WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXV No. 7 July 16-31, 2015

Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/15-17Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepaymentfor India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/15-17

Rs. 5 per copy(Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-)

CMYK

Publication: 15th & 28th of every month

CMYKCMYK

INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

•Changing lives of poor

• Storytelling revival

• The Kodai Observatory

•Mahakavi Bharati

(Continued on page 4)

West Face of Fort St George, and Parade Square by Francis S. Ward, 1785.

(Continued on page 8)

� One of the predominant features of Fort St George, and whichshows that the Fort always had a strong army presence, is the Pa-rade Square, known variously in history as the Parade, the ParadeGround, Barracks Square and Conrwallis Square. You just cannotmiss it. As you walk to the rear of the Assembly building, it imme-diately strikes the eye. Cordoned off and now macadamised, itsemptiness cannot be ignored for it presents a sharp contrast to therest of the Fort which is mostly taken over by cars, police vans andtwo wheelers. Surrounding the Parade Square are some very hand-some buildings.

That some kind of a parade ground existed in the Fort from atleast the 1670s is evident when you read the accounts of variousceremonial occasions. Thus when Elihu Yale hoisted the king’s flagfor the first time on the Fort ramparts, the garrison soldiers per-formed an “orderly march round the Fort” and then “drew roundwithin the Fort.” In his Story of Fort of St George, Lt Col D.M. Reidthrows some light on the initial days. The Fort was restricted towhat was called Fort Square, the area currently occupied by theAssembly and Secretariat. To the rear of this developed the Pa-rade, a long and narrow piece of ground that was hemmed in byhouses on all the other three sides. Parade Square acquired itspresent contours following extensive renovations to the Fort in1762 by which time most of the houses surrounding it were demol-ished. These had in any case suffered extensive damage during theFrench siege of the 1750s.

We get a reasonable view of how Parade Square looked in 1785from Francis Swain Ward’s depiction of it in his The Parade and theWest Face of Fort St George. The notes accompanying it state thatthe right side of the picture is the western face of the Fort. The talldomed structure, almost a Catholic cathedral in its design, nolonger stands. It was in fact a street away and marks the location ofPortuguese Square where the Namakkal Kavignar Maligai pres-ently stands. This domed multi-storied structure was once theCourt House in which civil and military prosecutions were carriedon. In the same picture, the southern and the northern faces ofParade Square have colonnaded and pedimented buildings, all builtin the classical style, and these have survived till date. The armyand its various functional units occupy all of these.

Know your Fort

better

� by A Special

Correspondent

(Continued on page 8)

Pondy pushesfor heritage

Chennai would do well tolearn a lesson or two in

heritage conservation from thetown in its own backyard,namely Puducherry. The latterhas launched major Govern-ment-supported heritage initia-tives in the last month or so. Ina scenario where Chennai’s ad-ministration has done preciouslittle in this direction, it is to behoped that someone in powerdoes look at what is happeningelsewhere.

Towards the end of lastmonth, the Puducherry Gov-ernment listed and notified 21buildings that it owns in theFrench and Tamil quarters ofthe city as worthy of preserva-tion. With this, that city joins aselect group of Indian metrosthat have notified some of theirstructures as heritage buildings.Chennai is not one of them.

The heritage movement inPuducherry is far younger to itscounterpart in Chennai and yetit appears to have notched up asingular achievement.

A noteworthy feature of thestruggle to conserve heritage in

Puducherry appears to be thatthe Government there is willingto listen to champions of heri-tage. This despite the fact thatthe former came in for wide-spread criticism from the latterfor allowing the historic Mairiebuilding to collapse in torrentialrains a few months ago. TheGovernment of Puducherry hasviewed the episode as a learn-ing moment and roped in con-servationists to prevent other

such structures from going thesame way. The reconstructionof the Mairie is also beingplanned, in collaboration withthe Puducherry chapter of theIndian National Trust for Artsand Cultural Heritage(INTACH). The PWD has alsobegun the restoration of somebuildings in Puducherry withthe help of INTACH.

One of the reasons for thisattitude of cooperation is thePuducherry Government’s un-derstanding that a bulk of thecity’s revenues comes fromtourism. That is not the casewith Chennai where with a vastindustrial base and medicaltourism income, heritage tour-ism gets the back seat. Therehas also been a history of con-frontation between conserva-tionists and the Government

– while Chennai lags

Can the Metro beChennai’s pride?

The inauguration was longdelayed as was the very

process of commissioning. Someheritage buildings have beensacrificed and so have, very un-fortunately, some human lives.A couple of contractors turnedtail and abandoned the projectmidway. What is in operation ismerely ten kilometres of thepromised complete track, andthe fare is high. Yet, the veryfact that our city has a runningmetro rail service is undeniablya matter of pride for all of us.

The question is, will be proveworthy of it? Or will it go theway of all public utilities - thebus transport, the suburban ser-vice and the MRTS - all of themoperating in a humdrum fashionwith poor maintenance, rickety

rolling stock or vehicles and apublic that cares two hootsabout their upkeep and oftencontributes wilfully to theirdamage? Please, can at least theMetro be treated differently?

Here's how things can bedifferent with the Metro

For starters, we wholeheart-edly support the authorities in

services across the world. Theshut in nature of the facility isnot conducive to food wastesremaining on board and this hasto be prevented.

The provision of public con-veniences at railway stationshas always been low in the pri-ority of the railways and theirmaintenance is avoided as asubject. Suffice it to say that therailways fare poorly on bothcounts. Given this scenario,it isa matter of concern that theMetro appears to have notmade sufficient provision fortoilets. The authorities havetaken comfort in the claim thatmost international Metro ser-vices and that includes Delhi,

� by The Editor

their decision to disallow anyeating of food in the carriages.At least one of the city newspa-pers has taken umbrage overthis and has reported on it asthough it infringes the rights ofthe commuters. What has beenconveniently overlooked is thatthis is the rule in most metro

2 MADRAS MUSINGS July 16-31, 2015

Food forthought

There were two vital triggers for the green revolution in the1960s. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who invited C.

Subramaniam to handle agriculture, provided the first. The severedrought of 1965 and 1966 resulted in a steep fall in the output offoodgrains from 89.36 million tonnes to 74.23 million tonnes injust two years. CS arranged massive import of wheat, around 10million tonnes, from the US each year. Brilliant administrators likeB Sivaraman, ICS, then Agriculture Secretary, managed these ship-to-mouth years with great efficiency. A third person, also fromMadras, M.S. Swaminathan, worked with them to sow the seeds ofthe green revolution that took India from food shortage to foodsurplus.

Subramaniam was impressed with the wheat revolution broughtabout by Dr. Norman Borlaug in Mexico. He arranged to importthe wonder hybrid seeds. The dwarf variety helped in preventingfalling of the wheat grains due to heavy winds and saved preciouscrops raised through hard labour. He brought together scientists,administrators and built an extension network of government de-partments and universities to help farmers understand, adapt andassimilate the new technology.

Of course, there were doubts on the efficacy of the new tech-nique. CS selected 1000 demonstration farms and supplied themwith hybrid seeds. These included the one around his house inLutyens’ Delhi, spread over an acre!

In later years, Ford Motors India made large investments. Aftera gestation period of over ten years with massive sops from thegovernment in the form of tax concessions, low-priced land, etc., itturned profitable. In agriculture, with modest investments, a newidea can be experimented and established in a crop cycle of aroundfour months to a year. Thus, the rabi wheat crop sowed in Novem-

� by S. Viswanathan

ber in the demonstration plots witnessed a bounteous harvest.Many farmers reaped three tonnes per acre against the average ofone tonne earlier! It was certainly exciting.

