WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXVI No. 19 January 16-31, 2017

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• SBI & Anderson House

• Rambling in West Mambalam – 2

• Cho & MGR remembered

• Still only Ranji ‘placing’

When the trees come up again...

W(h)itherTamil Nadu?

(Continued on page 2)

(Continued on page 3)

That festiveair inMylapore

– As we watchMinisters from other Statescome a-calling

(By The Editor)

What exactly is happeningin our State? Are we

caught in some kind of anactivity trap from which we donot see any signs of emerging?Is there a paralysis in terms ofpolicy? We as a publicationconcerned with the well beingof our State and City sincerelyhope that this is not so, but allindicators point that way. True,routine administration is goingon as usual, giving everyone theimpression that all is well, but ifsomeone in office is thinkingabout the future, we do not seeany indications of that. It is theresponsibility of the elected ex-ecutive to take this on, and, to-day, for various reasons, that isnot happening.

We understand that illnessesand death are a part of humanlife and can strike anyone at anytime. But if there is a larger re-sponsibility for which politicalorganisations are created (andit is they who govern policy),that cannot be given the go byin the interests of immediatepolitical challenges of succes-sion. And this is happening at atime when neighbouring Statesare not exactly just watchingwhat is going on. It will only bea question of time before invest-ment slowly begins movingaway.

We have recently carried re-ports of a nation-wide study onthe States of our country andtheir performance across vari-ous indices. Tamil Nadu stoodsecond overall but there wereseveral measures where itshowed that there were causesfor concern. And the overallranking was largely based onour traditional strengths – inshort we have not brought forth

any new achievement that wecan highlight. That does notaugur well.

Last week saw a conclaveorganised in our city by a lead-ing national media house. Thereports are still coming in on theoutcomes, but what is certain isthat Ministers from neighbour-ing States, all of whom came tospeak at the symposium, spenttheir time usefully, meeting upwith industrial houses headquartered in our city. The solemotive was to seek investmentsin their respective States. Andthese Ministers were seen going

V. Mythili slowly got up fromthe edge of tarred North MadaStreet, leaned on her maid,dragged herself a few steps andfound a place on the pavementto sit down. And both smiled.

Mythili had accomplishedwhat she had set out fromVillivakkam to do – design akolam at the annual contest ofthe Sundaram Finance Myla-pore Festival.

“My folks discouraged me.You are old now, they said. ButI wanted to come here,” saidMythili who looked 80 years-plus.

Her spirit is what makes theannual Sundaram FinanceMylapore Festival, curated byVincent D’Souza of MylaporeTimes, unique year on year.

A community-driven cul-tural festival that is special tothe city, this year’s was theFestival’s 15th edition and itfeatured over 200 artistes insome 40 events. As T.T.Srinivasaraghavan, MD ofSundaram Finance, says, “Thisfestival is of the community.We don’t have celebritiesaround nor VIPs on stage.”

The carpet of kolam-s, theoutcome on North MadaStreet on two evenings of con-tests (picture above) is the flag-ship event that triggered thisfestival idea over 15 years ago.

But other facets of thisstreet festival have beenblooming too. Take the Heri-tage Walks. Over 350 people

� by VincentD’Souza

My street was a non-go zonefor 48 hours from the time

cyclone Vardah struck.The biggest avenue tree here

had come down and it lay acrossthe pathway, like an agedelephant knocked down by aspeeding train on the Nilamburtrack.

There were others strewn allover. The street was a carpet ofleaves, branches, and twigs.

And the Big Tree lay still.Till three dozen men in

khaki uniforms arrived – onetourist van, two jeeps and onepatrol car.

One man had a electric saw,another a sickle and the third ametallic rod.

The policemen set to work.They chopped up the Big Tree,dumped the pieces of itsbranches on the sidewalk, and,finally, all of them put their

hands to the massive trunk,yelled in chorus and shoved itaside.

And they left, enjoying yetanother timely task they had ac-complished. The street wasclear for local traffic.

I walked down to the spotwhere the Big Tree had stood.

It had collapsed because its rootsystem seemed stunted.

It could not have wonagainst Vardha’s speed of 140.

Neither did thousands andthousands of trees in the city.

Vardah had left behind agreen graveyard. A fewthoughts engage my mind. And

so should they for all of us wholove nature.

Does our city really have atree-management system?

I have never ever seen ateam of Chennai Corporationgoing around neighbourhoodsand tending to the shrubs andtrees in public spaces.

Our streets and roads, play-grounds and parks nurturethousands of trees. Who reallytakes care of them?

Take a look at a neighbour-hood street or road.

We have a large avenue oftrees, some 50 years or more inage, some ten and some saplingsplanted by community groupsto mark a special occasion.

We have ‘decorative’ green-ery on top of road dividers andat traffic islands. Left to grow

(Continued on page 2)

(By A Staff Reporter)

Seen at the Mylapore Festival: Kolam on the street (above) and Vikku Vinayakram and his students at a concertin Nageswara Rao Park (below).

2 MADRAS MUSINGS January 16-31, 2017

WTamil Nadu?(Continued from page 1)

It was yet another morning atthe old magazine and The

Man from Madras Musings la-zily switched on his computerto see if there were any emailsfrom ye faithfulle readership.And having seen, he continuedseeing with a wild surmiserather in the manner of stoutCortez’s men on a peak atDarien. On a usual day therewould at most be one or maybe two e-mails, most of themcomplaining about the non-re-ceipt of Musings but this daywas evidently special for therewere around two dozen e-mails, each beginning with thecoldly-worded, Dear Sir, Youmay not be aware… etc. Theold magazine had got thepeople’s goat by publishingthat story on how JJ Road wasnamed after the late lamentedCM.

Not so roared the populace.There were a number of how-could-yous, especially fromthose who quoted from whatwe had published several yearsago on how this was named af-ter a Junker not from Ger-many but from a Jaghir closeby. MMM could only say inMM’s defence that Homer hadnodded. However, it is an ill-wind that blows absolutely nogood and MMM is glad to

husband. She even had thesignboards repainted to reflectthe latest name, making it EJRoad though it is unclear as towhether she obtained sanctionfrom the Corporation. Thematter however did not endthere. On seeing a road namedafter the still living husband,many of his friends assumed hewas dead and began comingaround offering condolences,some of them bearing wreathsand dressed in black. The (stillliving) husband was as sick asmud over this and so the sign-boards went back to JJ from EJ.By then, it was the done thingto be JJ and so nobody attempt-ed any further name changes.The signboards were left inpeace as were society matron’sletterheads. Sadly, societymatron was not fated to beamongst us for long to gloatover her notepaper. Her hus-band however, is still living.Thus ended Star’s tale. MMMrealises that there is a moral tothe story, but is not able to ex-actly pinpoint as to what thatis. In the meanwhile, the roadcontinues to remain JJ Road,not named after the JJ youthought or the Junker who as-sumed it was after him but justa pair of initials celebrating anaxis.

