WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXVI No. 11 September 16-30, 2016

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• Recalling MS

• The Jesuits and Dhyana Ashram

• Recalling a celebration

• The day India upset Brazil

Bracing forCivic Bodypolls

Will the Museum see better days?

(Continued on page 2)

(By The Editor)

(Continued on page 9)

Our historic Corporationhas seen the end of term

of yet another elected council.The dates have not yet been an-nounced for the civic body pollsbut the present elected bodyhas, after a final three-day ses-sion, called it a day. This is cer-tainly a good time to sit backand assess what has been donein the past five years, whatcould have been done and whatneeds to be done in the future.

The outgoing council hascertainly not covered itself withglory. Much of its time wasspent in masterly inactivity andwhen it did take action, it dealtwith humdrum matters– re-naming roads and colonies, pro-moting itself to a higher statusby adding the prefix ‘greater’ toits name, masterminding theproliferation of budget can-teens, covering potholes andruts with an extra layer of tarand rejoicing over the installa-tion of luminescent signboardsfor street names. It also, likeseveral previous ones, em-barked on a wholly unnecessaryMarina beautification drive.There was good work done bythe departments of educationand health and parks were wellmaintained. But these have his-torically been well run, no mat-ter which party held sway overthe council. The one big initia-tive has been the effort to re-claim sidewalks, but this battleis not yet won.

We cannot disagree with ourWorshipful Mayor when heblamed the citizenry for muchof Chennai’s ills. A newspaperreport has it that on the last dayof the council meet he heldChennai residents responsiblefor non segregation of garbageat source, open defecation,dumping of waste on streets,

construction debris and sewagepollution. Much of what he saidwas true but the council hadfive years to set matters right onseveral of these counts. That weare a truly indifferent lot is andwas not unknown when thepresent incumbents took theiroaths. So what prevented thecouncil from taking action?Campaigns could have beenlaunched in the mass media,stringent action could havebeen taken on defaulters andwe could have had some con-crete action plan for imple-menting segregation of waste atsource in a phased manner.None of this happened. Whyshould the civic body just blamethe citizenry?

Last year we had one of themost devastating floods that our

There is a lot happening atthe Government Museum

complex at Egmore. The Gov-ernment had announced thatthe Bronze, Amaravathi andZoology galleries would be ex-panded to permanently displaythe reserve collection of themuseum. The modifications, tocost Rs 80 lakhs, will be com-pleted by December this yearand the exhibits that are cur-rently locked up will all see thelight of day. This it is claimed,should increase the footfalls atthe museum, which is currentlyone of the principal tourist at-tractions of the city.

While this is no doubt highlycommendable, what is of con-cern is the background to this

(By a Special Correspondent)

decision. And that hides a mal-aise that the Governmentwould do well to address. It isthe practice among museumsacross the world to place on dis-play only a percentage of theircollection. The rest are kept invaults to be brought out on arota basis, thereby ensuring thatthe exhibits keep changing.This obviates monotony andencourages visitors to return tothe museums. Of course, such arotation policy does not apply tostar exhibits, which are keptpermanently on display.

The Madras GovernmentMuseum too follows the samepolicy, on paper. In reality how-ever, it has not made changes toits display for over decades. As

a consequence, the artefacts inpublic view have remained thesame while the rest have re-mained under lock and key foryears, being opened up only tocurators and research scholars.In short, the museum, for rea-sons best known to itself, haschosen not to rotate its displays.It is believed that what is in theshowcases amounts to justabout ten per cent of what themuseum really has. The rest ismore or less permanently out ofbounds.

Rather than finding out whythe museum chose not energiseitself by changing displays, theGovernment has opted to putup everything it has on to theshowcases. On the one hand,

this means the priceless collec-tion is at least in public viewand therefore unlikely to bemisplaced, lost, stolen or dam-aged. On the other hand, it sim-ply means monotony at a veryhigh level. There is only somuch of history that the eye andthe mind can absorb while on avisit to museums. How then issuch a step likely to increasefootfalls?

Ask any resident of Chennai,and more so the school-goingchildren as to whether they evervisited the museum and thechances are you will get either ano or always meant to as ananswer. That means the

An MG at the vintage car display organised by the Madras Heritage Motoring Club during Madras Week. (OtherMadras Week pictures are on pages 7-8.)

2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2016

Those of you who readMadras Musings regularly

will not believe it but there wasa rift within the lute betweenChief and the Man from Ma-dras Musings just when theMadras Week celebrationsreached a crescendo. This riftby the way is an annual fea-ture. And it was followed byanother annual feature,namely the Kiss and Make Up,purely on a platonic scale ofcourse. The difference of opin-ion arose mainly on the wayMadras Week is conducted.The Chief is all for it becom-ing a mass event. Let the foodpredators prey is the Chief’spoint of view. Inclusivity is thename of today’s game saysChief. MMM on the otherhand…but never mind whatMMM thinks. For his task isto report factually on whathappens around him. And so,carrying on from the last issue,where MMM wrote on MadrasWeek events, here is MMM,writing on more Madras Weekevents.

“Is that MMM?” asked afairly aged voice. It had the tex-ture of something that hadbeen preserved well in a cask.MMM replied in the affirma-tive. The voice then went onto say that it was well knownin its day to which MMMmade some vague noises forthe area or should MMM sayarena in which the hands andlegs attached to the voice hadmade their name did not exciteMMM in the least. Cricket, ifnot of the six-legged variety,does not appeal to MMM. Thevoice then asked if it was truethat there was a programmecelebrating the local lingo inthe evening, to be presented bya well-known actor andtrainer. MMM said yes. Thevoice then asked if it was forfree to which MMM said yestoo. The voice then thankedMMM and said that was good,for it, the voice, and its handsand legs, attended only freeevents. It then rang off beforeMMM could ask if the gamesthat the voice, hands and legsplayed on the field where alsoopen to all. Anyway, the en-semble of voice and limbs dulyarrived in the evening andMMM, unable to resist thetemptation, introduced theman to the speaker stating thatthis was the caller who wantedto know if the event of theevening was for free. While theactor/trainer was mightilyamused for he gets by in lifewithout an ego, the wielder ofthe bat (or it could have beenball), was not happy withMMM.

Lots more onMadras Week

Among the many friendsthat the Man from Madras

Musings has is a prince amongpatrons who has a passion forcollecting classic cars. Thesewere put up on display at ahotel that belongs to the aboveprince and MMM was duly

invited. So was the Chief. Andso was a grand panjandrumwho though tiny of stature,packed enough of an ego tomake himself a mountain.MMM was asked to be presentby noon and so he did, to findChief and several others also inattendance. Thereafter every-one remained in attendance forquite a while before panjan-drum made his appearance.The story that was given outwas that the official in questionhad arrived on time but hadvanished into the vast corridorsof the hotel. MMM, and cer-tain members of the Press didnot buy that story even for amoment. This man has comelate for many events.

MMM’s story however isnot about the officer in ques-tion or the Chief’s speech,which dwelt on the cars thathe, the Chief, had possessed.MMM was rather struck by theMaster of Ceremonies or in thiscase a Mistress, if that term canbe pardoned. Anyway, just to

More on Madras Week

be on the safe side, MMM willrefer to her as MC. She was oneof those simple souls who evi-dently thought that askingladeeez und genman to give an-other round of applaaaas everythree sentences was all that wasneeded of an MC. The onething she had going for her wasthat she was not of the othertwo kinds of dreaded MCs –the wisecracking variety or thehighly knowledgeable category.This latter variety in particularis deadly for it constitutes itselfas an extra speaker on the daisand extends the programme in-terminably.

To get back to our MC ofthe day – her introductions ofthe speakers (Chief, MMMand grand panjandrum in thatorder) were evidently cribbedfrom Wikipedia. She was alsoevidently reading them for thefirst time for she introducedthe Chief as the founder of theMadras Book Cloob. The wordclub in MMM’s view is easilypronounced but here was an-other school of thought. Ormaybe she had a penchant forrhyming verse. But that paledinto insignificance when com-pared to her insistence on theladeeez und genman giving an-other round of applaaaas foreverything the Chief did. Thusthe Chief sat in his chair andhere was the lady saying – hehas sat down! Now ladeeez undgenman, pleeze give him an-other round of applaaas.

Then came the presentationof the obligatory shawls andbouquets (the latter MMM de-lights in but as to the former,he is yet to figure out what canbe done with them). And herewas the woman again – Nowladeeez und genman, pleezegive him another round ofapplaaas. The Chief stood up

to speak and just as he was go-ing to start, there was the MCasking everyone to give himanother round of … This wenton, when the Chief sat down,(ladeeez und genman, letshave another round of), whenhe was shawled and flowered,when MMM spoke, whenMMM sat down and so on.

The upshot of it all was thatby the time the grand panjan-drum’s turn came, everyone’shands had begun smarting. Hewas received with deathlysilence. Not that it mattered tohim at least by the length towhich he spoke, reeling offstatistics. And then, followinga request for a hearty round ofapplaaas for the nationalanthem, the event wound to aclose. The lunch that followedwas superlative and to thatMMM would like to add hisown round of applaaas.

