WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXIV No. 11 September 16-30, 2014

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INSIDE

• Madras Nostalgia

• The bridges of yesterday

• The Madras ‘debate’

• Recalling TRIVENI

• 2 pages: Madras Week

Publication: 15th & 28th of every month

CMYKCMYK

Madras Landmarks

– 50 years ago

� Today it may have shifted to a sprawling, verdant and much deserved campusin Vandalur and may be called the Arignar Anna Zoological Park but, for atleast three generations, the Madras Zoo was behind the Ripon Building,occupying one end of the 116-acre People’s Park.

The Zoo, of course, is older than that; it is, in fact, the oldest zoo in thecountry. It was begun thanks to Edward Green Balfour, Director of theGovernment Museum, Madras, who in 1854 persuaded the Nawab of Arcot tohand over his menagerie to the Museum. The Zoo was founded officially a yearlater in the Museum premises. Its specimens expanded to 300 in number withina year. In 1863, the Zoo was shifted to People’s Park, where it was to remain foralmost 125 years. Together with the Lily Pond, My Ladye’s Garden, MooreMarket and VP Hall, it helped to make Park Town a tourist attraction.

Not that it lacked some gory history as well. In 1942, following the fears ofbombardment of Madras, the city was evacuated. All the dangerous animals ofthe zoo were shot dead. The harmless ones were taken to Erode and broughtback to the city in 1944. Another gruesome record was that for years the straydogs of Madras were rounded up by the Corporation, killed, and the meat usedto be given to the carnivores in the zoo! This was given up only in the 1970sfollowing protests by animal lovers when the sterilisation rather than the cullingof strays was adopted.

Located as it was in just 11 acres of land, the zoo began to get congested evenin the 1940s. Around the time of Independence, Governor Sir Archibald Nyeoffered around 100 acres of the Guindy Raj Bhavan Estate for the zoo. Whilethis eventually developed as the Guindy Park, the zoo stayed put. Nye’s successor,Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji, the Maharajah of Bhavnagar, was an animallover and it was thanks to him that the zoo got several specimens, including lions,tigers and macaws. The centenary of the zoo was celebrated with éclat in 1955with a special souvenir and a new entrance in art deco style – the Darwin Gate,which is seen in today’s picture.

Right through the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the zoo was a favourite cinemasetting. Perhaps its best representation was in the otherwise poor film KakkumKarangal (1965) where the entire song ‘Alli thandu kaal eduttu’ was set in thezoo. A decade earlier, the American film director Ellis R. Dungan did a wholephoto feature of the zoo for the Corporation.

In 1976, with increasing traffic noise, and the demand for People’s Park landfor other services, the zoo had to shift. The Forest Department generously gave1265 acres of land in the Vandalur Reserve Forest. Work began in 1979 andwas completed in 1985 when, on July 24, the then Chief Minister M. G.Ramachandran declared the zoo open in its new location and named it after hismentor C.N. Annadurai.

With a further 230 acres land being added to it subsequently, the zoo is oneof the largest in Southeast Asia and is a great attraction in the city.

The latest report on thecompetitiveness of Indian

cities, released by the WorldEconomic Forum, classifiesChennai as a city that is not“easy to do business in”.Ahmadabad is now ranked thebest location to set up an enter-prise. That may reflect the cur-rent political situation, butthere is no denying that ourcity, which was holding secondposition four years ago, hasslipped several rungs.

The reasons are not far toseek. The continuing powershortage is considered to be thebiggest and most visible issue,but there are several others.One of these is the inordinatelyhigh price of land in the city andits environs. The second is thefailure in providing infrastruc-ture in most locations. The last

and, perhaps, the most impor-tant is the inaccessibility of de-cision-makers in the Govern-ment.

That Chennai has been un-able to provide land at reason-able rates for the setting up ofindustries may come as a sur-prise to many. After all, this waswhere the concept of industrialestates first came up, with theTiru Vi Ka Estate in Guindyhaving been set up in 1958.Since then, several others havecome up in and around the city,but all of them have long losttheir original character. Mosthave turned IT Parks, vehicleservicing centres, and newspa-per offices. As for the feasibilityof new estates, forget it. TheGovernment has long stoppedcreating land banks for suchpurposes and can now do so

only by expensive acquisitions.A solution for this can be theencouraging of industries tomove to Tier II towns in theState. But the lack of infrastruc-ture in such places is daunting,to say the least.

Not that the infrastructure isany better in the city. Expatri-ates have, by and large, ex-pressed their disappointment atwhat is available. When the ITExpressway was first planned, itwas touted as a model of whatcivic services ought to be. Butwhen it was developed it deliv-ered hardly anything of whatwas promised. Six lanes yes, butnothing more. And as for thesurrounding ‘colonies’ thatcame up, despite most of thembeing set up newly and, there-fore, not having any of the prob-

Given up practically as a lostcause with talks of revival

being merely ministerial pro-nouncements, the BuckinghamCanal may see better days withthe bifurcation of AndhraPradesh into Telangana andAndhra. Among the first an-nouncements of the newAndhra Government is that itwould be interested in makingthe Buckingham Canal a tour-ist destination and a navigablewaterway once again. Much willdepend on how this idea pansinto reality, but if it did, it wouldbe wonderful and perhapssomething that the Tamil NaduGovernment could then extendto what is there of the canalwithin its jurisdiction.

It may be the longest canalin the country starting off in

Orissa and ending somewhereafter Cuddalore, but it cannotbe denied that we have doneprecious little to protect thisvaluable waterway. In our city,it is nothing more than a foulgutter, its condition being justabout marginally better in areasoutside city limits. In certainstretches it still is a navigablewaterway. Indeed, it was navi-gable till the 1960s, with boatsplying down the canal carryingproduce of various kinds beinga normal sight. Consistent ne-glect and a cyclone that de-stroyed its banks in the late1960s sealed its fate.

Within the city, the canalhas had other problems. Thefirst of these has been the his-toric practice of letting in un-treated sewage. The second,

and perhaps the more seriousissue, has been the constructionof the MRTS all along much ofits bed in the city. Pillars for thetransport system are actually inthe waterway and have effec-tively ensured that navigation isnext to an impossibility even ifwater were to flow once again.

Rather interestingly, even asthe Andhra Government hasmade this announcement, thereis talk of the Tamil Nadu Gov-ernment looking at how it canrevive the canal in the stretchthat runs south after Chennaicity limits. It is reliably learntthat the State Government isexamining Coastal RegulationZone (CRZ) stipulations to seehow this can be done. It will berecalled that the farmers of

(Continued on page 3)

(Continued on page 5)

(By A Special Correspondent)

(By The Editor)

There appears to behope for the Canal

Time to stop Chennailosing industrial edge

2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2014

Memoriesever greenof Madras

� Two pages of nostalgia brought

After the rigours of Madras Week that became aMadras Fortnight, MMM is off on a well-earnedbusman’s holiday. His column will resume on hisreturn.

Beautiful Madaras! ThenSingara Chennai! Now?

Years ago, when we movedfrom our home town Trivan-drum to Madras, the cityunfolded itself in its magnifi-cence. Good clean roadsflanked on either side by hugemajestic trees with the branchesextending beautifully to providesome sort of a canopy to theroad. It was such a beautifulfeeling to be walking down theroad with a green cover aboveyou accompanied by a refresh-ing breeze.

The main roads had onlybungalows then, big and small,on either side. Roads with shopswere mostly in residential lo-calities and were confined tocertain parts of the city likeMount Road, Luz Corner,Triplicane High Road, Arme-nian Street, Thambu ChettyStreet, some pockets in T’Nagarand in streets round a temple ineach area. Shops with sparklingbrass and copperware mademany a shopper stare and buy. Iremember there were only a fewsaree shops with traditionalKanchipuram sarees and bits.The jewellery shops had limitedvariety of gold, diamond andstone jewels tempting thewomen and girls to buy and tocause a dent in the men’smoney-purse, as a wallet wasthen called.