Farmers hesitant to switch to the new seeds now demandedthem. CS sent a SOS to Dr. Borlaug who then dispatched 18,000tonnes of seeds. Promptly, the Customs Department sat on theseeds and quarantined them, saying seeds cannot be imported! CSonce narrated to me the special efforts he made to get the seedscleared, hoping that they had not deteriorated nor lost their virilityduring the detention and inspection process!

These imported seeds worked! Average wheat productionjumped from 827 kg per hectare in 1965-66 to 1103 kg per hectarein 1967-68. The green revolution had begun!

The second major factor related to the construction of BhakraNangal dam and the canal network that ensured water to the thencomposite state of Punjab.

Subramaniam foresaw the potential of Punjab raising rice as akharif (summer) crop. Earlier, Punjab was content with raisingwheat during winter and the land was heavily under-utilised forthe rest of the year. At the break of the green revolution, Punjabproduced just 4 lakh tonnes of rice. CS set up the Food Corpora-tion of India under T.A. Pai, assuring farmers to buy whateverquantity of grains they offered at fair prices determined by theAgriculture Costs & Prices Commission. In a short time, Punjabemerged a large producer of rice. In five years the average produc-tion of foodgrains shot up from just a tonne per acre to five tonnesper acre. The techniques spread rapidly to other grain-producingStates. In just four years, foodgrain production of the country shotup from 72.35 million tonnes in 1965-66 to 108.42 million tonnesin 1970-71.

* * *I have had the opportunity to look closely at agriculture in

different parts of India. Over the years I also observed differentStates focussing on crops suited to their agro-climatic conditionsthough not to the extent I observed in developed countries. In theUS, for instance, the midwest States around Chicago concentrateon corn and soybean and have emerged large producers of thesecrops for domestic and global consumption. California excels inthe production of almonds, grapes and tomatoes. Florida is knownfor its oranges. This trend is observed to a limited extent in India.Gujarat excels in the production of cotton and groundnut; UP,Punjab, Haryana in wheat and rice; West Bengal, UP, AndhraPradesh in rice; Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan insoybean; MP, UP, Rajasthan in pulses; UP, Maharashtra, Tamil

(Continued on page 3)

The Man from MadrasMusings grew up in an era

when several aspects of life hada glamour of their own – upperclass railway travel, eating outand going to the cinema beingsome of them. All of thesehave now become common-place and, between you andMMM, rather stressful outingsgiven the difficulties that ourcity’s infrastructure puts youthrough. MMM would like toadd to the same category thestrains of air travel.

When MMM was a Cheru-bic Child of Calcutta, he wouldhave various relatives flying inand out and they portrayed itto him as rather pleasurableexperiences. Coming to man’sestate, MMM also lookedforward to being airborne butof late he views such opportu-nities with less enthusiasm.The first of the deterrents is ansms that is received from the

frugality but having turned thesheet this way and that, tooktheir baggage in and askedthem to proceed. All hell how-ever broke loose at the securitycheck point where, as youknow, they separate the sexes,the women being shepherdedinto an enclosure while themen have it all in the open. Thefemale in the duo had made offwith what MMM can onlydescribe as the boarding pass(bp) sheet leaving the male, asit often happens, high and dry.

She managed to passthrough security but when theofficer in charge of the mendiscovered that her partner didnot have his bp with him, his(by which MMM means theofficer’s) bp shot up to strato-spheric levels. Having countedtill ten, even as the passengersbehind were well into theirhundreds, he politely asked theman to wait and then went off

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

airline stating our world-classairport is subject to congestionand so all passengers shouldbetter come over at least twohours before departure. Con-sidering that most of the desti-nations that MMM flies to arejust about a couple of hoursaway, this always strikes him asa preposterous demand. And itis not as though our airportoffers anything by way ofentertainment beyond fallingceilings, rusting railings andleaky toilet taps. MMM hastried being defiant and landedup once or twice with just anhour to spare for the flight onlyto be told that the counter hasclosed and he ought to haveknown better.

And so MMM does leave asearly as he can. An earlymorning flight therefore meansa sleepless night and steppingout of chez MMM just as thecat comes back and the milk-man starts on his journeys.These days, the airlines askyou to print out your boardingpasses at home as well andMMM strongly suspects that aday will come when they willask you to bring your own seat.So it was that last week MMMfound himself at the entrancequeue to the airport, completewith boarding pass, baggageand identity card. The processof entry was taking longer thanusual and on enquiry it tran-spired that a couple of passen-gers up front, man and wife,had printed their boardingpasses, front and back, on thesame sheet of paper. The guardat the entrance was rathertaken aback and after somehumming and hawing, letthem through.

It was MMM’s misfortunethat he had to stand behind thesame couple at the baggagedrop counter. The bookingclerk was astounded at this

to where the woman was stand-ing, brought back the precioussheet and, having stamped it,waved the man through.

That was not the end of thestory. When it came to board-ing the aircraft, as most of youwill be aware, the boarding passis torn into two, the main partbeing retained by the airlinestaff while the counterfoil isreturned to the passenger.Only in this case, the sheetcould not be torn as the twoboarding passes, front andback, were on the same sheetof paper, the airline had toperforce retain the counterfoilof one passenger and the mainpart of the other. By then theother passengers had hadenough. They surged ahead asone passenger, were attendedto by other staffers and let intothe aircraft. MMM does notknow how the bp imbrogliowas sorted out, but the coupledid make it to the flight, with-out turning a hair. The satisfac-tion of having saved paper and,therefore, a tree amounts tomuch.

Railways freebie

The Man from MadrasMusings read the newspa-

per reports concerning refor-mation of railways with muchinterest. It would be no exag-geration to state that the rail-ways are close toMMM’s heart,both his grand-fathers havingworked for thatbehemoth. Inshort, MMM isfilled with rail-way blood.

But havingsaid that, he isquite aware ofthe fact thatthere is much

scope for improvement inwhat has put our country onthe move. One of the manysavings it can achieve thoughit may not amount to much isits tendency to distribute freetravel passes to all and sundry.MMM’s memory goes back adecade or so when he had totravel frequently on a particu-lar route to and from our city.And one of the regular trave-llers on the same route in theAC two-tier coach was anelderly man of vaguely nation-alist aspect. His companionwould, however, be a differentperson on each journey and itwas clear that these peoplewere not in any way related toeach other.

MMM was naturally curi-ous but refrained from askinguntil one day the patrioticman struck a conversationwith MMM. He had noticedMMM travelling often on the

route, he said, and so wouldlike to help MMM. WhenMMM asked how, he explain-ed his modus operandi, whichstunned MMM so much thathe has never forgotten it since.The man was a freedom fighterand was entitled to a railwaypass under the category. Thisentitled him to travel a certainnumber of times each year witha companion, both ticketsbeing free of cost. He thereforesold the free ticket to anyonewanting to travel at shortnotice, he said, and so if MMMwas at any time needing totravel at short notice, all he hadto do was to call him upand everything could bearranged before MMM couldsay Mohandas KaramchandGandhi.

This, as MMM said, maynot have made much of dent inthe railway budget but if everyrupee counts, these freebiescould be curtailed somewhat.

Tailpiece

There is something almostkarmic about Chennai’s

airport, which several of youwho follow this column musthave realised by now. The Manfrom Madras Musings bringsvisible proof of this through thephotograph reproduced below.

– MMM

Bonding over a boarding pass

July 16-31, 2015 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Nadu in sugarcane; and Maharashtra and AP in cotton. This focusneeds to be sharpened and expanded to help derive the best out ofnatural endowments.

In 2005, I had occasion to look closely at farming operationsaround Davis, California and the mid-west US. It was the peakseason in Davis. Dr. Lux Lakshmanan, consultant to severalprogressive farmers, drove me through miles upon miles of tomato,almond, grape and other farms. There was huge production. Thescientific methods of cultivation, nursing, harvesting and handlingbeing practised made a deep impression. The large farms had highproductivity of around 80 tonnes of tomato per acre. Likewise inmidwest US, corn yields were at a whopping 10 tonnes per acre.

