Dr KN Kesari – a profile

Dr KN Kesari (1875-1953) was a renowned physician of Madras city, whose Kesari Kuteeram Ayurveda Oushadasala was a landmark Royapettah’s Westcott Road. Born in Inamavamelloor in Ongole District of present day Andhra Pradesh, Kota Narasimham as he was originally known, lost his father when he was just five. The mother had to face severe hardships and when he was 11, unable to bear the distress of his mother, he ran away from home and arrived in Madras city. After several initial setbacks, he succeeded in getting a scholarship at the Hindu Theological School (Mint Street) and studied there. In order to differentiate him from another student of the same name, he was called Narakesari by his teacher which he shortened in later years to KN Kesari. His mother joined him in the city in 1889 only to pass away a few months later.

Kesari learnt Ayurvedic medicine and apprenticed under Pandit D Gopalacharyulu who practised at the Kanyaka Parameswari Temple Dharma Ayurveda Vaidyasala. This, run by the Sri Kanyaka Parameswari Devasthanam, was in Godown Street, George Town. In 1900, Dr Kesari set up his own practice in the same street, under the name of Kesari Kuteeram, along with some partners. Differences of opinion among them soon led to one of the early trade mark disputes in Madras city, the High Court’s judgement of 1929 finally settling it in favour of Dr Kesari. In the meanwhile the business expanded with a new office in Bandar Street and a branch in Secunderabad. The medicines such as Lodhra, Amrita and Arka became household names. Dr Kesari designed his own advertisements for these products which were published regularly in Telugu magazines such as Andhra Prakasika. Further expansion in business led to the business and his residence shifting to Egmore.

In the first years of the 20^th century, Dr Kesari commissioned the Lodhra Printing Press at Poonamallee High Road from where he began publishing Grihalakshmi, a Telugu magazine aimed at women. It later became known for its intellectual content and for championing the rights of women. Following the death of his first wife after a prolonged illness, Dr Kesari selected Madhavi, a lady from Kerala, who was well-versed in Ayurveda and married her. She was a qualified specialist in curing the illnesses of women and children and set up practice along with her husband. The marriage too was blessed and the couple had a daughter in 1919 – Sarada Devi. In later years, they adopted a girl, Vasantha. A branch of Kesari Kuteeram was set up in Kerala as well. In 1937 the Kesari Kuteeram business shifted to Westcott Road, Royapettah. This became a huge establishment, with a handsome bungalow in the middle, surrounded by the workshops of the business where the medicines were prepared.

Dr Kesari became an ardent champion of women’s causes. His magazine established an annual award for women which comprised a gold bracelet. The Grihalakshmi Swarnakankanam as it became known, was considered a great honour. Dr Kesari contributed liberally to social organisations set for women’s uplift such as the Andhra Mahila Sabha of Durgabai Deshmukh, the Seva Sadan of Lady Andal Venkata Subba Rao, the Avvai Home of Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy and the Hindu Yuvathi Saranalaya of Yamini Poorna Tilakamma. He also personally sheltered several women, all of whom were given education and encouraged to become independent.

Never forgetting the struggles he faced to get a good education, he assisted in the management of a school that was set up to give education to the people of Andhra origin who lived in Madras. In 1943, Dr. K. N. Kesari offered to take over the management of the institution and raised it to middle school and later, to high school level. The first batch of pupils appeared for the SSLC Public examinations in March 1948. This later became Kesari High School.

Dr. Kesari endowed the school with a spacious building at 163, Royapettah High Road (formerly Palm Grove, the palatial residence of S Doraiswami Iyer, a famed lawyer), valued at that time at Rs 70,000. In addition, he donated Rs. 50,000 to the school. He also constituted a committee of trustees to manage the affairs of the institution and administer the properties.

In April 1947, Dr. Kesari donated a further Rs. 1 lakh to the trust basically for education of girls. To provide for expansion of the activities of the institutions and the starting and running of similar institutions in the future, it was decided to form a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860. Accordingly the `Kesari Education Society’ was formed and registered in February 1951. Subsequently, an elementary school was started there with Telugu as the medium of instruction.