All Just in Jest

Being progressive

If progress is measured byyour getting double of what

you got earlier, our State andCity have certainly advanced.The Man from Madras Musingshad better make his meaningplainer. Till October or so lastyear, chances were that youdrove or walked along withnary a thought in your mindother than demonetisation.You then came upon a roadwhere you found that therewere more policemen andwomen than normal. You thencame across bamboo barricadesbehind which the colour-codedfaithful were standing in atten-dance, ready to break into ec-static dances accompanied bydrumbeats borrowed from aneighbouring State as soon asan eminence passed by. Posterspasted on all the walls andsome banners erected in thehope that Traffic Ramaswamydid not bring them downwarned you that a walkabout ora drive about was imminent.You made sure you immedi-ately ducked into an alley thatyou knew led to an alternateroute to your destination.These blockades though pain-ful were short-lived at best andyou knew that once the entou-rage and cavalcade had goneby, the drums would fall silent,the dancers would cease todance, the posters would comeoff, the banners be taken downand the policemen and womenwould go back to maintaining

law and order. And you alsoknew that only one road wasblocked off at any given pointof time.

Things have changed.Nowadays two roads getblocked off – one to a gardenand the other to a thorough-fare once named after a formerand eminently forgettable Cor-poration Commissioner thatwas renamed by a thespian-in-power after another thespianwho specialised in playing therole of a scholarly old lady.And so you get two in theplace of one. That by itself isprogress. The second measureis that these thoroughfares re-main perpetually blocked, nomatter what time of day ornight. And that is moreprogress. The barricades areforever up and the policemen/women are in attendance allthe time. Progress yet again.As for the posters, they nowsport two of everything – theoriginal and a shadow that israpidly becoming a doppel-ganger of the original. Stillmore progress! Of course thedrums do not beat and thedancers are absent. Not so,however, are the bordered-dhoti faithful, who keep com-ing in, in busloads, singing,

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

report that is was not one ofthose. It had as a positiveoutcome a phone call from adear friend of MMM, a Starmarried to a Flute so to speak,who had a fairly rollickingtale to relate about yonder JJRoad.

This name, said the Star,had nothing to do with theJaghired Junker. It was merelythat the Corporation of Ma-dras had divided the area intovarious axes named AA, BBetc., and this road happened tofall on the JJ axis. It was there-fore marked thus and left thatway. And so it remained. Thatthe Junker of the Jaghir hap-pened to own property closeby was just a coincidence, saidStar, who also added that ev-erything jj is not necessarily JJ.And then she added that therehad been an attempt to havethe road renamed after an il-lustrious personage, the movebeing spearheaded by hiswidow. This apparently wasstrongly objected to by a soci-ety matron on the same roadon the grounds that she hadprinted letterheads bearing theaddress as JJ Road and nowthese would all go waste. Theidea was therefore dropped.

It later transpired that thesociety matron was not moti-vated by reasons of economybut Envy & Jealousy (EJ).That EJ had an ulterior motivesoon came to light when onemorning she declared that theroad would henceforth beknown after her (still living)

rather in the manner of thosewho came to witness amiracle, Hosanna. The searchfor a parent is apparently overand we are blessed with a newone.

There is plenty of activityin the area though whether allthis will lead to achievementof any kind beyond the purelypersonal is open to conjecture.We as a nation are experts inmistaking activity for achieve-ment and if MMM is not mis-taken the current spate of ac-tivity is just that. MMM be-lieves that Ichabod aboutsums it up.

Tailpiece

That the Tamil Nadu Police has a sense of humour

became manifest last week toThe Man from MadrasMusings when he drove by anelectronic kiosk that carriedmessages concerning trafficdiscipline. Most of these wereof the standard kind and thencame one that was a real killer(sorry, awful pun there).Don’t go at 100km/h and thencome back using the 108 ser-vice, it said. Black humourmay be, but still humour it is.And given the tough condi-tions they work in (includingremaining in perpetual atten-dance at the two roads men-tioned above), MMM doffs hishat at their coming up with thefunnies.

– MMM

� The late Gopulu during hisAnanda Vikatan days had aseries of wordless jokes thatbrought about loud laughter.These were brought out as abook, in 2005, and a copy wasrecently sent to me byCharukesi. We are pleased topublish these cartoons for anew generation of Madrasis.

– THE EDITOR

from company to company, notregally stationing themselves athotels expecting people to callon them and pay their respects.This is a new generation of po-litical executive that is emerg-ing and Tamil Nadu, we feel,had better look sharp in produc-ing some leaders of this kind ifit wants to be a national player.We also understand that the re-sponse to those leaders waspositive. On the other hand,there is a feeling that not muchis going to happen in TamilNadu for some time to come.

Those who do not agree withthis view argue that the Statehad only two years ago con-cluded a global investors meetthat was deemed successful.What we do know is that theoutcome of that meet is cloakedin some kind of Masonic secrecyand we are yet to see any action

on the ground by way of thosepromised projects taking off.

Where will this leave us? Ofcourse, established plants andbusiness houses are not going toclose down what is already inexistence here. That will meanwe will continue to remain anurbanised State with a degree ofprosperity. But we are unlikelyto show sensational or even re-spectable growth by way of newprojects. It is these that willdrive all other indices, includ-ing public welfare, somethingthat our State specialises in.While we do not in any waycavil at money being spent onwelfare measures, we hope thatthe State realises that there is alimit to which it can strain thepresent levels of revenue and ifit needs to go beyond that, itneeds to generate fresh receipts.Those can come in only withnew business.

WordlessGopulu

WHEN

THE TREES

FLOURISH

AGAIN...

(Continued from page 1)

wildly or be suffocated by fumes.And then we have weeds andplants and grass growing wildlyon our sidewalks and street cor-ners, never ever cleared in ages.

Who must really take care ofall this?

Civic workers respond toSOS calls – they chop off low-banging tree branches that posea danger to cars and lorries.They pull down an avenue treethat may crash any moment.Or the men rush in to remove agiant tree that has collapsed ona busy road.

Is this all that civic teamsmust do in a city that has sub-stantial green cover?

Vardah has a lesson forChennai Corporation.

Create teams at zonal levelsto care for the trees in publicspaces, maintain green zones atroad junctions and rid our side-walks and street corners of wildvegetation.

Equip these terms with mod-ern accessories – so they do nothave to work with sickles andcasuarina poles.

Train these teams in themanagement of greenery inpublic spaces.

Get them to work the yearround. And get the local com-munity involved in a partner-ship. (Courtesy: MylaporeTimes.)

(h)ither

January 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

‘The place whereI was born’

My long-awaited return to Madras, as I willalways think of it, was scheduled for the

day after Cyclone Vardah ran roughshodthrough the region and left a wide swath of jaw-dropping devastation. In Delhi, awaiting ourflight to Chennai, my friend and I wonderedwhether we would be able to realise our plan tovisit the city where I was born 68 years ago; itseemed thoroughly improbable, and communi-cation with friends and hotels in Tamil Naduhad become nearly impossible. Yet, somehowIndians’ remarkable ability to carry on in theface of hardship and even disaster prevailed, andwe found our flight and our lodgings ready toaccommodate us. Thanks to the efficiency andgrace of our hosts, Vardah had failed to foil us.

Along with a tourist’s general interest in see-ing some of the sights of the region – an interestgratified by visits to Kapaleeswarar Temple, FortSt. George, and St. Thomas basilica, as well asthe World Heritage sites at Mahabalipuram – Ihad a prodigal son’s desire to find and experi-ence places of particular importance in my lifeand that of my parents during my earliest days.Of those days, I had no first hand memory,having departed from Madras with my Ameri-can mother and father at the age of 20 months.But from my birth certificate and my mother’sscrapbook, I knew that I was born at ChristinaRainy Hospital; that I lived at 14 Casa MajorRoad; and that my parents spent many happyhours at the Adyar Club, now merged with andbearing the name of the Madras Club, but occu-pying the same genteel premises shown in mymother’s photographs.

