A Madras Week 2011 Diary # 2

Yesterday (22/8/11) was a more relaxed day even though it was Madras Day. In the morning there was a Duchess Club programme where an Art Show comprising recent works with Madras as a theme. Some of them were wonderful. The show will be at Hotel Savera till tomorrow after which it will shift to the Art and Soul Gallery on the ECR.

In the evening, we had AR Srinivasan and YG Mahendra reminiscing about Tamil theatre at Taj Club House. We had an audience of around a 100 and the hotel had made very good arrangements. The Hindu has reported on the event
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/theatre/article2387141.ece

A Madras Week 2011Diary # 1

This humble serial is being offered as a humble dedication to my friend N Rajaram Brahma who having worked hard on Chennai’s Heritage had to go off abroad abandoning his beloved city. It is hoped that one day this migratory bird will return and we will celebrate Madras Week together along with other ‘saha’bodies such as Sridhar Joshi, Karthik Bhat, Mohan Raman et al.

My version of Madras Week began on 18th afternoon at Servion where I spoke on “A Town called George Town”. It was not one of my best and I detected a few yawns. I was a little hampered by a venue that was flooded with natural light (such a refreshing change from these dim lit glass covered venue) which made my pictures appear totally faded. Even I could not make out what was on the wall.

On the 19th morning I gave a talk on Chennai, the Crazy City with a suitably watered down version of my presentation on subject, to the students of 8th and 9th standards at the Asan Memorial School. A senior citizen who was present and who had seen it earlier in its full-blown version was rather disappointed that I had cut the salacious bits! I, being the prude that I am, thought it would be too much for the kids.

And so, fully on a bright Friday afternoon, we had the Press Conference for launching Madras Week at Taj Connemara. The hotel had put out a lavish spread and there were more organisers than the Press but when you saw the coverage next day you realised that these days electronic communications takes care of several things. Good for health too – less eating at Press Conferences, less to and fro travel and less verbiage. The Hindu and TOI in particular did us proud – http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article2374807.ece on Saturday.

TOI’s link – http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=2&edlabel=TOICH&mydateHid=21-08-2011&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Pc00205&format=&publabel=TOI

The evening of Friday was spent largely with the police. Not so much for any disorderly conduct as for getting permission for conducting the Heritage Tours. This was duly obtained, the document being in suitably archaic language (You shall not beat a TOM TOM or play musical instruments during the procession, being one such instance) but the process was completely pain-free. And so to bed as Samuel Pepys would have said.

On Saturday we had the first of the heritage walks with S Anwar leading 35 of us down Triplicane on the Wallajah Trail. It was fascinating and we covered the Chepauk Palace, the gates posts of the Palace which are at the TNCA entrance, the Mohammedan Library, the Triplicane Police Station (which was the old Langar Khana), the Big Mosque, the Anwari mosque, the Shadi Mahal, the Azeempet Arch, Amir Mahal and the Dastagir Sahib Dargah. We wound up at North Mada street to see the Mylapore Tank, which was donated by the Nawabs of Arcot. Breakfast was at Saravana Bhavan, North Mada Street.

That afternoon, I worked like a maniac on setting up a quiz on Chennai for a set of friends with whom Sarada and I form a quiz circle. That evening I was at the Anna University to give a talk on the life and works of Robert Fellowes Chisholm to the alumni association. They have this year introduced a heritage walk at the Anna Univ campus which was scheduled to be held on 20th morning and later was postponed to the 21st. My talk was to a small but highly attentive gathering. It was all rather hampered by an ancient LCD projector which was near to giving up its ghost (or should I use the more Carnatic expression – shuffling off its mortal coil?) and every photo appeared as an inky negative.

At night there was this rumbustious quiz with everything becoming noisier as ‘spirits’ rose. Went to bed at midnight to wake up all fresh and rosy at 4.30 am to get ready for Mohan Raman’s Kollywood Tour. It rained and rained the previous night and almost the first call was from Mohan asking if the tour was on. Well, after the downpours during the Justice Party Walk (2008?) and George Town by Night tour (2010), this was a mere drizzle and so I said of course we were going ahead.