Good educational institu-tions were few, like P.S. School,Madras Christian CollegeSchool, Church Park Convent,Holy Angel’s Convent,Vidyodaya, Good Shepherd.The colleges were QueenMary’s, Presidency, Loyola, Ma-dras Christian, and Women’sChristian besides other collegeslike the Madras Medical,Stanley Medical and GuindyEngineering.

My sisters, my nieces and Inever missed a chance ofwatching the various dramatroupes staging serious plays aswell as troupes like Cho’s whichprovided political satire andwhich sent us into splits oflaughter. The T.K.S. Brothers,S.V. Sahasranamam, SivajiGanesan and K. Balachandarand others made the audiencessit up and watch performancesof meaningful stories withmythological, historical andsocial themes. Sometimes, theplays were staged even on a

stage erected in an openground. As I go down memorylane, I can still recall somescenes of T.K.S. Brothers’ RajaRaja Cholan, S.V. Sahasra-namam’s Therotti Magan – atheme revolving round the fa-mous Karnan character ofMahabharatham, particularlythe scene where Karnan discov-ers that Kunti Devi is hismother, and the emotionalmeeting when the mother andson meet. It was acted so pow-erfully that I, as a little girl, sawtears trickling down many aface. Cho delighted the audi-ence with his humour; so didBalachandar’s stage plays withsocial themes, which conveyeda message and made peoplethink.

Marina Beach, we, after schooland college, would go almostevery evening with my father tothe beach. The two hours spentthere playing on the sands andgetting our feet wet with thewaves were the most delightfulmoments of our lives. The coolrefreshing air and playing on theclean sand made us returnhome glowing with happiness.Only a few vendors came to thebeach to sell pattani sundal andoccasionally a Mysore Cafe vanwas parked there and we young-sters used to go to the small teastalls there. Even after years,thoughts of these things remaingreen and firmly etched in mymemory.

The Navarathri seasonbrought joy and colour intoeveryone’s house as it was timefor kolu, arranging dolls onsteps. At that time there wasa lot of bonhomie amidst socialvisits. North Mada Street bythe side of KapaleeswararKoil in Mylapore had vendorsselling and displaying thecolourful dolls, and peoplehappily buying new ones everyyear to add to their collection.Our small colony wore a festivelook as we young girls in Kan-cheepuram pattu pavadais, andblouses, with a kunjalam at theend of each one’s plait and flow-ers in the hair enjoyed arrangingour kolu and visiting the koludisplays in nearby houses.

Life was easier to live then,the city was less crowded andyou could walk in peace exceptin some parts of the city, like thetown-side, as they used to referto them, where all the wholesalemarkets and shops werelocated. The crowd was muchless in every other place. Therewas no vehicular aggressionunlike now; it was easy to goshopping to Luz or T’Nagar bystate transport buses. Of course,there were the rickshaw-pullersfor short distances and youdid not have to depend oncars.

Madras in those days wasbeautiful, fairly clean, and com-mercial institutions were not sointerspersed with residentialbuildings as they are now.

Today, the transformation isvery noticeable. Beautiful inde-pendent houses, big and small,have been razed to the groundand, instead, high-rise buildingshave come up, with the citygrowing vertically, with pres-sure on urban land and the mi-gration of people from townsand villages to the city in searchof jobs. Haphazard growth ofcommercial buildings, shoppingmalls, money splurged and

Madras that is Chennai has justcelebrated another birthday.

And I can’t help getting all nostal-gic and hark back on the Madras ofmy childhood. From my parentalhome in Egmore, known as the bun-galow to relatives, to Church ParkConvent on the arterial MountRoad would be one dash and tookjust under ten minutes. You couldeven manage to stop by at DawnStores and pick up some urgentlyneeded school supplies. Cars coulddrive right into the school com-pound, unlike today where manytraffic pile-ups happen at schooltimes thanks to schools not allow-ing cars in.

School admissions were never aproblem as opposed to today whenyou have to start planning it evenbefore the birth of the baby.

Three times a week my musicteacher would come home and takeveena lessons. Many of us learnt forthe sake of exposure to the art andnot to be performers or profession-als and that was joy enough. Thetuition teacher too would comehome and one had to carefullychoose people who knew their joband who were safe to be aroundwith. Had I been as well-clued aboutchild abuse at age nine as I amtoday, some of those guys and theobnoxious driver could have beenslapped with charges

When you drove into a place likethe Madras Gymkhana Club, thecolonial overhang was palpable,There was exclusiveness about it.The members were the who’s whoof the city and since everybody wassomebody everyone knew everyoneelse. Fish and chips and tartar sauce,chocolate gateaux, and baked cornwere made to perfection and weretempting to die for. The Saturdaymovie and live band, the weeklychildren’s movie – just the thoughtof it all – transports me to a differ-ent era.

Eat-outs and hotels (one hadn’theard of five star ones) were fewbut I remember my father talkingabout a Coimbatore Krishna Iyerand his badam halwa besides thetram and the much-feared plague.Madras had changed even in histime.

In the city, homes were far apartand there weren’t too many people

� by

Lakshmi Sundaram

I yearnthat I

On the music side, the fewsabhas staged top singers likeAriyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar,Musiri Subramanya Iyer, G.N.Balasubramaniam, Semman-gudi Srinivasa Iyer, MaduraiMani Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi,and D.K. Pattammal, M.L.Vasanthakumari and others,accompanied on the violin andmridangam by proficient artisteswho regaled the audiences.Though I did not much under-stand classical music then, weyoungsters listened with raptattention as the raga alapana,sahityam, swarams, etc. pro-fusely filled the auditorium.These kutcheris were all held inmodest buildings with notrappings. Whatever discomfortthe hall had was forgotten inthe melodies from the musi-cians. The other fine arts –dance team led by Balasaras-wathi with her technicalproficiency, Kumari Kamala’saesthetic Bharata Natyam per-formance and a medley ofdances called Oriental dancesstaged by the beautiful Travan-core sisters, Lalitha, Padmini,Ragini among others – were alla feast to the eye.

We in the family enjoyed allthese different facets of Madraslife at the time. My father hadbuilt our house Burma House ina colony off the then EdwardElliot’s Road. From the terraceof our house, we could see thesea and the blue waters. Ourhome bieng not very far from

Never to be forgotten... Bala-saraswathi... M.S. Subbulakshmi...Cho Ramaswamy.

increasing cinema houses haveall played havoc resulting in in-ability to maintain old build-ings. Of course, a few heritagebuildings remain, but the entirecity now has more stereotypedbuildings. The Madras of then,with houses and buildings witharchitectural beauty, has givenplace to a city of high-rises.Rather, Singara Chennai now isa flattened city, a city of flats.Earlier, in spite of lack ofmodern vehicles for removinggarbage, carts with men wouldcome and clean streets. Nowwith modern methods ofremoval, the dustbins are over-flowing with garbage, therubbish strewn all over theplace.

I admit there is no point incomplaining. This is the price acitizen has to pay for urbanisa-tion, commercialisation, globa-lisation taking place in all met-ropolitan cities and Chennai isno exception.

But, for people who haveseen Madras in its glorious daysin all its splendour, memorieswill always remain green.

September 16-30, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

for the Madras

once knew

in sight .The only crowded areaswere Triplicane and Parry’s Corner(in the Kandaswamy temple/Ras-appa Chetty Street vicinity). EvenRanganathan Street hadn’t quite

1970s had builders like South-ern Investments made their en-try and highrise apartmentswere few and far between. Thefourteen-storeyed LIC buildinghad remained the tallest build-ing for a long time. DownMount Road, Spencer’s was alandmark with its unique fa-cade, its beautiful driveway, andits wooden floors – very sadlynow replaced by a mall.

Many Sindhi businessmenhad set up shop in Madras, andIndia Silk House, Chellaram’s,Parsuram’s and Lilaram’s werenotable examples. They wereever so solicitous – addressingmost woman customers as sis-ters and young children as ba-bies plying them with coffee andcool drinks. One even cameaway with a key-chain or paperweight or some freebie most ofthe time.