Still more...

Chennai is a city, Madras isan emotion – so runs a

slogan that is regularly fishedout each time Madras Weekcomes. It delights the pro-Ma-dras gang and sets the teeth ofthe Chennai clique on edge.On a similar vein, MadrasWeek it appears is also somekind of an emotion. The Manfrom Madras Musings will notbe surprised if there are stillsome events being conductedsomewhere in the city. Andwhy not? After all, we do nothave any official record ofChenRas (MadNai does notsound nice) being founded ona particular date do we?

And so it was that MMMfound himself, long afterMadras Week was over, goingto deliver a talk at the Templeof the Arts, founded byAuntie. MMM arrived after along drive in the midst of pour-ing rain and then havingshared an umbrella with ahostess of sorts, reached thevenue. Inside was a denselypacked throng of students, allsitting cross-legged, the onlyemotion on their faces, barringtwo or three, being of a dullresignation. MMM does notblame them. Imagine living ina wooded garden of Eden andthe rains coming downheavily. What you then wantis to sit in a verandah, enjoythe peace and have a hot cupof tea. You do not want to lis-ten to a bald, bespectacledman going on about Madras.

MMM was duly handed amic, which no doubt owing tothe wet weather and dearAuntie not having botheredmuch about insulation, gaveMMM a nasty shock. Youshould have seen the laughterthat erupted among the audi-ence. MMM put away the micthereafter and relied on hisown voice. The audience re-turned to its dull sense of res-ignation. It duly clapped at theend, no doubt out of a sense ofrelief. Oh by the way, no teawas forthcoming. Auntie, ittranspired, was anti tea.

– MMM

SHORT

’N’

SNAPPY

city has ever seen. A lot of thedamage could have beenavoided had we stuck to somebasic planning and more impor-tantly, the monitoring of whatgoes on by way of constructionand open area encroachment.Our civic body sadly, did notrespond the way it ought tohave. Apart from making state-ments that such heavy rainfallhad not occurred for over a cen-tury (which by the way is notcorrect) and therefore any civicadministration would havebeen caught unawares, nothingmuch was done. Relief had todepend on citizen initiatives.The floods are a distant memorynow. And in case you did notnotice it, the road level outsideyour house has just risen by a

foot or so. Which means yourresidence is that much lowerthan the road. Which meansnext time it rains…

One significant develop-ment in the current tenure hasbeen the State Assembly’s deci-sion that the people will nolonger directly elect the Mayor.This ensures that the Mayorwill not have a fixed tenure forfive years and that also meansthat a non-performing Mayorcan be shown the door in themiddle of a term. Will such astep bring in more accountabil-ity? Will there be a greater em-phasis on performance? Onlytime will tell. But whoever getselected to that post is likely tohave his/her hands full, if theywant to make a decisive im-provement in our city’s qualityof life.

You are Chennai-bound. On a train.It slows down after Perambur. It crawls past Vysarpaadi. It passes

Basin Bridge and moves into Chennai Central Station.What do you see around you, outside the window?Less of the pleasant, I’m sure we would agree. A polluted, stinking

Buckingham Canal. Naked bums behind bushes. Scrubland. Scrubsgrowing between rail lines. Mounds of paper cups, plastic covers andnewspaper sheets.

Welcome to Chennai that is Madras.This is our city; we cannot hide it behind metal sheets. This is our

city: we cannot spray jasmine-juices on the Canal. But surely, if this isthe window to a city, something can be done to make the first sightswelcoming.

I am taking a train from Bengaluru. I spot a Rail Gallery at thestation. It is locked. It is lunch time.

I take the underground pass. On the walls, are what seem to becopies of artworks based on Indian Railways and life on trains and atrail stations.

They are worn out now. Some bear stains of spit. Some are foldingin. When they were first fixed on these garish blue walls, they caughtour attention. Not everybody who doubled up to Platforms 3 and 6slowed down to glance at these wonderful visuals.

These visuals may not be of the Garden City but they have a placein a public space which welcomes scores of people every day.

As my train moves out of Bengaluru Central (the re-named name isa mouthful), I sight a long stretch of well-maintained shrubs on theouter front of the platform.

A soothing sight on a bright, sunny afternoon. I wonder if we cando something ‘welcoming’ outside Chennai Central.

Something that is simple, sustains and marks this city of ours. Per-haps, the least we can do is to keep this entry zone clean and tidy. Andbuild washrooms for the communities who continue to ease themselvesbetween rail tracks and shrubs.

I would also like Southern Railway to invite our young artists toexpress themselves on Chennai-based themes and paint on the wallsof this rail station. Walls that can turn into art spaces and catch theeyes of tourists and travellers. Perhaps, curate a corner on Madrasthat is Chennai.

Getting state agencies to respond to community-driven collabora-tions tests our patience and dampens our enthusiasm.

Metro Rail enjoys communicating on its social media pages. But itsofficers and PR team go cold when we suggest such initiatives.

They want artists to be part of a food-mela-driven promo atVadapalani when we suggest that they encourage a team of artists tosketch and watercolour scenes that appeal to them on the Koyembedu-Airport line.

These then could find a place inside the trains and on Metroplatforms.

Why cannot we replicate this at Chennai Airport?Its managers spend huge sums installing the dancing Nataraja

bronze and talking to Poompuhar to showcase our crafts. Good.But its managers can also invite the city’s artists and photographers

to paint or contribute works themed on our city, its colours, life, times...The gateways to this city must showcase the city.And involve its creative community.And people must stop vandalising photos and artworks.

– Vincent D’Souza

Railway rants

CIVIC BODY POLLS(Continued from page 1)

September 16-30, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Saving the Punjeri inscriptions

The Punjeri inscriptions chiselled on hard (granite) rock inthe village of Punjeri (the rocks are locally referred to as

Nondi Veerapan Kudiraithotti) near the world heritage monu-ment township of Mamallapuram, are in the archaic Tamil andGrantha (Pallava) script dating to the 7th Century C.E. This find,excavated in the 1930’s, is the oldest relatable inscriptional evi-dence of those whom scholars now can refer as the artisans whoprobably worked on the famed monument.

An extract from the book Inscriptions of the Pallavas by T.V.Mahalingam, brought out by the Indian Council of Historical Re-search, records seven personal names, viz. Kevada Peruntaccan(the chief sculptor), Gunamallah, Payyamilippan, Catamukkiyan,Kaliyani, Abhajar of Tiruvorriyur and Kollan Semagan. These arethe names of some of the artisans who, in the reign of the Pallavaking Paramesvaravarman I, probably worked at the site and forma vital link in deciphering the life and times of the people in theregion.

The widening of the East Coast Road, State Highway No.49,caused much concern to heritage lovers, as the inscribed rockswere only a little away from the highway, and any expansion wouldhave certainly jeopardised them and other heritage protectionwork done in the area. This danger was first brought to the noticeof Friends of Heritage Sites (FoHS), by K.T.Gandhirajan, a histo-rian. FOHS brought the danger to the notice of Government offi-cials and sought to save the inscriptions.

At a sculpture exhibition held in March 2015, to revive theAjanta tradition that later evolved into the Pallava art form, andwas aptly called ‘Vichitrachitta’, a title given to the Pallava kingMahendravarman I, FoHS highlighted the neglected condition ofthis horse-shoe-shaped rock, covered with foliage and garbage,and the road widening activities on the ECR. FOHS made repre-sentations to the Archaeological Survey of India, at both State aswell as Central level, and to the Highways Department, bringingto their notice the impending damage to this vital heritage relic inthe vicinity of the World Heritage Centre.

A few weeks ago, the inscriptions were saved. The Highwayhas been moved so as not to disturb the site and the ASI hasfenced the area. It was a pleasant surprise to see the proactive andforthcoming attitude of the departments involved after a case ofthe left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Weonly hope there are better coordinating efforts in future by differ-ent governmental bodies, especially around heritage sites.

FoHS is a society working towards creating a social space forheritage enthusiasts, consolidating conservation of ecology inrelation to heritage monuments and natural heritage sites bycoordinating with government bodies, and working with localcommunities to enhance their livelihood. It generates awarenessprogrammes to protect sites under threat of vandalism, andengages persons from all walks of life and the media to create abetter ambience in and around heritage sites.

This NGO had its genesis in early 2014, when a few friends ona field trip in rural Tamil Nadu observed that there was very littlethat the local public knew when it came to understanding thevalue of a heritage monument or a site. There seemed to be scantregard shown to these monuments by the locals and a certaindisconnect between those living near a heritage monument siteand understanding of heritage per se. This disconnect and ignor-ance had, over time resulted in little care or value for the heritagearound them and was quite often directly responsible forencroachments, vandalism and misuse of a heritage space. Thisdivide, which shocked the group, was uppermost in their mind inwanting to start an organisation that would bridge the gap andbring about a better awareness and understanding of heritageamong the locals who are the stakeholders in the upkeep of thesemonuments.