At 6.30, Kodambakkam was at its galeej and galabai worst but those who had registered were all there. Young K Bhatt got a call from one of our registrants of the previous day saying she was waiting at the Labour statue and we had to gently break it to her that she was just about 24 hours late. Mohan’s walk was a riot. We tramped through mud and slush to hear him hold forth on the rise and fall of the great dream factories. There is a handful of them still hanging on. Breakfast was at Saravana’s Vadapalani outlet. The Hindu has reported on the tour today. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article2381749.ece

On both days we had fantastic co-operation from the police and on the second day, an officer accompanied us through the tour. The Hindu had me pontificating on Madras Week in its Downtown edition -
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-downtown/article2377763.ece

In the evening, Justice Prabha Sridevan spoke to a small but spellbound audience on the life of V Krishnaswami Aiyar at Chamiers, where Mathangi, our gracious hostess served tarts, sandwiches and coffee. It was appropriate that CV Karthik Narayanan, grandson of another legal luminary, Sir CP Ramaswami Aiyar, gave a memento to the speaker.

The signature campaign to save heritage is underway and people are signing up in droves. The online version should go up in a day or two.

Short and Snappy dated 16th August 2011

Of hearty welcomes, past and present

The lady came, saw and then left. The Man from Madras Musings refers to the recent visit of the US Foreign Secretary who once had presidential ambitions. Presumably she wanted to meet others of her ilk who had had ambitions and achieved them as well. But be that as it may, what MMM really liked about the visit was the plethora of wall posters that made their appearance before, during, and after the visit.

“Welcome to Hilary Clinton to Chennai” was the burden of most that were on the walls near the airport. And in that context MMM wonders what happened to a mayoral statute of not a year’s vintage that expressly forbade the defacing of walls with posters on certain important roads of which the airport road was also one? Leaving that aside, the sight of the two ‘to’s in those posters tickled MMM pink for here he realised was the next column served to him on a platter. But he does wonder as to what the foreign visitor thought about our civic sense. Very little probably, for she must have also heard the incessant honking, tooting and blaring of horns, the absence of lane discipline and the general mayhem that our roads comprise.

As to what the lady did during her visit apart from shaking hands, witnessing dances and giving a speech that was probably tailor-made to suit just about any occasion, MMM cannot tell you. But the visit was a great success to judge by the rash of posters that has since broken out, thanking her for several things that are too small in type for MMM to make out. And almost all of them have her name as Hillaari, in Tamil.

MMM wonders if “thousands lined the streets to welcome the overseas visitor” as he believes the general expression used by newspapers is. These days there are thousands lining the streets on any day anyway, given our population. But not many would have looked up to see our Hillaari making her way through the city. They would get to see her on the telly anyway or on the posters.

And MMM supposes that these days it is not de rigueur to hire crowds to line the streets and cheer the visitor on. On that line of thought, MMM remembers a time in Delhi when Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting. College students were given the day off and asked to line the streets. So were thousands of villagers brought over from the rural hinterland in special buses. These were simple rustic folk and had hardly any idea as to why they had come, who was visiting and whom they had to cheer. They were all asked to shout out the name of the visitor as the cavalcade passed. Some managed “Gobar Chor” which meant stealer of cow dung, much to their own amusement. Others thought his name was Karva Chout, a ritual that women in the North observe for marital bliss. And so they shouted whatever they felt and laughed raucously, vastly amused at their own creativity. The visitor, had he chosen to lower a glass pane and look out, would have been puzzled but happy to see such cheer, as would our Hilllaari at the peculiarly worded but plentiful signs of welcome.

On the same subject, MMM, now deep into anecdotage (always a sign of dotage) remembers a wonderful book by a man largely unknown for his wit – Lord Curzon to boot. The imperious and forbidding exterior obviously hid a fun-loving man for he devoted an entire chapter to the way Indians welcome foreign visitors. He noted that at one place an arch to welcome him did not have the requisite space for a long slogan and so it read – A warm WC for Lord C. Another one, also suffering from shortage of space and handicapped by the fact that the original message was probably an undecipherable scrawl read – Welcome, horrible lout!

Things haven’t changed all that much have they?

