WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXVII No. 17 December 16-31, 2017

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• Disappointing syllabus

• Recalling Soundarya Mahal

• Madras’s unforgettable Briton

• IE Golden Jubilee ahead

CMYK

A memorial policy needed

(By A Special Correspondent)

Work on demolishing the World War II air raid shelter in Royapuram. (Photograph: Shantanu Krishnan.)

(Continued on page 2)

The Institute for SocialCompetitiveness, India,

has published a Social ProgressIndex for individual States andfor the country. Tamil Nadu,with an overall score of 65.34for Social Progress has donemuch better than the countryscore of 54.90. India itself ranks98 out of 133 listed countries,which is not something to crowabout.

Social Progress is divided inthe Study into three dimen-sions. The first dimension is Ba-sic Human Needs comprisingnutrition, water, sanitation,shelter and personal safety. Thesecond is Well Being Needsunder which are included basiceducation, access to informa-tion and communication,health and pollution-free envi-ronment. The third dimensionis Opportunity comprising per-

sonal rights, freedom of choiceand inclusiveness.

From the scores for 2016, itis seen that, generally, smallerStates have done well, record-ing good scores although theirGDP size is smaller. Their scoresare as follows – Goa 63.39,

ways. You could be a very goodperformer but low in rank be-cause the class is made up ofexcellent performers. One be-ing only just above averagecould shine in a class of medi-ocrity. Looking at the absolutescore of 65.34, it is just above

but baffling is the high score of91.28 on water and sanitationthat does not tally with our ev-eryday observation and experi-ence.

On Well Being, the State’sperformance is 58.84, fallinginto the average category. WellBeing comprises environmentalquality, health issues like lifeexpectancy, prevalence of respi-ratory infections, unsatisfactorylevel of enrolment in primaryand secondary schools, schooldrop-out rate and gender parity.Greater attention in terms ofinvestment and raising institu-tional efficacies at thegrassroots is necessary on thesefronts.

On Opportunities, we justemerge out of the average cat-egory at 60.92. The compo-nents that offer scope for

Himachal 65.39, Kerala 68.09,Mizoram 62.89 andUttarakhand 64.23. Contrastthese with traditionally well ad-ministered bigger States likeMaharashtra at 57.88,Karnataka at 59.72 and TamilNadu at 65.34.

Within the country, TamilNadu tops the list, not takingsmaller States into reckoning.Ranking is misleading in some

the “middle” category. So, wecannot rest on the distinction ofbeing near the top in the coun-try.

Deeper analysis of the com-ponents of each of the three di-mensions of the Index providesinsight into what our Stateneeds to work on to improve itssocial progress record. On Ba-sic Needs, we seem to be doingvery well with a score of 76.25,

(Continued on page 2)

A plea to savewar bunker

(By A Special Correspondent)

The Sivaji Ganesan Memorial in Adyar.

The Sivaji Ganesan statuein the Memorial.

The relocated SivajiGanesan memorial in

Adyar and the controversy sur-rounding it highlight the needfor an objective and impartialpolicy on memorials, their type,scale and location.

After the High Court said itwas a traffic hazard and blockedthe view of traffic on the BeachRoad, the statue was removedto a location near the AdyarBridge. It is now housed in amandapam-style structure cost-

ing Rs. 2.8 crore and taking up28,400 square feet, equivalentto nearly 12 grounds of landspace.

The building is in theDravidian style of architecture,adorned with domes. The me-morial consists of a central halland surrounding corridor, allmeasuring 2,500 square feet orso. On visiting it, you wonder ifit should have taken as much asRs. 2.8 crore for building a hallof this size. Hung on the sur-

rounding corridor walls are pho-tographs featuring SivajiGanesan with well-known per-sonages of his time. To goaround the hall and view thepictures, it takes hardly tenminutes, as there is nothing elseof interest relating the exhibitsto the memory of the great ac-tor who thrilled millions by hisunique style of acting and deliv-ery of powerful lines. His sten-torian voice, famous dialogues,

exhibits of awards, specimens ofdresses in famous roles such as,say, Kattabomman or Karnan,would have enhanced spectatorvalue; if necessary, a small audi-torium could have been addedwhere visitors could press a but-ton to choose a film scene thatthey want to recall. No wonderthere are very few visitors.Overall, it is a dull affair.Spending so much of thetaxpayer’s money and using upvaluable land space, it is an ex-pensive apology for a memorial.A statue in the middle of one ofthe busy squares of the Citywould have served the purpose,much better reminding us ofSivaji and his contributions.

Apart from the fact thatlittle thought seems to havegone into designing a memorial,a larger issue is whether thereshould not be a set of norms forthe creation of memorials forpersonalities in different fieldsand of varying stature. For in-stance, what about a similarmemorial for, say, N.S.Krishnan, the famous comedianof Chaplinesque calibre? Whatabout famous musicians andsports persons? And, so on, in

gathered around asking the rea-son for the demolition. TheHindu was alerted and it carrieda detailed story. That did thetrick and work stopped, but notbefore some damage was done.But a whole plethora of ques-tions have since emerged, all ofwhich are indicative of a largermalaise in the way heritage ishandled in our city.

Whom does the shelter/bun-ker belong to? The army has norecords of its existence, or atleast there is no one there whoknows. The ArchaeologicalSurvey does not have anythingto do with, it as it recognisesonly monuments that are clas-sified as ancient. The HeritageCommittee of the ChennaiMetropolitan DevelopmentAuthority says this is not withinits jurisdiction as it has, in itsblinkered fashion, decided torestrict its scope to just the 400and odd buildings given to it bythe High Court of Madras. Andeven there, it is doing preciouslittle. The Corporation, to giveit credit, is willing to organise ashifting of the shelter to some-where else, provided someagency or private donor is will-ing to bear the cost. Of course,transferring this structure is noeasy task as it weighs severalhundred tonnes. Bureaucracy isunlikely to consider this mattertop priority, but to the few who

For years, this square shelter made of concrete has been lying uncared for onthe side of the Ennore Express Highway. It has been used as a makeshift

urinal and toilet, it has been lived in by squatters, and from the numerous bottlesfound in it, has been used as a bar as well. But nobody can deny that this is anair-raid shelter left over from the World War II. Known affectionately as thepillbox, it has been around for quite a while. This is not an architecturallandmark. But it is certainly a historic marker. It reminds us of a war fromwhich our city actually benefited in a big way, never to look back thereafter.

Only now, it is squarely in the path of a proposed pipeline of ChennaiPetrochemical Corporation. And efforts are on to demolish it. Last week thewreckers began hammering away at it when locals from the Kasimedu area

Madras Musings wishes its Readers A Very Happy and Prosperous

New Year.

2 MADRAS MUSINGS December 16-31, 2017

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

Talking the WalkThe Man from Madras

Musings was at a trafficsignal. He was saying hisprayers rather earnestly, for hewas walking and had to crossover to the other side. Thetraffic showed no signs of slow-ing down. There was no optionbut to make a quick dash for itand hope that nothing woulddash against MMM while hewas navigating. Just as MMMwas girding his loins for theplunge, he could hear a voicefrom above. At first it was amere mumble, barely audibleover the din of traffic but itsoon became clearer. Thevoice was counting down fromten, as is done when a rocket islaunched. MMM felt like Joanof Arc. If you recollect, she tooheard voices from above andled the army to victory.

brought in to bring some sem-blance of order to our chaoticroads. Earlier, we had camerasthat were supposed to takephotos of vehicles that jumpedsignals. Nobody knows whathappened to them after a ratherfanfare-filled launch. Therewas then a plan to gettransgenders to man traffic sig-nals and publicly shame thosewho violated rules. That re-mained just an announcement.Now we have these voices thatbreath o’er our Eden. Heavenknows how long they will last.But what is for certain is thatthe disorderly state of our traf-fic will continue forever.MMM sometimes thinksTennyson’s brook got its ideason eternity from our traffic.Too bad that pedestrians arenot likely to live as long.

