesswas an unknown concept.

“We could see the Kapalitemple tower from the first floorof our home in Pelathope,” RamMohan writes. “Now high risebuildings obstruct the view. Thetemple bells could be heardclearly during the three mainpujas of the day… We were par-allel to North Mada Street.” Fora long time Mylapore consistedonly of the four Mada Streetsaround the temple. Pelathopeopens off Ramakrishna Muttroad which was earlier known as

popular Udipi style restaurantwhich we all referred to as sim-ply Udipi Hotel. It was started bya Kannada family who were resi-dents of Pelathope and theyserved the usual Udipi fare. Thered building housed an eye clinicrun by a Dr. R.N. Row. Therewas also a paan shop at the en-trance to the hotel, owned by aNair and so called Nair Kadai…Then there was a general mer-chant store at one end of the redbuilding and a barber shop at theother end.”

“I still remember and can re-call the prices of all items … webought at the generalmerchant’s. The remarkable

flowing white beard, it waspopularly known only asDhaadi School. It crammed 50kids to a class, which had onlybenches to sit on and no desksand the children wrote onslates held against their bellies.The medium of instruction wasTamil until Form 4. Emphasiswas placed on oral learning andcommitting to memory,whether the children learntthe maxims of Avvaiyar ormathematical tables. “Wewere trained to do lots of prob-lems by mental arithmetic,”Ram Mohan writes. “A typicalproblem in mental arithmeticset for a fourth standard stu-dent would be something likethis: ‘If 15 palams of sugar costssix annas and nine pies howmuch would a veesai cost?’Forty Palams were a veesai,twelve paisas an anna and six-teen annas a rupee. We did itmentally and arrived at theright answer as one rupee twoannas.”

There were tables up to six-teen to be learnt normally andthen by reverse. There were alsothe fraction tables – for three-quarters, half, quarter, one-eighth and one-sixteenth uptoone-sixty fourth. “In those daysI could tell you at a pinch that ahundred times one-sixteenth issix and a quarter and sevenhundred times one-eighths iseighty seven and a half,” RamMohan recalls proudly.

Life in Dhaadi School also ex-posed the children to the povertyof other children who could notafford to pay even the meagrefees and were malnourished,

� by Janaki Venkataraman

1 2

3 4

� The late Gopulu during hisAnanda Vikatan days had aseries of wordless jokes thatbrought about loud laughter.These were brought out as a

WordlessGopulu

book, in 2005, and a copy wasrecently sent to me byCharukesi. We are pleased topublish these cartoons for anew generation of Madrasis.

– THE EDITOR

6 MADRAS MUSINGS June 16-30, 2017

Quizmaster V.V. Ramanan’s ques-tions are from May 16th to 31st.Questions 11 to 20 relate toChennai and Tamil Nadu.

1. What image will appear on the newRe. 1 currency note that the RBI isplanning to bring back into circula-tion?

2. The Ministry of Drinking Waterand Sanitation’s new nation-widecampaign to promote toilet use andfreedom from open defecation acrossthe villages of the country is called?

3. Of which prestigious National-level cultural award is SatyabrataRout the latest recipient?

4. Name the controversial ‘supercop’,credited with rooting out militancy inPunjab, and a former head of the In-dian Hockey Federation who passedaway recently.

5. According to an amendment bythe National nodal body, what is thetime period till when an entity will beconsidered a Start-Up?

6. Name the world-famous circus thatcame to a close after 146 years on May21st.

7. Name the British actor who playedJames Bond between 1973 and 1985and who passed away recently.

8. Name the famous feature of MountEverest which collapsed as a result ofthe 2015 earthquake has been con-firmed. The collapse makes theworld’s highest peak even more dan-gerous for climbers.

9. The Square by Ruben Ostlund wonthe Palme d’Or for the best picture atwhich celebrated film festival re-cently?

10. BSNL recently inked agreementswith which popular social media por-tal and wallet to popularise theinternet and its value added servicesamong its customers?

* * *

11. Name the actress who played thetitle role in SS Vasan’s Miss Maliniand her more famous daughter, a Na-tional Award-winner and a RajyaSabha member.

12. In the context of Chennai cuisine,which famous eating place was startedby Triloknath Gupta in the late1940s?

13. Another film question. By whatscreen name was P.K. Nagalingamknown, a name he got because of hisphysique?

14. Name the 210-year-old church onDavidson Street in George Town thatis said to have a chair belonging to theTamil scholar and linguist BishopRobert Caldwell.