Back in India I looked at the work done by Tata Chemicals Ltdthrough their Tata Kisan Kendras in western UP. The blending ofscience, technology and management was extremely effective inthe spread of cultivation of basmati rice in this region. Yields andreturns expanded.

The late S. Balasubramanian, son of the legendary moviemoghul S.S. Vasan and head of the Ananda Vikatan group of pub-lications, was a specialist farmer of vegetables. At the GeminiFarms in Padappai near Chennai, he raised vegetables alongsidehis other farm rearing exotic birds.

Over the previous decade Balan had been experimenting andsuccessfully promoting scientific agriculture. He had been sendingsoil samples from his farm to Lux Lakshmanan. These wereanalysed and test reports, along with the recommendations forenriching these through required doses of NPK and, more impor-tantly, micro nutrients were provided by Lakshmanan. Thanks tothe IT revolution, Balan could also use e-farming to an extent notpractised by others. He used to send digital images of crops atdifferent stages along with reports through the net. Lakshmananhelped him with the needed corrections and advice onenrichments, from testing and correcting the soil. The next stagewas to go for high quality seeds and optimum fertigation.Lakshmanan trained farm assistants on these aspects. I witnessedsteam bath of soil to make it sterile and special concrete seed bedsto raise seedlings in sterile soil. These helped reduce seed mortal-ity: from the earlier survival of around 45 out of 100 seeds, survivalshot up to 96. Balan invested handsome amounts on mechanicalequipment and implements. Tomato production in his farms shotup to over 40 tonnes per acre and capsicum to 25 tonnes. Thespecial long bajji chilli, Chinese cabbage and other vegetables wereproduced in plenty. With sharp business acumen Balan arrangedfor marketing these profitably in T’ Nagar. (Courtesy: IndustrialEconomist)

(To be concluded)

Food for thought(Continued from page 2)

Destitution to Leadership* is acollection of published

articles and messages on theWorking Women’s Forum(WWF) and the leadership pro-vided by Dr. Jaya Arunachalam.An ardent crusader for workingwomen’s welfare, working withpoor women, she has found,despite all the four conferencesfocussing on the women’smovement world-wide, gender-based deprivation and discrimi-nation continue not only inpoverty groups but also in otherclasses.

Coming from a family ofdevoted Gandhians, Jaya Aru-nachalam chose to work forworking women as she feltpolitics neither allowed powersharing nor dignity to women.Jaya, a Brahmin herself, brokethe shackles and married aChettiar as early as 1955, set-ting an inter-caste example.She, along with some like-minded women, in 1978organised a group to provide aplatform for poor workingwomen. As President of theForum, she wanted initially toempower 800 underprivilegedwomen with financial literacyand micro-credit. In thirtyyears, the Forum has reachedout to 13 lakh women in 3,800villages in the southern states.WWF did this by combiningeconomic development withnutrition, health and generalawareness. In its three decades,the network has empoweredwomen in 270 occupationalgroups. They include vendors,hawkers, weavers, lace-makers,agarbatti rollers, and fisher-women.

According to a 55-year-oldwoman field worker there isspace for both educated anduneducated women in theForum, and she guides andtrains local area leaders inorganising groups to achievethe goal. Over the years, theForum has expanded its activi-ties to include programmes forreproductive healthcare, sanita-tion, access to water and land,

social security, human andlabour rights. It fights childlabour and prostitution andwomen exploitations in allforms. Jaya believes that provi-ding skills and confidence towomen is far more beneficialthan mere charity. She does notbelieve it is the duty of the richto provide charity or the rightof the poor to receive it. Shedeclares, “Go out and changethe circumstances in whichpoor people are living.”

Jaya Arunachalam believesthat the low socioeconomicstatus of women in India is thegreatest barrier to development.Around the same time as thewomen’s movement was pick-ing up in the West, Jaya went astep ahead by seeking toempower Indian womenthrough micro-finance. Usingcase studies she taught womenthe impact of educating their

have been globally recognisedand have led her to many aninternational forum for pro-poor strategies and models, shesays that she did not become anagent of social change bychoice. When she was on amission of rehabilitation offlood-affected areas in 1977 anddistributed relief materials, sherealised there were many untoldproblems for the poor woman.In fact, she found that the poorwere only waiting for such dis-asters as only then that they gotsome relief! Distressed by theirignorance and since povertywas imposed on them by soci-ety, she realised the need to givethem a social platform. Thoughshe was a Congress Party mem-ber, she left politics and en-gaged herself fully in ways toempower women. She taughtthem to come out of the shell ofsuperstitious beliefs and look atlife with a positive attitude. Formembers of the Forum shestarted the microcredit pro-gramme to strengthen theireconomic power.

During an award presenta-tion ceremony for the Forum inThe Netherlands, Ten Cate,President, Business Club Rot-terdam, highlighted the abilityof the credit institution of theWWF to achieve a repaymentrate of 98-99 per cent, whichfew institutions can boast of.Hillary Clinton, talking aboutthe WWF during her visit toIndia in July 2011, said, “Wealso want to continue workingwith the WWF on the very seri-ous problem we just heardabout, violence against wo-men.” Hillary appealed to all tofollow Jaya’s model, especiallyin empowering women and giv-ing everyone a chance to live upto her God-given potential.

While delivering a lecture onthe concluding day of Prajnya, acampaign against gender vio-lence, Jaya said that suppressionof women’s right is as old asManu. She said, on the role ofthe media, that though impor-tance is given to gender injus-tice, instead of covering wo-men’s daily problems, the mediaresorts to sensationalism anddramatisation of repulsiveevents. For her single-handedeffort in popularising micro-financing for the poor, theJamnalal Bajaj award was givento her and the citation said thatthe experiment of the WWFspelt success and proved thatpoverty is not a barrier for thepoor to become an agent of thesocial change.

Melanne Verveer, US Am-bassador-at-large, Global Wo-men’s Issues, interacted withWWF members in Chennai inSeptember 2010 and promised

to inform her government thatit had a lot to learn from WWF.

Marco Visscher wrote in aDutch magazine in March 2007that Jaya felt the need to dosomething rather than talkingas most politicians do, and“rolled up her sleeves and gotdown to work on behalf of theunderprivileged women... Shebelieved that change came fromthe bottom up rather than topdown.”

Encouraged by the success ofmicro financing that became aninstant success, WWF in TamilNadu went on to promote aseries of women’s co-operativesin the neighbouring states ofAndhra Pradesh and Karna-

Changing the livesof poor women

taka. In 1994, the co-operativeswere brought into a singleadministrative network calledthe Indian Co-operative Net-work for Women (ICNW).Adopting the co-operative as away to credit extension, theICNWs are being successfullyrun and managed by the poorwomen workers themselves.They act as shareholders, fieldpersonnel and even directors.

Jaya Arunachalam wasawarded Padma Sri in 1987 forher distinguished service insocial work.

* Edited by Srividya G. Ammanur and

Dr. R. Asha (T.R. Publications Pvt.

Ltd.)� by

K.R.A. Narasiah

children and the importance ofhealth care. Many of her net-work leaders make greaterchange by representing theirvillages in Panchayats and alarge number hold positions inthem, thus becoming the larg-est political representation ofwomen in local administrationin the world. The 2011 WorldDevelopment Report on Gen-der says, the women’s represen-tation on Panchayats – wherethe representation is 33 per centof the seats – has led to greaterdevelopment in infrastructurelike roads, clean water andeducation, and less governmentcorruption and waste. Aruna-chalam believes that once awoman is empowered she ischanged forever. And sherealised that for change, sheneeded to have women fromthe grassroots and not from themiddle class.