All is, however, not lost.MMM feels that the voicecould be put to much better useif it named and shamed offend-ers on a live basis. After all,these are days of machine in-telligence. If only the voicecould say something like this –“You there bald-headed cootdriving two-wheeler no. xyz –look where you are going. Ladyin red saree – did you not no-tice the lights turning red? Youmoron there – spitting on theroad, how would it be if I ap-plied it back on your face? Fatman answering call of nature –Toilet is just around the cor-ner, Sir. You can zip up andcome out from behind thejunction box.” If the voicecould speak in the local Madrasbhashai it would be even better.

Poster matters

One of the Judges ruled thatno posters or flex boards

featuring living beings can beput up in the city. The Manfrom Madras Musings assumedthat the Chennai Corporationwould be delighted and politi-cal parties most disappointedwith this judgement. In realityit was the other way round –the political parties could notcare less and simply continueddefacing walls with posters anderecting banners lauding livingand dead leaders alike. On theother hand, it was the Corpo-ration that protested, challeng-ing the judgement!

MMM for one is completelyunable to see the logic. In whatway is the Corporation ad-versely affected if there is a lawbanning posters, graffiti andbanners? Is it in the business ofdefacing private walls and dig-ging holes on footpaths or is ita custodian of civic space? Oris it afraid that its overworked,super-efficient staff who havebeen wearing themselves to thebone removing posters and fill-

MMM was so taken abackthat he froze. He was dimlyaware that the lights hadchanged and there was a brieflull in traffic lasting all of anano second. He could havetaken his chance but hemissed it, so mesmerised washe by the voice from above. Infact, he stayed on to listen toits message in full. And heliked what he heard. Thevoice was like that of a schoolmarm who teaches the nurseryrhymes to the infant classes. Arather fruity voice with a hintof tremolo. The message firstin English and then Tamil, hadthe voice counting down from10 and on reaching zero an-nouncing that it was safe forpedestrians to cross.

Only it wasn’t. The voicemay have had its head in theclouds, for it had no truckwith reality. It could countdown till it was blue in the faceand announce that it was safe,but this was not a sentimentshared by pedestrians, chieflybecause hardly any vehiclebothered to stop. They simplywhizzed past leaving pedestri-ans to their fate. Those on footwere like members of theLight Brigade, who if you re-member entered the breacheven as cannons to the left andright of them volleyed andthundered. This was exactlywhat happened to MMM andthe rest. It was only as he washalfway through the pedes-trian crossing and nimblyjumping about to avoid ve-hicles that it occurred toMMM that no great good hasever come of listening tovoices from above. The lateJoan of Arc, if you recollect,was burnt at the stake. Thevoice having done its bit nevercame to her rescue. Ditto thisvoice when it came to MMM.

These disembodied voicesare the latest that our ratherquixotic police force has

ing in holes after removingbanners will suddenly fall idle?Whatever be the thought be-hind all this, our civic body de-cided it must protest and wasduly rewarded for its effortswith some sharp remarks fromthe bench.

Their Lordships noted thatGreenway’s Road is full ofposters and that if a man wereto stand idle on that thorough-fare he would find a poster ortwo pasted on him. The pointthat MMM would like to makehere, and gently at that, for hefears being hauled up for con-tempt, is that it is not justGreenway’s Road that suffersfrom this. If their Lordshipswere to look up once in a whilewhen being driven to office,they will notice that several, infact, most thoroughfares in the

city suffer from this malaise. Itshould also be noted by theirLordships that it is not just thepolitical parties that defacewalls. The Tamil magazinesare greater offenders as alsoare those offering quack curesfor everything from piles up-wards. In effect it is in our cul-ture to paste posters and notall the laws of the land are go-ing to clean up our walls.

The Corporation inMMM’s view is more in touchwith ground reality. This is,after all, a city where flexboards are erected and posterspasted for every stage of life –birth, first birthday, pubertyceremony aka turmericshower bath, wedding, birth ofbaby, first birthday of baby,puberty ceremony aka tur-meric shower bath of baby,wedding of baby, birth ofbaby’s baby, sixtieth birthday,eightieth birthday, kicking ofbucket, in memoriam, firstyear remembrance and so on.Their Lordships can at mosthope for a clean Greenway’sRoad.

Tailpiece

Walking down a road be-ing repaired, The Man

from Madras Musings recentlysaw this sign. It could well bethe motto of our city’s civicbody.

–MMM

A plea to savewar bunker

MEMORIAL POLICYNEEDED

(Continued from page 1)

(Continued from page 1)

are concerned with the matter,the lack of proper documenta-tion and ownership may provea deterrent. In the absence ofanyone coming forward, thebunker may have to go. Notthat we protected it or main-tained it well when it was stand-ing undisturbed. What is alsoamazing is that not one personin officialdom had any ideaabout the history behind thestructure. And they did notbother to find out as well.

All of this raises larger ques-tions. When the maintenanceof even important public build-ings is not adequate, what pricethe lesser-known landmarks ofthe city? Secondly, what is theprocess by which we can addstructures to a list of historicallyimportant edifices in our city? Ifan Anna Nagar arch can be de-clared a heritage monumentbased on a Chief Minister’swhim and then protected, whycan a World War II bunker notenjoy the same status? Whatprotection do uncared for struc-

tures like this have againstdemolition or wanton damage?

Presently, officialdom hasasked The Hindu to investigatethe background of the pillbox.But is it not the onus of theGovernment to look into itsrecords and see when this shel-ter was built? Work has beensuspended for the nonce ondemolition, but this is not likelyto remain that way for long. Un-less some details emergequickly. But since this is a citywhere emulating Singapore isconsidered the best way, let uspoint out that such pillboxesand the World War II construc-tions are well protected there.

EDITOR’S NOTE: TheGovernment Museum hasplenty of space for locatingthis air raid shelter as amemory of World War II, justas the Fort Museumremembers the Great Warwith relics of the Emden’sshelling of the city and WorldWar II with a bomb fragmentfrom a raid by a solitary Japa-nese aircraft.

various fields. Feasibility oferecting mandapams for everyone of these, occupying primeland in an already crowded city,is itself highly questionable.Memorials should not be intru-sive and, preferably, not take upprime land. Where a specialstructure is to be created, itshould add to a public facility atthe same time – a library or parkor hospital, for instance. An ex-ample is of memorials in theUnited States in the form of li-braries and museums, to honourpast Presidents and perpetuatetheir legacies.

Only in exceptional cases ofhigh historical significance domemorials have an exclusivephysical element built, such asthe Washington, Lincoln andJefferson monuments.

Most memorials have a liv-ing element of high public us-age value, an example of whichis the Woodrow Wilson Inter-national Center for Scholars. Ithas a small exhibit on PresidentWilson’s life and work, but isbest known “for its work tounite the world of ideas with theworld of policy”, providing fa-cilities “for scholarship linked toissues of contemporary impor-tance”. Similarly, the Harry S.Truman Scholarship honoursU.S. college students dedicatedto public service and policy

leadership. The John F.Kennedy Center for the Per-forming Arts has on-going livetheatrical performances. Otherways of commemoration pro-mote public interest, as for in-stance the Adams NationalHistorical Park.