15. Name the ‘infamously famous’journalist with whom would one asso-ciate the journals Hindu Nesan andCinema Thoothu.

16. What was the poetic name ofNawab Ghulam Ghouse KhanBahadur, the last Nawab of theCarnatic, after whom an institutionon Mount Road is named?

17. Name the rarely played lute-likestringed instrument that looks likethe veena sans the frets and on whichthalam can be played by striking twobamboo sticks.

18. In 1887, Raja Sir RamaswamiMudaliar, was the first Indian to holdwhich public appointment in Madras?

19. Name the pioneering city maga-zine started by Sita and AbrahamEraly in November 1977 that calleditself ‘A Magazine of Madras’?

20. Name the first Indian studio-backed film to be made exclusively forthe Internet that premiered in April2014.

(Answers on page 8)

The missing avenues(Continued from page 4)

90+ and still going strong

A three-foldcommitment Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

Acclaimed by Time maga-zine as one of the twenty

most influential Asians of the20th Century and by the UnitedNations as “a living legend whowill go into the annals of historyas a world scientist of rare dis-tinction,” Mankombu Samba-sivan Swaminathan is theFounder and Chairman of theM.S. Swaminathan ResearchFoundation in Taramani.

“In my nineties, I’m evenmore concerned with the unfin-ished challenges facing thecountry in the areas of food pro-duction, distribution and malnu-trition. I feel satisfied about whathas been done but also recognisewhat has not been done. Doesthe inevitable loss of memorythat accompanies old age helpsweep under the carpet what youdon’t want to accept?” he smilesdisarmingly. “This is in fact atime when my considerable ex-perience in life helps me judgepeople better,” he smiles mis-

the last year, it has been de-layed by half hour. It’s 9 amnow,” he sighs rather wistfully.

“Coming early to workmeans I can go around therooms and catch up with theearly bird students and staffand check on the cleanliness ofthe toilets too. 9 am to 1 pm is

work at office and studentmeetings. The latter are alwayschallenging and interesting!”He goes on, “These days I leavefor home in the afternoon so Ican lunch with my wife, who iscurrently challenged by a medi-cal issue. And I have gotteninto the ‘bad’ habit of restingbetween 2 and 3 pm… not atall good!”

3.30 pm to 5.30 pm is whenhe writes his papers or works onbooks and also reads up on newdevelopments in the field ofGenetics. “As much as I can, Icontinue to seek ways to con-tribute towards awareness onscientific issues and concerns.To keep abreast with social me-dia, I have a Twitter accountand my students tell me that 2lakh people access it! Goodways of communication, scien-tific modes of communication,sharing the correct informationat the correct time… all theseare important. ‘Share whatever

I know, in the best possibleway’, is my rule.”

Keeping in touch with stu-dents, the new generation ofleaders, is an important part ofDr. MSS’s life. “My last Ph.D.student submitted her thesisonly a few weeks ago, and I haveguided over 100 till date! I verymuch enjoy guiding students onscientific thought processes.Never about right or wrong, butjust sharing what my experi-ences have been. Being able tolook at the wrongs and findinghow best to make them right isan amazing skill to develop!Non-verbal communicationcan be an important aspect!”

Leisure time has always in-cluded Carnatic music and clas-sical dance performances. “Ihave always been a fan ofSemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer andnow T.M. Krishna, also dancerAlarmel Valli. Television timeis rare, generally onlyprogrammes on the DiscoveryChannel or news channels.These days, not much in thenews anyway,” he adds wryly.For about half hour or so beforegoing to bed, he reads books byRamana Maharishi orRamakrishna Paramahamsa.

Dr. MSS still continues totravel extensively, in spite ofthe need to use a walking stick,or a wheelchair to board air-craft! In June, he travels to theMcGill University in Canadafor his next honorary doctorate,another of the many that linehis office. On February 18,2016, he received the firstBharat Krushi Ratna ManPatra, the highest award in thefield of agriculture from thefarmers of India. On December14, 2013, he received theGreatest Global Living Legendaward. It was from PresidentPranab Mukherjee andNDTV… The awards are innu-merable!

“The older you get the moreyou are able to perceive the mis-conceptions you harbour –about people or technologies.Issues of concern must be dealtwith in a holistic manner, notby compartmentalising, becausemost problems are multidimen-sional – social, economic andenvironmental. My projects fo-cus on being ‘Pro Poor, Pro Na-ture, Pro Women.’ His nextaward is to be given for Out-standing Leadership by theWomen’s Economic Forum.

chievously. He has often been‘accused’ of being too trusting!