Corporate hospitals were un-heard of and one went to thefriendly family doctor and only

if really necessary would you getreferred to someone else. Withexcellent and dedicated doc-tors, institutions like GH andStanley (Kanji Thotti hospital)and Royapettah GH, not toforget Maternity at Egmore andGosha (Triplicane), served alarge population. The streetcorner 24x7 dispensary hadn’tshowed up back then. Super-markets too hadn’t made theirappearance and the local grocerwould home-deliver stuffpacked in paper cones andsecured with twine. Yes, homedelivery was a value additioneven then.

Everything from eggs to gheeto Kanchipuram sarees toVenkatagiri sarees to the Shola-pur sarees and bangles wouldcome right home to your door-steps and big brands were fewand far between .We had an oldtailor who would come homeand do the unimportant stuff –inner wear, boxer shorts,chemises, etc. while we went toTown or someplace else for thedressy jobs. The barber toowould drop by and a makeshiftsalon would be created. Theknife sharpener with his stoneand the sparks flying, now partof a vanishing breed, was afamiliar figure then. The idiotbox hadn’t arrived yet andmovie theatres like Casino andthe Safire complex with itspopular Blue Diamond, whereshows ran back to back, bringback warm and happy memories– not to forget Elphinstone (canJaffer’s ice cream parlour be farbehind – never mind if it some-times made you sick) andMinerva. Of course, if youwanted to catch a Tamil film,the gaudy Gaiety, Paragon andthe posh Shanthi for die-hardfans of Sivaji Ganesan were theplaces to go to.

As Madras gets another yearolder, I yearn for the city of yore(whoever dared call it a village)and wonder where andwhether I will ever find sometraces of it.

RememberingRoyapettah

The Indersains (MM, June 16th) lived at 17 Royapettah HighRoad (opposite where the Pilot Theatre was) till recently

from 1933. The house had a large playground and high wallsallowing four boys and one girl to play cricket with a regularcricket ball and stumps in position, and a shuttlecock court ofright dimensions, well measured and marked with a place for aregular net. The house had a mango tree with many mangoes.

Remembering those times I recall trams plying on both sidesof the road, some going towards Mylapore, Luz and the Temple,others in the direction of Parry’s Corner and terminating at theHigh Court.

The nearby Sultan Market opposite Royapettah PoliceStation was where the family got its fresh vegetables. Next tothe Police Station was Malabar Bakery, which sold fresh bread,pastries and buns that tasted as good as those from Bosotto’s orMacRenett’s on Mount Road.

Opposite the Royapettah’s Government Hospital was a‘hotel’ that served non-veg and vegetarian food. Named HotelsCheap, it was well patronised.

City Printing Press started by a Mr. Iyer and assisted by Amajihelped children from the Corporation school on RoyapettahHigh Road, particularly with book-binding when needed. Rateswere reasonable to encourage all those who lived in the area,among whom was ‘Ammani’, now Dr. Mathangi Ramakrishnan.

Never will you see again in Royapettah Bus No. 13 whoseroute covered from Triplicane to T’Nagar via the Bazaar Road.Going to MCC College in Tambaram in 1943 was fromMambalam Station by local trains and a quick march, left, right,to the College. During the rains, Royapettah would be floodedand wearing half-pants to College was not uncommon.

Further down, on the left corner, which slowed down thetram, was Dr. Rangaswamy Nursing Home where three childrenof the Indersains were born (now opposite Swagath Hotel), andthe Provident Fund Office. Next to this was 24 RoyapettahHigh Road where the Punjab Association began a shuttle courtopposite the Burma Bamboo furniture shop. Here there cameand lived in 1947 refugees from Pakistan. Down the road wasKali Mark bottling company. At Lloyd’s Road corner was thehouse of V.P. Raman, the famous lawyer, where Rajaji formedthe Swatantra Party. And what about Raja Iyer, another well-known lawyer, and Ajantha Guptas Hotel? Then there was thetram shed on the way to the YMCA.

How can we ever forget going to Church Park School nearThousand lights with rickshawman Chellappa, and the barbershop oppostie today’s Hotel Amin?

– Bharat Hiteshi

MADRAS MUSINGS ON THE WEBTo reach out to as many readers as possible who share ourkeen interest in Madras that is Chennai, and in response torequests from many well-wishers – especially from outsideChennai and abroad who receive their postal copies very late– for an online edition. Madras Musings is now on the web atwww. madrasmusings.com

THE EDITOR

lems that are traditionally facedby older neighbourhoods, theyfollowed the same patterns ofdevelopment. Narrow roads, in-frastructure FOLLOWINGland development and not theother way round, and a plethoraof violations, all together putfurther stress on the environ-ment.

The last and, perhaps, themost serious issue is the inacces-sibility of those in power to in-dustrialists. It is reported thatwith decision making beingstrongly centralised, very fewMinisters and Secretaries areinterested in meeting entrepre-

neurs and businessmen andsorting out the problems theyface. As a consequence, TamilNadu and Chennai are facedwith a very piquant situation –in the last two months, ChiefMinisters from States up northhave begun coming here tomake presentations on their re-spective territories and thehelpful concessions they areprepared to offer companies set-ting up plants in them. It is, ofcourse, well known that at leastthree major organisations thathave manufacturing facilitiesaround Chennai have alreadyannounced that their secondphase of development will be inStates in the northern part of

India. One of them has ratherpointedly stated that theywould prefer to be where theyare “closer to decision-makers.”

The State Government hasbeen promising a Global Inves-tors Meet for long. The latestwe have heard is that this hasnow been postponed to March2015. The timing could not beworse – March is the financialyear-end for majority of compa-nies and most of them will bescrambling to close what hasbeen a tough year. All this doesnot bode well for a city that wasonce touted as the best locationto do business in. We hope theadministration wakes up andreads the signs.

City losing its industrial edge?(Continued from page 1)

about by Madras Week

The Indersains.

Spencer’s that as a landmark. (Courtesy: Vintage Vignettes.)

� by

Sudha Umashanker

come into its own and wasn’t thenightmare it is today. I wasn’t as fa-miliar with Mylapore as I am today.So I can’t say much about it, but forthe Kapaleeswarar temple which Ihad visited as a child.

There were just about twentypostal zones and places likeMadipakkam and Moulivakkamwere not heard of. Anna Nagarhad just had the World TradeFair and commuting to that areaseemed like going on a long-distance trip.

Only in the late 1960s and early

“No wordlike ‘Chennai’in Tamil”

The bridgesof yesterday

A suspension bridgethe City once had

Naming the City’s bridges

� by

D.H. Rao

From time immemorial,Madras has had the blessings

of two rivers – the Cooum andthe Adyar. During monsoons, es-pecially the Northeast, in Octo-ber-December, these two riversoften played havoc with the dailylife of the inhabitants. Duringthe dry season, they were crossedby wading or fording or by boats.

To cross the river throughoutthe year, Governor Elihu Yaleproposed in 1680 to build simplebridges across the Cooum.Thereafter, many bridges werebuilt, but got washed away dur-ing floods – because they were

built with timber platforms overtimber posts and timber piles.

The earliest known bridge inMadras was built over a drainagechannel west of Black Town in1677. It was called “The NewBridge”. In 1690, Yale proposeda footbridge, of timber, to con-nect the Island and White Town.It was executed in 1714, long af-ter Yale’s governorship.

As all these bridges were oftimber, heavy floods in 1720 and1721 did serious damage to fivebridges. The oldest one was “Ar-menian Gate Bridge” thatspanned a drainage channel con-necting Black Town andPeddanaikpet. It had been builtin 1677 using timber on brickpiers and abutments.

Triplicane Bridge – there is norecord of the year of its building– spanned the Cooum, connect-ing the Island and the village of

Triplicane. It was heavily dam-aged in the 1721 floods. Later, abeautiful brick masonry archbridge was built at the same lo-cation, but on a different align-ment.