Towards the end of his life, Dr Kesari became distressed on coming to know that people were speaking of him as though he hailed from a wealthy family background. To set the record straight he wrote his memoirs in Telugu, titled Chinnanati Mutchatlu. This, many years after his demise, was translated into English by his daughter Vasantha Menon and edited by his grandson K Balakesari. VAK Ranga Rao informs me that the original work had comments which were acceptable in the times in which they were written. These were edited when a second edition of the biography came out in Telugu in the 1970s.

The Kesari heritage lives on. The school was upgraded to a high school in 1981. Today, the Kesari Education Society manages the following schools: Kesari High school, Mylapore (English & Telugu medium), Kesari High School, T. Nagar, Kesari Primary School, T. Nagar (Telugu medium). The Kesari Kuteeram business too thrives, now in its  108^th year. The old bungalow has however given way to a multistoreyed building that houses many of Dr Kesari’s descendants including his famous musician great grandson – P Unnikrishnan.

Musiri in Malaya

My article appeared on 28th March 2008 in The Hindu. The link is below:

http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/fr/2008/03/28/stories/2008032850970400.htm

For some reason the paper did not accept the photos I sent for the article. So they are uploaded here.

IT Expressway – is it for real?

The Highways Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, has in a recent meeting announced that the work on the high profile IT Expressway (now renamed as Rajiv Gandhi Salai) will be completed by March 31^st. He has also stated that the main carriageway of the first phase from Madhya Kailash to Siruseri, spanning 20.1 km, and the ECR Link Road connecting Sholinganallur and Akkari (2.1 km) would be ready by March. The service roads are expected to be completed by August. It has been decided to build link bridges from the MRTS stations that are on the same route. The toll plaza will be complete by April and will be operational from July.

 The reality on ground however appears to indicate that it is doubtful if the work will be completed to the satisfaction of road-users. A drive down the corridor shows that all is well on the stretch from Madhya Kailash. But from Kandan Chavadi and Perungudi onwards, it is clear that work has happened only on the road surface proper and not on the surroundings. It will be remembered that when the IT Corridor was promised, it was depicted not merely as a road, but also as an experience, with sidewalks, cycle lanes, bus stops that are set off from the main road and a subterranean corridor for utilities. As of now, these have not made an appearance anywhere except in the initial stretch. In fact the subsequent stretches do not appear to have any footpaths at all, thereby showing that this road is not going to be any different from the rest of Chennai’s thoroughfares. Drainage pipes meant to laid underground dot the roads and in many places, the road surface itself is damaged thanks to continued use. Also, in many parts, the road appears to become a four-lane highway contrary to the six lanes promised earlier. However, this may be an optical illusion owing to heavy traffic and absence of lane markings. Judging from the number of shops and semi permanent structures that still stand on both sides of  the road, it would appear that the project’s greatest bugbear – land acquisition, continues to plague it. The Government has said that blacktopping was in progress from Karapakkam to the Sholinganallur junction (2.6 km), and from Sholinganallur to Siruseri (7.7 km). The main carriageway of ECR Link Road would be blacktopped by March-end.  But users are asking if that is all that there is to what was once flaunted as a world- class highway.

The project, kick started in 2004, was estimated to cost Rs84.41 crores in the first phase which included the cost of setting up toll plazas, supervision costs and contingencies. The core activities included conversion of the stretch into a six lane carriageway with medians and road signs. The cost of land acquisition was not included and this was estimated to be Rs 43 crores. There was great delay in land acquisition and still greater delay in shifting the utilities. The contractor had difficulty in mobilising resources which resulted in stretching of the timeline. Acquisition of litigation free land was the first hurdle and resulted in the commencement of the project being shifted to 1^st January 2005. The problems of over 120 linking roads in this area were apparently underestimated leading to further blocks in the implementation. Several religious shrines in the area added to the problem, what with their shifting becoming contentious issues. Clearly there had been several aspects that had been overlooked when the original project plan was laid out.

The first stretch of 3km was opened in October 2006, a full year behind schedule of the entire project. The remaining 18km was to be completed in June 2007. The cost in the meanwhile increased to Rs 117 crores. The present state of the project indicates that the March 2008 completion will be a paper one, with a lot of work to be done later. In the meanwhile, the traffic on this stretch, which stood at 22000 vehicles in 2004 during peak hours, has gone up manifold.