“I wake up by 6 am, eachday, whatever time I go to bed.Morning routines included abrisk 45 minute walk, till lastyear. Currently, I’m only ableto do some physical exercises,because I have a problem withmy knee and therefore am un-steady without my walkingstick. By 8.30 am, I am at theFoundation office! But over

Parchery and ran via MonegarChoultry Road to Tondiarpet.Mount Road Avenue ran onMount Road, from GovernmentHouse (Periyar) Bridge to Neil’sStatue, which stood at theSpencer’s Junction. This alsohad different kinds of treesplanted on it. On the oppositeside, from Waller’s Stables (nowspace occupied by ChristChurch, the Cosmopolitan andS.V.S. Clubs and much else) toGeneral Patter’s Road ran theClub Avenue, which had red-wood and acacia trees on it. Thisstretch ended at the MadrasClub, which was on propertynow occupied by the ExpressAvenue Mall.

Binny’s Avenue was whereBinny’s Road is, leading fromNeil’s Statue (Spencer’s Junc-tion) to Commander-in-ChiefBridge. Neem trees were plantedhere. From this bridge ranMarshall’s Road (now RukminiLakshmipathy Salai). This hadneem and portia trees lining it allthe way along the Cooum, spaceoccupied by the RajarathinamStadium, the walls of the eye hos-pital and up to Harris (nowAdithanar) Road. From Harris

Road began Lang’s Avenue(now Lang’s Garden Road),which ran along the Cooum.This had portia and neem trees.Spur Tank Avenue was fromthe Mounted Police barracks toMunro’s Bridge. The former isin Adithanar Road and the onlythoroughfare connecting it toany bridge is Pantheon Road asit ends at present day CollegeBridge. This must have oncebeen known as Munro’s Bridgeand the road to it was plantedwith neem trees, as were sev-eral stretches along Pura-sawalkam High Road, whichcame to be known asPurasawalkam Avenue.

Coranaeswarar Covil Road,named Barber’s Bridge Av-enue, was as the name suggestsin Mylapore, leading to thefamed Hamilton/Barber’s andnow Ambedkar Bridge. Thisroad, lined then with portiatrees, is now known asParipurna Vinayakar KoilStreet. Pycroft’s Avenue, lead-ing from Bell’s (now BabuJagjivan Ram) Road to theBeach (where Kannagi Statuenow is), had redwood trees.Bell’s Road itself came to becalled Bell’s Avenue, with red-wood trees planted on it. Neem

trees lined Wallajah Road fromRound Tana (where AnnaStatue now stands) to ChepaukPalace and the stretch wascalled Alexandra Avenue, afterVictoria’s daughter-in-law andfuture Queen of England.Along the Beach, connectingthe old Fort glacis via Napier’sBridge to the space now occu-pied by the samadhi-s was BandPractice Road. Lined withportia trees, this became SouthBeach Avenue.

The peepul and casuarinafailed to take root whereverplanted and on their failing,were replaced with neem andportia trees. It is noteworthythat no alien species wereplanted anywhere. The totalcost came to Rs. 3,037, as 11 p11. This was funded by revenuefrom grazing contracts on theesplanades and on roadsides,sale of hay and clippings oftrees. The money earned fromthese activities was Rs. 4,527 as10 p 10. The Municipality thusmade a neat profit from thewhole project. Those were in-nocent times.

It would be interesting towalk along these stretches andsee if any old trees of those spe-cies are still standing.

� by

Shobha Menon

(Continued on page 8)

June 16-30, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

Ambattur Industrial Estatewas the second industrial

estate to come up in the Stateof Madras (the first being theGuindy Industrial Estate). It isthe largest among the industrialestates in South-east Asia,spreading over an area of a littleover 1,300 acres and havingmore than 1,800 units. This in-dustrial estate, which becamefunctional in 1964, boasts of alarge number of automobilecomponents manufacturers,which, in fact, forced one of thelargest truck manufacturers inthe country, Tata Engineering& Locomotive Co. Ltd., to opena procurement centre in Ma-dras to facilitate their purchasesand interaction with suppliers.The presence of so many autocomponents producers was theprime reason for several inter-national car producers to set upmanufacturing units in andaround Madras.