These arch bridges of brickmasonry and chunam and archeshelped to beautify Madras.The arch bridges in Madras are:� Single Arch over the

Buckingham Canal. Largearch opening for country craftto pass through with two smallones to allow floodwater topass.

� Three arches over OtteriNullah

� Five arches over the Cooum.

� Seven arches of ‘WallajahBridge (1820) over the Elam-bore River (North River), nowintegrated into the Bucking-ham Canal.

� Nine arches over the Adyar inManapakkam.

� Eleven arches (St George’sBridge) over the Cooum.

� Eighteen arches (ElphinstoneBridge) over the Adyar.

� A timber bridge nearMoubray’s Garden (MadrasClub) had 51 openings!

By 1840, Madras had 15 ma-jor bridges. They were:

The Government GardenBridge or St. George’s Bridge;Commander-in-Chief Bridge; StAndrew’s Bridge; WallajahBridge; College Bridge or Ander-son Bridge; Suspension Bridge;Munro Bridge; Burying GroundBridge (all over the Cooum);Marmolong Bridge (over theAdyar); Benfield Bridge (over adrainage channel); Basin Bridge;Elephant Gate Bridge; Hospital

A lone suspension bridge was built in 1831 atChintadripet but, unfortunately, collapsed in

1840. Enquiry into the disaster came to the con-clusion that it was because a British regiment wasallowed to march over it in ‘closed formation withthumping steps’. The vibration thus created madea steel link crack and the whole bridge camedown, throwing the armymen into the Cooum.

This bridge, it seems, was imported from En-gland in 1829 and was kept in the store. It wasduly erected in 1831. After the disaster, the Mili-tary Board wanted it to be erected once again overthe Cooum. But the Governor turned down theidea. (Later, the Harris Bridge came up on thespot.) Again, in 1846, the Collector of Conjee-varam proposed to put this up on the Mount-Poonamallee Road (present-day one near MIOTHospital), but once again permission was refused.Thereafter what happened to the imported bridgeis not known.

When I was going through the 1854 records, Istumbled upon a proposal for another ‘Suspen-sion Bridge’ over the Cooum. Bridges were built afew times near ‘Marine Villa’ by the Cooum Bar,

as it was known then. Government was keen onthis.

But this location, being close to the sea, wasprone to severe storms or hurricanes besidesheavy floods – which destoryed a newly con-structed “subscription” bridge.

The Military Board analysed the cost and of-fered its opinion to the Governor-in-Council onthe “re-construction of such a ‘SuspensionBridge’, that it should be compared with thebridge that was destroyed in the monsoon of1846. (I was unable to find any information onthis one.)

The cost of the probable bridge with a span of300 feet would be high, the Board felt, as an “IronBridge” of 220 feet span and clear road width of14 feet in a Calcutta yard cost Rs,16,633.

Finally, the proposal was turned down, notbecause of the higher cost but because it mightnot be safe, being so close to the sea.

So, there went a second suspension bridgefrom the ‘Madras sky’.

An artist’s sketch showing the imported suspension bridge that crossed the Cooum at Chintadripet, in 1831.

Bridge (over Buckingham Ca-nal); the Otteri Nullah Bridge;and Calingaroy Bridge (overOtteri Canal).

The first street lamps in Ma-dras Presidency were introducedin 1785. They were simple oil

lamps and there were about 200of them at the time.

It was Major De Havillandwho wrote to the Road Commit-tee, when he was building thebridge in Chintadripet, “thatprovision is made in the parapet

walls for fixing lamp posts, and ifthe Committee approves of it”,he will submit an estimate for thejob, and twelve lamps were fi-nally provided for this bridge.

(To be concluded)

Early bridges were identified by their location, or landmarksnearby, mostly the garden houses. So, when the first bridge was

built near Government Garden House it was called ‘Government Gar-den Bridge’ or Triplicane Bridge because the road led to Triplicane.The next one was simply called Chintadripetta Bridge because itwas built in Chintadripet. Another one was called Commander-in-Chief Bridge because it was near the Commander-in-Chief’s gardenhouse.

Naming of bridges started in 1818, when the builder of theChintadripet Bridge, Superintending Engineer Major De Havilland,suggested to the Road Committee the necessity to name the bridges.The Road Committee requested the Governor-in-Council to sug-gest names for two bridges and he named the one built in 1804 the‘Government Garden Bridge’; it also be named St. George’s Bridgeand the other built in 1818, the ‘Chintadripettah Bridge’, be called‘St. Andrew’s Bridge’.

Major de Havilland proposed to the Committee “to fix upon aname to be engraved or embossed on a stone, inserted over the cen-tre of the arch on the outside of the parapet to the northwards.”

However, these plaques were put into position by De Havilland onlyin 1822. Why the delay is not clear. What is clear is the writing onthe plaques.

SAINT GEORGE’S BRIDGE

ERECTED BY LIEUTENANT THOMAS FRASER OF ENGINEERS

A.D. 1805

and

SAINT ANDREW’S BRIDGE

ERECTED BY MAJOR DE HAVILLAND OF ENGINEERS

UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE GOVERNMENT

THE FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID ON 30TH APRIL 1817

AND THE LAST KEY STONE INSERTED ON SEPTEMBER 30TH.

These plaques, notably, gave due recognition to the builderrather than the Governor.

Where are these plaques today?

� by A Staff Reporter

“The development of FortSt. George laid the

foundationsfor the growth ofMadras, the first modern city ofIndia,” said J.B.P. More, a pro-fessor at INSEEC, who wasspeaking during a Madras Weekcelebration event at the RojaMuthiah Research Library onthe subject of his recently-re-leased book, Origin and Founda-tion of Madras.

More, who has a doctorate inHistory from Ecole des HautesEtudes en Sciences Sociales,Paris, has written over a dozenbooks on various aspects ofSouth Indian history.

Stating that villages andtowns like Mylapore, Tiruvalli-keni, Tiruvanmiyur and Tiruvot-tiyur existed before 1639, he saidthese places in the course of timebecame parts of Madras. Old in-scriptions found in temples inthese villages do not indicatethat Madras or Chennai existedbefore 1639. Neither Arab, Por-tuguese, Dutch, Danish, Englishand French travellers’ accountsnor official records mention theexistence of Madras or Chennaibefore 1639. Nor is there anymention of Madras or Chennaibefore 1639 in ancient and me-dieval Tamil, Telugu or Sanskritliterature. “Therefore, we mustconclude that Madras did notexist before 1639,” More stated.

He added that he had come tothis conclusion after thoroughresearch and enquiry in Madrasand London.

Madras, More said, acquireda cosmopolitan character rightfrom the beginning. But with thegradual absorption of variousneighbouring Tamil villages, Ma-dras became predominantly aTamil city, with a strong Teluguminority.

The English built their Fort StGeorge on the ‘high plot’ grantedto them by Damarla Venkat-appa. Tamil and Telugu migrantssettled in the vicinity of the Fort

right from the time when theFort was established. This wasthe area of Madraspatam in thebeginning.

In the course of time severalvillages were incorporated by theEnglish as parts of Madraspatam.Egmore, Purasawalkam andTondiarpet became part of Ma-dras in 1693, and Mylapore,Tiruvanmiyur, Adyar and manyother urs, pakkams and pets muchlater.

Thus, without the English,there would have been no Ma-dras. In fact, the erection of FortSt George laid the foundationsfor the growth of the first mod-

ern city of India. This in itselfconstitutes a major change.