The new/old/new Assembly

Madras Week is coming along, with plenty in its wake, hey! Jingle Bells.. Oops sorry! Wrong song and all that. But this time the Man from Madras Musings notices a grim resolution on the part of the heritage conservationists to mount a public campaign for a Heritage Act. They gird their loins (with MMM also doing his bit) even as the Chief urges everyone “once more into the breach.” But there is cause for cheer. Thus far everyone has only talked about how the number of heritage buildings in the city have been coming down. MMM would like to point out that the count has increased in the last one year by a grand total of one – the new/old/new Assembly building to boot. Now our city, always known for several records, also holds a new record for it possesses probably the world’s most expensive but the most short-lived Assembly building ever in human history. And judging by its architecture it is a sign of Indo-Germanic ties lasting several years. With a Kaiser-like helmet to top it off, its oil-tank like exterior is symbolic of the bombing of Madras by the German ship Emden, which after all hit only the oil tanks and added a new word to the Tamil lexicon. That it was built by Hindi-speaking natives of our country only adds to the possibilities. Can it not be converted into a World Classical Institute for German/Hindi/Tamil Studies?

On a more serious note, considering that it stands close to the MRTS, will soon have the Metro passing by and is just abaft a bus stop, can it not become the headquarters for the Integrated Transport facility that our Governments and babus are so fond of talking about but do little to implement. It has a grandiose and ugly building (always a prerequisite it would appear for our railways after independence to go by the MRTS stations) after all. And plenty of space. What more do you want?

Honouring heritage

The Man from Madras Musings notices the steady march of the new signboards for road-names. They are cropping up at all spots and MMM welcomes them for when it comes to readability, they are among the best. And it is also then that MMM notices several street names that he did not know even existed. Our Chief, MMM notes, has a road named after him – Muthiah Street, just off Cathedral Road. And what more do you need by way of an indication of the Government’s interest in heritage? And on that happy note, see you around at the Madras Week celebrations.

The Ekamreswara Swami Temple, Mint Street

This photo was taken from a window at the Gujarati Samaj, courtesy Mr Karthik Bhatt. It pays to have a Gujju in the right places

Some of Chennai’s firsts

Some Chennai firsts

Though many individual parts of Chennai date back to very ancient times, the city as an entity came into existence in 1639. In many ways it was the first city of the British Empire, before Calcutta (now Kolkata) laid claim to that title. In its early history, Chennai saw the birth of many institutions that India today takes for granted.

Take for instance the Army. The Neils Blue Caps, founded in 1688 can be called the first British regiment formed in India. This later came to be known as the 102nd Royal Madras Infantry and later as the Dublin Fusiliers. The oldest regiment of the Indian Army today is the Madras Regiment, raised in 1758 and now headquartered at Wellington near Coonoor.

If we consider banking as the modern world understands it, the first bank in India was the Madras Bank, founded by Governor Gifford at Fort St. George in 1682/3. The first formal bank, a joint stock company, was the Carnatic Bank, established again at the Fort in 1788. The Bank of Madras came up in 1795 and the Asiatic Bank in 1804. In 1843, all these banks amalgamated and became the Bank of Madras with a capital of Rs 3 million. In 1921, this merged with the Bombay and Bengal Banks to form the Imperial Bank of India. This in 1955 changed its name to State Bank of India, the world’s largest bank when it comes to the number of branches.

Chennai is today the capital of medical tourism in India and rightfully so if you recall that a Government Hospital in the modern sense has existed here since 1664. This was in Fort St. George and after many shifts it finally laid anchor in the 1770s where the present General Hospital is located. This was where the country’s first medico-legal autopsy was performed by Dr Edward Bulkley in 1693. India’s first certificate for “leave of absence on medical grounds” was also issued by him as was the first injury certificate. Of less happy memory is also the record of the first custodial death, certified by the hospital in 1695. It was also in this hospital that Dr Donovan discovered and isolated the dreaded organism that caused Kala-Azar, a killer disease then. Next door to this hospital came up the Madras Medical College, its seeds going back to the Madras Medical School founded in 1835. In 1850 it graduated to the status of a college giving LMS degrees. The first woman to qualify was Mary Dacomb Scharlieb who was admitted in 1876 and passed out in 1878. The first Indian woman to acquire an MBBS degree was Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy who passed from here in 1912. She was also the first Indian woman to become a legislator. In an allied area, Chennai can also boast of the Regional Ophthalmic Institute which founded as the Madras Eye Infirmary in 1819 is the oldest eye hospital in Asia and the second oldest in the world.