Thanks to the editor of this journal, withwhom I had the good fortune of being put intouch by his niece and a mutual friend, both In-dians living quite near me in New England, wewere able to spend a most enjoyable two hoursat the Madras Club. It was delightful to learnthat the property was practically unchangedsince my mother and father, who was U.S. ViceConsul in Madras in 1948–50, attended numer-ous parties and functions there. I was able topicture them entering the stately rotunda underthe starry domed ceiling and dining, dancing,and playing billiards in the stately rooms of theclub. The realisation that this had been, likepractically all such establishments of the time, a“Whites Only” club was embarrassing, but madethe experience only somewhat bittersweet. Afine pot of tea and a serving of exquisite samosa-s on the terrace brought this wonderful experi-ence to a close.

For the following day, I had hired a privatetour guide and driver to enable me to reach myremaining objectives. Regarding my first home

on Casa Major Road, I owe thanks to Mrs. Eliza-beth Abraham, had read about my prospectivevisit in The Hindu’s “Madras Miscellany” col-umn and got word to me. She related that shehad lived next door at number 15 from 1954–1966, and she was able to pinpoint the location(street numbers having been changed) near thejunction of Pantheon Road. Sadly, the hand-some house of which I have a picture, which Iassume was leased by the American Consulateas a staff residence, is no longer there, though Isuspect some portions of the structure may re-main within the walls of newer buildings setback from the street. I walked the length of CasaMajor Road and tried to imagine living in thissame neighbourhood as a baby – though in myimagination, it was a far more tranquil scenethan that of the crowded, noisy thoroughfarethat I found in 2016.

Next, we set out for the hospital. A commu-nication glitch made this adventure longer andmore complicated than it might otherwise havebeen, as our tour guide mistook ‘Rainy’ for ‘Rail-way,’ with the result that we went first to analtogether different facility from the one wheremy mother gave birth to me. Although thedetour did offer interest, as we got a glimpse ofthe area where railway coaches are stillmanufactured, it was Christina Rainy Hospitalthat I was eager to see. And after another 45minutes of navigating through streets cloggedwith traffic, we did in fact arrive there.

To be honest, I must say that I expected thispilgrimage to have a fairly anticlimactic outcome– no doubt I would find merely a nondescriptcomplex of utilitarian buildings, differing onlyin my own imagination from any other 21stCentury hospital. But the scene that awaited mewas far more poignant. For reasons that I canonly guess at, but for which I am grateful, theauthorities had seen fit to leave in place thedilapidated building that housed patients at mid-20th Century. The weary old edifice surelylooked even more than usually forlorn for hav-ing absorbed a heavy body blow from Vardahtwo days earlier, yet it stood placidly waiting towelcome this wide-eyed returning alumnus. Thefact that my return took place on my 68th birth-day amplified the emotional impact that I felt.

Stephen SpauldingHollis, New Hampshire, USA

The Christina Rainy Hospital as it once was... and as it is today.

“My sister at the Adyar Club fifty years ago... and our house at 14, Casa Major Road at the time.”

Naming it right

Several readers have pointedout that we made a howler

with the publication of the fea-ture on JJ Road (MM, January).They tell me that it is a road notnamed after the late ChiefMinister and long pre-dates her.Tara Murali, who lives off theroad, writes:

It is definitely not named af-ter J. Jayalalithaa.

A narrow kutcha private roadexisted there till the early 1970swhen the Madras Corporationwanted to make it into a puccaCorporation road of greaterwidth. Land from adjoining

That last day of an era

V. Pattabhi Ram writing inIndustrial Economist says:

Jayalalithaa – loved, hated,liked, adored, admired, feared,all in equal measure while shewas alive – received the kind offarewell that not many in recentmemory have got.

It was a massive turnout atthe laying-at-state venue and atthe funeral site. Men andwomen of all hue lined up there.Contrast it with the few thou-sands who turned out for theMufti’s funeral a few monthsago. Next the chief ministerwas buried, not cremated, in astark departure from Brahmincustom. And then SasikalaNatarajan led Deepak Jaya-kumar in performing the finalrites. In Hindu customs, womendo not perform final rites.

But they were not what sur-prised me. What surprised me,and pleasantly so, was the re-markable efficiency of the gov-ernment of Tamil Nadu and theextraordinary decorum withwhich the people of the stateconducted themselves at the fu-neral. There was not a singleuntoward incident of anyconsequence.

I think three things that theydid went right. This should be-come police manned practicefor future when a leader withmass appeal departs.

One, the decision to an-nounce the death in the middleof the night. It came at a timewhen offices weren’t workingand people weren’t on theroads. There could therefore be

no disruptions. A couple ofhours earlier the crowd in frontof Apollo had been quietly dis-persed.

Two, withdrawing the bustransport service across theState. This meant that everyRama, every Krishna and everyGovinda wouldn’t turn up atthe funeral. To that extent thecrowd would be less and man-ageable.

Three, was the decision notto keep the body for multipledays and finish performing thelast rites the same day.

The decorum with which theentire process went through,apart from being a tribute to theforesight and execution skill ofthe administration, also perhapsshows a certain maturity ofmind on the part of the public.After all, whether you liked heror not, she was no ordinaryleader. She was a mass leader inthe MGR mould. And peoplesouth of the Vindhyas areknown to be emotional when itcomes to politics. I guess the75 days long hiatus at thecorporate hospital had alsoprepared the people for anyeventuality.

Stalin’s glowing tribute toher was an indication that evenin a politically hostile Statewere rival party men are consid-ered enemies, there was scopeto show dignity and grace in amoment of deep sorrow. I wishthat this display of maturity andgrace continues into day-to-daypolitics as well.

took part in the six Walkshosted this year.

And cyclone Vardah didnot discourage the hosts of theFestival. Nageswara Rao Parkwas in tatters, but a day afterthe ravage, Sundaram Finance,which maintains this popularpark in Luz, brought in teamsfrom Kodaikanal to clear thepark of fallen trees and deadbranches. And on all fourmornings of the Festival, the‘mike-less’ concerts launchedthe events of the day – imaginethe world-famous percussionmaestro Vikku Vinayakramaccompanying kid-students at

the opening morning’s con-cert! (picture on page 1).

Architect Kavitha Selvarajgot the space oppositeAmrutanjan’s cleaned up andhad Kreeda host a session oftraditional games that Festivalweekend. Now, this space is setto have a life of its own.

As non-resident Mylapo-reans and Mylaporeans mighthave started a debate: Can wemake the Mada Streets a ‘car-free’ zone? The Festival is notjust a four-day cultural mela.It raises issues on public spaceuse, community relationshipsand on heritage conservation.(Pictures by Mylapore Times)

(Continued from page 1)

MYLAPORE FESTIVAL

plots was acquired for this pur-pose.

The Corporation officials inthis process of acquisition usedto refer to it as JJ Road for theysaid, it came on the JJ grid ofJagampet’s house on the otherside of Kasturi Ranga Road, isunclear.

The road was called JJ Roadlong before J. Jayalalithaaentered politics.

Tara Muralitara.murali1@gmail.com

4 MADRAS MUSINGS January 16-31, 2017

It's time SBI

remembered

Dr. Anderson

January 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

It is Vakula Varadarajan who

alerts me to the bungalow that

James Anderson built. We walk

down Anderson Road in

Nungambakkam, not sure where

it was or what it looked like.