As Jaya’s contributionstowards poverty eradication

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton with Jaya Arunachalam.

CHENNAI HERITAGENo. 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

I am already on your mailing list (Mailing List No.....................) /I have just seen Madras Musings and would like to receive it hereafter.� I/We enclose cheque/demand draft/money order for Rs. 100 (Rupees Onehundred) payable to CHENNAI HERITAGE, MADRAS, as subscription toMadras Musings for the year 2015-16.� As token of my support for the causes of heritage, environment and abetter city that Madras Musings espouses, I send Chennai Heritage anadditional Rs............................................(Rupees .......................................................) Please keep/put me on yourmailing list.Name : .........................................................................................................Address: ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................All cheques to ‘Chennai Heritage’. DD/Cheque should be sent by SpeedPost only.

4 MADRAS MUSINGS July 16-31, 2015 July 16-31, 2015 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

The story ofstorytelling’s

revival

Flora & fauna at theAdyar poonga

The culture of India features a strong aware-ness of the educational value of storytelling.

The frame-story within which the animal fablesof the Panchatantra are related communicates thisawareness clearly:

Once there was a king who had three sons.These princes seemed dull. They were unableto learn by conventional educational methods.Their father, the king, was very anxious abouttheir futures and, as a consequence, also aboutthe future of the kingdom.

Finally, an aged scholar named VishnuSharma was called upon. He promised to helpthe princes become intelligent and brightwithin six months. His method: he would tellstories to the princes, and draw them into dis-cussions about the stories. Sure enough, aftersix months, his plan succeeded.

The Panchatantra is one of the most popularcollections of animal fables in the world. Thesestories, along with the Jataka Tales (whichillustrate principles of Buddhism), episodes fromepics, and folktales in general – also known asGrandmother Stories – help to make India one ofthe richest story and storytelling centres in theworld. This is a resource the rest of the world callsupon.

Any topic can be presented in story form. Thiscan make the material more meaningful andmemorable.

History, for example, is often taught in termsof great events, their dates and locations, and thenames of the people involved. Or, it is taught in

terms of economic, sociological, or culturalfactors. Potential learners often find theseapproaches to be “dry”.

Teaching with stories may involve finding orcomposing characters that embody facts andabstract ideas. If listeners can relate to thesecharacters and their adventures, the listeners tendto pay attention to the story, think about theissues that the story raises, and absorb and retainthe information the story contains.

Regardless of whether a story’s characters maybe humans, animals, divinities, aliens, etc – allstories are about situations. Participants in story-telling events – both tellers and listeners – mayproject themselves into story characters, andimagine themselves in story situations. Theparticipants may find reflections of themselves instories.

Participants can consider if they might dothings the same way or differently from how thestory characters are doing things. This gives theparticipants imaginative practice for living theirown lives.

Storying can offer a window to the past and tothe future – while it also always presents optionsfor behaviour in the present. Storying can helpparticipants to understand and empathise withother individuals and cultures. In the storyingprocess, connections and understandings areformed, both within and between people. Uponhearing stories, similar experiences from theirown lives often spontaneously come to listeners’minds.

A window to the pastand the future

The storytelling scene here inChennai is evolving rapidly.

The Chennai Storytelling Asso-ciation (CSA) has approximately250 members. It is a group ofmostly Chennai-based peoplewho have demonstrated someserious interest in storytelling.

In the late 1990s (about 17years ago), Geeta Ramanujamfounded Kathalaya in Bangalore.To the best of my knowledge,this was/is the first organisationin India dedicated to the Revivalof Storytelling.

Also around that time, CathySpagnoli from the USA(www.cathyspagnoli.com), a

(www.laurasimms.com) in hishometown, New York City, inthe early and mid-1980s.

Laura is one of the founders ofthe global Storytelling Revival,which began in the late 1960s. In1986, she presented the NewYork City International Story-telling Festival. Miller first visitedIndia in 1988-90, and returned in2002. In 2003-2004, he did hisdoctoral in folklore verbal arts-related fieldwork with membersof the Kani tribe in the southernend of the Western Ghats inKanniyakumari District. In 2005he came to Chennai, and hasbeen here since.

The World Storytelling Insti-tute was founded in Chennai in2007 by Miller, Jeeva Raghunathand Magdalene Jeyarathnam.(Magdalene is a psychologicalcounsellor, and is helping todevelop “Therapeutic Uses ofStorytelling”. Magdalene andMiller were married in Chennaiin 2006.)

Jeeva eventually decided towork independently, so she is nolonger formally a part of the WSI– but they often collaborate.

In 2012, Dr. Sandhya Ruban(a dentist, WSI StorytellingWorkshop attendee and trainer,and founder-director of her owncommunication-and-soft-skills-training organisation, Eloquens)travelled to Singapore to attendan edition of the SingaporeStorytelling Festival.

Upon Sandhya’s return toChennai, she said to Miller, “Weshould do a Storytelling Festivalhere in Chennai also!” He agreedand the WSI presented the firstannual Chennai Storytelling Fes-tival in February 2013 (theme:‘The many applications ofstorytelling’). This has been fol-lowed by CSF 2014 (theme:‘Storytelling and Healing’/‘Therapeutic Uses of Story-telling’); and CSF 2015 (‘Story-telling for Teaching and Train-ing’). The theme of the not-yet-finalised plan for Chennai

Storytelling Festival 2016 (Fri-day 5-Sunday 14 February 2016)is ‘Storytelling and Inter-culturalCommunication’ and will in-clude Travel, Tourism, Transla-tion, Visiting other lands andworlds.

Two years ago, Geeta Rama-nujam said to Miller, “Let’s startan Indian Storytelling Net-work!”. The result is www.indianstorytellingnetwork.org

A couple of months ago, AshaSampath (a WSI StorytellingWorkshop attendee and trainer,and founder-director of her own

storytelling organisation, TaleSpin) decided a group might beformed in Chennai of people ac-tively doing storytelling perform-ing (and instructing) work.

This group has come to beknown as ‘Chennai Storytellers’(www.facebook.com/chennai-storytellers). So far there are 22of us. Anyone who publiclyperforms as a storyteller at least“once in a while” in Chennai isinvited to join Chennai Story-tellers. Please contact Asha(ashasam@gmail.com, 9840833953).

� by

Dr. Eric Miller

professional storyteller (andauthor of numerous books aboutstorytelling), came to live inChennai.

Cathy met Jeeva Raghunath,who had been a teacher. Cathyencouraged Jeeva to become aprofessional storyteller. Jeeva hasbecome the leading StorytellingRevival storyteller in TamilNadu, performing and teachingin both Tamil and English.(Cathy now lives in WashingtonState, USA.)

Eric Miller studied with, anddid office work for, professionalstoryteller Laura Simms

As I stood outside the hugegates of Adyar Poonga on a

hot summer afternoon, I wascurious and excited all at once.Having heard so much abouthow a wasteland was convertedinto a forested zone. I couldn’twait to get inside. At the gates. Iwas directed by a security guardto go inside and wait near theticketing counter. A family of 15with a few eager children,middle-aged women and gigglingteenagers were waiting therealong with our guide, Gomathi.

Gomathi led us to a smallshaded place in the park (withstone benches) and gave us aten-minute talk about how thewastelands were cleared and howthe poonga was created. She saidthat preserving the life formshere and allowing them to growand flourish was their first prior-ity. Now I understand why theyrefused access to neighbourhoodwalkers.

The concept of ‘Reuse, Re-duce, Recycle’ was implementedeverywhere – from prohitibingplastics and food inside the cam-pus to converting vegetation gar-

bage to vermicompost and usingsolar power for their energy uses.