The architect behind thissuccessful industrial contribu-tion was R. Venkataraman,former President of India, whenhe was the State’s IndustriesMinister for over ten years. Hehad first promoted the GuindyIndustrial Estate in 1958 – thefirst of its kind in India – and itbecame an instant success. Hebegan to think of building onthis success.

The State unit of the Con-gress Party decided to host theA.I.C.C. session in Madras in1955 and to hold it at Avadi. Itexpected around 3,000 delegatesto attend and arrangements hadto be made for their accommo-dation and food close to thevenue. It also expected over30,000 persons to attend thepublic meetings on each of the

The back story

� byN. Venkateshwaran

two days when all-India leaderslike Jawaharlal Nehru andSardar Patel participated. Therewere no roads or infrastructureof any kind and the whole areawas totally barren land. Everyarrangement had to be madefrom scratch. The State Govern-ment took up the task of laying amotorable road to connect thevenue from the city and clear thewild shrubbery in the vast area

told him that he was very confi-dent that, given the right kindof facilities and working cli-mate, the place would get filledup in no time and the Statewould be forced to build moreindustrial estates at various cen-tres. He went on to explain thatthe place where the VIPs wouldbe staying could be used forbuilding an extension to thenearby Integral Coach Factoryand that he had already dis-cussed this with the RailwayMinister N. GopalaswamyIyengar, so the Railway sidingwould not go a waste. The ICF’sfurnishing factory later wouldcome up here. He also ex-plained that he had asked T.S.Krishna of the TVS Group topurchase the Padi lake area toput up manufacturing units forautomobile components, assur-ing him of help to get the re-quired licences from the Cen-tre. He was also requesting T.T.Krishnamachari, the then Com-

merce Minister, to persuadeDunlop, who was thinking of asecond unit, to put it inAmbattur. The Murugappagroup had agreed to set a cyclemanufacturing unit at Avadi.These industrial units wouldamply justify the expenditureon the roads and other infra-structure, he was confident.

The Avadi session was athumping success. It was a his-torical event in the annals of theCongress party, where the reso-lution that India would follow a“socialistic pattern of society”

was unanimously adopted. Thehighlight of the session was thepresence of Nikita Khruschev,the First Secretary of theCommunist Party of the SovietUnion. Accompanying him wasNicholai Bulganin, the thenpresident of the Soviet Union.They coincided their visit toIndia in order to be present atthe Avadi Session and morethan 50,000 people – muchmore than what the organisersexpected – thronged the venue,unmindful of the incessantdrizzle and slushy ground.

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– How Ambattur IndustrialEstate became a reality

where the present AmbatturEstate is situated. The plan wasto put up tents to accommodatethe delegates and have a com-mon kitchen to serve food to allof them. The plans included get-ting steam ovens, which wereintroduced for the first time, toprepare hot idli-s for all on a mas-sive scale. For the stay of thePrime Minister and otherVVIPs, facilities were put up atPerambur which included a rail-way siding from Perambur Rail-way station to take the guestsdirectly to their place of stay.

The then Chief Minister ofthe State, K. Kamaraj askedVenkataraman: “Venkatarama,you are using public money ona massive scale for a Party ses-sion. Will not the public ques-tion you tomorrow on this?” Towhich R.V. replied that theplace where the delegates werebeing housed would be madeinto an industrial estate tohouse a little over 1,000 unitsemploying around one lakhpeople, for which Kamaraj won-dered where he was going tofind the entrepreneurs. R.V.

Left to right: R. Venkataraman, K. Kamaraj and M. Bhakthavatsalam look-ing at a model of the Ambattur Industrial Estate at its inauguration on July 3,1965.

PELATHOPE DAYS(Continued from page 5)

as well as to the dark side ofschooling, corporal punishmentand poorly paid teachers.

Ram Mohan’s father laterbought the house they rented.Firewood was the primary fuelused for cooking. So everyhouse had a ‘lumber room’where the firewood wasstacked. The wood attractedscorpions which now and thendropped down. “Their sting wasextremely painful. They wereslow movers and when one wassighted there would be an alarmraised. It was the duty of anyadult male present to beat it todeath with the nearest availableweapon – usually a stick or apiece of firewood. There was anoccasion when Chandi (my el-der brother) was the one whosighted a scorpion. ‘Scorpion!Scorpion!’ he screamed. ‘Callsome man!’ He was 21 then!”