To avoid using up space andmoney without contributing topublic purpose, it is advisable toname existing highways, roads,squares, airports, adding astatue in a prominent locationat these sites, instead of goingfor exclusive memorial struc-tures and complexes. Now thatairline connections are beingextended to regional centres atdistrict levels, there is enoughscope to name these airports af-ter public figures and accommo-date the growing demand formemorials. In cases of nationalor historical importance, ahigher class of memorial couldtake the form of specially cre-ated public facilities like librar-ies, research facilities, auditoriaand museums.

A well thought out policy,setting out the norms forconferring the honour and thetype of commemoration toexpress it, are necessary toavoid unseemly controversiesand to ensure that resources areused to serve public purposewhile honouring the meritori-ous.

December 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Disappointing syllabusfor Social Sciences

● AN OPEN LETTER TO SCERT

Essential to stressthe Humanities

� Some weeks before the State Council of Educational andResearch Training Committee announced its new syllabus forTamil Nadu High Schools, your Editor, in his personal capac-ity as a person connected with Education for forty years, madethe following suggestions to the Anandakrishnan SyllabusCommittee. An interaction was promised and that was thelast he heard of it. As suggestions are still being called for, herepeats them as an open letter accompanying the views of twoveteran Social Science teachers.

The SCERT Syllabus CommitteeDear Sirs

1) Humanities must get as much attention as the Sciences. Asin my day, History, Geography, Nature Study/Environmen-tal Science and Civics-and-Constitution (which could be in-cluded with History) must be compulsorily taught as sepa-rate subjects from Class 3 till Class 10 by specialised teach-ers, not grouped together as Social Studies, taught by an adhoc teacher. The studies in the first three subjects must fol-low this scheme: Class 1) City/town/local area of the school;2) District; 3) State; 4) South India; 5) Rest of India; 6)South and Southeast Asia;7) Rest of Asia; 8&9) Rest of theWorld. The heritage and environment of every student’sdomicile must be known to him/her, leading him/her to alater appreciation of these features in the country and thewider world.

2) English language for teachers as well as students must bestrongly focused on, whatever be the medium of instructionin the school. There must be specialised training for teach-ers in Communicative English and they would need to passon the knowledge to the children. Children must be readyto answer in English simple questions about their subject/interest asked in English. In fact, they would need to be pre-pared to ask questions and carry on a dialogue in the me-dium of instruction as well as in English.

3) Also compulsory must be moral instruction/ethics, a voca-tion chosen from three or four options offered (carpentry,motor vehicle or electrical engineering, farming, needle-work, nursing, weaving etc.), physical education, and sport.Every student needs to learn to be hands-on and also appre-ciate the dignity of labour. Students also need to developvalues and healthy bodies with healthy minds. If there areno grounds for sport, space can be made for indoor gameslike table tennis, squash, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, vol-leyball, basketball and badminton, for example.

4) There must be a library in each school with a variety ofbooks and every child must be encouraged to read at leastone book a week. It was from such reading that I got my firstlessons in history and language.

S. Muthiah

� An assessment of

the Social Science

syllabus by two

concerned educa-

tionists.

� VIEWPOINTS

The framing of the new HighSchool syllabus by the

State Council of Educationaland Research Training has beena herculean effort, involvingmany teachers, educationists,members of academic institu-tions and bureaucrats for oversix months. There was a senseof excitement for all the peopleconnected with the educationalscenario, hoping for new per-spectives in the curriculum,particularly in the field of hu-manities. Unfortunately, thenew syllabus has fallen far shortof expectations – at least in theSocial Sciences.

The syllabus for Social Sci-ences is staggering in terms ofcontent (as it always has been),both for the students and theteachers. There has been nochange in the new syllabus. It is

just flat wines in old bottles.The content is so vast that stu-dents will develop a distaste forthe Social Sciences – whichcompresses History, Geography,Economics and Civics into onegeneral subject. There is a stresson information rather thanknowledge. Teachers are stillgoing to struggle to completethe entire syllabus within a veryshort time span, made shorterwith all other extracurricularactivities, unexpected holidaysand examination weeks.

In the 1960’s and 70’s therewas a systematic study of His-tory and Geography. Economicsand Civics were not includedtill the Higher Secondary level.Teaching and learning was amore enjoyable process, andconcepts could be understoodand applied. In the learning ob-jectives for these subjects, po-litical overtones, prejudicesbased on caste and gender aregiven. It is better to avoid ex-posing children at this level tonegative aspects. It would be in-teresting for children to learnCivics through practicals. Theschool can be used as the gov-ernment and its different func-tions can be fitted into judi-ciary, legislation etc. The textbooks need to be written withthese aspects in mind. All thesesubjects – ‘the Humanities’ as itwere – are now clubbed underthe subject ‘Social Science’ – anobvious misnomer (a misnomerof the worst kind) !

The idea was to integratethe subjects so that the stu-dents’ load could be reduced.But the reality is that there is nointegration – the subjects arestill taught systematically andseparately under the heading ofSocial Sciences. The only thingwhich is integrated is the textbook.

For integration, the per-spective has to change. It

should not be a systematic ap-proach but a holistic approachfrom the view point of the eco-system, landscapes, naturalcycles and heritage, at the sametime imparting the technicali-ties and special language of thesubjects. This is a must if thestudents have to be prepared forthe change which is takingplace in the world and whichwill accelerate in the next de-cades. Science and Maths willtake care of the technologicalchanges, but what about thehuman perspectives? Studentswill have to learn to live withthe others and with humanity inharmony. This gap between theSciences and the Humanities iswhat has led to the present dis-connect in society.

Analysing the new syllabusat the different levels, we findthat at the primary level apraiseworthy effort to integratehas been made at Class 4 usingthe concept of the Tamil ‘AiynThinai’ – the ecosystems. Thehistorical perspective alsoshould be included in this. Thissame concept has been ex-tended to Class 5 also, but it hasto be more clearly defined, to fitthese landscapes within thephysical framework of India.The various agricultural prac-tices in these landscapes shouldbe inclusive, not dealt with as aseparate topic. Similarly, withthe coastal landscapes, the im-portance of the ocean should bestressed. When dealing withthat particular landscape, ClassThree should include study ofthe particular district as well asTamil Nadu. The principle isfrom the “Known to Un-known”. Local study, as areastudy, is very important at thislevel.

It is at the middle schoollevel that there is no clarity. Wedon’t know whether the sylla-bus is linear or concentric.There is no connect betweenthe History and Geography andEconomic content. Ideas putforth in one are repeated in theother (e.g. the occupations).The History syllabus is daunt-ing, as it is in chronological or-der and also descriptive of ad-ministration, social and eco-nomic life etc. Many of theolder systems are given undueimportance (they are obsolete,as in the case of agricultural sys-tems, where the study of thepresent state of agriculture in

India is necessary, the oldryotwari system is to be taught).Sometime the content is notspecific – like just mentioningthe word ‘hazards’? What haz-ards?

The secondary level syllabusis the most overloaded, goingback to the systematic study ofall three subjects. There is asense of deja vu. The subjectmatter deserves 100 markseach, instead of the 25 allotted.It is at this level that there ismore of a strain on the teacherand the taught, as students facethe first public examination.

What we wonder were theobjectives for framing the newsyllabus? Was the objectiveonly to bring the State Boardsyllabus on par with the CentralBoard, so that competitive ex-aminations like the I.A.S. and

NEET could be more success-fully attempted? Could not theobjective have been broader,drafting a syllabus aimed atequipping students to face arapidly changing world. If criti-cal thinking is developedthrough the syllabus, childrenwill automatically take NEETor any other competitive exami-nation with self-confidence.The present syllabus willfunction as is it has been func-tioning so far, stressing rotelearning, something like motioncontinuing till inertia takesover.