I was looking for seasonalbirds. I had seen some feeding inthe backwaters. So we let an-other guide Rajan lead us on ourtwo-hour walk. Our first stop wasa water hole. Pelicans delicatelywading in the water was a sightto see. In the distance, I saw apainted stork and a few egrets fly-ing around. Rajan explained,“About 80 pelicans and 20 storkshave made the park their home

� by

Preeti Srivatsan

Photos by

Madhan Kumar

While listening to him talk aboutthe benefits of the station. I spot-ted a grey heron gracefully liftingoff from the water and settling ontop of a tree.

Had we had more time, wemight have spotted more birds.Maybe I should have taken bin-oculars. Maybe my sketch booktoo. They do not allow you extratime at the poonga – so you needto find ways to extend your com-munion with summertime birds.

The flowers are in full bloomin the Adyar Poonga. You will besurprised by how many rare vari-eties of flowers you find here.

The small, white, stalklessflowers of the Orangeberry treewill grab your attention as soonas you start the tour. Take acloser look and you will find afew berries too. Walk a few moresteps and you cannot miss abloom of blue flowers – Clitoriaternatea (sangu pushpam inTamil) on a shrub nearby or thesennalata or Candle Bush (seemaiagandhi) with its yellow flowersstanding tall and straight.

Touch the flower, feel its tex-ture, smell it. Take a video of the

this summer. Little cormorants,night herons, common moore-hens have also been spotted”.

This is a nesting ground forpurple herons too, he added.

After a short stopover at a reststation, we crossed a small bridgefrom where I managed to spot adabchick gently floating about inthe water. Rajan then led us to anewly-installed weather station.

flowers swaying in the wind. Sitdown for a quick sketch.

Continue walking and in thedistance you will spot pink liliesin a pond. A satellite pond care-fully maintained and cleanedregularly, explains Rajan. Cross abridge and you will find a red hi-biscus plant with drooping flow-ers, a tree loaded with bright yel-low flowers (cassia fistula – sarakonnai in Tamil), a ball-shapedcluster of tiny blue flowers of the

delek air tree (kaya) and the redflowers of the Indian Coral tree.A small Rose Periwinkle plant(nithya kalyani) on your rightmarks the end. The tour ends tooquickly? Can the timings be ex-tended, maybe for senior citizensand the disabled. While the needto preserve the eco-system is ap-preciated and the poonga hasrules for a purpose, keeping itopen for longer periods for hobbygroups may help.

Poonga infoThe Adyar Poonga is open from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. on Tuesdaysand Thursday for public tours. Entry is allowed for 20 people onlyand the tickets can be booked online at www. chennairivers.gov.inor at the ticketing centre at the park. The tour costs Rs. 20 perperson.

There is a fee of Rs. 50 for a camera and Rs. 100 for a videocamera.

KNOW YOUR FORT BETTER(Continued from page 1)

The western face, diametri-cally opposite the rear of theAssembly, has barracks that werebuilt late in the 19th Century.With that, Parade Squareopened out to barracks on threesides and it came to be known asBarracks Square. The Cornwalliscupola and its statue of theGovernor General stood close tothe rear wall of the Assemblybuilding on Parade Square andfaced west from the early 1800still 1905. Parade Square wastherefore also referred to asCornwallis Square. The unveil-ing of the statue here was a galaevent, as we have noted earlier.So also was the arrival of Corn-wallis in 1805 when, having as-sumed charge for the secondtime as Governor General of In-

dia, he visited Madras, en routeto Calcutta. On that occasion,he addressed the troops and Ma-dras citizens at Parade Square.

The ceremonial that accom-panied these events was inmarked contrast to the night ofAugust 23, 1775 when Sir RobertFletcher, Commanding Officer,gave instructions for the arrest ofthe Governor Lord Pigot. Thelatter was imprisoned by ColStuart and conveyed to St Tho-mas Mount. Pigot’s sympathiserand son-in-law, Claud Russell,also a member of the MadrasCouncil, records that ParadeSquare that night was a pictureof confusion. Lit by a full moon,it had army officers, Europeansand natives walking hither andthither even as carriages blockedthe entrance to the Square. Thegarrison was sharply divided and

� by

Sriram V.

the troops mutinous but eventu-ally the anti-Pigot faction had itsway. The Governor died a mys-terious death a year later at StThomas Mount while still a pris-oner.

Parade Square was neverpaved over till at least the 1950s.It remained a well-beaten pieceof earth and, given that a regi-ment had always been quarteredin the Fort for over two centu-ries, was used for marches andparades. P. Unnikrishnan, theformer Managing Director ofBinny’s, remembers ParadeSquare in the 1930s when his fa-ther was Law Secretary, Govern-ment of Madras. He would oftenwalk up to the Fort from theMadras Christian CollegeSchool, then in George Town, togo home with his dad in thelatter’s car. He states that a pa-

rade was held every alternate dayin the Square and it was a grandspectacle. Despite it being usedfor parades, the residents of theFort cut across the Square as andwhen needed and this led to aclearly demarcated track emerg-ing over the years.

Several accounts of ceremo-nial parades conducted herehave survived over three centu-

ment, “which then formed astreet from the gate to ParadeSquare”. Thereafter, a street wasformed by the 2nd Division 1stEuropean Regiment and the Ma-dras Militia under MajorTaswell. A salute of seventeenguns was fired and the troopscontinued to present arms till thedistinguished visitor left the Fort.Another account dates to Sep-tember 13, 1807, when the ap-pointment of William Petrie tothe post of Governor was an-nounced. A salute of 19 guns andthree rounds of “musquetry”were fired from the troops of thegarrison, all of whom had as-sembled on Parade Square.

Mrs. Penny in her book won-dered as to how the Englishmen“ever survived such an ordeal byfire, as a parade in full dress un-der an Indian sun must havebeen.” Evidently most did, butthere are several accounts ofbacksliders as well, all of whomwere court-martialled. On July

14, 1837, Capt. John Mahon ofHM 63 Regiment of Foot wastried by order of Maj. Gen. JohnDoveton for having absentedhimself from parade on June 22,despite having been admonishedby his senior officer for a similarmisdemeanour on an earlier oc-casion. He was exonerated on allcharges on a technicality muchto Doveton’s distress. Far worsewas the charge against Capt.John Arnaud of HM 34th Regi-ment. He had been arrested forsome indiscipline and, while un-der incarceration, “appeared inan un-officer like dress when theregiment was on parade” andstood there and looked on. Hetoo was acquitted of this charge.

Being drunk on parade wasclearly an unpardonable crime.The trial of Lt. John Winrow washeld from January 13, 1817 anddragged on for some time. Hewas of the 1st Battalion of the30th Regiment and was tried for“shameful and unofficerlike con-

duct, in appearing on the generalparade of the Battalion, in a stateof intoxication, on the evening ofthe 30th December, 1816.”Clearly, his New Year celebra-tions had begun early.

The judgement was curious tosay the least. While it found himguilty of irregular and improperconduct at the Parade… whennot perfectly free from the effectsof liquor, it acquitted him of thecharge of “shameful conduct inappearing there in state of intoxi-cation.” Lt. Winrow lost twosteps and was asked to take hisplace immediately behind thetwo lieutenants who till then hadstood next to him. The order,though entered into the book,was never implemented, forWinrow had died even when thetrial was in progress.

Parade Square is now cor-doned off for its own safety, for ifopened up it will be filled withGovernment vehicles and, per-haps, even high-rises.A view of Parade Square from the west, looking towards the Secretariat.

ries. A ceremonial parade washeld in August 1801 to welcome“His Excellency Meer AlamBahadar, ambassador from HisHighness, the Subahdar of theDeccan”. The visitor came inthrough St George’s Gate andwas received with presentedarms by His Majesty’s 51st regi-

6 MADRAS MUSINGS July 16-31, 2015

Building Kodai’sObservatory

(Continued fromlast fortnight)

Soon after his appointment,Michie Smith started plan-

ning for establishing the obser-vatory, its layout, domes, etc.The first structure to be startedat the Kodaikanal site, after ac-quiring the land (89 acres), wasthe astronomer’s house, forwhich foundations were laid atthe end of April 1895.