According to More, somehave held the view that Madraswas derived from madrasa, whichmeans an Islamic college. It wasCol. Henry Yule who in 1886made this claim. Another claimwas that Madras was derivedfrom Makhras Kuppam, which inturn was derived fromr Marak-kayar Kuppam or Markars Kup-pam, as there were a number ofwealthy Marakkayars (Muslims),settled on the Madras coast.These claims stated that theMarakkayars as well as the Urdu-speaking Nawab Muhammad AliWallajah belonged to the samelineage of Hardat Ibrahim Khali-lah, one of the Prophets. It is un-likely that wealthy Marakkayartraders of such illustrious lineagewould have chosen lowlykuppams (fishing villages) tosettle in; after all, there has never

southern Tamil Nadu have beenin favour of such a developmentfor quite some time now. As re-cently as January 2014, we hadthe ryots of Cuddalore petition-ing the Pondicherry Governmentto revive the waterway. They hadhighlighted its potential to con-tribute to trade and, more impor-tantly, recalled the role it playedin absorbing the waters of thetsunami of 2004, thereby mini-mising its impact on the areasthat it flowed through. They hadalso pointed out that, once thecanal is in good working order,the necessity of constructing bar-rages across the rivers that flowthrough Cuddalore can beminimised, with surplus watersbeing drained through the canal.This has major potential for re-ducing civil constructions on riv-ers and thereby minimising costs.The Inland Waterway Authority

of the Government of India hasproposed a sanction of Rs. 1000crore for cleaning up the entirecanal.

There are, thus, plans forreviving the canal almost every-where except within the city.Here too, however, it wouldappear that all is not lost. Barringthe stretches up to Mylapore andAdyar till where the MRTS runsparallel to it, there are plenty ofstretches of the canal that can berenovated and restored. Can theGovernment not look at this andsee what can be done?

With so much going for it andthe swing of public opinion beingall for restoration of the canal, itis perhaps likely that its condi-tion will soon improve. If thatwere to be so, it deserves all en-couragement and, more impor-tantly, prayers that all this talkwill soon result in concreteaction.

Can Buckingham Canalsee better days?

(Continued from page 1)

READABILITY PLEASE

Dear Readers,As letters from readersincrease, we are receiving moreand more hand written letters,many of them in a hand so smalland illegible or large andscrawled as to be unreadable.Often this leads to ourdiscarding a letter, particularly ifsome part of it is unreadable.If you wish us to consider yourletter for publication, please typeit with enough space betweenlines or write it using a mediumhand, clearly dotting the ‘i-s’ andcrossing the ‘t-s’.Many readers also try to fillevery square centimetre of apostcard space, making readingor editing impossible. Pleasehelp us to consider your lettersmore favourably by makingthem more legible for us.

– THE EDITOR

4 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2014 September 16-30, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

� The Madras ‘debate’

“Don’t deny Madrasits place in pre-history”There have been some murmurings about

Madras’s 375th birthday. They contend thatMadraspatnam and adjoining Chennapatnam ex-isted much before Francis Day came to terms withVenkatadri Nayak. They cite Dr. P. Rajaraman, aretired Professor of History, who wrote in his bookChennai Through The Ages (1997) that “Chenna-patnam was in existence even before Francis Daynegotiated a cowl with the Nayak.” This isconfirmed by several other historians, they say.Dr. Rajaraman also points out that the cowl theNayak offered Francis Day in 1639 makes specificmention of the “port of Madraspatnam”. He alsosays that the Masulipatnam Consultation speaksof Madraspatnam as a port town between Pulicatand San Thomé belonging to Venkatadri Nayak.Therefore, to say that Madras (or Chennai) isonly 375 years old, and that only the period ofBritish presence should be reckoned and to statenothing existed before that, is a distortion ofhistory. These critics say, and once againDr. Rajaraman is quoted, “Any presumption thatthe history of the city of Chennai has no antiq-uity and has only a life of four centuries lacks notonly historic enquiry but insight. Its constituenttowns, viz Mylapore, Tiruvanmiyur andTiruvottriyur, have not failed to draw the noticeof foreign travellers. They were conspicuous as

centres of culture in the socio-religious history ofour people.”

Editor’s Note: We have no doubt that peoplesettled in the area now known as Madras whenpeople from Africa streamed out to populate theworld. There is no doubt that there were peoplein this area when Lemuria existed. They were alsothere in the Sangam ages. They were there whenthe Cholas, Pallavas, and Muslim cohorts andVijayanagar fought over the area. And they wouldhave been there when it was Thondamandalam,the focus of the area Dr. Rajaraman looks at be-fore focussing on what happened in the 375-year-old Madras. But equally there is no doubt thatthe Madras we know of today, OUR city, grewfrom the founding of Fort St. George in 1639 andthat thereafter absorbed ancient towns and vil-lages like Mylapore, Triplicane, Tiruvottriyur,Tiruvanmiyur and many others which were notpart of a cohesive whole but parts of the territo-ries of various kingdoms. The Madras that grewout of Fort St. George made them a part of OURcity. And that Madras deserves celebration, what-ever its lineage, be it a million or more years old,or only 375 years old.

Perhaps all those who are Doubting Thomaseswill now celebrate durng next Madras Week/Month/Season our city.

been any mention of anythingbut fishing villages where Fort StGeorge was established, Morepoints out.

The claims that Madras had aChristian origin – the land hav-ing been acquired from a Chris-tian fisherman called Madaresan– or that it was derived from awealthy Portuguese family calledMadra or that it owed its origin tothe Madre-de-Denus (Mother ofGod) Church – established by thePortuguese – have no solid evi-dence to support them. There areno Portuguese or other Europeanrecords or travel accounts orTamil or Telugu literature or in-scriptions of the period to suggestthese origins. As for ‘Chennai’, itsimply means ‘fair’ in Telugu,More states, and goes on to saythat “I have proved in my bookbeyond any doubt that Madraswas a Tamil name derived frommedu, so ‘medurasapatnam’.”

“The DMK notion that onlythey changed the name, thatMadras was a European name orit had colonial connotations, iscompletely wrong,” asserts More.“It was always a Tamil word. Inthe Tamil Lexicon, the meaningof the word ‘Cennai’ has beengiven as ‘drum’ or ‘a browncoloured dog’. Otherwise, thereis no such word as ‘Chennai’ inthe Lexicon. Therefore, Chennaiis undoubtedly not Tamil. Onthe other hand, Chenna meant‘fair’ in Telugu. I have also estab-lished that Chenna was not de-rived from Chennappa Nayak,the father of DamarlaVenkatappa. In the genealogicallist preprared by Colin McKenziein 1800, there is no mention ofChennappa as the father ofVenkatappa. So why should wecontinue using Chennai, I won-der,” More asserts.

‘Madraspatnam’(Fort St. George)within the walls, and‘Chennapatnam’(outside the walls).

(By A Special Correspondent)

6 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2014

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period August 16thto 31st. Questions 11 to 20pertain to Chennai and TamilNadu.)1. Which popular film actor re-cently became the first Indianambassador of Interpol’s TurnBack Crime campaign whichhighlights how everyone can playa role in preventing crime.?

2. The Prime Minister has set upthe Ramanujam committee toidentify what in an effort to helpjurisprudence?

3. Name the Oscar-winning ac-tor and acclaimed director ofGandhi who passed away recently.

4. The Union I&B Ministry re-cently with held the release ofPunjabi film Kaum de Heere (Dia-monds of the Community). Why?

5. In which Chinese city was the2014 Summer Youth Olympicsheld?

6. Which Indian was the Man-of-the-Series in the ODI series thatIndia won 3-1 against England inEngland?

7. Name the new domain re-cently launched by the UnionGovernment aimed at peoplewho are non-English-speaking.

8. Name the ambitious schemefor comprehensive financial in-clusion launched by the PrimeMinister on August 28th.

9. With which online giant hasthe Ministry of Textiles signed anMoU for the welfare of handloomweavers?

10. Where in Maharashtra wereIndia’s first ever Ethanol-run, en-vironment-friendly public busesintroduced by Union TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari?

* * *

11. Three narrow roads connectNorth Mada Street and KutcheryRoad in Mylapore. One is Kut-chery Lane. Name the other two.

12. Which Tamil Nadu cricketerand squash star were recentlyawarded the Arjuna Award?

13. Who was the first IndianGovernor of Madras?

14. Which most-recognisedname in its business was namedafter a lawyer who became theChief Justice of the Madras HighCourt in 1924?

