WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXII No. 2 May 1-15, 2012

Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/12-14Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepaymentfor India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/12-14

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

CMYK

INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

•When the promised power?

• The Krithika-Chitti letters

• Perambur Railway Hospital-3

• Economist & Shakespeare Scholar

(Continued on page 6) (Continued on page 7)

Government offers hope

(By The Editor)

again forHeritage Act

Appa, you always don’t have todress up in your 70’s clothes every timeyou watch the ‘angry young man’movies!

Eat your words?Food facts, nutrition nuggets,

and weight watching.If you can’t claim any knowl-

edge or direct experiencewith regard to any of theabove – chances are that youspend most social gatheringsin complete silence, possiblychomping away on friedfood, submerged in a fog ofmasochistic defiance andgloom.

Seriously – the world may beburning up on several levels– but general conversationcentres primarily on weightissues – Weight lost, Weightregained, and an avalancheof food-centric facts thereof.

And Commerce responds atonce.

Take departmental stores.Now, you kind of expect it of

those high-end, cater-to-the-Page-3-variety-of-customerstypes.

But when good old Shop-Around-the-Corner, the guywho used to once ply youwith tons of homemadevadam, now talks know-ledgeably of ‘superfoods’,‘nutrient dense’, and nutra-ceuticals, you know civili-sation as you knew it haschanged forever.

Those who once thought‘Omega-3’ was a character ina sci-fi movie, now lecture onprobiotics – (somethingentire generations thrived onin this part of the worldwithout even realising it).

Obviously, there are benefits tohealthy eating – but some-times it feels like we’remissing the French Fries ofLife for the Bitter Gourd ofAppearance.

Well, as in most things, perhapsthe Middle Way...?

Ranjitha Ashok

I’ve found out that by exercisingyour mouth, teeth, jaw, cheeks, throat,you can lose lots of calories... what Imean is, to talk non-stop while eating!

The latest announcementhas it that a Heritage Commis-sion Act is on the anvil whichwill constitute a body that canadvise the State Governmenton preparing a classification ofheritage buildings into variousgrades. It will also advise localauthorities on the developmen-tal rights of such heritageproperties. What the Govern-ment appears to have over-looked are two aspects:

1. That such a body alreadyexists – namely the HeritageConservation Committee(HCC) constituted by theCMDA in response to the HighCourt’s judgement in 2010 inthe case concerning the demo-lition of Bharat Insurance Build-ing. That the Committee, com-prised largely by bureaucrats,became a handmaiden of theCMDA is another matter alto-gether. The State Governmentwill do well not to repeat thismistake and when creating theHeritage Commission it shouldmake it like the Urban ArtsCommission of Delhi, a bodywith independent powers.

2. That the exercise ofgrading and listing heritagebuildings has been done at leasta couple of times. The first timewas when draft HeritageRegulations/Acts were drawnup by the Town and CountryPlanning Department teaming

The State Government has announced that it is planning tobring in two laws on the heritage protection front, one specifi-

cally covering Mamallapuram, which is a recognised World Heri-tage Site, and the other covering heritage and cultural propertiesacross the State. This is a good development as far as intent isconcerned. Much, of course, will depend on how this will translateinto reality. This is not the first time that the State has raised hopesof legislation for protecting heritage, only to pass over to what itfelt are more pressing issues. Those promises were made as far backas 1999 and, again, in 2002, and then even more recently whenHeritage Regulations/Acts were drafted or reviewed.

The least pedestrian-friendlyIndian city: Chennai

� By A SpecialCorrespondent

A study put together byClean Air Initiative, a

Delhi-based organisation, hasshow our city to be the least pe-destrian-friendly. Chennai hasscored even lower than Banga-lore and several tier II towns ofthe country. The study’s con-clusions appear almost to implythat the pedestrian has little oreven zero chance of stayingalive on Chennai’s roads.

The evaluation was done onthe basis of nine parameters,some of which are: motorists’behaviour, grade crossing avail-ability, grade crossing safety,security from crime, availabilityof walking paths, and disabilityinfrastructure. Chennai man-aged to score the lowest orsecond lowest on all counts. Isthis a record worthy of a citythat claims to be on the road toworld-class infrastructure?

Of course, the results of thestudy ought not to be a surprisefor those witnessing the devel-opments in Chennai. Ever since1996, the city has seen a shrink-ing, or complete removal, offootpaths. And all road devel-opments have been done keep-ing in mind the interests of themotorists alone. As a conse-quence, we have several

flyovers for the building ofwhich we have sacrificed pave-ments. We also have a series ofone-ways, none of which hasany zebra crossing. Those wish-ing to cross these roads on footdo so at their own risk. Thestatistics speak for themselves –38 per cent of fatal accidents onChennai’s roads involvepedestrians.

What Chennai needs is acomplete makeover of its trafficsystem. This requires coordina-

tion between many agenciesand it also requires communica-tion with, and training of, allstakeholders in the city’s roads,of whom the pedestrian is justone. Firstly, all road junctionsneed zebra crossings, no matterhow minor they are. All world-class cities have them and so weneed to be no exception. Andthese have to be painted regu-larly so that they remain brightand visible. This is no easy task,but, then, it has to be done.

Second, it is mandatoryinternationally for motorists tostop when they see someone

walking on a pedestrian cross-ing. This basically recognisesthat the pedestrian’s rights areforemost on the road. In ourcity, motorists never stop forpedestrians to cross. If they do,it is because of a traffic signaland even then, they choose tostop on, or even beyond, thepedestrian crossing. The pedes-trians have to make their waybetween the vehicles.

Footpaths and routes forthose with disabilities are amust in any world-class city.Chennai has been steadily re-moving what little it had.Though a tough task, the Gov-ernment has to bring back foot-paths wherever it has doneaway with them. What is ironicis that even in greenfield devel-opments and new colonies,these are not mandatory. Allthe new, so-called posh SouthChennai areas have come upsans these facilities. And wherewe have footpaths, these needto be protected from encroach-ments. They cannot be grantedto have become spaces for park-ing two-wheelers, or for hawk-ers, wayside shrines and storageareas for nearby constructionprojects.

The plight of pedestrians. (Courtesy: The Hindu.)

2 MADRAS MUSINGS May 1-15, 2012

When will weget allthis power?

Sundays are lean days fortemples, especially in the

mornings. There is hardlyanyone at them and it is usu-ally on a Sunday morning thatyou will find The Man fromMadras Musings at one or theother of the many historicshrines that Madras that isChennai is blessed with. Andso it was last Sunday. MMMprayed, begged forgiveness formany sins of omission andcommission, and thankedThat Which Must Be Obeyedfor whatever blessings hadcome his way.