There is a chapter dedicatedto the kudumi (tuft) and the ur-gency to get rid of it in anAnglicised world. Ram Mohan’smaternal grandfather loved hiskudumi but was forced to get ridof it after it began to embarrasshim in front of his Britishbosses. As a matter of courtesy,he had to, in their presence, re-move the tightly starched andtied turban within which heconcealed his kudumi. The mo-

ment he did that, his kudumiwould come cascading down.

Then there is the story toldabout the kudumi of the famouscricketer, M.J. Gopalan. “I can’tvouch for its truth: but it is aninteresting story,” writes RamMohan. Gopalan, from an or-thodox Ayyangar family ofTriplicane, sported a bigkudumi. “He would conve-niently tuck his kudumi underhis solar hat when batting orfielding; but trouble came whenhe bowled. He had to necessar-ily remove his hat to bowl. Theexposed kudumi proved to be hisundoing. When he was selectedto play against a touring En-gland team in the 1930s, theEnglish batsmen initially foundhis bowling unplayable… thenone batsman found a way out ofthe problem. When Gopalanbent his bowling arm sharply atthe shoulder (to bowl his ‘mys-tery’ delivery) that sharply bentarm would expose his kudumiand cause it to drop and unfurl.That was too obvious a sign forthe batsman to miss andGopalan lost his vital surpriseelement... “Take off the tuftGopala, and I will take you in thetest team,” Vizzy (the captain) issaid to have told Gopalan.

“Gopalan refused and wasdropped from the test team afterbeing given just one chance.”

The book recounts how festi-vals were celebrated in

Pelathope and how socially com-plicated weddings were, howwomen slowly came out of sti-fling protectionism and got edu-cated, how rooted the childrenwere in their own cultures whileat the same time trying to under-stand the rest of the worldthrough magazines and books; ofthe ten-day Kapali temple festi-val (that was banned for six yearsfrom 1940 to 1945 on accountof World War II. It was consid-ered a security risk as the brightlights of the nightly festivitiescould attract air raids). RamMohan talks of the stifling or-thodox practices of the house-holds, the superstitions thatruled their lives, street cricketand the excitement of going toChepauk for the real matches,and of the warmth and joy ofgrowing up in a big joint family.“I am no psychologist but Istrongly believe this: growing upin a home with a large numberof sisters and brothers, and inter-acting with boy and girl cousins,gives a youngster, boy or girl, amuch healthier attitude towardsthe opposite sex from early on inlife. Boys in those days, I feel,imbibed a sense of respect forfemininity from early on.”

Pelathope Days is nostalgia atits best and most entertaining.(Published by Akshaya Publica-tions, Alwarpet.)e-mail: visalam.rammohan@gmail.com

8 MADRAS MUSINGS June 16-30, 2017

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Mother’s cricketing passion

Answers to Quiz1. Sagar Samrat oil explorationrig, 2. ‘Darwaza Bandh’, 3.Sangeet Natak AkademiPuraskar, the highest Indian rec-ognition given to practising art-ists, 4. K.P.S. Gill, 5. Not com-pleted seven years from the dateof its incorporation/registration,6. Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey Circus, 7. Roger Moore, 8.The ‘Hillary Step’, 9. Cannes, 10.Facebook and MobiKwik

* * *

11. Pushpavalli and Rekha, 12.Ratna Café, 13. Raja Sandow, 14.William Charles church, 15. C.N.Lakshmikanthan, 16. Azam (afterwhom the Madrasa-I-Azam isnamed), 17. ‘Geth’, 18. Sheriff,19. Aside, 20. AVM’s IdhuvumKadandhu Pogum.

As the Champion’s Trophytournament gets under-

way, I recall Mother who had,just after World War II, startedreading about cricket, got pas-sionate about it within a year,and became an armchair criticof not only the game, but theleading players of that era too.

Mother, Padmini Varma,had cricket-crazy nephews fromerstwhile Cochin State, whowere studying in Madras col-leges like Presidency, Guindy,MIT etc. She being their defacto local guardian, found her-self listening with them to thecricket commentaries on AllIndia Radio (AIR) as well asBBC and Radio Australia (par-ticularly when India toured En-gland, Australia and the WestIndies) and being tutored in thegame.

Pretty soon, it was Don, Stan(Macabe), Len (Hutton),Walter (Hammond), Fred(Trueman), the 3Ws etc., who

became household names andwere bandied about at lunch,tea and dinner, particularly dur-ing weekends. It also includedvisits to Chepauk to watch fromthe MCC Members’ Enclosurevisiting teams.