In October 1895, the foun-dation stone of the new obser-vatory was laid by the Gover-nor. Michie Smith laid thenorth-south line for the build-ing in July 1897 and handedover the work to the consultingGovernment architect in De-cember hoping that “if no un-foreseen trouble arises, thebuildings would be ready to re-ceive instruments in less thansix months.” The unforeseentrouble did arise in the form ofthe Norman Lockyer, a leadingBritish astronomer who wasleading an expedition to Ma-dras to study the solar eclipse.

In the Annual Report of1898-99, Michie Smith writes,“The Government of India re-quested the Astronomer Royal,and Sir Norman Lockyer to re-port on the various Indian ob-servatories. The former aftervisiting Kodaikanal approvedgenerally of the plans for the ob-servatory there and made somesuggestions for minor alter-ations (dome diameter to bechanged from 15 feet to 18 feet,etc.) which were at once adapt-ed. Sir Norman Lockyer, on theother hand, without visiting theplace (spent some hours in thedrawing room of the Astrono-mer’s house in Madras) ob-jected entirely to the plans andon his return to England repre-sented to the Secretary of Statefor India that the buildings were‘too costly and too permanent’and were badly designed andunsuited for their purpose. Hewent on to point out that ‘theSouth Kensington Solar PhysicsObservatory thus equippedwith temporary structures is themost powerful in the world. Itdoes more and better work than

� It has been about 115 years since the establishment of

Kodaikanal Observatory as an extension of the original

Madras Observatory, which has evolved into the present

Indian Institute of Astrophysics at Bangalore. It is also the

first mountain observatory in India. Charles Michie Smith was

the man who selected the site, established the observatory

and directed it for the first 12 years. He was also the man who

recruited John Evershed, discoverer of the famous Evershed

effect, and established Kodaikanal Observatory as a major

centre for solar physics. Michie Smith, the person, and the

establishment of Kodaikanal Observatory are looked at here

in the context of the early studies in physical astronomy

(observational astrophysics) in India.

the similar institution at Pots-dam where the buildings cost£250,000’ and urged that thenew buildings at Kodaikanalshould be like those at SouthKensington shanties, built ofwood and canvas. As a conse-quence, the Secretary of Statetelegraphed that the work on

the observatory was to bestopped till the reports of theAstronomer Royal and SirNorman Lockyer had been fullyconsidered. To anyone acqu-ainted with the climatic condi-tions existing in Kodaikanal,the proposal to house valuableinstruments in such ‘shanties’ asSir Norman Lockyer recom-mends seems as strange as hisestimate of the relative values ofthe work done at South Ken-sington and Potsdam and theGovernment Astronomer pro-tested against this proposal.Whether or not this protest wasforwarded to the Indian Obser-vatories Committee is not

known, but the result wasthat no reference whateverwas made to the buildingsthereafter. But a long delay re-sulted from the antagonism be-tween Michie Smith andLockyer.”

Michie Smith complained tothe Astronomer Royal, “...Lockyer wished to turn thewhole of the Kodaikanal build-ings with a series of ‘shanties’and now you probably knowthat he has got the Secretary ofState to telegraph out to stop allthe buildings except the twodomes. …Of course I know thatLockyer’s action is taken mainlyout of spite against me and I amsure that if the Secretary ofState had known of the positionhe has taken up ever since myappointment he would haveasked your advice before takingthis action... .” The ‘spite’which Michie Smith mentions

in his letter might partly be dueto the fact that Michie Smithlacked proper training in solarphysics. Lockyer, on the otherhand, was so thoroughly im-pressed by the work of his“former student”, Naegamvala,“who, so far as I know, is theonly person in India particularlyfamiliar with Solar Physicswork”, that he was unable to ap-preciate the effort put in byMichie Smith at Kodaikanal.He had visited Naegamvala inPoona before he arrived in Ma-dras and Naegamvala hadshown him “the results he hadobtained (of the Total SolarEclipse) and I found them of ahigh order of excellence, whilethe programme of work he un-dertook showed a large grasp ofthe various solar problemswhich await solution at such atime.” (quotes from Lockyer).While he saw an enthusiasticeffort being put up at Poona,where he was not expectingany, on the contrary, at Kodai-kanal where Lockyer was ex-pecting to see lot of progress, hedid not find enough to his lik-ing. As a result, Lockyer wascritical about the functioning ofKodaikanal.

While Lockyer was keen onsolar physics work to start atKodaikanal as quickly as pos-sible with as little investment aspossible (the idea he was harp-ing on with the Solar PhysicsCommittee from 1893), MichieSmith, on the other hand, wasconcerned more with establish-ing a proper observatory. In anearlier letter to Christie, MichieSmith remarked about Lock-yer’s intentions: “My interviewwith Lockyer was trying but weboth kept our tempers. His chiefobject was to try and get me toat once start spectrophoto-graphs of the Sun on the Hale-Deslander plan with an appara-tus made up of odds and endsfrom other instruments set up ina ‘shanty which would not cost£5’. I pointed out that I had nei-ther the necessary apparatusnor at present the time to takeit up on which he offered tolend me his son or one of his as-sistants from South Kensing-ton! I did not jump at the offer.He would like to turn Kodai-kanal Observatory into a seriesof ‘shanties’.”

Anyway, as it turned out, thefeud died quietly and thingscontinued (maybe through theintervention of AstronomerRoyal) at Kodaikanal with somedelay. Officially, the observa-tory started functioning fromApril 1, 1899.

During the first few years,the work of the Director wasnaturally concerned mostlywith lay-out, planning theorganisation. Smith, the firstDirector of the Observatory, didmuch pioneering work in thisdirection. The constructionworks were done under hispersonal supervision. Heplanted trees for improvementof the solar image, installed theinstruments for routine obser-vational work and formulateddaily observations.

Systematic solar observa-tions commenced at Kodai-kanal from early 1901. Mag-netic, meteorological andseismological observations werein progress at Kodaikanal fromthe very beginning.

Nominations for the positionof an assistant to Michie Smithand also a possible successor tohim as Director of Kodaikanal,after his retirement, was soli-cited by John Eliot, the thenDirector General of Indian Ob-servatories, from the Astrono-mer Royal and the Indian

Observatories Committee in1902. The position was to befilled, in due course, by JohnEvershed, by then a well-knownpractitioner of solar physics andan ‘irresponsible amateur’ (ashe describes himself).

1909 was an eventful year inthe history of the KodaikanalObservatory because of the dis-covery of ‘the Evershed effect’.Both Smith and Evershedobserved Halley’s Comet frommid-April to mid-May of 1910,which put up a memorable dis-play with its tail extending for100o far up towards zenith.

Michie Smith retired inJanuary 1911 as Director of theKodaikanal Observatory butcontinued to live in Kodai-kanal. Although he did notparticipate in the scientific

(Continued on page 7)

� byN. Kameswara Rao,

A. Vagiswari andChristina Birdie

activities at the Observatorythereafter, nevertheless, beingin Kodaikanal, he kept in touchwith the Observatory till hisdeath.

Michie Smith not onlyestablished the observatory, itsbuildings, instruments, etc. butalso took care to plant treeswhich would provide a properenvironment for astronomicalobservations.