And then it was thatMMM realised that what hehad actually been suspectingto be a rash of prickly heat onthe back was actually MMM’ssensitive skin reacting tosomeone’s penetrating gaze.MMM turned back to see aman “with an eye like Mars tothreaten and command”,looking sharply at MMM. IfMMM had had a guilty secret,this eye would have detectedit at once or perhaps knew allabout it already.

Having peered short-sightedly back at the gazer,MMM walked away only tofind that the prickly heat sen-

on nighties which earned himeveryone’s ire? Was he fromthe University, deeply resent-ful of MMM’s comments onthe photography exhibition?Or was he …

But having come close, theman’s mien changed. Hesmiled ingratiatingly, thoughhis eye seemed as powerful asever. MMM took a deepbreath. Perhaps this was a fan?Perhaps he would say howmuch he enjoyed all thatMMM wrote?

“Sir, can I ask you a ques-tion?” he said.

“By all means,” said MMM,now beaming at the man.

“What cologne do you use?It is very good and I have beenfollowing you wanting to knowthe brand.”

It was an anticlimax. Butthen MMM has survived towrite this column.

Powerful’s power

The Man from MadrasMusings, in all his inno-

cence, had assumed that powercuts afflicted kings and com-moners alike. But apparentlythat is not so. MMM got to

may wonder. It is none otherthan Pennycuick, the manabout whom the Chief andseveral others have been writ-ing, the father of the Mullai-periyar dam. And consideringthat it was just about a coupleof months ago that theGovernment decided on a me-morial, MMM must say it hasall been mighty quick.

But what a radio station didwas even better. Those of youwho read this column willknow that MMM, when hedoes not have to finish a storyfor the Chief, sometimes tunesin to the radio. And so he didthe same day as the BennyQuick story came out. “It isShakespeare’s birthday to-day,” screamed an announcer.There was no way that MMMcould verify this, but he didwait to hear what followed.“On this day, we present you aTamil film song that has En-glish,” she said. MMM waitedwith bated breath. What couldthis be? It turned out to beWhy this Kolaveri di!

Where British jogged

The Man from MadrasMusings is being consis-

know of this while walkingalong with a few others whenthe conversation turned to-wards the timings of the two-hour power cuts in the respec-tive areas which those whowere walking came from. Andthen it transpired that one ofthose walking was not contrib-uting to the conversation at all.But there came a point wheneveryone else had given detailsof his area’s power cut timingsand this gentleman had tospeak up. He turned a brightshade of pink and confessedthat he never had any powercuts.

The reaction was varied.Some were plain jealous, whileothers who were of a morecharitable bent of mind won-dered if the ‘powerful’ gentcould have his mains hitchedto those of a nearby hospital.But that was not the case.Someone in power was livingin the neighbourhood and sothe area was spared of powercuts. As simple as that!

RIP – English

“Memorial to BennyQuick,” read the

headline in a leading newspaperof the city, when it chose to an-nounce the laying of the foun-dation stone for the structure.Now who is Benny Quick, you

MMM by any other name

� by A Special

Correspondent

While Tamil Nadu hasbeen steeped in a power

crisis for long, the existingprojects in the State havecompounded the issue. Addingfuel to the crisis, many of theupcoming projects that wouldease the shortage of power are,ironically, yet to take shape.

The State is nearly 4,500MW short of its requirements asof now. From the wordy duelbetween the two dominant par-ties in Tamil Nadu, it can beunderstood that when the Statewas ‘power surplus’, there wasno industrial development –and during hectic industrial ac-tivity in the subsequent period,no fruitful steps were initiatedtowards generating more power.

We all know about theKoodankulam Nuclear PowerProject and the obstacles it hasfaced. The plant that was readyfor commissioning was put onhold for over nine months.Well, there are other projectsthat too face problems of delay.One of them isthe UdangudiS u p e r c r i t i c a lThermal PowerProject in Tuti-corin District. The Rs. 8,000-crore, 2x800 MW project,which should have been com-missioned by 2011, is yet to takeoff.

Now, the new government,having reviewed the project,has taken the initiative toimplement it. The completionof the proposed power plant isexpected by 2016-17, with itsfirst unit expected to becommissioned by March 2013.The proposed date ofcommencement of the projectactivities at site was last month(April 2012).

Originally, the erstwhileTamil Nadu Electricity Board(TNEB) and BHEL had signeda memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) in October 2007 toimplement the project througha joint venture, the UdangudiPower Corporation Ltd.(UPCL). The State Govern-ment has now decided to go itall alone. It will fund the projectfully.

In the initial stage, it wasplanned that both joint venturepartners would invest 26 percent each in the equity, and afinancial institution or a privatepartner would bring in the bal-ance stake. But the project didnot make any headway exceptfor the partners, TNEB andBHEL, allocating Rs. 32.5 croreeach as project funding.

There were no efforts taken

to get long-term coal linkage,which is essential to get envi-ronmental clearance from theCentre. With the Union CoalMinistry not having passedorders on coal linkage, theGovernment decided to useimported coal for the projectand seek the EnvironmentMinistry’s clearance. However,reports now suggest that Gov-ernment plans to meet 70 percent of the coal requirementsfrom domestic sources.

Once the project commen-ces, Tamil Nadu will get theentire 1600 MW of power gen-erated. In this regard, UPCLsigned a Power Purchase Agree-ment with the Tamil NaduGeneration and DistributionCorporation Ltd (TANGE-DCO) in January 2011. Theproject would also benefit fromtax incentives under a ‘MegaPower Status’.

The current status of theproject is that the Tamil NaduGovernment has alienated over

305 ha of Gov-ernment land forthe project andhas given ad-m i n i s t r a t i v e

sanction for the acquisition ofan additional 116 ha of privatelands. The State Governmenthas also declared Udangudi aminor port for the captive useof the Udangudi Power Corpo-ration Ltd.

The project is to be devel-oped with super-critical tech-nology to obtain benefits underthe Clean DevelopmentMechanism (a CDM Project),and it will have its own captivecoal jetty at Udangudi withtransportation of coal through apipe conveyor system to thepower plant – a rare pheno-menon amongst thermal powerprojects in India.

But this supply may not besufficient to meet the growingdemand-supply gap. The TamilNadu Government has an-nounced power generationprojects to the tune of 3800MW in the 2011-12 Budget.These include 1000 MW LNG-fired power generation, theproposed 660 MW EnnoreThermal Power replacementproject, the 1000 MW VallurThermal Power Project, jointlyexecuted with the NuclearThermal Power Corporation,the 600 MW North ChennaiThermal Power Station Stage-2project, and the 600 MWMettur Thermal Power StationStage-3. These projects areexpected to be commissionedbetween 2012 and 2015.