Acting on this ‘FRIENDS of HERITAGE SITES’ (FoHS), asociety, was found in August 2014 by eight founder members.

– Chithra Gopinath

More on Tamizh Vaanan

Dr. G. Sundaram’s letter onTamizh Vaanan (MM,

August 1st) kindled my ownmemories of Kalkandu. We (mybrother and I) were regularreaders of the magazine in thelate forties/early fifties. Themost anticipated feature in themagazine was the mysterythriller serial written by TamizhVaanan (TV) himself, calledMarma manidhan (Mysteryman). The story was about amysterious criminal who usedto move around totally coveredin a shroud committing variousoffences including murder. Thehero was a private detective byname Shankarlal (rather anodd name for hero of a Tamilstory those days!) who assisteda not too bright police inspec-tor called Wahab in the inves-tigations ( Shades of SherlockHolmes and Dr Watson!). Inone of the episodes Shankarlalwas shot by Marma manidhan(again like Sherlock HolmesVs. Dr. Moriarty) but due topopular outcry, Shankarlal hadto be revived and the serieswent on. I still remember thelast sentence of the final epi-sode in which Shankralal re-veals the identity of Marmamanidhan to Inspector Wahab“Aaam, Sreedharan dhanMarma manidhan” enraarShankarlal. (In fact Sreedharanis Marma manidhan, saidShankarlal)

I also recall that TV used tohumourously refer to himself asTamizh Vannaan – ‘Thewasherman of Tamil’!

K. Balakesari3/1, Kesari Kuteeram

22, Westcott RoadRoyapettah

Chennai 600 014

DPI Campus then

As I read the report aboutDPI’s Campus, I remem-

bered my first visit there in 1949as a student of Teachers’ Col-lege. There used to be a lovelygarden in the front and it hasdisappeared long back to makeway for parking of vehicles.

There were three buildings inthe huge campus besides theMLS Library Building. Behindthe main building was the an-nex which the correspondentrefers as housing UNICEF. Thequarters for the DPI was at thefar end on the banks of thecanal.

When N.D. Sundaravadi-velu became DPI, he preferredto live in his own house.S.V. Chittibapu, the then JointDirector occupied the mansion.When the State Council ofEducational Research andTraining was established, DPI’squarters became its office, inspite of its unsuitability. The

first new construction in theCampus was the office of theExamination wing of the De-partment later to become aseparate Directorate in 1968.At the far end on the banks ofthe canal were some old build-ings which were rumoured asthe barracks of Lord Clive. Nowa good number of buildingshave come besides a HinduTemple, a small church andprayer hall. The old worldcharm has been completely lost.Similar seems to be the fate ofDMS Campus.

S.S. Rajagopalan30, Kamarajar Stret

Chennai 600 093

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Correct location

I would like to point out asmall correction in the

stretch mentioned about Ca-thedral Road. Cathedral roadstretched from Mount Road(Anna flyover) to Music Acad-emy. There was a round tana atthis junction. From that pointeastwards upto the erstwhile IGOffice (now DGP Office) theroad was called Edward ElliotsRoad (present Dr. Radha-krishnan Salai) and St. Ebbasschool was situated in thisstretch and not on CathedralRoad.

Arumugam PKpkarumugham@live.com

The new projected Punjeri rock with its inscriptions. Some of the inscriptions.

CHITRA GOPINATH of FRIENDS of

HERITAGE SITES writes about the role

the group played in helping save the

Punjeri inscriptions just west of

Mahabalipuram.

4 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2016

Recalling MSand Tamil Isai

� by Gowri Ramnarayan

� During her Centenary...

M.S. Subbulakshmi’s cru-sade for Tamil Isai is a

near forgotten chapter in herlife. MS is remembered as theupholder of tradition, as ameek, unassuming, modest, su-per-conservative Indian womanof the old school. How interest-ing then to see MS in the role ofa rebel! In the 1930s and 1940s,she found herself in the midst ofan aggressive, no-holds-barred,controversy. Mind you, not onthe side of Authority and Sta-tus Quo, but on the other side ofthe fence! In doing this, she evendared to oppose her own re-vered gurus and seniors.

Yes, M.S. Subbulakshmijoined the Tamil Isai Move-ment. Without her leadingvoice, the movement wouldhave toppled quickly. Her mu-sical satyagraha made a singularcontribution, not to a language-driven agitation, but to Carna-tic music itself, in a lasting andremarkable way.

MS was banned by the Ma-dras Music Academy for fiveyears, for singing Tamil songs inthe major, first section of a con-cert. The Academy opposed themovement tooth and nail, evenpassing resolutions againstTamil Isai. After those fiveyears, MS returned to theAcademy on her own terms –she would not accept any re-strictions of language or con-tent. And the Academy manda-rins accepted her on her terms,only because they feared com-petition from the rival sangeetasabha that her husbandSadasivam was planning tolaunch. Moreover, they neededher benefit concerts to raisefunds to build their own audito-rium which now stands on Ca-thedral Road.

What was this Tamil Isaimovement?

In the 1930s and 1940s,Carnatic music concerts con-sisted almost entirely of Teluguand Sanskrit compositions, andno Tamil song was ever heardin the first and serious half of aconcert. In the post-tani tukkadasegment, a tevaram or a tirup-pugazh might make a reluctantappearance, quickly smotheredby songs from other languages.

A group of people in theMadras Presidency, many ofthem Tamil litterateurs likeT.K. Chidambaranatha Muda-liar, along with wealthy musicpatrons from the Tamil-lovingNagarathar community ofmusic patrons, thought that

their enjoyment of Carnaticmusic would be enhanced ifsome songs in the concerts wererendered in their mothertongue. They argued that Tya-garaja who lived in Tamil Nadu,composed in Telugu only be-cause it came naturally to himas his mother tongue. So was itnot equally natural to under-stand the desire in Tamil-bornlisteners for songs in their ownlanguage?

Incredibly, this simple re-quest unleashed a frenzy of ob-jections, acrimonious, evenvenomous. Their opponents de-nounced the singing of Tamilsongs in the pre-tani stage as asacrilege. Why? Some sawTamil as a harsh, kaattumirandi(barbaric) language. Secondly,

they argued that the poor qual-ity of Tamil compositions woulddemean Carnatic music.

The Tamils faction did notbegin their fight demanding“Tamil only” in concerts. Allthey wanted was the inclusionof more serious Tamil songs,and only in concerts held inTamil Nadu. But the Telugufaction feared that giving im-portance to Tamil songs poseda threat to the Mummoorti,The Trinity. If allowed entry,Tamil kriti-s would replace thegems of Tyagaraja, Dikshitarand Syama Sastry. “Down withTamil!” became their slogan.

It is hilarious to note that themajority of the Tamil song “hat-ers” were not Andhravadus orKannada folk, but were them-selves Tamil born. Many ofthese listeners knew no Teluguand less Sanskrit, but opposedtheir mother tongue Tamil onthe Carnatic concert platform.The vidwan-s would say in ro-bust Thanjavur dialect: “SingTyagaraja and you grip everyear. Try Tamil and the concertsags….”

But this myth was easily dis-pelled. All you had to do was togo to the Devakottai Tamil Isaiconference (1941) and hear MS– in midnight blue vairaoosi sariwith an arakku border, her bluejagger diamonds twinkling onear and nose, jasmine crescenton her bichoda coiffure as fra-grant as her brigas and gamakas– in the Hamsadhwani opener

Arul purivai karunai kadale, bySuddhananda Bharati, the na-tionalist poet and yogi. Listen-ers went into a trance when MSsang a rousing viruttam bySubramania Bharati whichasked, “Is there a language assweet as our Tamil in the entireworld?”

MS knew of SubramaniaBharati’s warning that singingexclusively in a language thatthe listener did not understandwould make Carnatic musiclose ground in Tamil Nadu. Sheoften heard Rasikamani T.K.Chidambaranatha Mudaliarinsist that neither singer nor lis-tener could experience rasawithout understanding thelyric.

It was one thing to demandTamil Isai, but quite another tosupply it. There were very fewTamil compositions goingaround with the finish of aTyagaraja kriti or Syama Sastryswarajati.

The only Tamil composi-tions in rakti ragas which hadazhuttam, depth, and ghanam,weight, belonged to a genre thatwas then confined to womensingers. And though vidwan-strekked to Georgetown to hearVeena Dhanammal and wereawed by the musicianship of herdaughters and grand-daughters,few men could rise to the chal-lenge of singing a ripe padam.Also, few men wanted to give ita try as they disdained theirsringara content and devadasiassociations.

It must also be admittedthat, unlike Kshetrayya’s lyricalverses, Tamil padam-s mostlyhad pedestrian sahitya, oftendownright kocchai – vulgar, thelyric often absurdly out of syncwith the noble music.