15. Bombay Mutual Building,Dare House and State Bank ofMysore Building in Parry’s areexamples of which type of archi-tecture?

16. Who composed ‘Satatatmubrovumayya chakravartini’ inhonour of King George V?

17. What was started in 1917 byAnnie Besant, Dorothy Jinaraja-dasa and Margaret Cousins?

18. How many Pagodas would16,800 Kaasu get you?

19. To acknowledge what effortwas the Trevelyan Fountainraised in the grounds of VictoriaPublic Hall?

20. Which famous cricket clubwas the first winner of the MadrasChampionship (for the Rajah ofPalayampatti Shield) in 1932-33?

(Answers on page 10)

RecallingTRIVENI

– The journal of theIndian Renaissance

Discovering the digitisedarchives on Google of

Triveni, the literary journal, hasbeen like opening a time cap-sule: the pre-independence is-sues take you on a journey intothe past with the best guidesyou could ask for the thinkers,movers and shakers of thoseheady times. The first issue ap-peared in 1928 and the last in2008. You can now digitally ac-cess the issues of Triveni for theentire term of its natural life.The mass of writing from 1928to 2008, between 30,000-40,000 pages, is an impressivecollection.

The journal celebratedtwenty-five years of publicationin 1955, its Golden Jubilee in1997 and its Platinum Jubilee in2007. In these and other issues,M. Chalapati Rao, Dr. P.Tirumala Rao and D.Anjaneyulu, colleagues andfriends of the founder, fondlyremembered ‘old Triveni Days’and much of what follows isbased on their writings.

The magazine was the brain-child of K. Ramakotiswara Rao(1894-1970) of Guntur, a law-yer by training and a journalistby inclination. Established in1927 at Malabari House inPurasawalkam, the first issue setout to dazzle the public in 1928.This was about 150 pages “onfine feather-weight paper, witha number of rare plates for re-production of sculptures andpaintings.”

The name Triveni was cho-sen because it indicated a ‘triplestream’. In the first issue, theEditor, Ramakotiswara Rao, ex-plained that the three streamswere to be ‘Art, Literature andHistory’ and elaborated that thejournal’s “main function (wouldbe)… to interpret the IndianRenaissance in its manifold as-pects.” In this respect the jour-nals of the late 1920s, 30s and40s are especially enlightening.Inevitably for those times, poli-tics became a fourth stream.

In fact, the triple streamswelled to encompass morethan the first three or even four.Social commentary, economicanalyses, political debate, philo-sophical musings, personal re-flections, stories, poems andmuch more are found in thesepages. The scope is not onlypan-Indian, writers venturedfurther afield to critique worldevents, review internationalwriters, thinkers and philoso-phers. There are pieces on therise of Fascism in Europe, dis-cussions of the Kellog Pact post-World War II and the uncertainfuture of Czechoslovakia.

Nilakanta Sastri, doyen ofSouth Indian history, wrote on‘The Ramayana and ValmikiAbroad’, V.T. Lakshmi on ‘An-cient South Indian Commerce’,Sir S. Radhakrishnan spoke forcommon sense in ‘Religion: aPlea for Sanity’, and JawaharlalNehru flexed his planning

� by

Ganga Powell & John Powell

muscles on what ‘Social Wel-fare’ should mean in the Indiancontext. There were discussionson problems of franchise, lin-guistic states and federalism ina future post-Independent In-dia.

On a personal note, Khasa

Subba Rao, later to be an emi-nent editor himself, ponderedon the meaning of friendship.And B. Pattabhi Sitaramayyarecollected the first motorcar inMadras when he was an under-graduate student: “…an alarmwas raised following a hootemanating from … Parry’s Cor-ner.” It was the Hon. A.J.Yorke’s car, who then was theChamber of Commerce Repre-sentative in the LegislativeCouncil. There are also earlypoems by Harindranath Chat-topadhyaya, short stories byRaja Rao, S.K. Chettur, trans-lations of Kalki’s work, critiquesof the fine arts, and much,much more.

With great foresight the Edi-tor saw a need to bring together,through translation and publi-cation under one banner, themany cultural flowerings takingplace across the linguisticboundaries of India.

“Triveni seeks to interpretthe Renaissance move-ment as reflected in thevarious linguistic units ofIndia. The Editor is an

Andhra, and in closetouch with the literaryand art movements ofAndhra Desa. But he isanxious to publish de-tailed accounts of similarmovements in other partsof India. He makes an

earnest appeal to scholarsin other linguistic areas towrite about the literaryand art movements withwhich they are familiar.Triveni will thus lay thefoundations for that in-ter-provincial harmonyand goodwill which is aprelude to a federation ofIndian cultures.”True to this intent there are

innumerable translations fromregional languages such asOriya, Gujarati, Marathi, Ben-gali, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu.

As Anjaneyulu succinctlypoints out, “His was the role ofa one-man academy of art andletters. In the event, he antici-pated the work of the nationalAkademis of free India by a fullquarter century or more. Hewas able to do single-handedwhat the Sahitya Akademiseeks to do with infinitely largerresources.”

The reproductions of paint-ings by contemporary artistscontinued to be a distinctive as-pect of Triveni. Lookingthrough the old hard copies one

finds exquisite reproductions ofpaintings by Nandalal Bose,Mukul Dey, Subba Rao andmany others. These are not yetin the digitised version althoughefforts are being made in thisregard. O.C. Gangoly and G.Venkatachalam, the eminentart critics who brought theappreciation of Indian art intothe public domain, also wrotefor Triveni.

In 1928, writing on MukulDey, Gangoly lamented the in-ordinate attention paid to po-litical events by the public,while happenings in the newlyresurgent art world wereignored. “The third eye of ourartistic vision, it appears, is notdestined to open before theauspicious dawn of politicalautonomy, and the red-letterday of a cultured Swaraj.” G.Venkatachalam’s early essayson Rajput painting firstappeared in Triveni. Music wasnot ignored. Ragini Devi andothers wrote on traditions ofIndian music and on composerslike Tyagaraja.

The triple stream morphedinto a wide, all-embracing river,capturing and carrying within itthe ebbs and tides, the highsand lows, of that Indian Renais-sance that the Editor wanted toreflect, as well as the ups anddowns of the politics and socialchanges sweeping throughthose historic times.

Even public speaking wasundergoing transformation, oldstyle oratory being replaced bynew. P.R. Ramachandra Raobegins an article on JawaharlalNehru as a speaker with thestartling assertion, “The Con-gress President is not an orator.”He compares him to Chitta-ranjan Das who “spoke with thevoice of a giant.” Nehru, in con-trast, insisted on a microphone.“He will not brook the outdatedexpedient of bellowing to themultitude.” Nehru began slow-ly. “As he speaks, the thought-sequence opens out for him. Itis as if the trickling rills shouldcollect and slowly awaken theavalanche which sweeps with athundering suddenness. Be-neath the surface of his modu-lous words roars the current ofthought. It bubbles, it boils, itoverwhelms.”

Words like ‘motherland’,‘sacrifice’, ‘destiny’, even theweighty term ‘renaissance’ ringtrue, used in those dayswith newfound pride, confi-dence and genuine idealism.Today to our somewhat cynicalears such grandiose vocabularymight seem passé, even ironical.But they ring true and shinelike newly minted coins whenused by these old stalwarts. Forthis reason alone, if nothingelse, dipping into the rarer airof these journals is as refresh-ing as a dip in a mountainstream.

K. Ramakotiswara Rao, Founder-Editor, Triveni.

September 16-30, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

During the Kottur walk

Walk and make a scrapbook

During the Adyar Poonga walk.

At St. Mary’s in the Fort.

Vidwan R.K. Sriramkumar and Latha Nathan sang about tree species atThe Musical Tree Walk in Kotturpuram Tree Park organised by Nizhal duringMadras Week.