The city’s record in engineering is as awesome as it is in medicine. The oldest engineering college outside of Europe is the Guindy Engineering College, now a part of Anna University. Founded as the Survey School in 1794, it became the Civil Engineering School in 1858.It began awarding a degree in Civil Engineering from 1864 by which time it was part of Madras University which again is one of the three oldest Universities of India. The College moved from Chepauk to Guindy in 1920 and has several firsts to its credit – degrees in Mechanical Engineering (1894), Electrical Engineering (1930), Telecommunication & Highways (1945) and Printing Technology (1982).

The scientific temper that Chennai is well-known for was fostered from 1792 when the first observatory in India was established in Nungambakkam in the city. Chennai also had a full-time Marine Surveyor since 1785, the first in the country. It was therefore from St Thomas Mount in 1802 that the first trigonometric survey of India began which culminated at Mt Everest in 1845. This made the first modern map of India. The observatory also set the Indian Standard Time for many years before it shifted from Nungambakkam to Kodaikanal.

The Chennai Corporation is the second oldest civic body of its kind in the whole world, second only to the London Corporation. The body was formed following the issue of the Royal Charter on 30th December 1687 and coming into force from September 29th, 1688. The Mayor of the city also held the powers of justice, his office functioning as a mayoral court. The Mayor is always preceded by a silver mace, a symbol of office which was adapted by the Law Courts in Madras as a memory of the time when the Mayor adjudged cases. The Madras High Court is therefore the only Court in India where the judges are preceded by the mace.

A boon for research scholars is the Tamil Nadu Archives and it is the oldest modern archive in the whole world. It was begun in 1670 and has records in Dutch, English, Danish, Persian and Tamil. In 1805, the informal records maintenance was regularised and made mandatory a full 33 years before such a facility was thought of in England. Today, at its present location in Egmore, it is a treasure-trove of information.

Can we leave entertainment behind? The first radio broadcasting service in India began in Chennai with the Presidency Radio Club founded in 1924 by CV Krishnaswami Chetty. This was just four years after the Marconi Company began broadcasts in Europe and two years after the setting up of BBC. The Presidency Radio Club was wound up in 1927 and the Corporation began its broadcasting service in 1930. In 1938 the Chennai station of All India Radio was begun.

Chennai has still not given up on accumulating firsts. The first commercial building in India to win a Green Gold rating, the headquarters of Grundfoss is in Chennai. And so it goes on.

Madras Musings Lecture Series 2011

21st Aug Sun – Justice Prabha Sridevan – Life of V Krishnaswami Aiyar,
a death centenary tribute – Chamiers, Chamiers Road

22nd Aug Mon -YG Mahendra and AR Srinivasan – Tamizh Theatre in Madras – Taj Club House, Club House Road, off Mount Road

23rd Aug Tue – R Mohan – Horse racing in Madras – The Residency Towers, Sir Theyagaroya Road, T Nagar

24th Aug Wed – Mohan V Raman – Three Women Film Directors of Madras -Savera, Dr S Radhakrishnan Road, Mylapore

25th Aug Thu – Geeta Doctor in conversation with Viswanath, artist and Ashvin Rajagopal,gallery owner- The Madras Art Scene- Park Sheraton, TTK Road

26th Aug Fri – PC Ramakrishna – Footlights-The English Theatre in Madras – The
Madras Gymkhana Club, The Island, Mount Road

27th Aug Sat – Harry Mclure & Richard O Connor – Anglo Indians of
Madras – GRT Grand, Sir Theyagaroya Road, T Nagar

28th Aug Sun – KRN Menon and P Unnikrishnan in conversation with
Sushila Ravindranath – A Boxwallahs Madras – Amethyst, Whites Road, Royapettah

All programmes are preceded by high tea.

Usual schedule – 6.30 – 7.00 pm – High Tea, 7.00 – 8.00 pm talks
Only on 27th the tea is from 7.00 to 7.30 and talk is from 7.30 to 8.30 pm

Another school, another garbage dump

This one at Middle School, Mint Street. My theory is that all schools have a rubbish tip placed just next to them. I am going to test this theory and see if this is Samacheer Kalvi of another kind. However I may be wrong.

Beat Policing is back

In the light of repeated terrorist attacks in various metros of the country, the importance of the beat constable, who would know every little detail of what is happening in his locality, is being realised. The Prime Minister made a statement to this effect in 2007 and ever since then the matter has been in focus off and on. Recently, the Chennai police has decided to revive the concept of assigning areas for beat coverage by police personnel up to the rank of sub-inspector. But the question remains as to whether the concept is feasible any longer, given the rapidly changing nature of the city and its suburbs.