A great deal will depend onthe development of content,the kind of text books madeavailable, to suit the level ofunderstanding of the students,and the skill and capability ofthe teachers.

� The late Gopulu during hisAnanda Vikatan days had aseries of wordless jokesthat brought about loudlaughter. These werebrought out as a book, in2005, and a copy wasrecently sent to me byCharukesi. We are pleasedto publish these cartoonsfor a new generation ofMadrasis.

– THE EDITOR

WordlessGopulu

4 MADRAS MUSINGS December 16-31, 2017 December 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

– SRIRAM V

(Continued on page 8)

The most unforgettable Britonthe City has known

Harry Miller in typical ‘action (above) and some of his photographs (top) forthe Bay of Bengal Programme’s exhibitions.

He sported the fancy title ofDirector of Photography,

Indian Express Group. (I doubt ifany other major newspaper inIndia has ever had such a func-tionary.) This Briton’s friendshipwith the Madras police (who fre-quently sought his help for pho-tographs of criminals and crimescenes) and the access he en-joyed to top brass in governmentand elsewhere made him an in-fluential person. You crossed himat your peril.

Voluble, witty, entertainingand highly self-opinionated,Harry Miller was always ebullientcompany.

Miller made Madras his homein 1956 and lived here till hisdeath in 1998. He had earlierrepresented The Hindu as itsLondon correspondent and waseven for two years its correspon-dent in Pakistan, a country hedisliked intensely. He went backto the U.K. and lived there forseven years before coming toMadras – a city “that gave himthe powerful feeling that this washome.” He married Revathi,daughter of ParthasarathyIyengar aka ‘Sadhu’ Partha-sarathy (a leading lawyer ofChennai who took to sanyas af-ter building the Vaishnavitemple in Thirumullaivayal).

Miller joined the Indian Ex-press in the 1950s and did prettymuch what he wanted to do. Hepublished provocative and occa-sionally eye-stopping photo-graphs. He wrote a popular col-umn, ‘Madras – city of neglect’,about civic problems – cloggedsewers, uncollected rubbish, poorbus services, failing streetlights,illegal buildings. And undertookimportant photographic assign-ments.

Back in 1980, I was Miller’scompanion over several thou-sand kilometres of road journeys– in Chennai, Mahabalipuram,Kanniyakumari and Tuticorin in

� byS.R. Madhu

Tamil Nadu; Kakinada andUppada in Andhra Pradesh; Puriin Orissa; Chittagong and Cox’sBazar in Bangladesh; Colombo,Negombo and Beruwela in SriLanka. He was particularly lo-quacious in a car – car journeysseemed to at once unravel hismemory and loosen his tongue.Result: stories, anecdotes andjokes aplenty – about Madras, itspersonalities high and humble,animals and snakes, the IndianExpress – some of which wereknown to very few.

Why the car journeys? As In-formation Officer of a FAO/UNproject, the Bay of BengalProgramme, I had suggested aphoto exhibition on small-scalefisheries to raise public awarenessabout our work. The project di-rector, Lars Engvall, readilyagreed and suggested that we en-gage Harry Miller, whom heknew through the Madras Club,to photo-document our work inIndia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.I accompanied Miller on fieldtrips in the three countries tobrief him about our work.

Miller took several hundredphotographs for the Bay of BengalProgramme, and we held two suc-cessful photo exhibitions – one atthe Taj Coromandel in Madras,another at the Galle Face Hotel inColombo. The exhibition beganan association both instructiveand entertaining.

But what I would like to talkabout today are the stories andanecdotes Miller shared with meon those car journeys. One de-lightful story concerned his bossin the Indian Express, RamnathGoenka – or, rather, about anorphanage Goenka had set up inChennai for destitute boys. Heonce told Miller “These boys areon vacation from school. Theyare idling away, wasting time.Teach them photography.”Miller took the chore seriouslyand imparted to the children the

basics of composition and focallength and lighting.

Around that time, a friend ofMiller, a visiting British fashionphotographer, had left a fewrolls of precious negatives withMiller – of some luscious ladiesin the nude. He told Miller, “I’mgoing out of town for some time.I don’t want to keep carrying

these negatives around with me.Keep them safely for me till Icome back.” Miller kept thenegative wallets in a darkroomcupboard.

One afternoon, Miller tookthe orphanage kids out on a pho-tography field trip. He then toldthem to process and print in hisdarkroom what they had shot,while he went out for some time.When he returned a few hourslater, what did he find?

The kids were on the floor gig-gling and sniggering, huddledover several prints of women inthe buff. They had somehow dis-covered the “steamy” negatives,and used their new-found skills toprocess and print them! Miller is

known to have a short fuse, and Ipity the victims of his wrath.

Miller told me, “For Heaven’ssake, Madhu, don’t write aboutthis anywhere. The Old Manwon’t forgive me. But do whatyou want after I am gone.” Sinceneither Miller nor “The OldMan” is around anymore, I guessit’s okay to share this anecdote

with readers.Another Miller anecdote:

Miller was interested in templearchitecture and his TamBramfather-in-law put in a word withthe temple authorities inRameswaram for a specialdarshan for his son-in-law. Millerdecided to go to the temple bare-chested and clad only in a dhoti(without underwear). Thetemple elephant raised its trunkto give Miller a well-trainednamaste, encouraging him todraw closer.

“Something incredible thenhappened,” Miller said. “Perhapsthe elephant had never seen awhite man before. It suddenlytwirled its trunk and removed my

dhoti.” The photo director of theIndian Express was in the alto-gether. “There was a photogra-pher around,” recalls Miller.“What a stupid fellow. Instead ofsnapping a fantastic moment, hecovered his eyes with his handsand looked away!”

Miller asked me whyTamilians are so colour-con-scious. He said he once photo-graphed K. Kamaraj, the formerChief Minister of Tamil Nadu. “Ithought they were pretty goodphotographs. But Kamaraj’s re-sponse was ‘You have made melook so black’.” Miller said Indianphotographers sometimes used“red-ink treatment” to maketheir subjects fairer.

Miller could resort to blusterto overcome difficult situations.(“As a vellaikkaran, I get awaywith some nonsense in Madras!”)He told me that on one occasion,he arrived at Madras airport fromLondon with some expensivephoto equipment bought in theU.K. He apprehended heavy im-port duty. When the Customsasked him whether he had any-thing to declare, he replied, “Yes,I have a gun.”

This triggered consternation.“He has a gun,” the Customs of-ficer yelled out to his colleagues,and they gathered around him.“Why do you have a gun, Sir?”one of them asked. “To shootmad dogs,” Miller replied with astraight face.

“Dogs? Why?”

“Have you ever carried dyingchildren in your arms, childrenwith rabies? I have done that.Believe me, there can be nodeath more horrible.” The audi-ence of Customs officers weretongue-tied and all ears whileMiller gave them a zoology les-son. He said people harbored anirrational fear of snakes, most ofwhich were harmless. But theywere indifferent to mad dogswhich freely roamed the city and

spread rabies. “I shoot them tosave the people of Madras.”

“Do you have a licence for thegun, Sir?” asked one of the offic-ers.

“No, I must apply for one,”Miller said. “Please leave the re-volver here till you get the li-cence,” he was told. “Okay, mayI leave now?” asked Miller. Yes,said the Customs guys, andMiller left the airport withoutpaying a paisa as duty for thecamera equipment! He retrieved

his revolver later. I didn’t askMiller what use he put it to.