It remains to be seenwhether this goal will beachieved, given the fact thatthese projects may not be readyexactly by the dates committedand, even if that happens, thedemand may not remain at thecurrent level in a growth-ori-ented State. But, as of now,Tamil Nadu will turn out to beself-sufficient once theseprojects become a reality.(Courtesy: Our Building andConstruction)

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

sation was increasing. Sureenough, the gazer was follow-ing. And when MMMstopped, so did he, alwaysmaintaining a respectable dis-tance. Man and shadow hadreached a fairly secluded cor-ner of the temple where therewas hardly anyone. MMMcould picture the headlines:“Society scribe done in bystalker” or “Murder comes toMMM” or words to that ef-fect.

It was with a sinking feel-ing that MMM came to sus-pect that the man knewMMM’s identity. True, theChief had assured MMM thathis true face would alwaysremain a mystery but perhapsinformation had leaked? Wasthe man upset about thewretched story that MMMhad written a few months ago

tently advised by the Chiefthat he ought not to becondescending towards thosewho have no knowledge of his-tory or heritage. “Fight thistendency, MMM,” he haswarned several times. And it isentirely thanks to this thatMMM has taken to spendingtime with young journalistsonce again, even going to theextent of tolerating their call-ing him ‘Uncle’.

But they do help in keepingMMM ever smiling. Lastweek, when one brightspecimen called to know ifMMM knew anything aboutthe jogging track of the Brit-ish, MMM was flummoxed.Mystery turned to admiration.Here was this young man whohad found something thateven the Chief would knownothing about. Did we notneed more of his ilk? May histribe increase, thought MMM.Further enquiries, however,revealed that he was referringto the War Memorial onIsland Grounds. Its circularshape, he said, gave him thatclue. It reminded MMM ofanother of the same breed whosaid that he was pretty surethat the Madras GPO was theresidence of the Mughals inthis city. It’s a pity the TajMahal was not built here.

– MMM

May 1-15, 2012 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

OUR ADDRESSESFor matters regarding subscriptions, donations, non-receipt of

receipts etc.: CHENNAI HERITAGE, 5, Bhattad Tower, 30,Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 14.

Madras Musings now has its own email ID. Letters to the editorcan be sent via email to editor@madrasmusings.com. Those whowish to intimate change of address can also do so provided thesubscription number is quoted. For non-receipt of copies, changeof address, and all other circulation matters: Madras Musings,C/o Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greames Road,Chennai 600 006.

On editorial matters: The Editor, Madras Musings, C/o LokavaniSouthern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greames Road, Chennai 600006.

No personal visits or telephone calls, please. Letters received willbe sent from these addresses every couple of days to the personsconcerned and you will get an answer from them to your queriesreasonably quickly. Strange as it may seem, if you adopt the ‘snailmail’ approach, we will be able to help you faster and disappointyou less.

– THE EDITOR

READABILITY PLEASEDear Readers,As letters from readers increase,we are receiving more and morehand written letters, many of themin a hand so small and illegible orlarge and scrawled as to beunreadable. Often this leads to ourdiscarding a letter, particularly ifsome part of it is unreadable.If you wish us to consider your letterfor publication, please type it withenough space between lines orwrite it using a medium hand,clearly dotting the ‘i-s’ and crossingthe ‘t-s’.Many readers also try to fill everysquare centimetre of a postcardspace, making reading or editingimpossible.Please help us to consider yourletters more favourably by makingthem more legible for us.

– THE EDITOR

Traits still common

I enjoyed reading the articleon Tambrahms (MM, April

16th). Several traits that havebeen mentioned in the articlestill continue to be seen amongTambrahms, despite the sweep-ing changes. While I agree thatthe profile of a typical Tam-brahm has changed, not muchin terms of traits and character-istics has changed from then tonow. Some other traits that I’vefound common among Tam-brahms are finishing a mealwith thayir saadam irrespectiveof whichever cuisine they aretrying out, asking questionsabout the ‘water problems’(thanni kashtam) in the area,and the stress on the centumculture/engineering courses/IIT.

S. Srinivasa Ramanujamsrinivasjam@gmail.com

Much appreciated

‘TAMBRAHMS’ (MM,April 16th) was an ex-

cellent piece of informativewriting on a community. Theauthor was right that behind-the-scene values put forth byBrahmins come out throughpoliticians and bureaucratseven today. Even anti-Brahminists keep Brahmins astheir employees to take care oftheir interests because theyhave confidence in Brahminsfor their integrity and honesty.

I wonder whether the pre-sent settlement ‘Tambaram’near Chennai relates toBrahmins, Brahmins started liv-ing in large numbers inTambaram when the place wassurrounded with paddy fields.

Regarding the ‘West CoastBrahmins’ (MM, April 16th),the so-called Vadamas stillthink they are superior to anyother sub-sect within thecommunity because of drinkingthe fresh and holy Cauvery

water. Congratulations to bothauthors.

S.R. Rajagopal7/12, Peters Colony

Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

Getting it straight

Sudha Venkataraman(suv2008@gmail .com)

writes that she is the author of‘West Coast Brahmins’ (MM,April 16th). She adds: The linkto my runnersblok blog is incor-rect. It should be http://runnersblok.blogspot.com/2 0 1 1 / 1 2 / w e s t - c o a s t -brahmins.html.

Sudha Venkataraman

EDITOR’S NOTE: We regretthe omission of the blogger’sname with the article.

Wake-up call

You keep writing ad nauseamabout heritage buildings,

culture et al. But have you everwritten about, or cared to findout, the state these so-called oldheritage buildings are in? Orwhy? Take for instance Presi-dency College. Every time I gothere to attend meetings of thealumni association I getemotional. The corners of thestaircase have turned red withbetel leaf juice. No one is both-ered. The teachers never askthe students not to indulge inthis sickening habit. Near thelibrary, where we have thesemeetings, there are cigarettebutts on the floor. Have youwritten about that?

Then, the old Teachers’ Col-lege at Saidapet. The statelybuilding is hidden from view.When the metro rail work isover, this structure will be pulleddown. I can bet on that. Or it willjust be totally neglected till weforget its existence.

Did you bother about privatebuildings that remained idle –at Gemini corner, the old Safirecinema, etc. You keep harping

on Gokhale Hall or the BharatInsurance Building. If some ofthese heritage buildings hadbeen rebuilt, new edifices wouldhave come up and generatedmore money. Wake up to reali-ties, at least now.