YOCee (www.yocee.in), aChennai-based news web-

site for children, organisedevents for schoolchildren overtwo weekends recently to cel-ebrate Madras Week. Twophotowalks – one inside the re-stored Adyar Poonga and theother in Kottur village – a‘Walk & Make Scrapbook’ ses-sion after a short walk from LuzChurch to the Children’s Clubclose to Jammi Buildings inMylapore, and ‘A day at Fort St.George’ were the events thatattracted around 50 children ateach event while they exploredthe city in parts.

The children found theAdyar Poonga, now open to thepublic twice a week, fascinating.Guided by the InterpretationExecutive of the poonga, thechildren learnt a lot about theflora and fauna of the creek.Looking at the variety of plants,colourful butterflies and variousinsects, the children clickedaway and saved much informa-tion and many memories.

A forenoon spent at Fort St.George had the children takinghome much knowledge andheaps of photos, maps andactivity sheets. Hugely sup-ported by the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India, the morning of-fered the young a variety of ac-tivities. Thanks to Dr. G.Maheshwari, SuperintendingArchaeologist, ASI, ChenniCircle, who showed great inter-est in getting children involvedin the city’s heritage and whooffered all possible assistanceand hospitality, the childrendelved into the history ofChennai.

The Assistant ArchaeologistVetri Selvi and the Fort Mu-seum Curator Nidhi led thechildren on a heritage walk in-side the Fort and the Museumrespectively. Kalyani Naraya-nan of ‘Snapshot Memories’guided the children in makingscrapbooks of the places they

MadrasWeek

for theyoung

visited inside the Fort. The chil-dren enjoyed a short map-read-ing session and a fun word-game.

The walk in Mylapore, look-ing at historical spots like LuzChurch, Vivekananda College,Madras Sanskrit College andunique neighbourhood sitessuch as the dhobi khana, a shopmaking percussion instruments,roadside shops and statues,ended at the Children’s Cluband brought the children backto the present.

Walking in the Kottur area,which still has the characteris-tics of a village, including a fewtiled houses, a temple for agrama devatha and a Perumal

Participants at “Living Statues” walking tour organised on the Marina by the World Storytelling Institute. Madras Naturalists’ Society conducted several programmes for children during Madras Week.

Koil probably 500-years old, wasa joyful way of learning for thechildren.

N. Ramaswamy of ChennaiDaily Photo blog led the walk.From the facades of buildings tothe spinach-seller on the pave-ment, who had at least ten vari-eties of greens, they were inter-esting sights to talk about forcurious children.

The walks and the activitiesonly proved that the city hasmuch to offer children outsidethe classroom. I do wish parentswill encourage their children toparticipate in more such out-door learning.

– R. Revathi

Other Madras Week events

8 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2014

Quizzing with Murugappa’s

First prize winners from nearly 300 teams – Maharishi Vidya Mandir.

At the Madras Quotient Quiz 2014...

Rushing (left) to get into the auditorium (right).

The audience gets into the act.

Three of the finalists in The Madras375 Quiz, an open event sponsored bythe Murugappa Group and organisedby Mylapore Times. The 260quizzers included T.K. Balaji, one ofthe winners of the Madras 350 Quiz.This is how the love for Madras bringspeople to the city’s celebrations againand again!

...and atThe Madras375 Quiz

September 16-30, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 9

A story of three majortriumphs

� V Krishnamurthy’s At TheHelm – A Memoir traces histenure at the top of threemajor corporates – Maruti,BHEL and SAIL. He narratesin detail his steeringthese companies to greatsuccess and his chartingnew management con-cepts.

It was just after the launch ofIndustrial Economist in March

1968 that we carried in its‘Glimpses’ column a short noteon BHEL-Tiruchi. We won-dered why the sprawling unit,manufacturing industrial boil-ers, had failed to win an orderfrom Madras Fertilizers Ltd.Within days, I received a two-page letter, which provided anoutline of the issue. The writerinvited me to visit the templetown and have a look at thefacilities. One V. Krishna-murthy (VK) had signed it. Hewas the Company’s GeneralManager.

When I visited the produc-tion facilities a week later, I wasdeeply impressed with the pas-sion and involvement of theworkforce and their ability toproduce sophisticated equip-ment to strict time schedules.What impressed me most wasBHEL-T winning an order forboilers from Malaysia – threeyears before the first BHELboiler was fired at the Ennorethermal station!

� by

S. Viswanathan

My fascination for BHEL,which started in 1968, has con-tinued through these past 46years during which I have vis-ited the various plants of BHELin different parts of India andthe several sites where BHELequipment was installed andhad been operating effectively.The visits to Tiruchi have beenlike pilgrimages undertaken atleast once a year to keep myselfupdated on the expansion of fa-cilities and to report on theprogress.

I had expressed my amaze-ment on the utilisation levels ofequipment supplied by Czecho-slovakia on identical terms andcomparable costs at two differ-ent plants – one at Tiruchi andthe other at the Bharat HeavyPlate and Vessels Ltd. (BHPV)at Visakhapatnam. While theformer has grown into a highlysophisticated plant that acco-unts for a turnover of over

Rs. 15,000 crore, the BHPVplant, attached to the Ministryof Fertilisers, did not do well,turned sick and was later takenover by BHEL. While BHEL-Texpanded output manifold bypath-breaking development ofancillary industrial units andconstantly upgraded technol-ogy through collaborations,BHPV declined.

In 1972, VK successfullyconvinced policymakers inDelhi to merge the much olderHeavy Electricals (India) Ltdwith BHEL and form a singlelarge power equipment manu-facturer, BHEL. It was aherculean task bringing about asynthesis of cultures of the twodifferent units. The initialdoubts and resistance by seniormanagers were tackled bymaking them work in muchhigher positions at the differentplants.

In quick time BHEL emerg-ed a leader not just in the fieldof power equipment manufac-ture but also in the publicsector. I remember the vibrantmedia campaign of BHEL de-signed by R.K. Swamy of HTAto highlight the commandingheights reached by the publicsector. Particularly fascinatingwas the record of the giantcompany to expand its range ofproducts by ramping up thecapacities of the individualplants in different parts of thecountry.

The best proof for the suc-cess of BHEL through the 1970swas the ability of the Companyto supply top talent for highmanagerial positions. From theearlier practice of such talentbeing largely supplied by multi-nationals like HindustanUnilever, ITC and the IndianRailways, from the 1970s wewitnessed BHEL supplying chiefexecutives both for the publicsector and for private enter-prises!

In 1977, I was in Delhiaround the time when VK was

appointed Secretary in theDepartment of Heavy Industry.When I dropped in to offer mycongratulations, he suggestedmy visiting Hyderabad to seethe facilities there. I joined VKand other directors on the flightto Hyderabad and we went toRamachandrapuram. Overtime, the Hyderabad unit hastaken up a spectacular diversifi-

cation: new product lines formanufacture of oil rigs to meetthe requirements of ONGCat Bombay High, which wasthen reaching peak production,and a vast range of industrialequipment and switch gearswere introduced. A separatedivision was also set up forR&D.

The waning success of BHELfor several years post-1970s,when both VK and S.V.S.Raghavan left, was marked bythis giant corporation losing itsprestige and clout. We wit-nessed a re-bound only duringthe boom years in the new mil-lennium. The UPA I govern-ment gave high priority forpower development. BHEL wasready to grab the opportunityand in quick time became onceagain a true leader in the publicsector.

* * *

Prime Minister IndiraGandhi then requested VK tobuild the Maruti factory in theaftermath of Sanjay Gandhi’sdeath. VK describes in great de-tail the initial challenging yearsat Maruti. He held to his prom-ise on delivering the first vehicleby the end of 1983, within lessthan three years of takingcharge.

I met him in 1984 and askedhow he was confident that themarket would be able to absorb100,000 cars at a time whentotal size of the market, fed bythree Indian manufacturers wasjust around 40,000. VK’sreasoning was grand: “TheMaruti 800 is a state-of-the-artproduct. It promises a saving ofRs. 1000 per month on mainte-nance. Thus, in four yearsthe saving will be around

Rs. 48,000, which is more thanthe initial price announced ofRs. 47,000. Thus, every buyer ofMaruti can easily go for areplacement through the sheersavings involved!”