However, by the time theNew Zealand team came to In-dia in 1955, Test matches hadshifted to the Corporation Sta-dium, much to her disappoint-ment. Chepauk, with its trees,

Mankad, the innings victorythereafter making it doublysweet. The Palmtreewallah(Polly Umrigar was so namedafter his six-hitting exploits inthe Caribbean) became her sec-ond favourite Indian player.Dattu Phadkar remained herall-time favourite in that era.

By now her reading habitswere not confined to The Hinduor Sport and Pastime alone, buthad extended to Indian Cricket

wickets to fall. That apart,when the commentary was on,our tea, lunch and dinner (over-seas tests) timings were alwaysin sync with the matches, somuch so that even the staffknew when to set the table andget the food piping hot!!!

During Test matches in Ma-dras, we would have guests,mainly relatives from Banga-lore, Cochin etc., who would bebilleted under Mother’s super-vision in different houses and allof them would have to assembleat our place on Anderson Roadfrom where, after breakfast, wetook buses or went by car toMoore Market from where wewould proceed to the G & Hstands in Corporation Stadium.My parents and uncles would allhave tickets for the Terracestand, so they would comemuch later. Come lunchtime,however, we would all assembleat the SIAA Club where our carwas parked, father Ravi Varmabeing a member.

Between mouthfuls, Motherand others would talk animat-edly about what had happenedin the game and that stoppedonly when lunch was over andwe got back to our designatedseats looked after most dili-gently by our neighbours, whowere then duly rewarded withsnacks (when the vendors cameby with their baskets) at ourcost, since they had ensured no-body else encroached our desig-nated bench. The bonhomie atthese times, and during thematches, had to be seen to bebelieved. In those five days,apart from the rest day, wewould become bosom pals and,if lucky, meet them again whenthe next Test surfaced.

verdant surroundings and tem-porary wooden stands had beena joy to behold, compared tothis concrete stadium. Theshift, however, did not deter herinterest, and the T(errace)stand became her favourite af-ter the world record openingpartnership of 413 by Roy and

Field Annual which DickyRutnagar brought out. The sta-tistics were memorised and shestartled many a cricket fan shecame across at not only theground, but at parties as well.S.K. Gurunathan, the thenSports Editor of The Hindu, wasa close family friend andthrough him she gleaned evenmore details about Indian andvisiting players and, as if it was,first-hand knowledge, shespread the word whenever theopportunity arose.

When India played at sayBombay or Calcutta, she wouldbe glued to the radio, which be-came her personal fiefdom. IfIndia was batting, she wouldstay put in her chair and expecteverybody else to remain wherethey were. She was so supersti-tious, she felt that if an Indianwicket fell, it was because some-one had shifted places. Bowlersor fielders of opposing teamsnever got the credit, but if aGupte or Mankad dismissed abatsman, she would be over-joyed and start praying evenmore vigorously for many more

Till June 28: Heavenly Bodies, aphoto exhibition by C.P. Satyajit(at DakshinaChitra).

Till June 30: Hidden Faces ofVenice, a photo exhibition byMelanie Chagneau (atDakshinaChitra).

� Remembered by Krishnadas Varma

STILL GOING STRONG(Continued from page 6)

“My continued interests inthe fields of overcoming malnu-trition in the country, and thetechnological empowerment ofwomen, keep me motivated andactive, and passing on ideas topolicy makers. Getting oldergarners more admirers but alsomore ‘adversaries’. I try to takenote of objective criticism tolearn, other criticism I havelearnt to ignore.

“Each day I thank God forgiving me the opportunity togive back and for helping memake the best use of myself

threefold – what can I do forhumanity to overcome malnu-trition and hunger, what can Ido for my family members, andwhat can I do for my larger ex-tended family of over 300-strong scholars and scientists!Whatever I have been able toachieve, I owe it to my wife andcompanion, Mina. Married 65years now, we have three won-derful daughters. I am blessed tohave such a supportive family.”

Exceptional about this leg-end is his childlike enthusiasm.And yes, I got his personal‘Thank You’ mail even before Ireached home!

The entire programme, in-cluding lunch, was coordinatedwith nary a hitch by Mother.Her passion only increased herefficiency.

This flashback has been tounderline the fact that Indiahardly won Tests as frequentlyas we do now and I have triedto imagine what my Motherwould feel with the recent teamperforming as it has been.