Miller had had an encounterwith the Customs earlier. He oc-casionally received protein-rich“whole milk biscuits” from NewZealand for distribution to poorchildren in Thirumullaivayal.On one occasion, he received anotice from the Customs de-manding Rs. 25,000 for a con-signment. Miller tried to arguethat the consignments were non-dutiable and for charity. Eventhe New Zealand High Commis-sioner in India supported hisclaim. But the Customs did notrelent. They even billed MillerRs. 50,000 for two earlier con-signments!

On an impulse, Miller dashedoff a long telegram to Prime Min-ister Indira Gandhi. He had mether and Pandit Nehru a coupleof times in London while he wasa correspondent for The Hindu.He reminded her of those meet-ings and complained that he wasbeing penalised by the Customsin India for charity work for chil-dren. The PM did not reply, buta week later, the Customs guysphoned him most courteously

Where music & dance flourished– Soundarya MahalFor the December Music Sea-

son audience of today, thisname will make no sense. Yet inthe 1920s and the 1930s, this wasthe venue of choice for all musicand dance performances. It wasalso hired by political outfits, so-cial service organisations, andlabour unions. Located onGovindappa Naicken Street,George Town, it was the smalleroption for organisers who did notwant to hire the Gokhale Hall onArmenian Street, which couldseat at least 700 people.

The records are sketchy andthere is not even a photograph inthe public domain of SoundaryaMahal. But we do know that itcomprised two levels – a groundfloor that could seat 200 and asmall balcony that accommo-dated 50. There are also ac-counts that say Soundarya Mahalwas not at ground level and hadto be accessed by stairs. If so, it isnot clear as to who occupied theground floor.

The property itself was ownedby Dewan Bahadur SallaGurusamy Chetty. In his time, hewas a man of many parts – a suc-cessful lawyer, social activist, pa-tron of the arts and a prominentFreemason. His active years ap-pear to have been from the early1900s to about 1940 or so.Gurusamy Chetty lost his wifeSoundaryavalli and it was in hermemory that he built SoundaryaMahal as a multi-purpose hall,may be in the second decade ofthe 1900s. While it was put togood use for meetings of variouskinds, it became an importantlocation for the fine arts.

During the 1930s, the scholarDr. V. Raghavan wrote reviewsfor the magazine Sound andShadow under the pen name of‘Bhavuka’. From these we get toknow of performances atSoundarya Mahal by stalwartssuch as Papanasam Sivan, T.Balasraswathi and ChidambaramSrirangachariar. These were allartistes who drew a select butscholarly audience and, so, asmall hall suited their perfor-mance style best. It was also avenue that could be used for de-but performances whenorganisers were not certain aboutaudience size. Several latter day

stars had their debut here. Therewas yet another factor thatworked in Soundarya Mahal’sfavour – women of the Devadasicommunity were not allowed toperform in Gokhale Hall owing toa condition to this effect laid byAnnie Besant, the founder. Allthe handmaidens of God there-fore sang only at SoundaryaMahal. Thus it was that the sis-ters Brinda and Mukta, granddaughters of Veena Dhanam,had their early performanceshere. In 1933, M.S.Subbulakshmi was presentedhere for the first time to the au-diences of Madras, by the IndianFine Arts Society.

More important than all thiswas the role that SoundaryaMahal played in the formation ofthe Music Academy. It was herethat a meeting took place onJanuary 7, 1926 and the detailsare worth quoting in full:

“A large number of well wish-ers and lovers of classical musichad expressed a desire that effec-tive steps should be taken tostimulate interest in indigenousmusic in this part of the countryand to develop musical culturealong sound lines. It was felt thatan Academy should be estab-lished in Madras for the purpose.A preliminary meeting was heldon 7th January 1926 atSoundarya Mahal with

T.S.Seshagiri Iyer in the chair.“The meeting was well at-

tended and among those presentwere: Dr. U. Rama Rao, Mrs.Margaret Cousins, Rev. H.A.Popley, Messers Satyamurti, W.Doraiswami Iyengar, C.D.Rajaratna Mudaliar, C.R.Srinivasa Iyengar, Rao BahadurC. Ramanujachariar, R. KrishnaRao Bhonsle, and DewanBahadur Salla GuruswamiChetty.

“The following resolution wasadopted unanimously:

“that this meeting considersthat a Musical Academy bestarted to develop and encourageindigenous music and the sameshall be known as the South In-dian Academy of Music”.

Nothing came of the idea inthe immediate short term but ayear later, the All India CongressSession saw a revival of the samescheme and by August 18, 1928,the Music Academy became re-ality. In its very early years, whenit conducted monthly concerts,the Music Academy made useSoundarya Mahal. So did its rival– the Indian Fine Arts Society,established in 1931. In lateryears, each went its own way. ButSoundarya Mahal remained avenue of choice for much longer.It was here that T.T.Krishnamachari heard M.S.Subbulakshmi for the first time

and became a lifelong admirer.This was also a venue for

highbrow regional language the-atre. Telugu plays were stagedhere as were also those inKannada. Of the latter, the bestknown was, according to RandorGuy, the play Samsara Nowka,which later was made into a suc-cessful film.

Perhaps the most illustriouspersonality to visit SoundaryaMahal was Mahatma Gandhi. Headdressed the women of Madrashere on September 16, 1921, un-der the auspices of theSarvajanik Mitra Mandal. TheMahatma spoke in Gujarati andstressed the necessity for the as-sembled women to give up im-ported clothes. It was also herein 1923 that the seeds of theDakshin Bharat Hindi PracharSabha were sown. Rather ironi-cally, it was at rival Gokhale Hallthat the anti-Hindi agitation hadits beginning.

The later history of SoundaryaMahal does not make for veryhappy reading. The general deg-radation of George Town andthe shifting of music and danceto venues in south Chennaimeant that the place came to berarely used for meetings and con-certs. It did serve a purpose as awedding hall. The property wasadministered by a Trust insti-tuted in the name of SallaGurusamy Chetty and this bodyfelt that the land could be put tobetter use. There was the ques-tion of the Arya Vysya MahaSabha of which GurusamyChetty had once been a pillar.This organisation was still usingthe building. But in 1995 a solu-tion was hammered out and thebuilding was brought down.What stands in its place is anelectricals and plastic goods mar-ket of unsurpassed ugliness. Whocan believe that music and danceonce flourished here?

LOST LANDMARKS OF CHENNAI– SRIRAM V

Announcing MS singing at Soundarya Mahal.

Thank you, Donors� We today, publish donations receivedwith thanks for the period from 1.06.17-15.10.17

– The Editor

Rs. 50: Srinivasan, V.

Rs. 100: Balraj, (Dr.) C.T.A.; Dhanalakshmi, S; Lakshmi

Narayanan, K.V.; Meenakshisundaram, A.; Muthu

Damodaran, G.; Rajagopal, S.; Sukumaran, C.K.;

Sundaram, G.

Rs. 200: Premchandran

Rs. 400: Dasarathy, G.; Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetti;

Pillai, R.S.; Ponnuswamy, S; Ravikumar, R.;

Sivakumaran, T.V.; Venkatesan, R

Rs. 500: Madhavan Sulabha Madhavan, S.;

Muthukrishnan, V.

Rs. 505: Vipradas, G.B.

Rs. 900: Satyabhama, S.; Ananthanarayanan, T.

Rs. 1000: Vijay Sriram/ Kavitha Vijay

Rs. 2000: Subramanian, N.

Rs. 2900: Dharma Raja, A.R.

