Pallavi Sesha Iyer

2009 is this composer’s death centenary year. An article on him appeared here

 

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/06/19/stories/2009061951350400.htm

Metro rail threatens St Andrews Kirk

With work beginning this week on Chennai’s metro rail project the fate of St Andrews Kirk, one of the city’s landmark buildings and hailed as a feat in engineering, hangs in the balance. A portion of the underground corridor of the metro along Poonamallee High Road will run under the church land and within 25 metres of the church building itself. Can the church withstand the rigours of the construction work and also the sustained vibrations caused by rolling stock once the rail comes into operation?

 

Representatives of the church had attended public briefing sessions even in 2008 when the project was announced and the route was planned along Poonamallee High Road. At that time they were assured that the underground corridor would run beneath the road and so the church would not be affected. Later they came to know that the proposed route would run beneath the church land and close to the building itself.

 

Mr John Rajanayagam, Secretary of the Church says that the church immediately contacted Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the company that is entrusted with the project. They were informed that CMRL was taking the help of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) when it came to heritage buildings along the route and that the general practice would be that no construction would take place within 100 m of such buildings. It was only later that members of the church realised that theirs was a building that does not come under the ASI’s purview as theirs is not an ancient monument. The absence of a Heritage Act in the city meant that buildings such as St Andrews are not protected by any legislation.

 

Letters were immediately dispatched to the Chairman and Managing Director of CMRL explaining the necessity to protect the church. A reply was received that the matter would receive attention once the consultants for the project Egis Rail SA of France come down in a couple of months time to advise on the project. Matters rest there for now.

 

Others concerned with the welfare of heritage buildings in the city have also approached the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) which is represented in CMRL through its Member Secretary. The CMDA was completely unaware of such a threat to the church building.

 

Consecrated in 1821, St Andrews was and is praised a feat of engineering as de Havilland, the engineer overcame the problem of subsidence in the area by sinking terracotta wells on which the church structure rests. These will be severely affected by the vibrations during any tunneling activity in the vicinity and the structural stability of the church will be threatened. The building which showed signs of wear and tear was renovated and strengthened a few years ago by a team comprising structural engineers from IIT led by Mr PC Verghese with advise from Karslruhe University, Germany. The team had studied the church and its design thoroughly and would be ideally positioned to help in situations such as this.

 

The CMRL’s web site http://www.chennaimetrorail.gov.in/index.html has a statement claiming that alignments and stations are tentative at present and subject to change during the actual execution. It is to be hoped that better sense will prevail when it comes to St Andrews. It is absolutely necessary that projects such as metro rail takes into account the effect they will have on stakeholders and any decision on this church and its ability to withstand construction in its vicinity must be taken only after consultation with the engineers who worked on its restoration.

Short and Snappy June 1st 2009

Short and Snappy dated 1^st June 2009

 

Travelling with our countrymen

 

The Man from Madras Musings is happiest in Madras that is Chennai. But there comes a time in mid May when his family members find their love for this city wearing thin and conversation during dinner rather markedly takes a turn towards whether it is the heat that is worse or is it the humidity. Then MMM’s good lady, all the while looking directly at MMM, talks of people who have gone off to better climes and then speaks of certain others who do not have the same luck. Adjusting the thermostat on the air-conditioner does not work and even before MMM can utter a few feeble protests, tickets have been booked and we are off. During these journeys MMM’s attitude is more like Peri standing disconsolately outside Paradise as he muses on Madras and what cheers him up more than the attempts of his family members to hurry him on from sport to sport as the quotation goes, is the behaviour of our fellow countrymen when they have to be airborne.

 

Those who have followed MMM’s writings will remember that he had once waxed eloquent on how some of our brothers behave under the influence of the spirit that cheers once they are in an aircraft. Their motto appears to be that of ‘spiritual’ uplift even as the body is wafted over the skies. So MMM will not repeat himself. And MMM will also pass lightly over the dressing styles of his countrymen. Suffice it to say that Indian men in particular would be better off wearing clothes that hide rather than accentuate their terrible outlines. It is on their behaviour while boarding aircrafts that MMM will now take up his lyre and sing of.