The new system being implemented envisages placing 460 “pockets” under the jurisdiction of the 90 police stations within city limits. Each pocket would be assigned to an SI and a few other policemen. They will patrol the area and maintain a close link with students, traders and residents. The patrols will work three shifts. The Commissioner of Police, who made a success out of the system in Trichy, hopes to repeat the same here as well. He has declared that the scheme will take policing out of the stations and make it more visible and interactive.

In the past, Chennai was known for the efficacy of its beat constables. The city was then small and had specifically designated residential and office areas. The former largely had independent houses and it was easy to know who lived where. But over a period of time, all that has changed. Mixed zoning has been in effect for over a decade and so offices and residences co-exist. The presence of commercial entities means most areas of the city witness a large amount of floating population by day and in places where IT companies and call centres exist, by night also.

Secondly, most houses have now been replaced by high-rise. Where one family lived there are several which means a correspondingly higher number of individuals. This is in addition to support staff and those who call on errands such as delivery personnel. How are all these people to be tracked by a beat constable?

Lastly, shortage of police personnel in Chennai is a well-known fact. In 2010, the shortage was around 3000 and this year, an estimate has it that at a ratio of one constable to every 413 residents, Chennai ranks very low in terms of police protection. And what is more several of these are diverted for providing security to VIPs. Even in 2009 it was announced that constables would be put back on duty from VIP service but this is yet to take place. As a consequence it is very unclear as to how beat patrolling can be effective if the requisite number of constables is not available.

Taking recourse to modern technology may on the other hand prove more effective. The police has already experimented with the installation of cameras at traffic junctions to monitor violations. It may help if a similar idea, in terms of street cameras to monitor what is going in a neighbourhood, is implemented. That way, sitting at a police booth, the police can keep an eye on an entire neighbourhood. The police may also want to build a network with security agencies that man various private enclaves and gated communities. Perhaps the best method would be to build confidence and communications with local residents.

Mind It

It is Mint Street, of course.

What does the future hold for our new/old Assembly building?

The State Government has firmly rejected all suggestions that it should continue to operate some of its departments from the recently built assembly cum secretariat building. It has been decided that Fort St George will be its home and the reasons being given for this are that the new building is yet incomplete and that there is an enquiry pending on alleged irregularities in the construction. If that decision is irrevocable then the Government also ought to specify as to what its plans are for the building. It does not make sense to have a vast edifice standing empty after a huge amount of money has been spent on its construction.

You just need to walk down Mount Road to notice that the building is already going to seed. The neon signs announcing that this was indeed the State Secretariat and Assembly having been removed. The gardens are devoid of any security and at night the building is completely dark with no lights anywhere on the campus. This way the structure will soon fall prey to vandals. Its vast size also means that it has the potential for unlawful activities and may become the den of anti-socials. The area to the rear is still under development and there is no clear-cut plan on what is to come up there.

What is ironic is that the State Government is eternally in need of space. Several of its departments are functioning from rented premises in various parts of the city. Accepting the Government’s argument that it is impossible to have departments functioning from two locations (the Fort and the new Assembly) implies that having some of the offices in far-flung locations is equally inconvenient. Surely these can be accommodated in the new Secretariat? We also have Metro Rail Limited, which has for the purposes of its office taken over a vast and verdant campus in Nandanam belonging to the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Surely this Government sponsored company can fit all its departments into the new Secretariat thereby sparing the Nandanam property? At least we will this way have some use for a building that has cost us Rs 1000 crores and more.

Any property requires maintenance and that will happen in the new Secretariat only if it is occupied. If it is left to the elements, it will soon decay and as and when a Government decides to move in, a huge amount of expenditure will be incurred in refurbishing the place. That can certainly be avoided if the building is peopled from the start.

The Government may well want to take a leaf from the neighbouring State of Karnataka. When in the 1950s the Vidhan Soudha was being constructed, there were allegations of irregularities against the then Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthiah. But this did not mean that the building had to be abandoned. It was put to good use and has remained a landmark of Bangalore. The new Assembly cum Secretariat in Chennai too promises to become a landmark, but of a different kind – as a symbol of the partisan politics that our State specialises in.