Then, there it was, on the side

opposite the British Deputy High

Commissioner’s residence, its

white front columns highlighted

by the tangle of trees around.As we trudge through the wild

undergrowth, round the centu-ries-old woodapple, tamarindtrees, past mounds of rubble andearth – we piece togetherAnderson’s legacy. James Ander-son (1739-1809) was a scot ofmany parts, Varadarajan begins.

A qualified surgeon, hearrives in Madras 1761, becameassistant surgeon with theEnglish East India Company atFort St. George (1765), Surgeon

nopalry was declared a failure, apart of it was joined to the Gov-ernment Botanical Gardens(later Lusington Gardens), therest given up for growing rubbertrees. Eventually, it was parcelledout and sold for “development”.

Between 1778 and 1792, in a110-acre area on the banks ofCooum, Anderson grew a gardenof rare trees. Following TippuSultan’s efforts at sericulture inMysore, Anderson imported silk-worms from Bengal in December1790. He planted mulberry(Morus, Moraceae), and enthusi-

grow sugarcane, coffee, Ameri-can cotton and apple. He re-corded the results of his re-searches in the books Varnish andTallow-Trees (1791), and Cultureof Bastard Cedar Trees on the

Listen to the story of Sudha and Ravi. “They say that Chennai is a place thatgives a livelihood to anyone who comes there. I don’t know about the rest of Chennai . I

know that it is entirely true of West Mambalam,” says Sudha Ravi. She is a slim, pale-skinned,sweet-faced woman in her early fifties, perhaps. She should know what she is talking about.When her husband, Ravi, and she came to West Mambalam twenty years ago, with their twolittle children, they had practically no money. ”But the amount of help we got here to help us getset up in life, was something amazing!” she recalls.

Ravi, whose given name is Nijamanthakan (solidly Vaishnavite but also, obviously, quite amouthful), nods in agreement with his wife. We are seated in the front room of his work place, asmall two-storey house in that dusty lane near Srinivasa Theatre. Ravi is an agent for conductingHindu rites of passage, particularly funerals. If someone dies in a South Chennai Brahmin family,the odds are that the family’s priest will call Ravi to take over the conducting of the trickiest partof the proceedings, the actual funeral rites leading up to the disposal of the body. This includesgetting the priests who actually do the rites for the corpse, accompanying the mourners to thecrematorium and conducting pre- and post-cremation rites there. This is a job that requires bothcompassion and detachment, clockwork precision and the ability to skilfully guide the bereavedfamily through the darkest rites of the event.

Ravi also helps out with the 13-day funerary rites that follow, including providing the re-quired cooks and priests. Apart from this Ravi, and his outfit provide the space and the infra-

cooking smells from upstairs. Onthe patchy wall behind Ravi’shead are pasted numerous lithosand photos of the late actor,Sivaji Ganesan. ”He was thebest,” Ravi says.”No one canmatch his acting. I have seen ev-ery single one of his films!”(Raviis also a big fan of Chief MinisterJayalalithaa and recently had abig homam performed for her toregain her health).

Ravi has a network of dedi-cated priests, cooks and workershelping him and is clearly farahead of the competition in this

Rambling in West Mambalam (2) ... with Janaki Venkataraman

There's a livelihood,for everyone here

astically reared silkworms for sixyears. He designed a reeling ma-chine, invited reeler MahometArid Ulna from Bengal and twomonths after receiving the silk-worms, Anderson was sendingsilk reeled from their cocoons toLondon! This area, which in-cluded his house, became Ander-son Gardens and survived till1828.

Deeply interested in the floraof Coromandal coast, Andersondid research in illuppai, mahua,neem, and teak trees, tried to

structure to conduct annual ob-sequies for families that can’tfind the space or the time to dothem at home. Even as we chat,a car draws up outside and acouple of smartly dressed, obvi-ously upper class women stepgingerly into Ravi’s front room.“The shrardham is being con-ducted at the back,” Ravi in-forms them and they navigatetheir way across the crowdedroom to the doorway leading tothe interior. Smoke, smelling ofdung cakes and ghee, wafts outof the doorway, mixed with

field. He has, in fact, been so suc-cessful that he is now able to do-nate his services, free of charge,to truly needy, families. He hashelped so many bereaved familiesin this manner that he has wonseveral awards from social wel-fare organisations. But that isnow.

“Before coming to Chennai,we lived in a small village inNorth Arcot,” Sudha tells me.“Although our family had land,the income from it had dwindled.Although both of us had B.A de-grees, he in History and I in eco-

nomics, our degrees didn’t get usany jobs. He has phenomenalmemory, never forgets a phonenumber or a name, but thatdidn’t get us employment either.We went to the Vishnu templein the village every day andprayed to Chakrathazhvar andHanuman for guidance and help.But for a long time the godsdidn’t seem to hear us,” Sudhasmiles a little.

Then, in 1995, a childhoodfriend of Ravi’s who had gone toMadras and was now a successfulpriest, invited him to come toWest Mambalam. “I am sure youwill find a job,” he had said.Easier said than done. “He wasthe first person to help us,”Sudha continues. “He gave usthe courage to leave the village.As my sister lived here we movedin with her for some months. Butas my husband had not studiedthe Vedas, he could not be apriest and that was the only de-cent job to be found here at thattime.”

“One day, when I didn’t havea paisa on me, another priestasked me if I could be a pallbearer at a funeral he was con-ducting. It would fetch me Rs.75.I jumped at the chance. For thenext ten days , I worked as a pallbearer for a number of funeralsand at the end of it had theprincely sum of Rs.750 in myhands! It doesn’t seem like muchnow. But it was a decent incomeat that time,” Ravi continues.

Sudha nods. “It is not difficulteven today to manage the day’scooking on ten or twenty rupeesa day, here in Mambalam. Here,people understand the needs ofthe poor. It is probably the onlyplace in Chennai where, eventoday, you can get seasoning andcondiments in one rupee packetsat all grocers. The packet isenough to season a day’scooking.”

Sudha gets misty-eyed whenshe talks about how she managedto find a school for her two chil-dren. “Soon after we arrivedhere, I walked into the Princi-pal’s room in the nearby Kuma-ran Matriculation School andtold her that I had absolutely nomoney right then to educate myson and daughter. ‘But I wantbadly to educate them and Iknow we will soon start earningenough money,’ I told her. Theprincipal said she needed a dayto think about it. The next day,she told me, ‘For the first year,we will pay the fees for your chil-dren and exempt them fromwearing uniforms. We will alsoprovide all the books. But fromthe second year you have to paylike everyone else.’ I nearlyhugged her for joy! We were eas-ily able to pay the fees from thenext year. But if the principalhad not admitted them that year,my children would have lost somuch education!”

“It just goes on and on, thekindness and help we receivedfrom people,” Ravi adds. “Prieststook me along to help them outwith various things in the func-tions they conducted and thisbrought in some money. Womencooks put Sudha in touch withfamilies that needed cooking to bedone for obsequies and otherfunctions. Then one day we de-cided to start this venture. Sincewe knew so much about funeralsand obsequies, we networked andgot together a band of committedpriests and cooks and undertookto conduct these rites as a pack-age.” There has been no lookingback since then. Their childrenhave finished college and foundlucrative jobs in other cities. “Mydaughter, who is married and livesin Hyderabad, calls us event man-agers!” laughs Sudha.

(To be continued)

� The Dollarbird, a WesternGhat species, was seen byVikas Madhav and Team atthe Polo Ground Road of theGuindy National Park on amorning in November, 2016.