 

The queue system as far as Indians are concerned is an abstract belief rather like Nirvana which you can only aspire for and never really attain. And so, it is only in India that all airlines have more or less given up on the sequential system of boarding aircrafts. While in other countries they announce the pattern in which they want passengers to step forward and board (families with infants first, elderly needing assistance next etc), in India the general methodology is one of laissez faire with the procedure resembling more of a “Come and Get It”, “Go Forth and Multiply” or worse “Charge!!!!” However, while in foreign capitals and dealing with flights bound for India, airlines, no doubt under pressure from the IATA or some such body still follow the system of sequential boarding, at least on paper.

 

Unfortunately, these foreign capitals have not learnt from the Indian experience. MMM noticed that the moment boarding was announced for women with children, several of our Indian sorority stepped forward with young thugs who had begun shaving at least five years previously and attempted to pass them off as babes in arms. Then when the sequential boarding by seat numbers began, several passengers just stampeded their way through, even though their seat numbers had not been called.

 

MMM has since pondered over this strange behaviour. After all, air travel is not akin in any way to travel in unreserved compartments on trains where the fittest get the seats and others need to stand. Then why do Indians behave this way? And then it dawned on MMM. It all has to do with hand baggage which like the queue system is another abstract.

 

There are norms no doubt in terms of size, numbers and weight on what defines hand baggage. But not to Indians. The average passenger carries at least three pieces and when it comes to size or weight, as far as our compatriots are concerned, those are restrictions only applicable to checked in baggage. MMM is not exaggerating when he states that some of his fellow travellers carried into the aircraft bags that were several sizes larger and heavier than themselves. MMM doubted in some cases whether the passengers were carrying in the bags or whether it was the other way round. And it is the suspense of whether they will be able to stuff in their bags into the small, woefully inadequate and poorly designed overhead compartments or the spaces under the seats that causes our people to stampede the moment an aircraft is ready for boarding.

 

Once on board, matters do not end with just some damage to a few overhead lockers, a few heads or toes on which bags descend or a few elbows getting grazed as the boxes are lugged across the aisles. Indians do not recognise the seat numbers on their boarding passes and decide where they want to seat. “Sollikalam” (We can always tell them) was the expression MMM heard as a few passengers muscled in on seats meant for others and sat there even as those to whom the seats really belonged just stood watching bemusedly. It was a wonder that people did not fight for window seats. The crew on board spent almost the entire time duration of the flight in reconciling seats with passenger names and meal preferences thanks to this chaos.

 

Health Security

 

Oink! Yes, there is more to being a swine than meets the eye and the latest is this illness. Security has been “beefed up” (thank heavens it is not mad cow disease this year) at all airports and security, immigration and aircraft personnel go around in masks, which the Man from Madras Musings need scarcely remind you was something that only terrorists, dacoits and surgeons did. And so did a few of MMM’s fellow passengers. And these health conscious people gave their masks a hitch each time someone in the aircraft sneezed. And one among us was heavily infected with cold. He sneezed, wheezed, coughed and looked at everyone with rheumy eyes. Those around looked daggers drawn at him and he could not have been a four-legged creature with a twisted tail, a huge snout and folding ears to get a worse reception. As the flight approached Chennai, health declaration forms were handed over and we were asked to fill them in. Do you suffer from cold asked the first question. No was the sufferer’s answer. Do you have cough was the next. No was his answer once again. The third had something to do with breathing problems and the man answered this in the negative as well even as he huffed and puffed in the effort. MMM’s curiosity was aroused. He was sure that there would be a squad of health inspectors in arrival who would whisk the invalid away and probably quarantine the flight as well. MMM’s first thought was of the Chief and of what he would do if this column was not ready on time thanks to the quarantine. But MMM need not have worried.

 

Even as the pilot announced that we were about to land in Chennai, MMM noticed several of his fellow passengers unfastening their seat belts, extracting the baggage that they had stuffed in and perform quick visits to the toilets no doubt to pilfer all the cosmetics, toilet rolls and even a toilet seat if possible. Some even thought they could queue to the exit (there being no space to stampede) and were quelled in their attempts by a beady-eyed airhostess. Then as the flight landed, MMM noticed the coughing, sneezing and sniffing man fighting his way to exit and charging ahead of the others. MMM thought he was turning himself in and his courage reminded MMM of the Charge of the Light Brigade. But then, this is Chennai. The man led all the rest in the queue at the health inspector’s desk where a heavily masked woman took a cursory look at the form, did not take any note of the man’s febrile condition and simply waved him in. So now if you have an outbreak of swine flu in Chennai, you know how it happened.