Nimicheri Vigneshnimicheri@gmail.com

Old Mylapore

The Annual Brahmotsavamof Mylapore Temple was

recently celebrated with pompand grandeur. Wesleyan Mis-sionary Elijah Hoole, in hisbook Madras, Mysore and SouthIndia published in 1844,described Mylapore as he saw itin 1820, thus:

“The original Hindu town ofMielapoor stands at a shortdistance from the beach andwas never included within thePortuguese Port. It has a largeancient temple of considerablerepute; adjoining it is a deepstone built tank, filling a verylarge quadrangle, where thenatives bathe, and from whichthey supply themselves water.The annual festival of thetemple is attended by tens ofthousand of worshippers, and iscelebrated with barbaricsplendour, and at great ex-pense. There is no place withinthe same distance of Madraswhere the traveller may seesuch an assemblage of Yogis,Sanyasins, Tabasis, Pandarams,all the varieties of heathenpriests, priestesses and devoteeseach making an exhibition ofhis peculiar mode of dress, wor-ship and penance, as inMielapoor on this occasion.The Brahmans and otherheathen inhabitants of

Mielapoor are less accessible tothe exertions of the Christianmissionary than the inhabitantsof the interior generally; Onthe north side of Mielapoorthere are many Mahommedaninhabitants.”

P.B. ManiF8, Krishna Kutir

18, Justice Sundaram RoadMylapore, Chennai 600 004

Give it life!

Madras Musings (April 1st)was right in bemoaning

the fact that, after all the ex-pensive restoration carried outon the Senate House building, itwas kept closed for long result-ing in its deterioration.

The reason for its non-use isnot given. But any building keptin regular use thrives betterthan one kept closed. SenateHouse could be put to all theuses it was put to in the past,like language classes, lectures,meetings, conferences, convo-cations, etc.

Being one of the finestbuildings of the colonial era, theacme of Indo-Saracenic archi-tecture, it could be opened tothe public for guided tours forlimited hours during the dayand a small fee charged forgoing round the majestic halland enjoying its beauty. Thiswould generate some revenue,and the visiting public walkingunder its canopy would give itback its vibrancy.

N. Harinarayana120, Big Street, Triplicane

Chennai 600 005

What a Doctor!

We have known Dr. T.J.Cherian (MM, April 1st)

from the time he was in Golden

This letter appeared in Current Science (v. 102: p. 1087, 2012)

and was forwarded to Madras Musings as a contribution to the

debate that has taken place in these columns from time to time.

English: The heartbeat of world scienceThe results of the ACER–PISA test for

annual global assessment of students’ skillsfor 2011, conducted by the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development,show the Chinese on the top and the Indians atthe last but one position among the South andSouth East Asian nations. The analysis puts theblame squarely on ‘ineffective’ English teachingin professional institutions and consequent‘inability’ of the students to frame a sentenceon their own in English. A cartoon in an Englishdaily, illustrating the article, shows the Indianstudents sleeping or chatting over a laptop,whereas the Chinese students take pains tolearn and practise.

Whether or not English is the internationallanguage of science is no more debated. Theissue is the assessment of the contribution toscience by different linguistic nations vis-a-vistheir standards in English, for discussing whichCurrent Science has contributed much in thepast. With around 400 million people learningEnglish as first language across the world, 350million people as second language, as in India,and over a billion people learning English as aforeign language, as in China, Russia, Korea orJapan, it is no surprise that more than 60% ofresearch publications are in English, with therest in vernaculars giving titles, abstracts orparallel translations in English. ‘Non-English’

speaking countries are putting a great effort toimprove their English-speaking abilities, asEnglish is seen as the ‘language of science’.

India, with a different historicalbackground, is almost an English-speakingcountry with limping standards. In spite ofever-expanding higher education in thecountry (around 200,000 institutions by theend of the XI Plan period, 2007–2012,including colleges, universities, IITs, IIMs andpolytechnics), a steady decline in Englishstandards is being observed.

Thanks to e-mails, chatting, SMS and othercomputer and cell-phone operations all overthe world, scientific English is receiving afurther jolt. The inability to comprehend goodscientific English and publish good work is notconfined to the non-English-speakingcountries alone, with researchers from the UK,USA, Canada or Australia no better. Thedifference between the two groups is rather amatter of quantity or number of grammar andsyntactic errors in English writing than in thequality of expression and thematic logistics.

C. Kavitha1*

S. Sushma Raj2

GITAM Institute of ScienceGITAM University

Visakhapatnam 530 045

1Department of Electronics/Physics 2Department of English *kavithachandu2000@yahoo.co.in

Rock Railway Hospital,Trichinopoly. He was eventhen married to the hospital. Istill remember when myyoungest son, a baby, developeddiphtheria at a time when it wasfatal for a child under two. Hewas with us night and day andbut for him my son would notbe alive today.

At 90, all those of my gen-eration who have known Dr.TJC will not forget him. We fol-lowed him from Golden Rock toPerambur Hospital to VijayaHospital to Devaki, whereverhe went, like Mary had a littlelamb!

A distress call to him anytime and his advice would putus at rest. He had a rare God-given gift for diagnosis!

Anna Varki1D, Rosamere Apts

18, Harrington RoadChetpet, Chennai 600 031

May 1-15, 2012 MADRAS MUSINGS 54 MADRAS MUSINGS May 1-15, 2012

An exchange ofletters

A remarkablejourneyto excellence

A 1993 souvenir echoesPRH’s philosophy, “...to

provide comprehensive health careto the patients, upgrade the techni-cal knowledge of the doctors andprovide the necessary equipmentneeded for a high quality of serviceto the beneficiaries.” In this con-nection, a 2003 record notes:“Till date, over 40,000 cardiaccatheterisations and about 9000 in-terventions have been performed.”

The first telemedicine net-work in Indian Railways con-nected RH Trichy to PRH in2004 under the late Dr. G.C.Raju, then Medical Director.The PRH’s Department ofOtorhinolaryngology and Headand Neck Surgery is also consid-ered a pioneering institute for la-ser surgeries.

Dr. K.A. Abraham was thefirst qualified cardiologist to joinPRH. That was in August 1978.He came from the ChristianMedical College, Vellore, andduring his next 25 years at PRH,he streamlined and standardised

� Perambur Railway Hospital

many pro-cesses in thed e v e l o p -ment of theinstitution.He remem-bers drivingdown fromVellore in

his old Fiat car, to be given a two-room apartment on the campusand Rs.2200 salary per month.He further recalls, “The PRHwas at first just a ‘Sick and Fit’Hospital. In the 1950s someorder came about under Dr. E.Somasekhar, a surgeon and thefirst Southern Railway ChiefMedical Officer (1951-1954).He introduced rules for the Rail-way Medical Department andput the Railway Hospitals on themap! Thereafter came Dr. P.A.Menon (1957-1966), anexcellent surgeon and good ad-ministrator, who strengthenedthe hospital structure. Thencame Dr. TJC who was CMOfrom February 1977 to August

1978 and brought the team to-gether!”