In November 2006 a petition signed by concerned residents of the city asked the Highways Department the following questions:

 Q1. Is there a slippage from the schedule of completion of the strengthening and widening of the IT Corridor project?
Q2. If there is a slippage, what are the reasons for the deviation from the schedule and where are the revised schedules published? 

It is not clear if the petition was answered, but once the road is declared complete, many more questions are likely to emerge.

My first article on C Saraswathi Bai

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/12/30/stories/2005123003330700.htm

I wrote this when I did not have too much of info on this wonderful lady artiste. I have since discovered some errors in this article.

1. The Academy willfully withheld the Kalanidhi from her and gave her the Certificate of Merit as it did not want women to receive the honour.

2. She was born in 1892 and not 94.

multilingual announcements

Chennai among the densest cities of the world

The US based Forbes magazine, in its recent survey has listed Chennai among the densest cities of the world. The city ranks 8^th in the list. Delhi follows in the 13^th position and Bangalore is 19^th. The magazine has commented that “Living in a dense place affects quality of living, unless you have loads of money and the place is gentrified like Tokyo and New York. Dense is, however, a relative term. A Mumbai native visiting New York is bound to feel like a New Yorker vacationing on a Wyoming dude ranch”. The magazine has blamed “fast-track economic growth” for the density of population in metros. It is significant that the list of the top ten densest metros of the world has three Indian cities – Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Citizens of Chennai may take solace in the fact that the list of the top 25 dirtiest cities of the world does not include the metro, while it does have Mumbai (7^th) and Delhi (24^th). But while Chennai appears to have escaped, neighbouring Ranipet has not. It comes in for special mention and it is stated that “Ranipet’s pollution can affect up to 3 million people, as it is upstream from populous Chennai. Its tannery waste amounted to 1,500,000 tons a year of toxic material. There is contamination of ground and water. There are efforts being made at containment”.

While Forbes Magazine’s penchant for listing just about anything (10 hardest drinking cities of the world is an example) may have resulted in the “dirty” statistics going unnoticed, last year’s Worldwide Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting showed Indian cities in a very poor light as well. That study state that Indian cities score relatively poorly for health and sanitation, with scores ranging from 52.8 for Chennai (position 177) to 38.2 for Mumbai (position 209). Most Indian cities are densely populated with poor waste removal and sewage systems. These issues, combined with increasing air pollution, contribute to their relatively low ratings according to the study. It highlighted the fact that there is a very real risk of transmission of diseases in these cities owing to the poor ratings.Given this scenario, the Central Government has come up with the idea of satellite townships for 35 cities in the country. All of these have populations exceeding a million and naturally Chennai is also included. The Ministry for Urban Development is finalizing a “satellite township policy”. The Ministry envisages appointing a consultant for coordinating with state governments on the proposed townships. It is understood that these initiatives will be mandatory for states, if they propose to avail funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The states will also be asked to reform their land policies including the reduction of stamp duty to 5% and the removal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act wherever it is applicable presently. The stamp duty is presently 8% in Tamil Nadu. The Urban Land Ceiling Act was repealed in the state in 1999. The Centre is also proposing redefining of city municipal limits. A National Urban Commission is being set up to focus on developments in towns and cities and to increase their limits. This move is meant to change the urban-rural equation in the cities and therefore redefine the density of population. It has been noted that while the population of India grew 2.8 times between 1951 and 2001, the urban population increased 4.6 times. The extent of Chennai city is about 157 sq.km and the Chennai metropolitan area is 1117 sq.km. Within this 157 sq.km city, the prevailing density is 247 persons per hectare while the density in the suburbs is only 59 persons per hectare. The focus is certainly on the development and densification of the suburbs.

While this emphasis on surrounding areas is welcome, it is to be hoped that the city, which is already bursting at its seams, will not be neglected. Also, a good plan for development of satellite towns would envisage their being independent entities thereby reducing the daily influx and exodus of population in the metro resulting in traffic chaos and adding to the pollution. Time alone will tell as to what the new plan will have for this city.