Maruti’s success is a marvel-

lous story by itself, worthy of aglobal case study. It marked aHanuman jump over obsoletetechnology adopted by the exit-ing manufacturers, HindustanMotors, Premier Automobilesand Standard Motors, who werealso beset with low volumes ofproduction and restrictions oncapacity. VK describes the phe-nomenal care bestowed by himin selecting the collaborator, histop management team and inquietly adopting several of thesalutary practices he had intro-duced in BHEL.

The advent of Maruti was awatershed in upgrading not justproduction technology in theengineering sector but in theintroduction of a vast newwork culture. These were lateradapted to great profit byhundreds of manufacturingconcerns.

Of course, there was nodearth of sceptics. I remembermy discussions with a fewcaptains of industry involved inthe manufacture of automobilesand components in Madras.They were content with thevolume of business offered byTelco (Tata Motors) and werenot quite impressed with thepromise of Maruti to raiseproduction to 100,000 cars inquick time. But once VKestablished the capability towalk his talk, they rushed toregister with Maruti as suppli-ers.

It was not just an engineer-ing marvel; it was financialengineering at its very best. Inthe initial years, Maruti openedbookings requiring a deposit ofRs. 10,000 per car for registra-tion and adopted a system ofallotment that was transparent.The first bout of registrationssaw the Company garneringRs. 130 crore by way of depos-its. The Company paid sevenper cent interest to the deposi-tors. The second bout garneredanother Rs. 140 crore. Theopening for Omni received an

equal sum and when Marutiannounced bookings for its1000 cc car there was a madscramble. Many borrowedmoney from the banks to de-posit the initial fee of Rs. 25,000

(Continued on page 10)

V. Krishnamurthy.

BHEL.

Maruti.

SAIL.

10 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2014

A story of threetriumphs

Published by S. Muthiah for ‘Chennai Heritage’, 260-A, TTK Road, Chennai 600 018 and printed by T J George at Lokavani-Hallmark Press Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Edited by S. MUTHIAH.

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

Published by S. Muthiah for ‘Chennai Heritage’, No. 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014, printed by Anu Varghese at Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006, and edited by S. Muthiah.

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— A WELLWISHER

Answers to Quiz1. Shah Rukh Khan; 2. Identify obsolete laws which hamper gover-

nance by creating avoidable confusion; 3. Sir Richard Attenborough; 4. Itdepicts and glorifies the acts of Indira Gandhi’s assassins 30 years ago; 5.Nanjing; 6. Suresh Raina; 7. Dot Bharat (in Devanagiri); 8. ‘PradhanMantri Jan Dhan Yojana’; 9. Flipkart; 10. Nagpur.

* * *11. Chengazhuneer Pillayar Koil Street and Mathala Narayanan Street;

12. R. Ashwin and Anaka Alankamony; 13. Maharaja Rao Shri KrishnaKumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Sahib Gohil; 14. Murray & Co. (named after SirVictor Murray Coutts-Trotter); 15. Art-Deco; 16. ‘Poochi’ SrinivasaIyengar; 17. Women’s Indian Association; 18. Five; 19. Governor CharlesTrevelyan’s initiative towards providing Madras with adequate drinkingwater; 20. Triplicane CC.

(Continued from page 9)

ERRATA

Till September 21: Dusshera Festi-val with Dollu Kunita folkperformers – Raghavendra andtroupe from Karnataka perform-ing every day; display of golu dollsin Karnataka and Tamil Naduhouses; crafts and textiles fromKarnataka; and Lambanicraftswomen displaying theircolourful embroidery (atDakshinaChitra).

Till September 30: Group exhibi-tion by Karuppu Art Collective,a new chapter in the Madrasmetaphor. It is a collaborativeeffort of nine artists from theCollege of Fine Arts drawn fromthree generations (at Dakshina-Chitra).

Till September 30: Exhibition ofpaintings by Cynthia Prabhakar(at DakshinaChitra).

to avail of profits on re-sale ofsuch vehicles, if allotted. Thebookings were for a massive250,000! This helped the Com-pany garner around Rs. 625crore! The Company lent thismoney to other public sectorundertakings at an interest of15 per cent per annum. In theinitial years, Maruti earnedmore income through this fi-nancial engineering than fromcar sales!

There was disbelief over the

phenomenal success of Marutiunder the stewardship of VK.The ability to raise productionto 100,000, ensure of qualityand reliability, and to assure lowmaintenance costs and com-fortable driving had resultedfrom the country catching upwith state-of-the-art technol-ogy and management. Marutiset the standard for production,sales and service.

* * *

VK’s assuming charge asChairman of SAIL in 1985 atthe behest of Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi posed him hismost difficult challenge. In thecase of BHEL and Maruti hehad the advantage of buildingthese from scratch and experi-menting with many newconcepts. At SAIL, a well-established company, it was notthat simple. At the time he tookcharge, SAIL was suffering fromlow productivity, high costs,poor quality, little customerorientation and low morale ofthe workforce. VK describes indetail how he took great painsto interact with groups of thelarge workforce which, at thattime, was in the region of240,000, spread over severalplants in different parts of India.He had to take tough decisions.The most sensitive of theserelated to his bold announce-ment that there would not beany overtime. Unlike in BHELand Maruti, VK had to contendwith a very large number oftrade unions, which werevery strong, especially inDurgapur.

In the five years he was atthe helm at SAIL, he trans-formed the company into onethat increased productivitymanifold. There was a hugefocus on quality, and customerorientation was brought aboutfor the first time. I consider thetransformation of SAIL asamong the high points of VK’stenure at the helm of threemajor companies.

In At the Helm – A Memoir,V. Krishnamurthy describes indetail his approach to industrialorganisation and management.For three decades, from the1960s, VK strode the industrialmap of India like a colossus.The country owes him agreat deal for the enormouscontribution he made duringthis period.

His very rich experience,was, again, put to good use bythe UPA government. AsChairman of the NationalManufacturing Competitive-ness Council, VK broughtinto focus the manufacturingsector.

His memoir provides deepinsights into the evolution ofseveral manufacturing prac-tices. The most significant partof this relates to the evolutionof the Indian work ethic. VKalmost single-handedly esta-blished the Indian model ofmanagement, laying great em-phasis on communication withthe workforce and establishingthe capability of the publicsector chiefs to manage largeenterprises effectively. – (Cour-tesy: Industrial Economist)

The report by VenkateshKrishmoorthy on the Lloyd’sRoad Walk (MM, September1st) had several errors, namely:

1. Semmangudi was to bereferred to as Pitamaha and notPitamaga.

2. It was not G. SubramaniaIyer who lived in Lloyd Lane butC. R. Srinivasan who owned theSwadesamitran from the 1940s.

3. The dubash brothers whoowned Lalitha Sadan wereRamaswami and Lakshminara-yana Iyer and not as reported.

4. The Dewan of Baroda wasSir V.T. Krishnamachari andnot Krishnamacharya. His sonwas the noted Advocate-General V. K. Tiruvenkatachariand not Tirumalacharya.

5. Lalitha Sadan was not just18,000 sq ft. That was the builtup area of the house.

Sriram V.

DakshinaChitra Workshops

for AdultsSeptember 17-21: Mysore

PaintingSeptember 20: Terracotta

Jewelleryfor ChildrenSeptember 20-21: Painting a

Dasavadharam (the ten differentincarnations of Lord Vishnu)Golu set: This two-day terracotaworkshop for children is a part ofDusshera celebrations and willinclude a storytelling settion onthe ten different incarnations ofLord Vishnu and the character-istic of each incarnation. Anunpainted Dasavadharam set willbe given to each child to paintand take home to keep in theGolu display there. (at Dakshna-Chitra)

For further information contact:98417 77779.