Instrumental in contributingseveral improvements to the in-frastructure and facilities notonly at the Perambur hospitalbut also at other railway hospi-tals in the Southern region, Dr.Abraham was also responsible formaking the hospital’s Cardiologyand Cardiac Surgery Depart-ment a teaching centre from1984, training students for theDiplomate of National Board ofExaminations. Soon after, itcame to be recognised for train-ing in many other specialities likeOb Gyn, Orthopaedics, ENTand so on. A record of that pe-riod notes, “From barely a coupleof surgeries a week in 1978, thehospital has become a leading refer-ral centre. The cardiology wingwith its 110 beds performs 2,500procedures, besides 1,000 open-heart surgeries, in a year.”

Dr. K.R. Balakrishnan, who

Without Mathuram Bhoo-thalingam and P.G. Sun-

dararajan having known one an-other, there would have been noletters between them. Withoutthose letters, there would havebeen no relationship betweenthem. Without a relationship be-tween them, their knowing oneanother and writing to eachother could have been a thing ofno importance or interest.

But that conjunction did oc-cur. Mathuram Bhoothalingamas Krithika and P.G. Sunda-rarajan as Chitti did meet and getto write the letters which K.R.A.Narasiah has with sensitivitydouble-distilled into a slim book,the size of which belies itsstrength.

* * *S. Bhoothalingam was not in-

terested in diminishing or abridg-ing Mathuram Bhoothalingam’ssensibility. On the contrary, hewas a truly modern and emanci-pated man in frank admiration,even awe, of his gifted wife. But aflask, even when transparentlyself-abnegating as the protectorand preserver of the temperatureof its content, is a flask. It con-tains, it holds, it secures. But itdoes not, indeed it cannot, per-mit the substance within to takea shape other than its own.Whence arises the need for apseudonym. When women usethem, they gain the joy of anindependent identity.

Krithika is, if anything,independent. Independent inwhat she chooses to think of andindependent in what and howshe chooses to write upon.

But hers is not the indepen-dence of vagrancy. It is the inde-pendence of one who has a ticketin her hand, an open ticket, withdestinations unmarked. Shetravels, she does not lurch. Andin her letters to Chitti, she jour-neys with a companion with anidentical travel document. Howdelicious, how altogether delec-table, to travel with someonewho becomes a friend on thejourney, with no worries ofexcess baggage on one’s hand orleft-luggage to be collected onreturn, only conversation, recol-lection, and banter!

And yet the letters betweenKrithika and Chitti are not light.They are not chat. They are not‘side-stuff’. They are about thetimes, about people, about whatis being written, thought, said.They do not seek the other’s cor-roboration, though they some-times seem to revel in approval.They do not seek to impress,though they sometimes seem tolike having that effect. They also

are not meant for posteritythough I suspect they are beingwritten in the knowledge thatthey are going into some littlebox or cabinet, some table-drawer or old trunk where theywill be excavated from in a lonelyhour, by a lonely lamp, for alonely read when no one else islooking.

* * *

The first question that cameto me was: Were Krithika andChitti in love?

But no, no such luck.Then, the next question that

came to me was: Were Krithikaand Chitti into some joint con-fessional?

Again, no luck.Were they seeking shoulders

to lean on, perhaps even to cryon?

No. They were utterly self-possessed.

Are they the Karuthammaand Pareekutti of Thakazhi’sChemmeen?

No!And then I realised I was

missing the whole point of theletters. I was trying to find thepredictable and the trite in whatwas altogether different, freshand autonomous. I was trying tofind the stereo-typical in whatwas original.

Unless Narasiah has editedout things which belonged to theworld of privileged commun-ciation, there is no indicationthat Eros hides somewherebetween the lines of these letters.If Eros does, that would be goodfor Eros. If Eros does not, it mat-ters not.

Letters from a man to anotherman, from a woman to anotherwoman would raise no eyebrows.But letters, a whole series ofthem, stretching over more thanfour decades from – and let mespeak as if I am seated in a

temple’s courtyard in Chennai –letters from a married lady to amarried gentleman... sollungasaar, adhu sariyaa? They have toraise not just eyebrows but hack-les. This is a reflection on us, ourlimitations. Two individuals are,above all, individuals. Whetherthey are man and woman, mar-ried or otherwise, has to be be-side the point, especially when

what are being written are lettersthat contain reflections, observa-tions.

Why one wants to say some-thing to one particular person,and not to another, why somejokes are best shared with oneand nor another, why one wouldwish to exclude someone, evenvery close, while talking to some-one else, all these questions areimpossible to answer. That ishow it is. Human relationshipsare not to be dissected. They areto be observed.

These are letters because theyhappen to be written. They couldwell have been conversations.They could well have beenthoughts unexpressed, but con-veyed. Krithika’s and Chitti’s let-ters do not lead up to or culmi-nate in anything. But they do ag-gregate into something. They ag-gregate into an understanding, akind of compact, which says ‘Weagree not to seek agreement orconcordance, only communica-tion’. We need to express our-selves on things we do not havethe chance to in the ordinarytransactions of life.

Krithika wrote voluminously,as did Chitti. She wrote as shethought, without translating herwords for official acceptance.Krithika and Chitti need to beread not because they were liter-ary geniuses or they were socialphilosophers, but they were twoindividuals in a relationship oftrust, intellectual, cultural and

emotional trust. And that rela-tionship of trust is at a discounttoday.

* * *There is another reason why

this volume is soprecious. Lettersare becoming anendangered speciesof writing. With theemergence of the e-mail and the SMS,letters, hand-writ-ten and ‘proper’ let-ters, are a rarity.

Imagine today’syoung generationproducing aKrithika and Chittififty years from now.They will haveacute observationsto make, no doubt.They will havepoints of view thatare both interestingand valuable. Butwill they have the

language, the expression? Willthey have the feel forcommunication?

Krithika says in one letter toChitti: “My four days in Madrasseem a dream now. Not so ourlong morning drives; I still feelthe sands of Mahabalipurambeating against my cheeks.....”That would perhaps be renderedon SMS like this: “Hey Chits... 4dez Mds total dream, yar. Butthoz morn drives! Awsum...M’pur sands biting me mug...wow”.

But believe me, if the Krithikaand Chitti of 2052 are true de-scendants in spirit of ourKrithika and Chitti, I would saytheir SMS correspondencewould be a good read. Let us notbe prudes.

Letters written in a relation-ship of trust are, therefore, a pre-cious transaction which, whenone is given the chance to readwith legitimacy, is a privilegedexperience.

* * *Chitti comes through the

pages of this volume as a man offirm views, assessments and evenpredispositions. In other words,as a man who would have been adelight to know and a trouble todisagree with. In his letters toKrithika he is obviously seekingand discovering one he can ex-change his thoughts with, almostas if in an exercise of self-nour-ishment.

Every serious relationshipcompensates for a lack in otherrelationships. Oravu enradusaadarana vishayam illai. Puhaiyilthan uruvaugal vasikkum.