It was Smith’s inspired initia-tive that resulted in the plant-ing of pine and oak trees in theobservatory surrounding thedomes and observing facilitiesthat were helpful to improvethe steadiness of the images. “Alarge number of young treeshave been raised from seed andplanted out whenever theweather is suitable. Theseyoung trees were largely pines ofvarious kinds from the hills ofSouthern California for whichthe Director (CMS) is indebtedto Mr Lukins of Pasedena.”

Evershed, in a letter to thethen Director General ofObservatories, written in 1912,comments, “These trees aremostly Pines planted by mypredecessor Mr Michie Smith athis private expense, and inaddition to their ornamentaluse are of great value in protect-ing the soil and rock surfaces

Painting of Charlie Michie Smith.

The Kodaikanal Observatory today.

Astronomer’s residence in Kodaikanal Observatory.

July 16-31, 2015 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

No Mahakavi withoutPondicherry?

(Continued fromlast fortnight)

Among Bharati’s long poemsKuyil Paattu occupies pride

of place. Some hold that it waspublished in 1912, others claimit came out in 1914-15. Be thatas it may, we know from it thatBharati spent a great deal oftime in the mango and coconutgroves situated outside Pondi-cherry town. One day, when hewas on one of his usual strollsthrough a grove, he heard acuckoo singing. Overwhelmednot only by the melody of thecuckoo’s sound, but also by itsbeauty and the beauty of thenature that surrounded it, hewrote Kuyil Paattu. Throughthis poem Bharati sought todemonstrate the essential unityof life and nature.

In 1913, Bharati’s friend,Subramania Siva, after his re-lease from prison, started aTamil journal called Gnana-bhanu in Madras. It was Subra-mania Siva who started repub-lishing Bharati’s works and po-ems in Tamil. Thus, Bharati’sPondicherry works like YogaSiddhi, Oliyum Irulum, Kannanen Thai, Paapa Paattu and Puthi-ya Athichudi were published inGnanabhanu. The last two werewritten for children. Some holdthat the manuscript of Bharati’sstory Chinna Sankaran Kathaiwas lost during the police raidson his house in Pondicherry.But parts of it appeared in Gna-nabhanu. For some unknownreason, the story remainedincomplete. Bharati never saidwhy.

From 1914-15, he startedcontributing articles to journalsand newspapers in Madras onceagain. He even wrote in En-glish; his work appeared in jour-nals like Annie Besant’s NewIndia and Commonweal andArya in Pondicherry. In 1914 or

Subramania Bharati is one of the great nationalist poets, social

reformers, writers and revolutionaries of modern India. His works

were mostly in Tamil, his mother tongue. Besides Tamil, he has

also produced some wonderful poems and prose in English.

Bharati was recognised as a Mahakavi, i.e. Great Poet, only sev-

eral years after his death.

In this article, I adopt a step-by-step chronological approach

to unravel the special features in his life that enabled Bharati to

emerge as a Mahakavi.

– J.B.P. More

sometime before that, a satiricalfable of his called ‘A Fox with aGolden Tail’ caused quite a flut-ter. His English work receivedmuch recognition, but Bharatiregretted that he never receivedsuch felicitations for his workswritten in his mother tongue,like Panchali Sabatham.

During the 19th Century,many Tamils had been taken ascoolies by the British and theFrench to work in the planta-tions in colonies like Fiji,Mauritius, Reunion, South Af-rica and the Caribbean Islands.Bharati, while in Pondicherry,was overwhelmed by theirplight. Gandhiji had been wag-

ing a non-violent struggleagainst the racial discriminationpractised by the Whites inSouth Africa. Bharati watchedthis struggle and the sad state ofIndian labour abroad. Thisprompted him to write his fa-mous poem Karumbu Thottathile(In the sugarcane plantations),in which he depicted the livingconditions of the Tamils in theplantations and the hardshipsand atrocities that the Tamilwomen had to undergo in for-eign lands at the hands ofWhite masters.

Bharati was himself inpoverty and want when theRussian Revolution broke out

in October 1917. Of all theTamil poets Bharati alone wel-comed the revolution. He wrotea poem titled Puthiya Russia(New Russia) that praised theRevolution, supported the abo-lition of private property, andcondemned the tyranny of theTsar. Bharati knew about thewritings of the French socialistProudhon who was against pri-vate property. Bharati was al-ways in agreement with Pro-dhon’s views. In 1918, he trans-lated five essays of Rabindra-nath Tagore, the Nobel Laure-ate, acknowledging the great-ness of Tagore and regrettingthat Indian newspapers were

not giving adequate importanceto him. At the time, he alsowrote a history of the IndianNational Congress in Tamil,but it was published only later.

While in Pondicherry, Bha-rati produced several otherpoems ranging from the devo-tional to songs in praise ofnature. Some of them wereKavitha Devi Arul Vendal(1908), Guru Govinda SimhaVijayam (1909), Thisai (1909),Annai Nee Seivathene (1909),Kadal (1909), MahasakthikkuVinnappam (1910), Thelivu(1910), Sadharana VarushaDhumakethu (1910), OliyumIrulum (1913), Yoga Siddhi

(1913), Veyankuzhai (1914),Iravanam Tayumanavar Vazhthu(1914), Gnanabhanu SuryaSthoman (1915), and NaattuPaattu (1917).

It is noteworthy that even inhis devotional songs, Bharati in-troduced his revolutionary ideasand thoughts on social reform.Bharati knew that the people ofTamizhagam were God-fearing.This seems to have promptedhim to get across his social mes-sages even through the mediumof devotional songs.

Bharati who came to Pondi-cherry not knowing what was instore for him there, graduallydeveloped a love for Pondi-

cherry. He used to walk fear-lessly on the beach road, headheld high and chest thrust for-ward, singing the French na-tional anthem La Marseillaise,which he even translated intoTamil.

When the Great War endedin November 1918, Bharati andhis family were permitted to re-turn to Madras and he decidedto leave Pondicherry at the endof the month. He once againjoined Swadesamitran but hishealth had deteriorated verymuch by then. He passed awayon September 11, 1921, uncar-ed for and unsung by his coun-trymen.

Pondicherry proved themost productive place forBharati’s literary creations. IfBharati had not written KuyilPaattu, Panchali Sabatham andKannan Paattu there, he wouldnever have become the Maha-kavi that he became.

This article is based on J.R.P. More’s

book Puducheri Valartha Bharathiar,

published by Leon Prouchandy Memo-

rial Sangam, Pondicherry, in 2011.

(Concluded)

from excessive heating by thesun. In this way they tend toimprove the solar observationsby preventing atmosphericdisturbances near the instru-ments, and it follows that theDirector in charge of the obser-vatory will always endeavour topromote the growth of thesetrees and preserve them as faras possible from destruction.”The same letter continuesabout other trees (wattles, bluegum, etc.). “In the AssistantDirector’s compound the landwas not cleared when takenover from the Forest Depart-

ment and the trees werepurchased by Mr Michie Smithfrom the forest Departmentprivately... They proved veryuseful for providing temporarybuildings in the observatory andtripods, etc. for the erection ofheavy instruments ... part of theequipment of Poona observa-tory when transferred toKodaikanal was erected by theobservatory staff at practicallyno cost to Government becausetimber was at hand for thework.”

Michie Smith maintainedhis own horse ‘Jerusalem’ to getabout in Kodaikanal. Being thePresident of the English Club

(Kodaikanal Club) Smith usedto spend time there. Apparently“on one night in April 1910Mrs Peachey and her husband,the late Canon Peachey, werewalking home in the eveningfrom Tinnevelly settlement,when they saw a comet andstopped at the English Club toask Mr Michie Smith about it.He came out to look at it, said itmust be Halley’s Comet, andimmediately jumped on hishorse and galloped up to theobservatory to consult MrEvershed.”