(Photo: Vikas Madhav).

NATURE CORNER

The first time sightings

� Sighted for the first time inSouth India, the Eared Grebe,also known as the Black-neckedGrebe. It was sighted by Abhi-shek Mimani at VedanthangalBird Sanctuary in November2016.

(Photo: Abhishek Mimani).

� Another surprise visitor toGuindy National Park was theblack-winged Cuckoo Shrike,a north-eastern species. It wassighted at the Guindy NationalPark on a morning of Decem-ber, 2016 by Vikas Madhav,Dr. Rama Neelamegham,Kedar Bhaskar and Evan-geline. This is a first-eversighting for Tamil Nadu!

(Photo: Dr. Rama Neelamegham).

� by

Geeta Padmanabhan

(1786) and then Physician-Gen-eral. A combination of curiosity,academic excellence and public-mindedness got him interested in“adventures” outside his medicaltraining.

No doubt excited by thetropical lushness around, Ander-son plunged into serious botani-cal research in 1771. While at-tending to his patients, talking ofvaccination and promoting in-dustries that would benefit EEIC,he fell passionately in love withcochineal insects, used in the ex-traction of the crimson dye. Hebelieved that the quality/colourof the dye was influenced by theplants they ate. So he caught thecochineal insects growing on thesandy beaches of Madras andbred them on cacti, according toletters he wrote to Joseph Banks,Company advisor.

The Company saw how thiswould make dye cheap and al-lowed Anderson to start anopalry (a nopal/cactus nursery)in Madras. By 1791, a 2-acre plotin Saidapet was bristling withNopal de Castile, their minus-cule spines visible only under amagnifying glass. Slowly,however, his cactus garden gotneglected. The cyclone ofDecember 9, 1807 severely dam-aged the nopalry and theneighbouring botanical gardens.The plants that managed to sur-vive were shipped to Lal Bagh,Bangalore. The run-down

Coast of Coromandel (1794). Inan eloquent letter to RobertBrooks, Governor of St. Helena,he says:

“What benefits would resultto society, if men of letters wouldin general turn their attentiontowards useful pursuits!”

Quite some work, but Ander-son should be remembered forthe two structured botanical gar-dens he created in 18th CenturyMadras: the cactus garden inMarmelon (Mambalam–Saida-pet) and Anderson Gardens

(Nungambakkam). Yes, Ander-son wanted to better Britain’seconomy by exporting India’snatural produce and know-how,but don’t question his spirited ef-forts to understand tropical

ancient. The mansion accommo-dated his office and residence.”

Anderson died on August 6,1809. Once he was gone, his be-loved garden and residence wereacquired by Thomas Bycrafts.

plants and their usefulness tohumanity. Andersonia (Melia-ceae) celebrates his contributionsto Indian botany.

In the middle of his freneticbotanical activities, Andersonmanaged to build a grand man-sion for himself. Describing it,archaeologist Dr. Satyamurthysays, “He constructed a marvel-lous building in Indo-British stylein colonial model with groundand first floor. The inner ceilingsare high and laid with Madrasterrace. There are tiles that look

(Continued from last fortnight)

West Mambalam’s Ravi (standing) seen along with his team organising a remembrancepooja.

The black-winged

Cuckoo Shrike

Eared Grebe aka

Black-necked Grebe The Dollarbird

Subsequently it went into thehands of the State Bank of India,and the Regional Headquartersfunctioned from here till the1980s. “Then, lack of mainte-nance left it defunct, crumbling,”said Dr. Satyamurthy. Noting itshistoric value, he adds, “theHeritage Committee of theCMDA notified it as CategoryIA (as per the Justice Padmana-bhan Committee’s classifica-tion), informed the SBI officialsabout it and asked them to pre-serve it without any change.” Onthe request of SBI’s AdditionalGeneral Manager, Chennai, theREACH team inspected thebuilding and submitted a prelimi-nary report with a proposal to cutthe vegetation and implementprecautionary measures to pre-vent its fall. It would cost thebank not more than 2 lakh.

“REACH had drawn an emer-gency rescue operation but therewas no response from the bankauthorities,” says Dr. Satya-murthy. “SBI seems to be wait-ing for the building to fall. Theywant to pull it down and con-struct a commercial building. Ifthis is the attitude of a govern-ment bank, how is CMDA goingto preserve heritage is the ques-tion now.”

The sorry state of this once-proud heritage home is seen in the pictures below.

(Coutesy: Madras Naturalists’ Society Bulletin.)

6 MADRAS MUSINGS January 16-31, 2017

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period December 1st to15th. Questions 11 to 20 pertain

to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. The Union Government’saward-based scheme to encour-age consumers for transition todigital payments is called…?

2. Who is the only Indian in theTop 10 of Forbes’ ‘World’s MostPowerful People’?

3. On December 13th, who wassworn in as the nineth UN Secre-tary-General?

4. Who won the coveted Ballond'Or recently?

5. President Pranab Mukherjeerecently launched the ‘100 Mil-lion for 100 Million’ Campaignthat aims to mobilise 100 millionyouth and children for 100 mil-lion underprivileged childrenacross the world. Who is behindthe initiative?

6. The Food Safety and StandardsAuthority of India (FSSAI) re-cently banned the use of whichcommonly used material forwrapping and packing of fooditems?

7. Name the legenary astronaut,the first American to orbit theEarth and the last surviving mem-ber of the famed Mercury 7 mis-sion, who passed away recently.

8. Which is the most powerfullanguage in the world accordingto the 2016 World Power Lan-guage Index published by WorldEconomic Forum (WEF?

9. Which Bharat Ratna-awar-dee’s birth anniversary willhenceforth be also observed as‘Water Day’?

10. UNESCO has formally in-scribed which traditional Indianpractice in its representative listof Intangible Cultural Heritage ofHumanity?

* * *

11. Of the 12 Major Ports in In-dia, three are in Tamil Nadu. Oneis Chennai/Madras. Name theother two.

12. How did a red rose prove tobe dangerous to Chennai in De-cember?

13. Whose memoirs was titledAthirshtam Thantha Anubavangal(Experiences Given by Fortune)?

14. What was the given name ofJ. Jayalalithaa who passed awayrecently?

15. What promise made by Andalto Kallazhagar did Sri Ramanu-jacharya fulfil?

16. How many gopuram-s doesthe Madurai Meenakshi templehave and which is considered theoldest?

17. The two species of whichaquatic bird are called ‘Poo narai’and ‘Siriya poo narai’ in Tamil?

18. After which doyen of Carna-tic music is the road formerlycalled Palace Road now named?

19. What is now located in theMysore royalty’s ChamundeshwariGardens in San Thomé?

20. Which popular restaurantchain is named after an artistewho showed kindness to itsfounder Muthukrishna Reddywhen he was a child?

(Answers on page 8)

� Cho remembered – 2

Thuglakwho editedThuglak

� Last fortnight we remembered Cho the

theatre and film personality. This fortnight

we recall Cho the journalist.

Cho Ramaswamy, the the-atre personality launched

Thuglak in 1970 together withS. Balasubramanian, ManagingDirector of Vikatan Publica-tions and Editor, AnandaVikatan. The title was after isfamous satirical play MohammedBin Thuglak that was stagedover 1000 times! SB mentoredhim and provided invaluablecontacts with political leadersand, later handed the businessto Cho.