The more undefined relation-ship, the more it is likely to be se-cure, provided others do not in-terfere with it. Defined relation-ships can also be secure, butrather like contracts entered intoin faith and sustained in perse-verance.

Chitti and Krithika reposedtrust in one another’s sensibility,discretion and restraint in a rela-tionship that did not suffer ow-ing to lack of conventional typi-fications.

Their correspondence is,therefore, not just about theirtimes, but about all that which isrefined, restrained and redemp-tive about human relationships.

(Excerpted from Gopal KrishnaGandhi’s address after releasingLettered Dialogue, compiled byK.R.A. Narasiah and published byPalaniappa Brothers.)

currently heads FORTIS Malar’sCardio Vascular Care Unit, wasaround 30 years old when he firstlanded at PRH in the late 1980s.He recalls nostalgically, “AsADMO, I was allotted a housenext to the hospital, and when itrained anywhere, it poured in-side! The nearest life was inDasaprakash, Kellys or Noor Ho-tel near the Ayanavaram busstand. What luxury we experi-enced, with six free railway travelpasses and a salary of Rs. 1100,which we never needed to spendon anything! When Dr. TJCwent to the US on work, Iheaded the Unit. We had pa-tients from across India, mainlyfrom the Eastern, Northern andSouth Eastern Railways. It wastruly a great example of how apublic institution can work bytrusting young people and givingthem the responsibility of mak-ing an efficient service.

“I remember how our first

computer was looked at withgreat suspicion, and the ChiefMedical Officer, Dr. Mehrothra,going around promising people,‘If you let me keep the computerin your room, we will helpaircondition it.’ I agreed and solearnt G Basic and DW Basic,and that knowledge helped medesign a new heart valve forwhich I have a US patent!” addsDr. Balakrishnan.

Dr. Balakrishnan also hasfond memories of the hospitalcanteen, the ICF Club wherethey played tennis or badmintonevery evening, jogging aroundthe Perambur Stadium, and trav-elling by Bus No. 35 to Egmore.Every year, between December23rd and 31st and also from May15th to June 1st the Cardiac Unitwas closed. “We had our bestfamily holidays then. Whereverwe went, there was a Railwayguesthouse and free travel, andoften a TT or station manager orground staff would come up to usand greet me because our teamwould have operated on one ofhis family members. Those weregreat days, and I miss them verymuch!” he sighs rather emotion-ally. Today there are a few morecardiac surgery centres in differ-ent zones in Indian Railways, butthe Southern Railway cardiacsurgery unit in Perambur isrecognised for its low mortalityrate and its dedicated patientcare.

Though the hospital itself haskept pace with advances in themedical fields, the existing build-ing is unable to cope. A newSouthern Railway HeadquartersHospital was envisaged in 2005and sanctioned, with a totalbuilt-up area of approximately500,000 sq ft. The nine-storiednew complex would be a well-equipped state-of-the-art build-ing, with Rs.1.5 crore computer-based navigation orthopaedicsurgery equipment.

The incumbent Medical Di-rector Dr.Kannan, apaediatr i -cian withPRH since1 9 9 1 ,s p e a k sproudly ofthe new de-velopmentsto be. “Very soon, the new 600-plus bed hospital will come up atan estimated cost of Rs.110crore. The existing hospital pre-mises and the proposed new hos-pital complex will be available forestablishing the Railway MedicalCollege. With basic specialitiesin 15 disciplines and super-speci-alities in three disciplines, thehospital is sought out for post-graduate training. It’s amazinghow the early small unit at thePRH has metamorphosed!”

Truly, it has been a remark-able journey!

– Shobha Menon

(Concluded)

Before I came to MadrasChristian College (MCC)

for my university education, Iwas greatly privileged to study atLawrence School, Lovedale. It isa boarding school with a militarybias whose excellent headmasterin my time was K.I. Thomas,who went on to found ‘Sishya’ inChennai. The school, like MCC,was set in 800 acres of forest andat 6500 feet above sea level. Itwas founded in 1858.

When I joined MCC, thePrincipal was Rev.J.R. Macphail,who taught me English. He wasfollowed by Dr ChandranDevanesan, the first Indian tohold the post. He did this withgreat drive, distinction and pa-nache.

When I joined PUC in 1958and stayed in St Thomas’s Hall,I took to college like duck to wa-ter, as I had the great advantageof coming from an excellentboarding school environment atLovedale. I was confident and,as you can see, I am big in stat-ure and quite capable of lookingafter myself, so no one dared

greatly enjoyed my subsidiarysubjects and was an active par-ticipant in extracurricular activi-ties, including quiz, debating,athletics, NCC and table tennis.

However, the highlight of mytime at MCC was being PrimeMinister of St Thomas’s Hall in1962-63. It was a great experi-ence which moulded me in de-veloping leadership and team-work skills, honed my communi-

What did I learn from my timeat MCC? The importance ofworking as a team, the ability tocommunicate, and lead by ex-ample, and the need to get thingsdone. MCC greatly increased myself-confidence and self-belief. Itwas at MCC that I realised theimportance of focussing on qual-ity and being the best.

I also learned that to do wellyou had to enjoy what you did. Itis a mistake made by many stu-dents and parents chasing themoney and the prestige of beinga doctor or an IAS Officer ratherthan doing what they love doing.So when I changed from Physicsto Business Studies, which I en-joyed, success followed.

* * *What is my vision for the fu-

ture for MCC? My vision is thatMCC will become an educa-tional institution of excellenceby providing students with thehighest quality educational expe-rience to enable each student toachieve his/her full potential, tobecome highly educated, respon-sible citizens committed to bet-tering themselves, their families

and their fellow Indian citizens,by acting with honesty, integrity,objectivity, efficiency and in aselfless manner whilst striving tobe the best themselves.

How can this be achieved? Imake a few suggestions for thefuture:

� By outstanding leadershipfrom the top, with leaders cho-sen on merit, with no place forpolitics. The golden standard be-ing selfless outstanding leaderslike the Rev. Miller, Boyd andDevanesan. This in no way im-plies that the current Principalwas not chosen on merit. The re-sponsibility for recruiting, nur-turing and retaining outstandingleaders rests with the Board.

� By recruiting, motivatingand retaining the best teachersand researchers of any creed.This will be enabled by humanresource development practiceswhich reward excellence and donot accept mediocrity.

� Enable students to be highlysought after by employers by in-culcating in them high moral andethical values combined with

Given by Dr. Paul Sabapathy, CBE,Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands

Krithika Chitti

make me go through the indigni-ties of ragging which was com-mon at the time. Also comingfrom an English medium schoolused to military discipline, com-bined with my self-confidence,was a great advantage.