So MS found that opting forTamil Isai also meant explora-tion and discovery. She had todevelop a brand new repertoireof compositions with dignity inthought, emotion, language andraga. She began to spend wholedays in searching, learning, pol-ishing, fine-tuning a wide rangeof concert-worthy composit-ions. After all Tamil Isai’s goalwas to prove that Tamil couldgo beyond mere bhajanai, it

could be as euphonious assundara Telugu, its content asuplifting as a Tyagaraja kriti.

Not easy! But since her part-nership with Sadasivam hadwidened her world, she hadwriters and connoisseurs to sug-gest new lyrics. Kalki quicklywrote a song for her with niravalpossibilities – Vandadum solaitanile. With TKC’s advice, somevery special songs were broughtto the Bharata Natyam stage forthe first time.

Why did so many expertsand heavyweights see the de-mand for Tamil sahitya as adeath knell for Carnatic music?The Music Academy stalwartseven tried to pass rules to stopthe new disease – “Tamilvyadhi”. The Hindu wrote lead-ers condemning the Tamil de-mand. You wonder how allthese people could have been sodeaf and blind to PapanasamSivan, lovingly called TamilTyagayya. Sivan’s compositionsstrengthened Tamil Isai immea-surably, especially as he was soprolific and offered such a fan-tastic choice of raga and theme.

Sivan composed enchantingsongs for the only four films inwhich M.S. Subbulakshmiacted between 1939 and 1947.Some of them have become partof the Carnatic music treasury.

Funnily enough, in espous-ing the Tamil Isai causeSadasivam, Kalki and MS foundthemselves in an unexpectedpolitical dilemma. Affiliated tothe Indian National Congressand devoted to the Mahatma’sideals, on the Tamil Isai causealone they found themselves onthe same side as Justice Partystalwarts like Raja Sir Anna-

malai Chettiar and ShanmugamChetty who favoured Britishrule in India. Worse, the pro-Telugu faction was mostlysympathetic to the Congress.

Even more strangely, no onefound this alliance-switch inand for a cultural cause,strange or unethical. Can Indiatoday boast of such ruthlesshonesty?

Tami l I s a i , howeve r ,continued to suffer fromscarcity of songs. Kalki attendsAnnamalai University’s three-day Tamil Isai conferencehop ing tha t Tami l on l yconce r t s wou ld haveunearthed a huge variety ofTamil compositions. But hisglum guide tells him that heheard the same songs in everyconcert ; moreover , mostvidwan-s mangled the wordsbeyond l inguist ic identi-fication!

An opponent taunts Kalki,“Why do you need new kriti-s?Why not simply chant Tevaramand Tiruvachakam?” The con-tempt is evident as these songswere innocent of classical kritiornamentations. Almost as a re-ply, the MS concert at theTamil Isai Vizha featuredManickavachakar’s exquisitedevotional verse as the mainpiece. The question was, couldthis short lyric accommodatepanoramic classicism?

Despite his misgivings aboutTamil Isai, guru Semmangudicame to the rescue and set thepiece in a Sankarabharanam –rivalling Saroja dala netri orSwararaga sudha in grandeur.And in this piece MS absolutelyoutdid herself. (Courtesy: Sruti)

September 16-30, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

A concert

that led

to a loss

� Remembering MS

� by S. Viswanathan

It was a grand concept: tocommemorate the centenary

of M.S. Subbbulakshmi, to setup a chair in her name at anAmerican university and also toraise resources for expandingthe charitable activities ofSankara Nethralaya (SN). Butpoor execution resulted, unfor-tunately in a substantial deficit.

The music icon A.R. Rah-man was presented as the sec-ond Indian music maestro toperform at the UN. He gra-ciously offered to perform freeof cost. But his omnibus orches-tra cost the sponsors a hugesum.

On August 15th, as part ofthe 70th Independence Daycelebrations, they performed atthe United Nations’ sprawlingauditorium. Thanks to the In-dian Mission at the UN, around1600 enjoyed the performanceof this Oscar-winning musicalicon of India. Sankara Nethra-laya (SN) jointly presented theconcert with the UN. Rahmanrendered several of his popularsongs from Tamil and Hindifilms, his evocative VandeMataram, Jai Ho and also a fewSufi music compositions. Theimmortal compositions of theKanchi Paramacharya, Mait-reem Bajatha, and Rajaji’s KuraiOnrum Illai were rendered bythe grand-niece of Dr S.S.Badrinath, Chairman-Emeritus,Sankara Nethralaya, who con-ceived this grand programme tocommemorate the centenary ofmusic maestro M.S. Subbulak-shmi (MS) as well as her land-mark concert at the UN 50years ago in 1966.

During my visit to the US inJune I heard impressive plansabout this celebration. TheSankara Nethralaya Oph-thalmic Mission Trust (SN OMTrust), headed by Dr. K.S.Vasan and based in Houston,had ambitious plans: to present,apart from Rahman, musiciansSudha Raghunathan andBombay Jayashree for a series ofconcerts spread across six citiesculminating at the UN on Oc-tober 2nd (Jayashree later with-drew and the UN would notpresent Sudha at a UN-spon-sored concert) and ZubinMehta with the New York Phil-harmonic Orchestra at the Lin-

coln Centre in New York onNovember 5th.

The objective was to reachout to the prosperous Indiandiaspora in the US, providingthe NRIs soulful music as wellas to raise resources for SN. Let-ters were sent to prospectivedonors requesting sponsorshipsof eye surgeries at SN. Thegood work of SN has beenknown in the US. SN OMTrust has already been raisingresources from the NRIs.

The prospect of a secondmusician from India presentinga concert at UN after 50 yearswas, of course, exciting. How-ever, sadly, there was a starkcontrast between the two. Forthe MS concert, the initiativewas taken by the then UN Chefde Cabinet, C V Narasimhan,

ICS. It was sponsored by the UNwith its full involvement.Narasimhan was well-versed inmusic, an ardent fan of MS andlearnt it under maestros likeMusiri Subramania Iyer andMS. He ensured the presence ofUN Secretary General U Thantas well as that of hundreds ofother luminaries.

The other plus factor was thebrilliant leadership of MS’s hus-band T. Sadasivam in planning,publicising and presenting theconcert with elan. With me-ticulous care TS-MS plannedthe concert with a rich reper-toire of compositions. TheKanchi Paramacharya speciallycomposed Maitreem Bajatha onworld peace. This became anhit and a household song in theSouth. Rajaji composed an-other English song in Westernmusic set to tune by that mae-stro Handel Manuel. There wasa rich variety of compositionsincluding those from the greatcomposers of Carnatic music –Thyagarajar, Muthuswami Dik-shithar, Shyama Sastri andPurandara Dasar, besides aMeera Bhajan in Hindi.

The team at Kalki and musi-cologists worked diligently toproduce rich background mate-rial on the compositions, their

composers and on MS and hermusic accompanists, down tothe minutest detail.

Media in the US and in In-dia provided extensive publicityto this landmark event. Theconcert was broadcast exten-sively and received wideacclaim.

I was struck by the stark con-trast: Rahman’s concert wasjointly presented by the UN andSN. There was the absence ofsenior bureaucrats from SouthIndia at the UN or the IndianEmbassy, familiar with Carnaticmusic or MS’s works. Surpris-ingly, communication with the

numerous Tamil Sangams,Telugu Associations and Kan-nada Koota were poor. TheseSouth Indian communities areprosperous sections of the USsociety, educationally and cul-turally strong and their mem-bers occupy senior positions andleadership in industry, govern-ment, academe and professions.They form the creamy layer ofAmerican society.

The UN programme pre-cluded pricing tickets for admis-sion. The seating provided for2000, half of these reserved forthe UN. Rahman required alarge stage, specially built withhi-tech gizmos that demandedextra space and considerablecost. This devoured in the pro-cess some 400 seats. The 800seats made available to SNneeded to go to traditionaldonors which further curtailedthe scope for fresh donations.

Rahman may have offeredhis services free. But there washeavy expenditure incurred onhis 80-strong orchestra andsingers by way of cost of airfare,stay in star hotels for fournights, local transportation andfood. The large stage, lighting,acoustics and other parapher-nalia demanded another largesum.

There was also the absenceof prominent NRIs who areglittering business icons in theUS, many of them from SouthIndia, familiar with MS andRahman: Indira Nooyi,Chandrika Tandon, SundarPichai, Satya Nadella andscores of celebrities in academeand the medical profession.Leaders like Bill Gates and BillClinton with vast interests inIndia, friendly Senators andCongressmen could have lenttheir weight. The UN SecretaryGeneral Ban-ki-Moon was ab-sent. All this led to less beingcollected and more spent.

I also felt disappointed thata great opportunity to presentRahman to thousands of musiclovers in and around New Yorkshould have been missed. Like

presenting Rahman in anotherconcert at a prominent publicplace like Central Park in NewYork, offering his music thou-sands of music lovers.