6 MADRAS MUSINGS December 16-31, 2017

(Answers on page 8)

(Quizmaster V.V. Ramanan’squestions are from November16th to 30th. Questions 11 to 20relate to Chennai and Tamil

Nadu.)

1. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu re-cently became only the secondIndian woman to win a Worldchampionship gold in whichOlympic sport?

2. Who was honoured with theIndian Film Personality Award2017 at the recently-concluded48th International Film Festivalof India?

3. How did Manushi Chillarmake news on November 18th?

4. ISRO has announced thatIndia’s first dedicated scientificmission to study the sun would belaunched in 2019. What is it tobe called?

5. Which bank is launching thecountry’s first integrated lifestyleand banking digital service plat-form named YONO (You OnlyNeed One)?

6. The President recently pro-mulgated an ordinance under Ar-ticle 123 to omit which commonplant species from the definitionof trees?

7. Who has been chosen to re-ceive the prestigious IndiraGandhi Prize for Peace, Disarma-ment and Development this year?

8. Which African leader wasforced to step down as Presidentafter being in office for 29 years?

9. How did Rachel Markle, anAmerican actress known for herrole in the TV series Suits, makenews?

10. To which neighbouring coun-tries did Pope Francis recentlymake a six-day visit?

* * *11. What is now housed inChamundeswari Bagh?

12. What was started in 1923 byMrs. Waller, along with some Eu-ropean women, with the aim ofpromoting philanthropic activi-ties?

13. Which busy Madras thor-oughfare of yore had buildingsnamed Manonidhi, Vinnagar,Sadhana and Kamalalayam?

14. What was the famous pseud-onym of the author Ja. Ra.Sundaresan, who passed away re-cently?

15. According to historian andauthor A.R. Venkatachalapathy,why do ‘kaapi tumblers’ have rims?

16. Who is the present Arch-bishop of the Madras-Mylpaorediocese?

17. To enjoy which English poet’sworks did Subramania Bharatistart a club in Ettaiyapuram?

18. Which popular magazine de-buted on January 15, 1970 with apair of donkeys on the cover?

19. Captain C.P. Krishnan Nairof Leela Hotels’ fame is creditedwith inventing and popularisingwhich famous textile synonymouswith Madras?

20. Which is the oldest unit ofthe Madras Regiment that wasraised in 1704 in Padma-nabhapuram as bodyguards forthe Maharajah of Travancore?

Back toschool afterages!

Tucked away unassuminglybetween a complex of cin-

ema theatres and a popular so-cial club on Anna Salai, the ma-jestic spire of Christ Churchsoars into the sky, symbolisingthe eponymous School’s motto,“Do Your Best”. The school cer-tainly has, overcoming a mazeof problems and hurdles of allkinds.

As I entered the portals ofChrist Church High School onthe occasion of the celebrationsof its 175th birthday, I could not

Linley Harris, historian and ge-nealogist of the Waller family,who had come from Australia,inaugurated the proceedingswith a moving speech. But I wasdistracted by my own nostalgicthoughts; I cast a longing glanceat the rear to catch a glimpse ofa picture of Christ with the fol-lowing legend at the bottom:“Behold, the kingdom of God iswithin you.” (Unfortunately,because of the heavy cluster ofpeople in that corner, I was un-able to see it).

After the speech by MsHarris, there were a number ofsongs and dances of a ratherpedestrian variety by the cur-

rent students which left youfeeling rather embarrassed. Iwondered what the genteel ladywould have thought of them;she did maintain her stoic com-posure and revealed no signs ofdiscomfort at the onslaught ofcacophony. What a contrastfrom the good old days whenShakespearean plays werestaged by the School’s students,conceptualised by DavidSamuel, our teacher, who stoodfor all that was perfection inpedagogy !

The next part of theprogramme relating to acknowl-edging the contribution of theteaching staff with mementoesdrew well-deserved applause.

My thoughts raced to ourown group of teachers of theClass of 1957 who had groomedus painstakingly to serve soci-ety, the nation and our ownhomes as responsible citizens.The teaching faculty of theClass of 1957 represented allthat was best in building up stu-dents for a great career in theyears ahead. We had a formi-dable Headmaster in JohnAsirvatham who raised the

standards of education and wasprimarily responsible for en-hancing the reputation of thehundred-year old (then) insti-tution. A feeling of fear, mixedwith respect, tingled throughour spine whenever he walkeddown the corridor and casuallycast a glance in the direction ofour class. He would be the firstto assemble for Prayer in themorning; after a hymn wassung, he would give a shorthomily before ending with theLord’s prayer and specificallyintoning the following wordswith great emphasis and clarity:“May the Grace of God and theFellowship of the Holy Spirit bewith us this day and forevermore”. (Even now, after a hia-tus of sixty years, those wordsare impressed indelibly into mypsyche!).

His alter ego, David Samuel,was an institution by himself.He taught us to love the nu-ances of the English language(“as she is spoke”) and treated

Wren and Martin as aBible! He easily raisedus above the level ofLamb’s Tales ofShakespeare and madeus appreciate the Bardof Avon in his own in-imitable style. Heidentified a smallbunch of us andtaught us AdvancedEnglish at his homeon Sunday afternoonswhile his wife plied uswith biscuits and or-ange juice. Soliloquysfrom Shakespeareanplays and coupletsfrom the Lake Poetsused to flow from hislips while he jokedabout spoonerisms,malapropisms, figuresof speech, mixedmetaphors and the

quaint use of idioms. His eyeswould sparkle when he laudedTennyson’s use of onomato-poeia in his famous poem, ‘TheBrook’. The other day when I

rang up an old classmate whowas keeping indifferent healthand indulged, as was our wont,in a bit of “Samuel-speak”, hequoth: “I wasted Life and nowdoth Life waste me”! It was in-deed a pleasure to hear Samuelplay the piano in differentmoods – be it in the AssemblyHall, Church or at his home.

Our Tamil teacher, Subbiahneeds a special mention; someof us in the classroom would oc-casionally send out a wave ofgiggles whenever we saw himbravely coaxing a motley groupof Sindhi, Jain, Punjabi, Chi-nese and Anglo-Indian studentsinto reading some passages fromtheir Tamil prose book!

The organisers did alsorecognise and applaud some topretired Government officialswho had passed out withrankings around fourth or fifthin 1966. Before moving over forDinner, I accosted a couple ofthe main organisers and men-tioned that they had erred intheir HISTORY! Had theygone through the Schoolrecords correctly, they wouldhave spotted one V. Kalidaswho ranked SECOND in theState and was even felicitatedin a public function along withthe first and third State Rank-ers in 1957. I also happily pulledout the medal from my jacketwhich my wife had thoughtfullygiven to me to be shown to Har-ris, which I found too delicateto do.

It was a memorable eveningmeeting with old friends andclassmates, hewn into differentshapes and forms, by FatherTime. My class-mates, Col.Kohli, (Retd.) and S.Radhakrishnan, (retired Chair-man, TNSC Bank) called ear-lier in the day. It needs to bementioned that the school con-tinues to churn out top guns inthe Defence and leaders inBusiness and Governance.

V. Kalidasvkalidas@gmail.com

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help but feel a lump in mythroat for I had left the schoolsixty years ago and never had anopportunity to visit my AlmaMater again.

Entering the Church, I stolea glance at the pipes of the or-gan and recalled how an IrishChaplain moved us with thosetimeless hymns, ‘Lead us Heav-enly Father’, ‘Yield not toTemptation’, ‘Calvary Tree’etc. Those were the days whenwe sat on its steps and rushedthrough our lunch boxes so asto catch a short game of Hockeybefore the post-lunch bell sum-moned us to our class-rooms. Ithought of the school’s hockeystalwarts like Maurice Timms(son of a Deputy Commissionerof Police then) and EugeneEdmonds and a couple of otherAnglo-Indian school-mates aswell as some Chinese like Rob-ert Chen Benchu and Pen Lo,who migrated to Australia andNew Zealand many decadesago.