Michie Smith was for a num-ber of years a member of theMunicipality and was even its

chairman for some years. Hewas well known in Kodaikanalas the energetic and carefulsecretary and three-time Presi-dent of the Boat Club, devotedto the protection of its propertyand rules. He also took interestin planting trees in the townand other places.

His younger sister Lucy, anursing matron, came out toKodaikanal in 1911 to keephouse for him. Smith had abeautiful home and garden.There were domestic animalstoo in plenty for Lucy to care forand talk to.

In 1919 Smith’s physical andmental health started to dete-

riorate. Nursing him, Lucybecame sick and passed awaysix months before her brother’sdeath at the end of September1922.

Kodaikanal Observatory isstill an ongoing research facilityliving its ‘raison d’être’, whereasother solar (stellar) physicscentres in India have dis-appeared as soon as the mainmotivator (who started it) wasno longer active or disappearedfrom the scene. The success ofKodaikanal has mainly beendue to its continuing motivatedDirectors and astronomers.(Courtesy: Current Science)

(Concluded)

BUILDING KODAI’S OBSERVATORY(Continued from page 6)

Bharati honoured in Pondicherry.

8 MADRAS MUSINGS July 16-31, 2015

A partnership of50 years

– nurturing talent from

humble backgrounds

� by A Special Correspondent

The association between theSanmar family and the Jolly

Rovers Cricket Club is nowentering its 50th year.

This is certainly unique inthe annals of cricket history, asrare indeed would be anotherexample of such continuous,decades-long sponsorship of asporting institution by one fam-ily. By doing this, the late Chair-man Emeritus of the Group,K.S. Narayanan, his sonsN. Sankar and N. Kumar, andgrandson Vijay Sankar havecreated a record of sorts.

The new Chennai cricketseason will start in July 2015,and it was on July 29, 1996 thatKSN officially adopted theClub, and made it a star-stud-ded combination that went onto annex the First Divisionleague title in grand style thesame season. He and his succes-sors have steadfastly supportedJolly Rovers and cricket ingeneral ever since.

The family not merely sup-ports one cricket team but, infact, two teams – Alwarpet CCbeing the second one. It has alsodeveloped a world-class cricket-ing infrastructure, by maintain-ing the IIT-Chemplast Sanmar

cricket ground, providing excel-lent coaching, practice andtraining facilities for some 30players year after year. It cantake pride in its ability to spottalent, often from humble back-grounds, and nurturing and pol-ishing it into a winning combi-nation. This is clearly reflectedin the extraordinary number oftitles Jolly Rovers has won – 62so far.

T. Natarajan, Basil Thampiand D.T. Chandrasekar, all

employees of Chemplast don-ning the Jolly Rovers cap, havecome from humble rural back-grounds. All of them haveclimbed the ladder swiftly fromstreet cricket in their villages tobig league tournaments, includ-

ing the Ranji tournament.Eldest among five siblings, T.

Natarajan is a son of a labourer,S. Thangarasu. “My father is adaily-wager while my motherowns a small meat shop atChinnapampatti, a tiny hamletabout 35 km from Salem,” saysNatarajan. His raw talentearned a name for himself inChennai. “I will always be grate-ful to ‘Sweetie Suresh’, andBharath Reddy ‘Sir’. For acricketer with my background,

guidance was crucial. Theywere always there for me,” saysNatarajan. Born to unletteredparents and hailing from avillage T. Natarajan has beennamed in the Tamil Nadu Ranjisquad, having climbed theranks in the TNCA league overthe last few seasons.

The 21-year-old Basil Tham-pi’s journey in league crickethappened at a fast pace. Hail-ing from Perumbavoor, a smalltown about 40 km from Kochi,Kerala, he too, like Natarajan,is from a very humble backgro-und with his parents running asmall condiments and cateringshop. On his debut in One Daycricket for Kerala against Goa,he claimed 6 wickets for 51 runsand this earned him a place inthe Kerala Ranji Squad in the2014/15 season. Starting fromtennis ball cricket about two

years ago and moving on to thebig stage, his rise has been rapid.Last year, Basil joined Chem-plast to be a Jolly Rovers player.

Left-arm spinner D.T.Chandrasekar is from Arani vil-lage in Tiruvallur District. “Myparents are daily wage labourerswho don’t really have an idea ofwhat I am doing. Despite our fi-nancial constraints, my fatherencouraged us (me and my el-der brother) to go for ourdreams,” says Chandra who hasdone various jobs at a stonequarry in Arani. Chandra-sekar’s biggest moment camelast year when he played forAlwarpet CC in the TNCA firstdivision league, bagging 36wickets from 10 matches. He isplaying for Jolly Rovers this sea-son. (Courtesy: Matrix, thehouse journal of the SanmarGroup)

Published by S. Muthiah for ëChennai Heritageí, 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, Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Printed by Anu Varghese at Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006, and edited by S. Muthiah.

Bata India LimitedAmalgamations Group

F.L. Smidth LimitedThe Hindu

Group of Publications

Rane Group

Hotels Resortsand Palaces

Sundram FastenersLimited

Since 1856,patently leaders

— A WELLWISHERUCAL AUTO

PRIVATE LIMITEDTVS MOTOR COMPANY

here, beginning with the at-tempt by the latter to demolishthe Directorate General ofPolice building in the 1980s.Government officers havefrankly expressed a disinclina-tion to work with heritage en-thusiasts in Chennai and thematter is at a deadlock.

The listing at Puducherryhas been done with coordina-tion between INTACH and theState Level Heritage Conserva-tion and Advisory Committee(SLHCAC), which is an advi-sory body with no legal or statu-

tory powers. Compare this withthe Heritage ConservationCommittee (HCC) in our State,which is also similar in charac-ter but chooses not to justify itsexistence in any way. ThePuducherry team has produceda list of 21 buildings within sixmonths of the Mairie’s collapse.The HCC was given a ready-made list of 468 structures bythe High Court of Madras andis yet to take action on listingany of them. It has decided toembark on a fresh listing ofbuildings, a wholly superfluousexercise, and is taking forever indoing even that. In the mean-

while, at least sixteen buildings,nominally protected by theHigh Court’s listing, have al-ready vanished and so we arestaring at a list of 452. Severalmore are in an enfeebled stateand may soon collapse or makeway for highrises. In the light ofall this inaction, the recent de-cision by the State Governmentto illuminate some heritagebuildings during the Global In-vestors’ Meet seems nothingmore than lip service to thecause of conservation. Will theTamil Nadu State Governmentstudy the Puducherry modeland take action?

Pondy pushes for heritage(Continued from page 1)

do not have such facilities in thetrains or at stations. We agreewith that. But what has beenforgotten is that most Metroservices abroad have toiletsplaced, and maintained by, thelocal civic body, just outside thestations. This has not beenplanned in Chennai.

We assume that like all simi-lar public transport services inIndia, the Metro will also soonhave unionised staff. Thesemust be prevented from pastingposters and painting graffiti onthe walls of the stations. Thishas sadly never been put downin any of the other transportservices and it is quite ironicthat the staff could deface theirown property with such non-chalance. If the Metro preventsthis, it could be quite a featherin its cap. The same goes forpreventing political posters andgraffiti as well.

We know that it is fashion-able to claim that ours is aninclusive society and so vendorsand hawkers need to beprovided space. That may betruer of traditional areas andservices such as those attachedto temples but let us not forgetthat the Metro is a moderncreation that does not providefor vagrants, vendors andhawkers anywhere across theworld. These elements need tobe kept out of the service exceptas passengers

Lastly, how do we get ourbeloved public to toe the line ondiscipline? The Metro needs toget tough on vandals. It has toutilise the security and survei-llance cameras that it places inthe trains to detect acts of wilfuldamage. If the authorities areprepared to be indifferent andlet such acts pass, then we aresoon going to have a massiveproblem on our hands.

Chennai’s pride?(Continued from page 1)