Another thought: I remem-ber MS and Sadasivam provid-ing hundreds of benefit perfor-mances to support a vast rangeof social causes. It used to be astandard feature in the Tamilweekly Kalki (promoted bySadasivasm, MS and R Krishna-murthy) the notices mentioningMS udavum sangeetha kutcheri(MS rendering a benefit perfor-mance) to help raise fund fornumerous social causes. Rah-man can emulate MS in such anudavum sangeetha kutcheri forSN. (Courtesy: Industrial Eco-nomist)

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6 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2016

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

to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)1. In an innovative first, the UnionGovernment has signed a MoUwith Amar Chitra Katha to publishand distribute a comic book onwhich of its ambitious initiative?

2. President Barack Obama re-cently gave assent for the creationof the largest ecologically protectedarea on the planet (582,578 squaremiles of land) when he expandedthe Papahanaumokuakea nationalmarine monument. In which USState is it?

3. Which Indian’s London Olym-pics bronze medal was recently up-graded to silver?

4. Name the four athletes deco-rated with the Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna on August 29.

5. Name the Indian-origin formerSingapore President, who held thatoffice from 1999 to 2011, whopassed away recently aged 92.

6. Which Indian actor has beenchosen for the prestigious Cheva-lier de L’Ordre Arts et Lettres?

7. The maiden flight of the world’slongest aircraft (92m long) hap-pened in Bedfordshire on August17. Name it.

8. President Pranab Mukherjee re-cently launched AIR’s AkashvaniMaitree to showcase the cultureand heritage of which neighbouringnation?

9. With a view to create a global-size bank, SBI has approved themerger of its five associate banksand which other bank with itself?

10. Laljibhai Patel, a diamondbaron and from Suarat recently seta world record for a suit by paying awhopping Rs 4.31 crores. Whomade news last year by wearing thissuit?

* * *11. On Harris Road (AdithanarSalai) in Pudupet, there is a run-down market in the peerage nameof Robert Bourke. How is he knownto us?

12. When Madras was elevated toa Presidency in 1684, the personwho took charge is famous world-wide in academic circles. Namehim.

13. Which star-daughter/wife, aresident of Chennai, has been madean ‘United Nations Women’s Ad-vocate for Gender Equality andWomen’s Empowerment in India’?

14. Name the new DGP of TamilNadu.

15. In which coastal stretch in thecity is the Corporation planning toplant 2000 three to five feet tallpalm trees to reduce the impact ofnatural calamities and soil erosion?

16. Which bustling area ofChennai was once calledJinachintamani Chaturvedi-mangalam?

17. If it is 100 for police and 108 forambulance service, what does 104cater?

18. How did the Periyavadagam-patti village in Salem district makesporting headlines recently?

19. The English got the grant forwhich three villages in Madras fromAurangazeb in 1693?

20. Why is October 12, 1785 asignificant date in the history ofMadras journalism?

(Answers on page 10)

The Jesuitsand DhyanaAshram

� by Dr. Anand Amaladss

Jesuit history in Madras be-gan in 1545. But who are theJesuits? The Jesuits are themembers of the Society of Jesus,founded by St. Ignatius ofLoyola, in Spain, in 1540.Ignatius, a soldier was woundedfighting the French. It is saidthat when he was convalescinghe read a book The Golden Leg-end in Spanish (Aurea Legendaor Legenda Sanctorum), achristianised version of theBuddhist legend. Now parallelsare being drawn between Bud-dhist and Ignatian spirituality.

The first Jesuit to arrive inIndia was Francis Xavier andthe Jesuit connection with Ma-dras begins in 1545, whenFrancis Xavier visited Madrasand stayed in San Thomé forfour months with Fr. GasparCoelho, a Portuguese priest. AsXavier himself says, he camehere to pray at the tomb of St.Thomas to get guidance for hisfurther course of action, as towhere he should proceed next.His biographer Schurhammerrecords details of his stay in SanThomé and the conversation hehad with the Portuguese priest.

At the request of the localpeople, Francis Xavier sent Fr.Alphonso Cyprian, a Jesuit, toMylapore in 1547. He stayed atthe San Thomé Church withanother priest working for thePortuguese community. Then,when the new church was builtwithin the walls of San Thomefort in 1575, two Jesuits well-versed in Tamil and Teluguserved the local community.

As the Christian populationgrew, a new church was built bythe Portuguese outside the Fort.This church was dedicated toMadre-de-Deus (Mother ofGod) and was blessed by Fr.Alessandro Valignano S.J. onSeptember 8, 1576.

The Church of Madre deDeus was rebuilt and extendedto reach the Periya Palli Street,on the eastern side. There is atradition that Roberto de Nobilicame and spent his last dayshere (1648-1656) and lies bur-ied “somewhere in the area.” Acollege was also started by theJesuits under the patronage ofthe King of Vijayanagar. Thiswas probably located at thepresent site of Bon SecoursConvent in San Thomé’.

* * *A major event in the history

of the Jesuits was their suppres-sion in 1773 by Pope ClementXIV under political pressure.

The Order was restored in 1814by Pope Pius VII. It survivedduring the period in Russia,since Catherine the Great re-fused to promulgate the edict ofthe Pope in Russia.

These events took place inEurope, but the Madras Gov-ernment records mention theevent. Frank Penny in his bookThe Church in Madras records:“In 1764 the Jesuits were ex-pelled from France and theirproperty was confiscated. Bythe same law it became illegalequally to exist in Pondicherry.It was well-known on the coastthat the Jesuits had deposited20,000 pagodas with the Fort

St. George Government for thebenefit of their China Mission.That was confiscated. The Ma-dras Council appealed to the di-rectors at Pondicherry whatthey should do with them. TheFrench Ministry put aside thisquestion.” But when the Popeabolished the Society of Jesus,the Madras Government had todeal with the property of the Je-suits in their territory.

There were two aged priestsliving in the Church of Madrede Deus, outside the walls of theSt. Thomas Shrine. The Bishopof Mylapore (Frey Bernard)wrote to the Governor on May15, 1775, “If your Honourshould judge that the above-mentioned French fathersshould remain with the admin-istration of the Parish house,the Garden and also that Ishould not read in the Churchto anyone of my flock the Bullwhich I have received of theTotal extinction of the Reli-gious Order denominated of theSociety of Jesus, I should readilythereby comply…” The Portu-guese priests took over theMadre de Deus Church.

At the time, the chapel ofOur Lady of Guidance (nowknown as the St. LazarusChurch situated opposite Fore-shore Estate) as well as theChapel of Visitation (situatedon St. Mary’s Road) wereattached to the Madre de DeusChurch as its sub-stations.There are three inscriptions onthe wall of the Church of ourLady of Guidance. One of them

reads as follows: “Our Lady ofGuidance Church speaks:

“I was formerly known as thechurch of St. Lazarus. I wasbuilt by the Jesuits (Cf. Fr.Rebeiro). I was built up as achapel in 1581. Manuel Madraand his mother extended me.Bishop A.X. Texeira dug thefoundation to rebuild me and Iwas renovated in 1928. Sacred

Congregation of Rites by its Re-script dated 26.2.1954 decreedthat I should in future be knownas “Nossa Senhora de Guia”,(Our Lady of Guidance).

“I have a sister Church inShibpur (Bengal) known as OurLady of Guidance Church.”

It has been said that the siteoccupied by the East IndiaCompany had been colonisedby fisherfolk from the Parish ofMadre de Deus and the emi-grant fisherfolk called their vil-lage by the name of their Par-ish. The name was eventuallycorrupted to ‘Madras’. GlynBarlow in his book The Story ofMadras comments. “The originof the name Madras is uncer-tain and the explanation is atany rate interesting and not un-likely to be true.”

* * *Fr. Henry Hosten (1873-

1935), who wrote Antiquitiesfrom San Thomé and Mylapore(1924, 1936) writes, “Madre deDeus having been for two cen-turies under the management ofthe Jesuits, I made a specialstudy in 1921 of its three oldestBaptism Registers… By meansof these Registers I determinedthe incumbents and the time oftheir incumbency from January1789 to May 1853. The oldestmarriage register goes fromNov. 27, 1819 to Nov.7, 1883;the oldest register of burialsfrom July 12, 1818 to December28, 1885.

“These registers containedalso some valuable historicalnotes by Padre Mariano Luis

Ribeiro, who styles himself re-peatedly a Jesuit, though appar-ently he was not a Jesuit. Theycontained likewise autobio-graphical musings and instruc-tions about cocoanut-garden-ing, by the same Padre, who wasin charge of Madre de Deusfrom February 1839 to May1853, when he died”.

Fr. Hosten investigatedpractically every inscription onthe tombstones of the Mylaporearea (386 in all), in thechurches and on the statues. Atthe end of the chapter on theinscriptions he says that “not toswell unduly the size andexpense of this volume we[with]hold over about 200comparatively modern inscrip-tions, mostly in English, fromthe General Cemetery of Quib-ble Island”. The inscriptions arein Arabic, Armenian, Latin,Greek, Portuguese, Sanskritand Tamil.