St. Thomas’s Hall was afriendly place with an excellentwarden in Prof. M.A. Thangaraj,who went on to be Principal ofAmerican College, Madurai.

After my PUC, I did my B.Sc.Physics which was a great mis-take on my part, as I did not en-joy the subject. I, however,

The proposed new hospital complex.

(Continued on page 6)

AN OLD BOY’S ADVICE

cation and organisational skills,and focussed on excellence.Organising a Hall Day success-fully takes some doing.

The night was an outstandingsuccess. Unfortunately one of myhall-mates, a university hockeyplayer, got drunk and startedpulling the fairy lights decoratingthe Hall. Fearing electrocution afew of us had to restrain him andI took a cold shower with him inmy suit, to get him sober, whichwe successfully did.

* * *

(Continued from last fortnight)

Dr. K.A. Abraham

Dr. Kannan

6 MADRAS MUSINGS May 1-15, 2012

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period April 1st to 15th.Questions 11 to 20 pertain toChennai and Tamil Nadu.)1. The 100th anniversary of whichcelebrated maritime disaster wasobserved on April 14th-15th?

2. Among much media attention, aPakistani scientist, incarcerated inAjmer, was granted bail by theSupreme Court of India recently.His name?

3. On April 12th, two powerfulearthquakes struck the coast ofSumatra, creatines tremors in Indiatoo. Of which Asian nation isSumatra a part?

4. Who was re-elected as GeneralSecretary of the CPI (M) for a thirdconsecutive term at the party’s con-gress in Kozhikode recently?

5. The 30th anniversary of whichwar between an European countryand a South American nation wasobserved recently?

6. Which celebrated writer’s firstadult novel will be called TheCasual Vacancy?

7. Another book question. Britishwriter William Boyd has been askedto write a new novel which willfeature which iconic hero whobattles the world’s evil forces?

8. At which U.S. airport was ShahRukh Khan recently detained byauthorities, leading to a diplomaticissue?

9. Which famous tech companyaffirmed its status as the world’smost valuable company afterbreaching the $600 billion mark inmarket valuation?

10. Instagram, the popular photosharing application, has beensnapped up by which popularonline giant for $1 billion?

* * *11. What is the anglicised name ofthe fort town called Sadurangapat-tinam?

12. In which town, synonymouswith a famous literary work, canyou pass through road-archesnamed after Ilango Adigal, Kovalanand Manimekalai, among others?

13. How many kuzhis are there inthe traditional version of ‘Pallan-guzhi’?

14. Which famed jewellers hadtheir showroom at Shankar’s Build-ing (or Diamond House) on theEsplanade in Chennai before HotelSaravana Bhavan occupied thepremises in the 1990s?

15. Who wrote the PoompavaiPathigam?

16. On what vahana do Kapalees-warar and Karapagambal ride aftertheir wedding on the tenth day ofthe annual festival in Panguni?

17. Name the famed builder whotended to the ailing SrinivasaRamanujan on his return to Madrasin 1919.

18. What is the claim to fame ofNathamuni and Govindu afterwhom streets are named in T’Nagar in Chennai?

19. Which Chennai theatre wasthe first to get a wide screen – wayback in the 1960s?

20. Paul Benfield, a 18th CenturyEIC engineer, is credited with firstshowcasing Indo-Saracenic archi-tecture to the world with whichbuilding in Chennai?

(Answers on page 8)

METERPODU– A work in progress

Once upon a time, auto-rickshaws in the city had

functioning meters, so the leg-end goes.

Asking auto-drivers to turnon that boxy contraption todayis like committing a small crime.The unrevised, State-fixed fareis blatantly unfair to these men(only a few of them these days)in khaki. But pay the arbitrarysum they demand and, chancesare that it won’t be fair to youin the long run. What gives?

A tech-savvy NRI, recentlyreturned to his home town,decided to do something aboutthis. Crowd-sourcing, a form ofdistributed problem solving,could be the answer. “I figuredthat the only way to get someparity is if a whole bunch of usdecided that we were only go-ing to pay Rs. x and not Rs. ythat the drivers demanded,”says Ananthanarayanan K.Subramanian (Anantha, forshort).

He explains the psychologybehind the crowd-sourcing toolMeterpodu. “So let’s say anautodriver demands Rs. 50 to gofrom T’ Nagar to Saidapet from10 consecutive commuters.Each of them refuses andcounter-quotes a sum of Rs. 40.The 11th commuter is likely tobe quoted a fare of Rs. 40, sincethe driver doesn’t want to pricehimself out of the market.”

Anantha teamed up with afriend, Mayur Narasimhan, anddesigned a system to collect faredata, process the numbers, andprovide commuters useful infor-mation. If you key in two loca-tions, the system looks upGoogle Maps and calculates thedistance between them. Itarrives at the official fare basedon the fare chart. The drivermay not take the same route,but this a good enough approxi-mation.

What users actually pay onthe ground is very different, ofcourse. “Users can contributethese fares for various routes

logging in via Twitter, Face-book or Gmail,” says Mayur.Their input goes into a database that computes the averagefare. Now, with that number inhand, every user can hope todrive a decent bargain with anyauto-driver in the city.

How is Meterpodu faring?The new tool got good press.

“A lot of people began pollingthe system to find out fares,”says Anantha. “The fare for-mula the system uses is datedcirca 2007, which is when thegovernment last revised fares.So it will quote average faresthat are a lot less than what isbeing demanded on the roads.”The number can only lead toangst that the auto-driversaren’t plying according to thegovernment-set fares, saysMayur.

Meterpodu enjoyed an ini-tial wave of popularity. Nobodylikes to be fleeced and the auto-driver is a convenient villain ina farce of a transport system.“We don’t have anythingagainst auto-drivers,” Ananthahastens to clarify. “Most ofthem rent the rickshaws theydrive and are forced to do whatthey do because their ownerssqueeze them.”

The lull that came later isharder to explain. WhileMeterpodu costs commutersnothing, everyone stands togain once it reaches its poten-tial. Yet, few contribute fares.Usually, crowd-sourcing in-volves some form of gratifica-tion, but here the user gets noinstant reward.

Still, is that the hold-up?“May be it is our mistake thatwe haven’t stressed it enough,but the whole point is for folksto contribute fares to the systemand build up a database offares,” says a bemused Anantha.So, right now, the system ismissing a vital piece.

To make Meterpodu an ef-fective tool, the first order ofbusiness would be to drive morefare contributions into the sys-tem. There are tweaks in theworks. Currently, it is asmartphone application, but itscreators plan to release an SMS-based version for non-smartphones users.

Thanks to technology, andindividual initiative, we have ahandy tool to set fair prices forroutes all over the city. Collec-tively, we may be able to resolvean issue that had us hagglingand hand-wringing in the past.