  

Reforming the Tyagaraja Aradhana

Reforms at the Aradhana

 (this appeared in March 2007 in The Hindu) 

It was a small news item and chances are most people missed it. The Hindu dated 17^th March carried the news of a group of musicians meeting together on February 24^th and 27^th at the residence of the late “Vaidinatha  Bhagavatar” at Soolamangalam. The musicians were having serious issues with the way the Aradhana was being conducted and had decided to meet and debate and raise a banner of revolt. The location was significant for Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, the noted Harikatha exponent, had been a pillar of the Chinna Katchi, one of the three factions (the other two being the Periya and Nagarathnamma Katchis) that conducted rival Aradhanas in Tiruvayyaru till 1940 when the Tyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha was created to conduct a unified Aradhana. Bhagavatar, seeing that the Aradhana under the new set up was conducted more on the lines of a musical Sabha than a solemn religious and musical offering had chosen to dissociate himself from the proceedings and had stayed away till his death in 1943. It was but natural that musicians who had begun to realise the significance of his stance should meet at his residence even though he was long gone. A set of resolutions was passed during the meeting and all of them made for interesting reading.

The Hindu reported that it was “unanimously resolved at the meeting that the Aradhana and music concerts of Sri Thyagaraja Swami shall be conducted in a spirit of devotion and Bhakti to Thyagaraja Swami”. Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and several like him had opposed the move to broadcast the music during the Aradhana for they had felt that devotion would be given the go by in the rush for prime seating. The second resolution stated that “the system of inaugurating and opening of the Aradhana shall be discontinued”. This too was something that Bhagavatar had protested against. After all Tyagaraja had attached no significance to power and pelf and so where was the necessity to have Maharajahs, ministers, Justices of the Court and prominent politicians to inaugurate the annual festivity? And yet, beginning with Sir RK Shanmukham Chetty in 1940 many bigwigs had been invited to do just that. The focus was shifting more and more towards the pomp and circumstance of the inaugural and piety was therefore lacking according to the musicians.

The third resolution according to The Hindu stated that “the office bearers and members of the Governing Body shall consist of Vidwans only”. Many bureaucrats, lawyers and moneyed patrons had interested themselves in the unification and when the Sabha was constituted it had the Maharajahs of Mysore, Gwalior and Travancore as its Patrons, Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar as its President and a set of Trustees of which not one was a musician. The first level in which musicians were represented was that of Secretary. It was felt that such a heavyweight Governing Body would make it easy for funds collection. Gone were the days when the Aradhana was a local affair with funding on a medium scale from local tradesmen and landlords, with the expenditure controlled by the musicians.

The fourth resolution passed was that “the practice of indiscriminate music concerts for negligibly short periods should cease since such a system tends to lower the level of music”. This again had been a cause for irritation for in the past the Aradhana had involved musical homage by way of some songs (not the Pancharatnam) being sung during the worship and the holding of music concerts of senior artistes from 3.00 pm till midnight. It was considered a matter of prestige to be invited to sing at the Aradhana and many such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Papa KS Venkataramiah and even Papanasam Sivan had made it big only after their debut concerts during the Aradhana.

The Hindu reported that the group of musicians gathered at Soolamangalam had elected a President and he was authorised to “communicate the resolutions to the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Thyaga Brahma Mahotsava Sabha and to the Press”. Now those of you who, on reading this begin to look for The Hindu of the 17^th of 2007, must be informed that this meeting was held 60 years ago and was reported in The Hindu in 1947. It was the centenary year of Tyagaraja’s passing and this was among the first attempts at changing the Aradhana format. The musicians assembled included Palladam Sanjeeva Rao, Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer, TK Rangachariar, Sathur Subramania Iyer, Bangalore Nagarathnammal and KV Narayanaswami among others. Palladam Sanjeeva Rao was elected President for the meeting and he it was who wrote to The Hindu. What happened when these resolutions were read out at the Tyaga Brahma Mahotsava Sabha committee meeting is anybody’s guess.

Sriram Venkatkrishnan

Needamangalam Meenakshisundaram Pillai

A tribute to this maestro around the month of his passing. I wrote this for The Hindu of 29th Feb 2008

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/02/29/stories/2008022950330300.htm