* * *In 1952, when the two dio-

ceses were amalgamated as theMadras-Mylapore Diocese,Archbishop Louis Mathias, aSalesian, SDB, invited the Jesu-its to look after the spiritualwelfare of the diocese giving theSpiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.This was the beginning of theDhyana Ashram community(25, Madha Church Road, SanThomé) developed around theMadre de Deus church. Some ofthe better known Jesuits whoworked in this centre were Frs.Albert Muthumalai, ClaudeKrishnamurthy, and LawrenceSundaram.

In the place of the oldchurch, a new church was builtand blessed on February 11,1999. What was rescued fromthe old church were the altarpiece in wood and an old statueof Mother Mary in stone whichis kept outside, which looks likethe Black Madonna, but it isnot, since the Black Madonnausually is presented togetherwith the Child Jesus. It must beof local origin, if you observe thehead crown, which is unusual inthe Western tradition ofMother Mary.

(To be concluded)

The old Madre-de-Deus Church.

September 16-30, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

� Two pages recalling a celebration

Sriram V’s Madras Week DiaryAug 27, 2016

In the evening we had R. Mohan speaking on Cricket inChennai, as part of the Madras Musings lecture series. This wasat Hanu Reddy Residences, Poes Gardens. The talk was verygood, the venue phenomenal. I never knew that such anexcellent set of serviced apartments existed in this area. Theauditorium was top class.

Probably because of the forbidding address or because it wasnot a five-star hotel, the freeloaders were conspicuous by theirabsence. I had, of course, called the hosts and asked them totone the food down to a minimum.

R. Mohan had all his facts at his fingertips. There was lots ofhumour. Among those we had at the event was MrityunjayaSingh, grandson of Vizzy of Vizianagaram, and so he was theobvious choice to present our memento to the speaker.

Aug 28, 2016This was a killer of a day. Three events, all involving change

of wardrobe, it being a horribly muggy day. There was, besides,no afternoon nap, which means the week will be crabby.

In the morning went to Tag Centre, for the release of RandorGuy’s book, Memories of Madras. He is one my mentors, one ofthe four Rs, the others being S. Rajam, K.V. Ramanathan andV.A.K. Ranga Rao. Sadly, two are no more and I miss them.Besides these, there is of course the Mega M – S. Muthiah.

Randor Guy and I have been great friends since the time Iheard him first speak on the lawyers of Mylapore at the C.P.Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation sometime in 1996. A man with awicked sense of humour, he has imparted much info on Chennaito me, a lot of it unprintable. Now I don’t get to see or speak to

him as often as I would like to. He spoke at the book releaseand had the audience in splits. The old fire still lingers.

Went to the new Hotel Turyaa on OMR at lunchtimewhere my friend Ranjit Pratap, celebrated Madras Weekhelping with a display of vintage and classic cars organised bythe Madras Heritage Motoring Club. The exhibits were great.The Chief and I spoke on the occasion, he on some lesserknown cars of the city, including his Lanchester, and I on thecompanies that grew to become industrial houses from be-ginnings in car trade. There are plenty of that kind in Chennai– Simpson’s, Addison’s, Rane, TVS and UCAL being some.Even Ranjit’s Rayala Corporation began as Rajagopal MotorWorks, started by his grandfather. Got to know of severalmore from interactions at lunch with the knowledgeable andpassionate audience. There could have been a better MC.She kept referring to S. Muthiah as Subbiah Muthiah and meas Venkatakrishhnan Sriram (I realise that Wikipedia is re-sponsible for this) and also said the Chief founded the Ma-dras Book Cloob, whatever that is. She also wanted the audi-ence to give a round of applaaas for every sneeze, burp andwhatever else.

Back home at 3.30, it was time to get on with some workand then, ho, to The Park for the last (yippeeeee) of theMadras Musings lectures for the year. T.N. Venkatesh, IASand MD of Co-optex had us all eating out of his hands withhis brilliant presentation on the company. The staff had takenpains to study the venue two days earlier and so made gooduse of the space to display their wares, including some rarepieces – Kodalikaruppur sarees worn by Thanjavur royalty,Muppagam sarees worn by devadasi-s, the sadir saree worn atdance performances, a brocade shawl that was a duplicate ofwhat was gifted to Leonid Brezhnev and several others.

This being the last of the lectures, the freeloaders had tostock up for the rest of year and so their behaviour was at itsworst. Much grabbing, snatching, pushing, shoving and per-

haps groping as well. A.S. Diwakar was luckyto get a glass of water. Tulsi Badrinath hadcoffee spilt on her saree and I think that wasthe nearest she got to the food. The Owl,who is also known as the Camp One, tried tosnatch a cup from a passing waiter and in

Traditional games at Ashvita Bistro, organised by Kreeda.

Under the gopuram

We visit temples, but howmany of us notice the

inscriptions on the walls? Atthe Marundeeswarar Temple,the workings of the Chola ad-ministration, like tax collec-tion, are detailed. There ismuch to discover, says PradeepChakravarthy, a history buffwho runs Mystical Palmyra, aportal that organises heritagetours. “Did you know therewas a thriving Jain populationin Tiruvanmiyur back then?”

There were also games like aadu puli aattametched on the floor of the temple and his grouplearnt how to play them, with some help fromKreeda Games’ Vineetha Siddhartha.

Port of call

For the last five years, on one day of the year,the general public has the freedom to amble

through much protected Chennai Port Trust.That is when Sriram V conducts his heritagewalk. “When the harbour’s construction began in1875, it was classified as one of the greatest chal-lenges man faced against nature. It’s a story ofhard work, sacrifice, foresight, politics and more,”he says. He urged his group to spot surviving sym-bols (like the foundation stone), related how theport helped mathematician S Ramanujan, andhow it even featured in the slave trade.

Forgotten paths

Architect Thirupurasundari Sevvel didn’tunderstand why heritage buffs never high-

lighted suburbs like Anna Nagar, when it also hasa lot of history. So her organisation, Nam VeeduNam Oor Nam Kadhai, conducted walks in“neglected” parts such as the narrow lanes ofAminjikarai. “Did you know it’s also called Mini

Kanchipuram because it has the VaradarajaPerumal Temple and the EkambareswararTemple. The houses also still retain the oldflavour, with thinnai and thalvaram,” she said.

Hit the water

Last year’s floods brought the sorry state of ourmarshlands into focus. While government

action is a matter of debate, the Madras Natural-ists’ Society is continuing with its efforts to spreadawareness. It conducted walks to thePerumbakkam Tank and the Kelambakkambackwaters. “It focused on how these water bod-ies sustain vibrant eco-systems, recharge the wa-ter table and help prevent floods,” G. VijayKumar, its Secretary stated.

British footprints

You’ll find plenty on the British in Madras onWikipedia and in books. But there’s some-

thing to be said about the information being pre-sented to you as stories. Vijay Kamalakara, thefounder of Storytrails, led two walks that talkedabout the British and how their rule impactedthe city. “Stories are an interesting way to look at

● How do you celebrate a city? With pomp and zero rules. Everyone does it his or her own way.And this year, this translated into a plethora of varied events. There were walks for the differ-ently-abled, play themes for the elderly, storytelling sessions for children and more. There waseven a talk on temples in Vietnam, which seemed like an unusual topic. SRIRAM V. explained,“We did wonder about it, but then S. Muthiah made a point: this is the place from where templebuilding went across the seas – the Cholas left from Tamil Nadu and introduced the Hinduculture to places like Indonesia and Vietnam. So, in a way, it is also a celebration of Madras.”

(Continued on page 8)

How do we celebrate Madras Week

the process nearly upset all the crockery the manwas carrying. Had I not been there to hold the lot,Madras Musings would have had a hefty damagesbill. The man who has a crush on Sushi took aselfie with her on the sly.

Veteran jounalist S. Viswanathan of IndustrialEconomist did the honoursby presenting our music-loving Venkatesh a book onSemmangudi. After the talkmany wanted to take photoswith the speaker. I askedhim if he can make aspassionate a presentation onsay cement as he did on Co-optex. He merely smiled butI think he can. There is nolimit when you have apassion for excellence. Maythere be more of his kind.

And so, ladiez andgen’men, lets conclude witha round of applaaas!

8 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2016

Events are aplenty now andthey overlap. But little can

be done to draw a calendar be-cause the events are plannedby volunteers according to thetime and space they can mark/spare for Madras Week.

Some suggest that it is timethe events are spread acrossAugust.

Perhaps, audio recording alltalks, and posting them onlinewould help ‘broadcast’ the talkssince many of them are on in-teresting themes.

The Vysarpadi fest

There were small efforts thatpopped up across the city thisyear. Like the talk on ‘SterlingRoad Histories’ hosted by twowomen who have lived longyears in that area.

They even got a senior Rail-way family, who live in a colo-nial bungalow on the Railways’sprawling property on this roadin Nungambakkam, to interactwith them.

These bungalows are boundto go some day soon, unlessthere is a quiet campaign thatreaches the Union RailwayMinister, to save them andrestore them and give them anew life.