The School and the Churchare steeped in History. TheSchool was founded in 1842 byThomas Parker Waller. Esther

Christ Church, Mount Road, after renovation, and its school in the background.

December 16-31, 2017 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

� byR.V. Rajan

rvrajan42@gmail.com

IE heads for itsGolden Jubilee

S . Viswanathan.

The cover of IE’s inaugural issue.

Can someone without spe-cific academic qualifica-

tions or experience in journal-ism and no financial resourcesbut with just a dream, launch anindustrial magazine and run itsuccessfully for 50 years? S.Viswanathan (SV), founderEditor & Publisher of IndustrialEconomist (IE), dared to do this.SV will be celebrating two land-mark events in his life in 2018;his 80th birthday in January andthe golden jubilee of IE onMarch 15th.

After Loyola andVivekananda, where he got aBA (Hons) degree in Math-ematics and a Masters in Politi-cal Science with Economics, hejoined the Directorate of Indus-try & Commerce and gottrained in government’s sys-tems. Then followed a few yearsof teaching Mathematics at theJayanthi Tutorial College, IIET,Loyola College and MadrasChristian College.

SV’s first brush with writingand printing happened duringthis period. His association withthe Social Service Centre,Mambalam, provided him theopportunity to work on socialissues like hygiene, and nutri-tion, and bring out a souvenirfor the Centre. It was a goodexperience in editing, advertis-ing and marketing. He also gotinvolved with music and liter-ary activities. These broughthim in touch with KrishnaSrinivas (KSri) who was pub-lishing two magazines, IndianIndustries and Poet, both printedat his printing press. Impressedby SV’s work, KSri invited himto help him run the magazinesand the press. Armed with theknowledge gained working withKSri, Viswanathan decided toturn entrepreneur at a veryyoung age. He was only 24when he launched in 1962 themonthly magazine Mobile de-voted to the transport industry.He got guidance from S.N.Ramasami of the TVS group.

He travelled around thecountry interviewing the lead-ing lights of the automobile in-dustry for Mobile and seekingthe advertising to support it.Less than two years later, hestarted another trade magazine,Trade Wheel, devoted to thetwo-wheeler industry.

An important breakthroughcame when he traded advertis-ing space for a round-trip ticketto Europe with PanAm. Heused his connections with thePress Bureau of German Indus-try in India to get the opportu-nity to visit the six renownedGerman companies that builtthe Rourkela Steel Plant andthe German government helped

him to visit Daimler Benz,Volkswagen, the Hanover Fairetc. He then went to the UK.

H.B. Stanford of Simpson’s,Madras, introduced him to Brit-ish Leyland and the Society ofMotor Manufacturers andTraders, London. He coveredthe British automobile industryextensively, visiting a dozenplants. The trip “opened myeyes to the immense opportuni-ties and scope for industry-fo-cused journalism.”

The trip also led SV to phaseout Mobile. He explains: “Indiawas then producing in three au-tomobile plants less than 20,000cars a year. Volkswagen wasproducing in a single plant6,200 cars a day! I decided towiden my canvas and bring outan ‘industry based-magazine fo-cused on South India’.” At thesame time there was an openingup of a window of opportunity:economic journals fromKolkata (Capital), Delhi (East-ern Economist), and Bombay(Commerce), all industry-ownedpublications, had folded up.And, so, Industrial Economist(IE) was born.

The first issue of IE was re-leased as a fortnightly on March15, 1968. It had 36 pages, acover price of 75 paise (annualsubscription Rs. 15), and a printorder of 2,000 copies. The coverpage carried a cartoon byThanu and the inside pages fea-tured well-researched articles/reports on industry, commodi-ties, stocks, trade etc. Thesewere based on informationculled from company reports,plant visits and interviews withcompany executives. IE waswell-received. Thanu and, laterGopulu, embellished the coverand inside pages in the early is-sues.

In the early years, SV’sbrother S. Narayanan and col-

league P.S. Ramamurti lookedafter advertising. Veteran jour-nalist P.R. Srinivas was theConsulting Editor. P.A. Seshanand T.V. Anantharamaseshanof The Hindu lent invaluableguidance. Dr. P.S. Lokanathanand Chitra S. Narayanaswamywere among the regular con-tributors. And SV’s parentspitched in too.

According to SV, the con-cept of the ‘Advertorial Supple-ment’ on a particular topic/event introduced by IE was thefirst of its kind in business jour-nalism. The supplements hadanywhere from 24 to 80 pages.The first supplement was on theinauguration of Madras Refin-eries Ltd. in September 1969. Itwas a part of the regular issue ofthe magazine and carried spe-cial features on the prestigiousplant built with multinationalinvolvement. MRL ordered5,000 copies of the supplementfor distribution. It was a goodbusiness idea and IE has pro-duced over 100 such supple-ments. A few of these were trulyoutstanding; the one on theSakthi Group won 2,55,000 re-prints, and on Ashok Leyland85,000.

The growing business neces-sitated shifting the office fromhis home in T’Nagar to a 4,000sq. ft. rented premises inGopalapuram in 1973. With the

move also came the idea of ex-panding the press. SV importeda printing machine from Ger-many and a linotype machinefrom the USSR. These gotcaught in the red tape involvedin imports at the time. By thetime he installed these, alongwith a couple of Indian ma-chines, technology hadchanged. Letter-press becameobsolete and computers tookover. SV struggled for a decadebefore deciding to quit theprinting business!

Even while SV was fightinga battle on the business front,burdened with term loans, hewas fast gaining recognition asan economic editor. He startedgetting invited to the annualEconomic Editors’ Conferenceshosted by the Union Govern-ment in Delhi, and which pro-vided for interactions with Cen-tral ministers and senior civilservants. From 1973, SV was,for several years, the sole repre-sentative to focus on southerneconomic issues, like demand-

ing the expansion of NeyveliLignite Corporation and suc-cessfully pursuing it. SV has at-tended these conferences forthe last 44 years, a record in-deed!

SV used the Delhi visits togo to projects in North, West,Central and East India. He hasthe distinction of coveringprojects in all Indian States ex-cept J&K and Assam.

In 1985, SV switched toelectronic/computer typeset-ting and desk top publishing/digitisation. Eight years later, IEcelebrated its Silver Jubilee. Tocommemorate the 1993 SilverJubilee, IE instituted the firstever Business ExcellenceAward for a corporate in SouthIndia. He formed an indepen-dent awards committee to makethe decision. The Awards werediscontinued in 2001 when SVfound the mushrooming TVchannels in Delhi presenting aplethora of awards.

In 1994, SV decided to gopublic. His company IE becamea unit of the new company,Economist CommunicationsLtd.

In the early 1980s SV movedto rented property in GuindyIndustrial Estate. When newsheds were built there, he gotallotted a 2,500 sq.ft. shed and,in 2001, 5,600 sq.ft. land. Fore-seeing the transformation ofGuindy into a large commercialhub, he raised a sophisticatedcommercial building with de-sign by C.N. Ranganthan (C.R.Narayana Rao architects) andconstruction by L&T. In arecord seven months, EconomistHouse was built. It incorporatedseveral sophisticated features:total rainwater harvesting,

double glazed windows, roof-top solar power, sensor-basedlights in toilets, security cam-eras etc.