That was the time the DMKgovernment under Karunanidhiwas finding its feet and wasdominated by Dravidian litera-ture built around anti-religious,anti-Brahmin rhetoric. Chotook these head on. Cho was aconsummate writer onMahabharatha, Ramayana andother scriptures. With thisknowledge, he could attempt todisabuse the poorly informedand often stupid attack of theDravidian papers and maga-zines of that time.

Cho established good cont-acts in Delhi and invited thesenior correspondent of IndianExpress, K. Srinivasan, to writefrom the capital. KS, with hisextensive political connections,introduced Cho to top politicalleaders. Cho’s sharp intellect,humour and satire impressedthem and got him close to sev-eral political bigwigs. Headmired the rare qualities ofvalue-based politics of MorarjiDesai, Chandrasekar and otherleaders of the Janata Party andlater of the BJP.

Cho admired the intellectand brilliance of Jayalalithaaand presented a series of articles

written by her in Thuglak. Theseprovided rich insights into thestrong personality of the futureChief Minister.

None of the senior politicalleaders, both in the Centre andstate, were spared from Cho’ssharp criticism – Indira Gandhi,MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalali-thaa… He strongly opposed theEmergency imposed by IndiraGandhi and expressed his dis-sent in several unique ways, in-cluding releasing the wrapper ofthe first issue of Thuglak afterthe imposition of emergency,blank and dark. He workedclosely with Ramnath Goenkaof Indian Express and S.Gurumurthy, the fire brandchartered accountant, tooppose the Emergency.

Cho steered Thuglak awayfrom the familiar addiction tofilm news even when well-established Tamil weeklies likeAnanda Vikatan and Kalki mod-elled on Kumudam for their cov-erage of film news. Cho optedto focus on political thoughtand economy. One moreinstance of his courage.

Cho maintained cordialitywith all the three establishedweeklies: Ananda Vikatan’s edi-tor S. Balasubramanian whohelped Cho to launch Thuglak,Kalki’s Bharathan Publicationsprinted and managed sales, and

Kumudam Publications hasbeen doing this in recent years!

Cho focused on costs and didnot opt for gloss. The 40-pageissue has the wrapper printed onthe same newsprint as the insidepages. This meant sizeableeconomies in printing costs. Hedidn’t opt for colour for allpages. Thuglak did not go foradvertisements from large con-sumer product manufacturers.It developed a loyal ad base by afew advertisers – educationalinstitutions, realtors and smallhealth services. At the peak ofCho’s close relations withAIADMK, one came across alarge number of ministers andparty bigwigs flooding birthday

greetings for their supremeleader!

Thuglak has been keepingthe cover price low, at justRs.10. For a publication of nearfive decades standing, revenueshave been modest. S. Guru-murthy, who has taken chargeas editor, should focus onrevenues.

Thuglak is famous for its car-toons carrying pun and satire.Frequently the wrapper used tobe adorned with dialogue by

Now the couple seem to bepaying back. No one who comesto their door seeking a job, anopportunity or even simply ameal is turned back. “We usu-ally find them a place to live,give them contacts and alsoprovide enough cooking ameni-ties so that they can do cateringfrom their own homes. Or weabsorb them here.” Sittingcross-legged on the floor areseveral middle-aged women andpriests, all waiting for the callsto come for their services.

“They are my friends, my fam-ily,” Sudha says. “We work to-gether, go out together andcomfort each other in times oftrouble. One thing I havelearned on this job is never tofear death or its suddenness. Itcould happen to us anytime.Till then it is good to know thatyou are helping someone.”

Sudha’s observation clearlydescribes the spirit or oeuvre ofWest Mambalam – live andhelp others live.

(To be continued)

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RAMBLING INWEST MAMBALAM...

two donkeys with which he be-gan the inaugural issue. Creditshould also go to his training agood number of writers on hisline of satire, like Sathya andDhurvasar.

Cho wrote several features,especially on national and localpolitics. With his indifferenthealth in recent months thesehad reduced drastically. Wethus miss brilliant pieces likeOnnarai Pakka Naaledu, a hi-larious, imaginary tabloid of 1.5pages with juicy comments frompolitical leaders. I rememberthe flourish of such featuresduring election campaigns.

On the anniversary of thelaunch of Thuglak on Pongalday, Cho organised anniversarymeetings. His hour-long talkswere, most of the time, solo butlater expanded with senior poli-ticians. These attracted audi-ences in large numbers and waspopular among its readers whowere invited to present theirviews. Cho’s sparkling instantcomments were memorable. Inthe one he organised withNarendra Modi in 2012, the lat-ter made a brilliant presentationand Cho predicted the BJP cap-turing power in Delhi.

Well-wishers in businessshould help strengthen Thuglakand help it continue its pioneer-ing work as a political satirenon-pareil. – (Courtesy: Indus-trial Economist.)

S. Viswanathan

The first cover of Thuglak. An Emergency issue of Thuglak.

(Continued from page 4)

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period December 16th to31st. Questions 11 to 20 pertain

to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)1. Name the substance that was re-cently identified as the world’smost heat-resistant material, with-standing record melting point tem-peratures up to 3958°C.

2. How did eminent modernBengali poet Shankha Ghoshmake news recently?

3. According to a Forbes magazinereport, India has surpassed whichcountry to become the world’ssixth-largest economy in GDPterms?

4. Researchers in the US have de-veloped the first vaccine madefrom an insect-specific virus (Eilat)that does not have any effect onpeople for which affliction that iscommon in India?

5. Name the mother-daughter ac-tress duo, the former known for herrole in Singing in the Rain and thelatter for playing Leia in Star Wars,who passed away recently.

6. What 117-year-old First Classrecord did Gujarat opener SamitGohel break while scoring an un-beaten 359 in a Ranji match re-cently?

7. Dinanath Bhargava, who passedaway recently aged 89 years, isknown for co-creating which sym-bol/emblem that is synonymouswith our country?

8. Whose birthday that fell on De-cember 25 was observed as ‘GoodGovernance Day’? Hint: He is aBharat Ratna awardee.

9. Which actor topped the 2016Forbes India Celebrity 100 Listwith the highest revenue for theyear under review at an impressiveRs. 270.33 crore?

10. Name the two prestigious ICCAwards won by R. Ashwin re-cently.

* * *

11. Name the writer, who alsowrites poetry in the name ofKalyanji, selected for this year’sSahitya Akademi award for hisshort story collection Oru Siru Isai.

12. Name the first locally pro-duced film in Tamil and the firstTamil talkies.

13. Where in Chennai is the Inter-national Institute of Tamil Stud-ies?

14. Which well-known publica-tion debuted on August 10, 1942?

15. Sangita Perunkadal by Rani-mynthan is a biography of whichlegendary musician who passedaway last November?

16. Madras had its first womansheriff in 1956. Can you name her?

17. At 76 years, an establishmentfounded by Sankunni Nair and lo-cated in T’ Nagar is considered theoldest of its kind in Chennai.Name it and what type of establish-ment is it?

18. Tim Boyd is the eighth andcurrent president of which re-spected Chennai institution?

19. If the South India People’sAssociation’s English newspaperwas called Justice, what was isTamil newspaper named?

20. What is the present name ofwhat was Cuddon Building onMount Road?

(Answers on page 8)

January 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

The RevolutionaryLeader

A man of the masses and forthe masses, his countless

fans showered on him manyhonorifics ... ‘Makkal Thilakam’(Darling of the masses)...‘Puratchi Thalaivar’ (Revolu-tionary leader) ... ‘Vadhiyar’(Teacher). One of the mostpopular Indians of our times, hisfollowing among Tamils is in-credible. His charisma remainsundiminished even three de-cades and more after his deathin 1987. Some years ago, anAmerican media person wenton record that he was the sec-ond most well-known Indian inthe U.S.A., after Indira Gandhi.