The big effort was in thenorth Madras area of Vysarpadiwhere a few people joinedhands with volunteers and so-cial workers and linked up withother city groups to highlightthe good things of life there.

The community hadthought of this event to show-case the plus points of

A Madras Weekthought

Vysarpadi which is often in thenews for gore, crime, scandalsand gangs.

The events may have beensmall and simple, but theylaunched what could be an an-nual Vysarpadi Celebration.

Sadly though, this year toothere were very few events innorth Chennai.

Smart Chennai

United Ways Chennai had130 schools of the city doingsome amazing work, ponderingand giving us a way forward tosolve the City’s problems.

Wish the City Mayor andthe Councillors were there topick some inputs and answertheir questions on a better up-keep of the city.

Time these boys and girlspractised a lot of what they pro-jected and got their families tofollow. – (Photos: RamanaVarakur Srinivasan.)

Controversies &cheap jibes

Controversies have envel-oped the Madras Day processfrom the time the idea wasfloated.

Are you pro-British? Are yousaying the area we call Madras/Chennai did not exist before1639?

Are you celebrating whitemen who took Indian blood andsuck us to this day?

Why not Chennai 2000Plus?

The last mentioned is anidea circulated by a senior jour-nalist who seems to run a Trust– Chennai 2000 Plus.

Debates are always welcome.

As long as they are civil anddon’t cross unwritten borders.

Sadly, many who blow hotand cold have not even cel-ebrated the city in some way.

Now, there are people whoare hitting below the belt. Mailsare being sent to newspapersand people casting aspersionson the ‘catalysts’, calling thename of Jesus and Good Fridayinto arguments filling in themail boxes.

– Vincent D’Souza

Sir Sivaswamy Kalalaya School NSS celebrate Madras Week with acampaign for a better Madras.

Veera Santhanam with film maker Gita.

The participants of ‘Smart Chennai’.

A walk along the Marina with storytrail.

the social histories behindbuildings and monuments asthese were built by real people,driven by human emotions,” hesaid, explaining his two walks,first from the Gandhi statue onMarina Beach to the War Me-morial, and the second fromBeach Station to the Fort.

Blooms and trunks

The lofty trees that line ourroads are often overlooked,

unless it’s noon and we need theshade. But Nizhal, theorganisation that promotes ‘treeculture’ in urban spaces, madesure we don’t forget them orhow fast they are disappearing.This year, their walks focusedon landmark trees, “old (someover 90 years) and rare treesthat are irreplaceable,” accord-ing to Shobha Menon, one ofthe Trustees. At theKotturpuram Tree Park, adump yard that Nizhal con-verted into a forest, childrenwho volunteered led the walk,while Shobha led the walk at

Nandanam where “plant artist”O.P. Ravindran lived. “Heplanted some rare trees, like theAshoka and the Purasu (Flameof the Forest), and I focused onthem and stories about him,”she adds.

Word power

Cinema isn’t just about histrionics; language is key,

too. And one of the interestingelements of Tamil cinema is itsuse of Madras bhashai. “This isthe slang spoken in the city, onewhich has evolved over theyears and includes a number ofwords from other languages,like Hindi, Telugu, Urdu andSanskrit,” according to actor V.Mohan Raman, who focused onthis unique language in his talkthis year. He traced its originand how actors and comediansused it in films, right from the1930s to today. Raman feelsthat an actor who has masteredthe art of Madras bhashai isKamal Haasan. “In Vasool RajaMBBS, he used it flawlessly.”

Through her eyesDancer Chandralekha’s con-

nection with Chennai was along one, but arts editorSadanand Menon condensed itin his talk, focusing on two as-pects. “He presented a poemshe wrote between 1968-69, onMadras and how it influencedher. It has since been publishedin a book called Rainbow on theRoadside.

He then got more anecdotal– talking about her coming tothe city, learning BharatNatyam and her experienceswhile living here (from 1950-2006). “She chose to settledown here because she alwayssaid this city lets you be,” saysMenon, adding “The dancer isstill relevant today and hermantra – to be true to yourself –affected all those who met her”.He also recalled that she was anenthusiastic Scrabble player. “Ifthere was a Scrabble worldchampionship, she’d win”. –(Adapted from an Indian Ex-press report.)

CELEBRATING MADRAS WEEK

S. Anwar and walkers during a heritage walk at Amir Mahal.

September 16-30, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 9

Madras madnessin 20th Century US

� Contributed byC H R I S T O P H E RSHARP to themagazine Ivy Stylein 2011 and sent toMadras Musingsrecently by a readerliving abroad.

If I were to create an Ivy-inspired urban myth, I would

spin a tale of how the first Yaleman to wear a Madras shirt wasold Elihu himself and how Ma-dras money built Yale.

“While no one knows whypreppies are so attracted to Ma-dras,” Esquire once wrote, “it isa matter of record that ElihuYale was once Governor in Ma-dras and included five bolts ofthe fabric in his initial endow-ment to the University.” Thisstory was first told in a 1960Hathaway shirt advertisementand was the product of DavidOgilvy and his minions of MadMen. An overly investigativepersonality might wonder ifthese five bolts are the ones de-scribed as “five pieces of plainmuslin” in the ‘History of Yale’provided by The Society ofColonial Wars in the State ofConnecticut.

Journeying back to the turnof the century, Madras in plainand striped varieties was knownto the American customer. The1897 Sears Roebuck & Com-pany catalog list Madras shirtsfor sale, and the New York Timesin November 1919 reported aMadras shirt shortage.

Esquire reports that Madrasfirst appears in the fashion pagesin 1937, noting swim trunks be-ing seen in South Hampton,Long Island, and Newport,Rhode Island. Madras was defi-nitely known to the New Havenhaberdashers of the time, whosold it as resort wear. One ex-ample is Madras swim trunkssold at J. Press in 1939. It hasbeen widely believed thatAmericans visiting the BritishWest Indies at the time broughtback this look.

As a resort wear phenom-enon, some of the credit can begiven to the Bermuda AthleticAssociation, which invited IvyLeague rugby teams to a tour-nament in 1935. The pilgrimagebecame so popular that charter

flights for students would bebooked and advertised in thestudent newspapers. The stu-dents returned to campus withnew wardrobe items and a tastefor island revelry. Life magazinepredicted in 1948 that studentsaccustomed to coming downover break would return againfor their honeymoons.

Instrumental in the spread ofresort wear were the island out-fitters: stores likeTrimingham’s, Smith’s and theEnglish Sports Shop. Theseplaces were the source forproper Bermudas, Shetland

sweaters and everything Ma-dras. The resort trend fueled aninterest in Madras through thepostwar 1940s. A glimpse at thefuture 1950s Madras scene ap-peared in the December 5, 1949issue of Life Magazine. In thatissue they feature Robert Smithin East Hampton wearing aplaid Madras shirt, and a bare-chested, pipesmoking Pierre S.du Pont III sporting a pair ofplaid Madras swim trunks onFisher Island.

Madras would continue tomake its rise in the 1950s. Thefledgling Gentry magazinewould feature Madras swimtrunks in 1952. The summer1953 issue features the Madrasblazer. The editors write “Cot-ton Madras from India, themulticolor plaid-patterned fab-ric with a faded look, popular insports shirts and swim trunks,now makes its appearance inanother hot-weather item. Itwas introduced and immedi-

ately accepted in Palm Beachthis winter.” The photos andaccompanying text feature IvyLeague jackets, three-buttonand “worn without shoulderpads.” Life Magazine also fea-tured a couple wearing Madrasin 1955, and Sports illustratedwould feature Madras in 1956,1958 and 1960.

Robert Ruark, sportsmanand author of the evocativeSouthern work The Old Manand the Boy, wrote in his syndi-cated column in 1960, “MyMadras shirts and shorts areguaranteed to ‘bleed,’ anotherMadison Avenue dramatizationof simple color instability, suchas may be found in any ordinaryshirt with no press agent.”Ruark may have been sanguinein regard to his bleeding Ma-dras, but the American marketon the whole had to be sold onit.

Ellerton Jeette, president ofHathaway shirts, had beenanonymously making whiteMadras shirts for years. It wason a visit to London he noticeda bespoke shirtmaker cuttingshirts out of plaid Madras. Thistartan-inspired fabric is be-lieved to have its roots in the19th-century Raj in India, whenlocal weavers incorporated co-lonial patterns.

There was only one problemwith the shirts when first intro-duced: They were rejected bythe American public. Custom-ers claimed that they bled andfaded in the sun. Returnsmounted and disaster loomed,so Jeette took his problem tomaster advertising man DavidOgilvy.

It was in 1951 that Ogilvybrought the sleepy New En-gland shirt company to nationalattention by introducing aneye-patched icon dubbed “Theman in the Hathaway shirt.”Jeette was looking for anotherstroke of advertising genius, andtold Ogilvy that the vegetabledyes in Madras naturally faded.“Then why not say so?” repliedOgilvy.