With steady rent comingfrom lessees, SV has been ableto bring out IE regularly, mod-estly supported by advertising.Importantly, he has been able tobe independent. SV fought along legal battle to win the rightof journalists to be critical ofcorporates. The magazine todaycovers a readership of 75,000.

Married to Padma for 46years, SV has a son, Bala, anddaughter, Sangita, both ofwhom are settled in the U.S.Both cut their teeth in journal-ism and communication at IE,like many others who weregroomed by SV in economicjournalism. Neither of them,however, is interested in takingover the mantle from their fa-ther.

To celebrate its Golden Ju-bilee, IE plans to have a semi-nar spread over a day with ses-sions on the economy, industry,agriculture and technology-in-novation followed by a publicfunction in the evening. Thefocus will be on the South. Itpromises to be one of the majorevents of the new year.

Till December 31: Blind Poet andButterflies an art exhibition by C.Douglas. The exhibition ofmixed media works comprises 30small format works shown along-side Korean Zen poems. A filmon the artist, titled Black Mirror,will also be screened atDakshinaChitra with InKo Cen-tre.

8 MADRAS MUSINGS December 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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1. Weightlifting, 2. Amitabh Bachchan, 3. She was crowned MissWorld, 4. Aditya- L1, 5. State Bank of India, 6. Bamboo, 7. FormerPrime Minister Manmohan Singh, 8. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, 9.She has become engaged to Prince Harry, the younger son of PrinceCharles and Lady Diana, 10. Myanmar and Bangladesh.

* * *

11. Russian consulate in San Thomé, 12. Guild of Service, 13. Ed-ward Elliot’s Road, 14. Bhagyam Ramaswamy, 15. So that lower castescould drink the coffee without sipping it, thus cutting down ‘pollu-tion’, 16. Most Rev. Dr. George Antonysamy, 17. Percy Byshe Shelley,18. Cho’s Tughlak, 19. Bleeding Madras, 20. 9th Battalion.

Answers to Quiz

Madras’s unforgettableBriton

and respectfully, and said, “Sir,we have waived the Customsduty for the milk biscuits. Wewill deliver them to your place.When can we do so?” The chil-dren got their biscuits.

Miller was a naturalist andwildlife enthusiast, particularlyknowledgeable about snakes.He wrote an article for NationalGeographic in September 1970on ‘The cobra, India’s goodsnake’. For many years Miller’shome in Chennai was a two-acre house in Thirumullaivayal(in Thiruvallur District, nearAvadi) – that he built on landgifted to his wife by his father-in-law. Visitors to the house ina rural setting were varied –frogs, snakes (including cobras,kraits and vipers), monkeys,pigs, mongooses and manystrange insects. Miller fre-quently received a frenzied SOSfrom neighbours about snakesintruding into their homes.Priests of the Vaishnavi templein Thirumullaivayal dependedon him to get rid of the snakesslithering in their compound.He kept a pet python in a cup-board, and once offered to gar-land me with it. I fled before hestarted insisting!

It was Miller who introducedRomulus Whittaker (founder ofthe Madras Snake Park andlater of the Crocodile Park) tothe snake-catching Irula tribesof Tamil Nadu. Rom was so im-pressed with the Irulas and theirskills that he moved fromBombay to Madras so that hecould work with these tribesand sell venom from them tothe Haffkine Institute inBombay.

It was also Miller who in-vited S. Paul, brother of RaghuRai, to join the Indian Express inNew Delhi as its chief photog-rapher. Paul accepted andworked with the Express for 26years, when he cemented his

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reputation as one of the pio-neers of photo journalism in In-dia.

One of Miller’s most endur-ing contributions to Madras wasin preserving a precious collec-tion of a few hundred glass platenegatives of old Madras andmore of other parts of India.These were photographs shot byGerman and English photogra-phers during the period 1870-1930. The value of these high-quality photographs is inesti-mable. Its Madras component isthe only authentic photo docu-mentation of the city of that pe-riod.

How did Miller come by thiscollection? An aging and impe-cunious Anglo-Indian nanny inCoonoor, one Miss Cooper, hadwith her four huge custom-made teak boxes crammed withglass plate negatives. They wereleft with her by a German fam-ily she had worked with in Ma-dras. She didn’t know what todo with them. She showed EricStracey, then Inspector-Gen-eral of Police, the collectionwhen he visited and he hadthem moved to Madras wherehe gave them to Harry for pres-ervation. Miller found that thecollection comprised some1,500 glass plate negatives ofvarious Indian events andplaces, including more than 300of Madras. Miller years latersold the collection to VintageVignettes, a five-man partner-ship with a sense of history.

One of Miller’s friends wasthe legendary British futurist,astronomer and science fictionwriter Arthur C. Clarke, authorof 2001, a Space Odyssey and

other novels. Clarke settled inColombo in 1956 and livedthere till his death in 2008.Miller and Clarke often visitedeach other. Clarke wrote a fore-word to one of Harry Miller’sbooks, A Frog in My Soup.Titled ‘Miller of Madras’, theforeword said, “I have alwaysenjoyed Miller’s splendid pho-tographs and hearing his fasci-nating stories, many of whichmay even be true.” He added:“He has an unparalleled under-standing of India, its people andits animals …There must be fewWesterners who can match hisknowledge of this endearingand sometimes infuriatingcountry.” Clarke also describedMiller’s house in Thirumullai-vayal as a “menagerie” and saidMiller had wrapped his pet py-thon round him.

Miller told me an anecdoteabout Clarke which was per-haps true. Clarke migrated toCeylon because of his interest inscuba-diving. (He set up a div-ing school in Hikkaduwa.)Miller said Clarke persuadedthe Ceylon Government to givehim tax-free status; he toldthem that if they did so, manyWestern millionaires wouldmove to Ceylon in the hope ofsimilar treatment. The Govern-ment acceded, and amended itslaws to make this possible. Butthe promised migration ofWestern millionaires to SriLanka did not happen. The par-ticular law came to be knowninformally as the Arthur Clarkeamendment.

I once asked Miller why hechose to live in India ratherthan Britain. “Who wants to

live in that bloody cold coun-try?” he wisecracked. But whensomeone else posed him thesame question, he replied “Whoelse except Indians will toleratea guy like me?” I suspect the realreason is that Miller had gotused to being pampered in Ma-dras and India – servants, assis-tants, VIP treatment – whichhe wouldn’t have received backhome! He liked the Madrasweather; he also liked peoplelooking up to him or fussingover him.

Journalist Rahul Singh,former editor of Reader’s Digest,once told Miller an amusingstory of two boys talking to eachother at the swimming pool ofthe Gymkhana Club, Bombay.One boy bemoaned the factthat his father had been trans-

ferred to Madras, and that hewould henceforth have to livein that rotten old place. Theother boy responded, “Oh, Ma-dras can’t be all that bad. HarryMiller lives there.”

Miller says in one of hisbooks that India is a land ofamazing variety and contradic-tions, “also a land of friendly,warm-hearted people, where Ihave chosen to spend the largerpart of my life, where I shall cer-tainly die, and which has givenme more happiness than anyman could justifiably deserve.”

Miller passed away in 1998.The event was mentioned by alllocal papers, but it didn’t hit theheadlines. Considering hismany contributions to Madrasthat is Chennai, he deserved amore handsome tribute.

MADRAS MUSINGS ON THE WEBTo reach out to as many readers as possible who share our keeninterest in Madras that is Chennai, and in response to requests frommany well-wishers – especially from outside Chennai and abroadwho receive their postal copies very late – for an online edition.Madras Musings is now on the web at www. madrasmusings.com

– THE EDITOR