No movie star anywhere inthe world has created such his-tory as M.G. Ramachandran.The top superstar of Tamil Cin-ema, he turned politician andbecame the Chief Minister ofTamil Nadu more than once.

Many of his critics and po-litical foes wrote him off as amere matinee idol who hadmade it to the top exploiting hisfilm star-handsomeness and hisbox-office aura. But MGR, as hewas popularly known, was notmade of straw. He was an able,intelligent person, who wouldhave made it in politics withouthis film-based popularity.

He acted in over a hundredfilms and his box-office trackrecord remains amazing. Thepercentage of his films thatfailed is extremely low whencompared to that of any otherstar of his day.

* * *Marudur Gopalan Rama-

chandran was born in Kandy,Ceylon, in a middle-class familythat had been looking forwardto a happy life in the lovely is-land country when tragedystruck. The father died sud-denly and his widow,Satyabhama, decided to returnto her native land with the chil-dren. She settled in Kumba-konam, where her sonsChakrapani and Ramachan-dran joined school. But life forSatyabhama and her childrenwas a long struggle. Money wasscarce, making both ends meeta daily challenge. One day, sherealised that she could not sendher sons to school any longerand that the boys would have tomake their own way in theworld.

Satyabhama got the twoboys into a drama troupe,Madurai Original Boys’ Com-pany, to be trained as stageartistes. The troupe wasmentored by a teacher-turned-theatre person, Madras Kanda-swamy Mudaliar, who trainedthe boys to act in the plays he

� MGR remembered

MGR in his first film role, a policeinspector in Sathi Leelavathy.

MGR recalled on his Birth

Centenary by Randor Guy in

a profile from his book

Starlight, Starbright.

staged day after day in townsand villages. Another boy in thetroupe was M.K. Radha,Mudaliar’s son, later a leadingfilm star of the 1930s and 40s.Life as a stage actor growinginto manhood was no bed ofroses and young MGR workedhard to bring cheer into his toil-ing mother’s life. “I have seenand known my mother strug-gling to feed us and it was my

ambition to see that no motherever undergoes such hardships,”MGR said years later in a chatwith this writer.

Movies began to talk inTamil in 1931 and boys’ com-pany actors began to lookaround for chances to act inmovies. After much struggle,and many a slip, MGR at lastfaced a movie camera in EllisDungan’s Sathi Leelavathi(1936). He played a minor part,that of a police inspector.Dressed in uniform coat andshorts, wearing a laced turban,and carrying a baton, he wasjust another player on thescreen. What a modest debut itwas!

Life thereafter continued tobe as tough as ever. Roles inmovies were few and far bet-ween and life was filled withtension and privation. But, un-daunted, MGR toiled, playingminor role after minor role withrare sincerity. And the firstsigns of the MGR charismacould be noticed. He was nostar, not yet, but he was draw-ing attention. His unusual,handsome looks, his sinewyphysique, his skill in sword-fighting, all these and a dash ofpersonal magnetism markedhim as a man destined to goplaces.

At last his opportunity came.In 1947, the man who was to bebetter known as MGR for therest of his life was selected toplay the hero in a Jupiter film,Rajakumari. Written and di-rected by a college professor-turned film-maker, A.S.A.Sami, it was a swashbucklingtale which turned out to be ahit.

MGR, manly and muscular,was hailed as an action hero andcompared with the Hollywoodsuperstar Douglas Fairbanks,who was MGR’s favourite heroand source of inspiration eversince his Theatre days. MGR’scostumes, walk, and mannerwere all taken from Fairbanks.Thus began the glorious careerof MGR.

The MGR screen personawas carefully nurtured by himand he was so successful in that,that his fans saw no differencebetween the real MGR and thereel MGR. He had known thepangs of hunger and the pinchof poverty and he took up cud-

gels to fight for his convictions,like love for his fellow man andaffection for the poor and thedowntrodden. All his life he wasdetermined to do his bit for thehave-nots. All these elementswere successfully integratedinto his screen personality.

As an intelligent person,MGR was well aware of thepower of Cinema and he madestunningly successful use of it tospread his message and mouldhis public. MGR used themedium of Cinema as a tool toshape his own political philoso-phy.

Some of his films, like NadodiMannan, Ulagam Sutrum Vali-ban, Enga Veettu Pillai, OliVilakku, Adimai Penn andAayirathil Oruvan, scaled rarepeaks of success. He ensuredthat his movies had clean, in-spiring, message-oriented titles,such as Nallavan Vaazhvaan(The good man survives), ThaiSollai Thattathey (Never disobeyMother) and Dharmam ThalaiKakkum (Dharma always pro-tects). The plot lines weresimple, clean and moral-based.A do-gooder, often poor, and adutiful son brought up againstodds by his struggling motherfights for the weak and theoppressed ... fights the idle rich,the selfish, and greedy anti-

socials ... exposes their evil andmisdeeds, wins his battle andlives happily ever after with hislady-love and his mother, hisonly god, a god he can see andone who exudes love and affec-tion and kindness to one andall. In an MGR movie, Motheris everything.

Another significant factor inhis movies was that he neverdisplayed any of the vices. Henever smoked or drank in hislife nor did he do so in his films.His heroes were always clean,moral men of strong character,always going out of the way tohelp damsels in distress, everready to fight wolves in sheep’sclothing and their randycousins.

Once he thought of buying alarge tract of land on the out-skirts of Madras city. The nearly100 acres belonged to a businessmagnate in Madras who offeredit to MGR at a very competitiveprice. MGR thought that hewould keep 10 acres for himselfand give away the balance tothe members of his unit. Withthis objective he visited the site.Looking around, he found thatmany poor people were livingon the land in dismal huts andlean-tos and that his plans for itwould result in their beingevicted and left with nowhereto go. “No, Sir, no deal. I willnot build on the tears of thepoor,” MGR told the astonishedvendor and forgot the purchase.If he had gone ahead with it, hecould have made a packet, butto MGR human beings andtheir feelings mattered morethan money and profit.

His love and affection for hisfellow-workers in movies wasextraordinary. No light boy, no‘gofer’, was too small for himand he would often pull upproducers for not taking propercare of their lowly paid workers.He saw to it that they got properfood and shelter. To most starsarid top movie persons, suchworkers are invisible, but not to

MGR. Often he would sit withthem and eat with them.

Another reason for thesuccess of his films was that theywere all first-class entertainers:Fast-paced, racily narrated,never flagging, their messagesdelivered in sugar-coated loz-enges easily digestible. In hisfilms, he exercised total control,irrespective of the director andproducer. He was a fine techni-cian who knew his business, hiscraft and art and, more signifi-cantly, his audiences.

MGR always worked hard onhis films, right from the scriptstage. He took time to settle thetitle of the film and thoughtlong and hard over every wordof the lyrics before he approveda song. This writer had theexperience of working andwriting songs for MGR films. InOorukku Uzhaippavan there wasa ‘cabaret dance’ song, partly inEnglish and partly in Tamil.This writer had to write theEnglish lyrics many times, overa period of some months, beforeMGR nodded his head. Suchwas his obsession with perfec-tion.

Many of his critics felt thathe was autocratic and overbear-ing, even vindictive, but his im-age has remained as bright asever and so have his fame andstature. No wonder thephenomenon called MGR hasexcited such interest aroundthe world.