At that moment Madras’chief flaw became it most prizedvirtue. Over the years theMadison Avenue spin machinechurned out promises like“Hathaway guarantees thatyour shirts will fade in thewash,” and “Magical thingshappen to this shirt when youwash it.” Upping the ante,bleeding and fading were said toprovide “good breeding and ma-turity,” something unseen inmass-produced fabric. Madrasleft to its natural course wouldproduce a shirt “marvelouslymuted” and “dustily well-bred.”

“Unfaded Madras garmentsare as rare as a pair of cleanwhite bucks on a college cam-pus,” reported The Evening In-dependent on July 26, 1960. Inthe same year an anonymousstorekeeper reported, “So far asmy customers are concerned,the sooner the Madras fades thebetter they like it.” It seemedthe Olgilvy strategy worked andthe first half decade of the1960s would see Madras reachmass popularity.

In January 1960, the WallStreet Journal reported that thehottest thing in menswear wasMadras shirts and sports jack-ets. Esquire’s fashion director OE Schoeffler continued thedrum beat in 1963, trumpetingMadras as “bigger then ever.”He notes that Madras was stillbeing used for sports shirts,jackets, shorts and swimwear,but the new trend was for Ma-dras ties, belts, hats, watchbands, vests, wallets, tobaccopouches, cigarette cases andshaving kits. A UPI story fromJuly 1965 reports that Madrassales were strong in the summerof 1964, “carried through thewinter in the form of pile-linedMadras parkas and long sleevessports shirts and picked upsteam this summer.” The bigsellers in the summer of ’65:walk shorts, sports shirts, three-button sportcoats and slacks.UPI also noted that patchworkjackets, which first appeared inPalm Beach a decade earlier,were “gaining ground.”

All good trends, however,must come to end. Madraswould eventually use colourfastdyes – to the delight of MiddleAmerica mothers. Americawould go through a countercul-ture and see a rise in the popu-larity of workwear, and Madraswould retreat back to the col-lege shops to be discoveredagain by the preppy crowd ofthe late ’70s.

The curmudgeons among uswill say we have once againreached Madras saturation. Ilook around today and theshorts seem too long, too loud,and they always seem to bepaired with t-shirts. I get thefeeling that the youths thatwear Madras today are the samesort that would be provoked toviolence by the mere sight of it30 years ago. At those momentsI console myself with thoughtsof a simpler time when you al-ways wanted to have at leastone friend who wore Madrastrousers because he alwaysknew where the best partieswere.

And when I need an extrabit of levity, I think of EarlyShiply, retired clown and pub-licity man for Ringling Brothers,Barnum & Bailey Circus. Whenthe circus came to New Havenin the Spring of 1960, Shiplytook one look at the studentsand quipped to the Yale DailyNews, “If you see clowns oneday wearing blue serge suits, it’sbecause you college kids arestealing our trademark withyour Madras outfits.”

Government museum meansvery little to the locals. As forvisitors from overseas, it is al-ways the bronze gallery that isthe biggest draw. They comehere probably once in a lifetime,unless they are serious research-ers. This means the museumauthorities and the Govern-ment are neglecting the poten-tial that the local populationhas by way of being attracted tothe museum.

World over, museums arefaced with the challenge of re-maining relevant. They haveresponded by launching cre-

ative programmes for people ofall ages. They have transformedtheir spaces into vibrant and in-teractive centres. Their websites are up to date and manyhave mobile applications tohighlight what they have. Thereare even sleepovers for schoolchildren at some museums.When was the last time ourmuseum launched a drive toattract more visitors to its pre-mises? Probably never. It is hightime the museum changed itsstyle of working and becamemore responsive to the require-ments of visitors and thosewanting to learn.

(Continued from page 1)

BETTER DAYS FOR THE MUSEUM?

10 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2016

The day Indiaupset Brazil

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

Rane Group

Hotels Resortsand Palaces

Sundram FastenersLimited

Since 1856,patently leaders

— A WELLWISHERUCAL AUTO

PRIVATE LIMITEDTVS MOTOR COMPANY

The HinduGroup of PublicationsF.L. Smidth Limited

Answers to Quiz 1. Swachh Bharat campaign, 2. Hawaii, 3. Yogeshwar Dutt, 4. P.V.

Sindhu (badminton), Sakshi Malik (wrestling), Dipa Karmakar (gymnas-tics) and Jitu Rai (shooting), 5. S.R. Nathan, 6. Kamal Hasan, 7. Airlander10, 8. Bangladesh, 9. Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), 10. PM NarendraModi sported this monogrammed apparel.

* * *

11. Baron Connemara, 12. Elihu Yale, 13. Aishwarya Dhanush, thedaughter of Rajinikanth, 14. T.K. Rajendran, 15. Lighthouse toPattinapakkam, 16. Velacheri, 17. Information on medical counselling andinstitutons, 18. Rio Paralympics high jump gold medallist ThangaveluMariyappan hails from that place, 19. Egmore, Purasawalkam, andTondiarpet, 20. The city’s earliest newspaper ‘Madras Courier’ was firstpublished on that date.

In a long and eventful careerin professional sports report-

ing, stretching more than 40years, it is difficult to pinpointone or two major highlights. Ihowever have no doubt as tothe two most memorable eventsI have witnessed. Pride of placegoes to Tied Test II played inthe cauldron that was the MAChidambaram stadium in Sep-tember 1986. You cannot ig-nore the tremendous historicalaspect of the game, particularlywhen it could be pointed outthat nearly 1200 Tests havebeen played since then andthere has never been anothertied Test. Second on the list hasto be India’s comeback victoryover Brazil in the Davis CupWorld Group play-off tie inChennai in 2010 when thehome team turned a 0-2 deficitinto a 3-2 triumph.

This is a feat that not manyteams have achieved in DavisCup history and you must re-member that the competitionhas been played since 1900. Thefact that it was the first timethat India were achieving thefeat since playing in the tourna-ment for the first time in 1921emphasises the historical aspectof the incredible turnaround.Also it must be said that the re-sult was unexpected, for Brazilarrived as favourites. The onlything that India had going for itwas home advantage and an al-most sure point in the doubles.But still, two of the four singles

had to be won and this seemeda tall order going by therankings.

Brazil’s two top players wereThomaz Bellucci (ranked No28) and Ricardo Mello (81).Against that, India’s two singlesplayers were Somdev Devvar-man (98) and Rohan Bopanna(476). It is true that rankingscan mean little when it comesto Davis Cup play, as indeedLeander Paes had proved againand again with incredible victo-ries over players ranked muchhigher than him. But here thedifference in numbers seemedtoo much to make up.

When Brazil, thanks to vic-tories by Ricardo Mello overDevvarman and Thomaz Bel-lucci over Bopanna, took a 2-0lead at the end of the first day’ssingles it did appear that India’sbid to make it back to the pres-tigious World Group had suf-fered a severe and irretrievablesetback. In the glorious days ofthe Krishnans and the Amrit-rajs, India were always placedamong the elite teams and infact had made it to the DavisCup final in 1966, 1974 and1987. In the new millennium,however, with Paes concentrat-ing on his successful doubles ca-reer, the challenge in singles

play was fragile with the resultthat India continued to lan-guish for long in the Asia/Oceania qualifying stage.

The fightback started thesecond day with the well estab-lished and highly successful duoof Paes and Mahesh Bhupathiwinning the doubles easily instraight sets against BrunoSoares and Marcelo Melo. Thathowever was the expected re-sult, with the sixth ranked Paesand seventh ranked Bhupathialways tipped to defeat oppo-nents ranked 35 and 38 respec-tively. However, with Brazilneeding to win only one of thetwo reverse singles to stay in theWorld Group, the odds stillfavoured the visitors. But therewas a perceptible change in themood when the players took thecourt at the NungambakkamStadium on Sunday, September19th. With the win in thedoubles the initiative seemed tohave changed hands and thelarge crowd present somehowsensed that there were going tosee something special. After all,other teams had come from 0-2behind to win in Davis Cup playso why not India?

An inspired Devvarmanlived up to his reputation as thecountry’s leading singles playerand was leading Bellucci in thefirst of the reverse singles 7-6,4-0 when the latter retired fol-lowing an injury. It was now 2-2and everything hinged on thetie between Bopanna and

Ricardo Mello. By now the nearcapacity crowd was on its feet,cheering and screaming for ev-ery point won by the Indian.Poor Mello must have felt thathe was not only taking onBopanna but thousands of oth-ers as well. A supremely confi-dent Bopanna made nonsenseof the rankings on his way to a6-3, 7-6, 6-3 victory to spark offscenes of jubilation.

The sight of the Indiansquad along with non-playingShiv Prakash Mishra taking avictory lap around the stadiumwith the tricolour fluttering be-hind them will always be one tocherish. India were back in theWorld Group and the amazingturnaround made it one of thegreatest moments in Indian ten-nis – nay, Indian sport.

� by Partab Ramchandpartabramchand@yahoo.com

� Recalling...