January 25-February 22: Exhibi-tion of flowers by Mi Yeon Kimwho practises the art of Orientalpainting and sketching. (AtInKo Centre, Boat Club area.)

February 4: Indian National Trustfor Art and Cultural Heritage(INTACH) is organising an all-India essay and painting compe-tition My City My Heritage forschool students of Classes 6-9across the country.

INTACH Chennai Chapterinvites school-children inChennai to participate in thecontest at Measi Academy of Ar-chitecture. Theme: An interest-ing aspect of heritage of ourcity.

Schedule: 8:30 a.m. Registra-tion; 9.00-9.30 a.m. Introductionto INTACH; 9.30-10.30 a.m.

Always helping damsels in distress– here rescuing G. Sakunthala inManthri Kumari – a film scripted byMu. Karunanidhi.

Part I: Essay writing up to 750words in a language of yourchoice including English, Hindior a major regional language atthe venue; 10.45-12.15 p.m. PartII: Painting/Illustration at thevenue. Students from classes 6-9only (about 10-15 from eachschool). One or two accompany-ing teachers from each school.

Paper for writing and drawingwill be provided by INTACH.Certificates to all participants.100 regional winners and 10 na-tional winners will be selected.The 10 national winners will goon a trip to Delhi to visit itsbiodiversity parks, cultural land-scapes and interact with experts.For further details contact:youngintach@gmail.com andintachchennai@gmail.com

8 MADRAS MUSINGS January 16-31, 2017

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.

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Yet again only a Ranji‘placing’

Answers to Quiz1. Hafnium carbide (HfC); 2. He has been chosen for the presti-

gious Jnanpith Award, the nation’s highest literary honour; 3. UnitedKingdom; 4. Chikungunya; 5. Debbir Reynolds and Carrie Fisher; 6.Highest score by a batsman carrying his bat; 7. The National Emblem;8. Atal Behari Vajpayee; 9. Salman Khan; 10. ICC Cricketer of theYear and Test Cricketer of the Year.

* * *11. Vannadasan: 12. ‘Keechaka Vadham’ and ‘Srinivasa Kalyanam’

respectively; 13. Taramani; 14. Murasoli; 15. Dr. M.Balamuralikrishna; 16. Mary Clubwala Jadhav; 17. Kerala Hairdress-ers, the oldest salon in the metro; 18. Theosophical Society; 19.‘Dravidan’; 20. Gove Building which celebrated its 100th birthday lastyear.

So another Ranji Trophycampaign for Tamil Nadu

came to a grinding halt withMumbai defeating them by sixwickets in the semi-final atRajkot. The unwanted tag ofunder-achievers will continueto stay with the team for, assomeone who has closely fol-lowed the fortunes of the Stateteam for well over half a cen-tury, I am convinced that twotitle triumphs in 83 years doesnot do justice to the talentavailable or the facilities en-joyed.

Once again Tamil Nadu flat-tered only to deceive. On theshowing in the league stage itwas possible to be more positiverather than negative about theirchances in the knock-outdespite the fact that the sidehad faltered all too often at thelast hurdle. After all, they havebeen runners-up ten times and,more to the point, four of theseoccasions had been since thestart of the new millennium.There were the detractors whoalso pointed out that TamilNadu finished only third in thegroup behind Mumbai andGujarat and that they were the

only team among the threequalifiers to have lost a match.A more significant point intheir favour was that this wasthe toughest of the three groups– indeed a group of heavy-weights with seven of the nineteams having won the trophy.Also, the team seemed to bepeaking at the right time. Theirone loss was a narrow two-wicket defeat at the hands oftable-toppers Mumbai in theiropening game, but followingthat they had performed admi-rably and in fact finished ratherstrongly.

Everything seemed to be go-ing right for them, particularlyafter they had shockedKarnataka by seven wickets intwo days in the quarterfinal.The batting and bowling hadperformed in unison. The fig-ures underlined this, for threebatsmen had scored more than500 runs and two bowlers hadtaken over 25 wickets each.Overall, the bowling had ex-ceeded expectations, while the

stronger batting had lived up toits lofty reputation.

It really didn’t matter thatthe semifinal opponents weredefending champions Mumbaiwho had won the trophy 41times. There was a time whenTamil Nadu had this mentalblock against Mumbai and hadthe abysmal record of played 13,lost 13. But since the break-through victory in the quarter-final at Tirunelveli in 1995-96,Tamil Nadu has held their own,getting the better of Mumbai ona couple of more occasions.

recent years there has been im-provement in this aspect – re-flected by the larger representa-tion by players from the State inthe national squad – there isstill much to be done.

Is there then a lack of killerinstinct in the players? This hasto be the case, for, having gotrid of the mental block, there isno reason why they should notprevail against any opposition.Self belief is important in anysport and the Tamil Nadu play-ers must believe in themselvesthat they have what it takes tobe champions and regain thetrophy which they won mostunexpectedly in 1987-88.

For long the joke that did therounds was that the only wayTamil Nadu could have theRanji Trophy was by stealing it.After all, they had won the titlefor the first time in 1954-55 andover the next three decades andmore flattered only to deceive.Now it is three decades sincethe second triumph and whilethe record has admittedly beenbetter, the joke has started do-ing the rounds again.

Tamil Nadu has always beenone of the serious contendersfor the trophy but finishing run-ner-up or going down in thesemifinals does their cause nogood. As the saying goes “sec-ond best is still a loser’’. At thestart of the season, the moodwas one of cautious optimism.The squad did seem to have theright mix and the lead-up to thecampaign was also marked byproper planning with the campbeing held at Dehra Dun sinceall the group games were at cen-tres in the north. It was left forthe players to deliver and theyfell short again.

The temptation will be thereto point out the non-availabil-

ity of Ravi Ashwin and MuraliVijay for the semi-final due toinjuries. But then Mumbai toowere not at full strength, sothere is no point harping on thisfactor for it can be dismissed asan excuse.

Moreover Tamil Nadu haddefeated Karnataka, who wereat full strength, without the twoIndia players. Indeed a commoncomplaint against players fromTamil Nadu is that they are al-ways finding imaginary factorsfor defeats something drivenhome by the comments of thecaptain Abhinav Mukund whoafter the semi-final loss hit outat the concept of playing at neu-tral venues. Admittedly thereare pros and cons about thispractice introduced by theBCCI this season, but then itmust not be forgotten that allteams had to go through theprocess and no one made anypublic comment – particularlyafter a defeat. More to thepoint, Tamil Nadu possibly lostthe plot when after winning agood toss and batting first theysquandered the advantage bybeing restricted to a first inningstotal of 305 which was neverreally going to be enoughagainst Mumbai.

� by

Partab Ramchand

There is unanimous agree-ment that the infrastructureand the facilities provided tothe players from the State is firstrate. The senior division leagueis perhaps the best in the coun-try, camps are conducted atvarious levels, the coaching issystematic, several tournamentsare organised and the cricketerscan never complain aboutmoney or job opportunities, es-pecially in recent times. Butsomehow the returns have notbeen in keeping with the invest-ments.

Are then the players to beblamed for not rising to the oc-casion in spite of an encourag-ing scenario? To a large extentthis is true, for they have regu-larly failed to deliver when itmatters most. If they have thetalent, they lacked the tech-nique in a few cases but, moreimportantly, they have lackedthe temperament. And while in

The Ranji Trophy.