– Vijaysree Venkatraman

Keep Meterpodu ticking1. Go to www.meterpodu.in. It has a very straightforward

interface.2. Look up fares for your destination.If the government fare

comes up, it means no user has contributed a fare for thatroute yet. Otherwise, you get an average fare as well. Andthat is your bargaining chip.

3. If you are a Facebook user or a Gmail user, Meterpodu letsyou submit fares. The credentialing is necessary to preventrandom submissions from people or bots.

4. You can also query @meterpodu, or contribute to it, viayour Twitter account.

5. Meterpodu lets you look up fares for free. But if you nevercontribute fares, there may be precious little to draw from atsome point.

HOPE FOR HERITAGE ACT

with INTACH in 1999 andthen by the CMDA andINTACH in 2002. The secondtime was when the JusticePadmanabhan Committee wasput together by the High Courtin connection with a case onoutdoor hoardings. The reportof that Committee, of whichINTACH was also a member,formed the basis of the 2010judgement referred to abovewhich resulted in the formationof the HCC.

Even before that, INTACHhad drawn up its own list for theCity’s municipal limits. Whatneeds now to be looked at is afine tuning of these lists intoone comprehensive list andthen identifying heritage build-ings in Greater Chennai andelsewhere in the State.

The decision to include theentire State within the ambit ofthe proposed Heritage Commis-sion is commendable. So far, theheritage movement has beenfairly dormant in most towns ofthe State, resulting in large-scale desecration and wreckingof heritage sites which are notprotected by the Archaeologi-cal Survey of India. It is impera-tive that the legislation consti-tuting the Commission is passedat the earliest. What is evenmore important is that theCommission should workquickly in getting its list of heri-tage sites together and ensuringthat the list is notified with the

passage of a Heritage Act. Onlythen can we have some legalprotection for heritage build-ings and sites.

Readers of Madras Musingsneed hardly be reminded thatthe draft of a Heritage Act, atleast for the city of Madras, wascompleted as far back as 1999and had it been adopted thenwe would not be a city minusbuildings such as Gandhi Illam,Capper House, the erstwhileMadras Club building on Ex-press Estates, and GovernmentHouse. Chepauk Palace may not

have been consumed by fire.And Bharat Insurance Buildingwould not be facing an uncer-tain future. However, withQueen Mary’s College beingthreatened in 2003, the draftregulations were quietlyforgotten. Since then therehave been attempts at revival infits and starts but nothingconcrete has emerged. All thisdespite the fact that there is agroundswell of public opinion infavour of a Heritage Act. Whatis needed is quick action.

(Continued from page 1)

An Old Boy’s advice(Continued from page 5)

developing their intellectual,communication, teamwork,leadership and enquiry skillswith an ability and work ethicto apply their theoreticalknowledge to solving practicalproblems.

� Use new technology tomake best use of student andlecturer contact time to explainrather than dictating notes.

� Run the college on businessprinciples of efficiency, effec-tiveness, and investing to save,so surpluses can be generated toinvest in improving equipmentor buildings to improve studentexperience.

� Know which courses covertheir cost, so efficiencies can bemade.

� Ensure all lecturers have ateaching qualification.

� Explore introducingsubjects like Finance, Law,Banking, Pharmacy and Phar-macology which have links withexisting subjects like Commerceand Chemistry.

� Improve student employ-ability by considering teachingsubjects like Mandarin, Portu-guese, and presentational skills.Also set up an Advisory Man-agement Board for each subjectwith outside experts and em-ployers who can advise on howstudents can meet employers’needs.

In all this I am talking with17 years’ experience in highereducation in the UK, includingseven years as Chairman of Bir-mingham City University whichhas 23,000 students.

May 1-15, 2012 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

The economist as aShakespeareanscholar

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

I am already on your mailing list (Mailing List No....................) /I have just seen Madras Musings and would like to receive it hereafter.

� I/We enclose cheque/demand draft/money order for Rs. 100 (Rupees One hundred)payable to CHENNAI HERITAGE, MADRAS, as subscription to Madras Musings for theyear 2012-13.

� As token of my support for the causes of heritage, environment and a better city thatMadras Musings espouses, I send Chennai Heritage an additionalRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(Rupees .......................................................) Please keep / put me on your mailing list.

Name : ..................................................................................................................................

Address: ...............................................................................................................................

..............................................................................................................................................

Note: Overseas postage Rs. 550/year extra. Cheques for overseas postage alone payableto M/s. Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd. All other cheques to ‘Chennai Heritage’.DD/Cheque should be sent by Speed Post only.

Far from pedestrianfriendly

(Continued from page 1)

There has been many anEnglishman who loved In-

dia and worked tirelessly for itspeople and preservation of itscultural heritage. While thestory of the lay adventurer ormissionary who had fought inIndia’s freedom struggle hasbeen only too well documented,the contributions of academi-cians like Gilbert Slater, EdgarThurston and Kathleen Goughhave all but vanished frompublic memory. Most of theaforesaid individuals spent onlya few years of their lives inIndia, but their impact onIndological studies has beenimmense.

While Thurston lived inIndia at the turn of the 20thCentury and Gough arrivedshortly after the Dominion ofIndia had been inaugurated,Slater arrived in Madras duringthe Great War when Britishrule in India was at its zenithand yet there were signs – likethe emergence of the HomeRule League – that its demisewas not far off. Born inPlymouth, England, on August27, 1864 in a middle-class fam-ily, Slater had his education inEngland and graduated in eco-nomics from the University ofCambridge. He worked as alecturer at Balliol House andToynbee Hall and was Principalof Ruskin College from 1909 to1915. During this time, he wasactive in the British LabourMovement and supportedunion representation in thecollege’s administration. Whenthe Great War broke out, thecollege shut down leaving Slaterjobless. Fortunately, after ashort wait, Slater was offeredthe newly-created economicschair at the Madras University

and he set sail for India afterspending a few days trying tofamiliarise himself with theTamil language.

Slater served as Professor ofEconomics at the University ofMadras from 1915 to 1921. Dis-satisfied with the college text-books which were based on theeconomic conditions prevailingin developed countries and, atthe same time, convinced thatvillages formed the lifeline ofIndia, Slater encouraged hisstudents to conduct a detailedsurvey of their native villages inthe Madras Presidency. He in-structed his students to gatherinformation on decadal popula-tion variations, land ownership,cost of land cultivation, occu-pations of the people and theincome and expenditure ofindividual families. The survey– the results of which were pub-lished in 1918 as the book SomeSouth Indian Villages – covereddistricts as diverse and far apartas North Arcot and Malabarand Ramnad and Kistna. Thesevillages, numbering eleven inall, later became popularlyknown as ‘Slater villages’ andwere resurveyed from time totime, some as late as 2008. Themethodology pioneered bySlater was adopted by Marxist

economists of the 1970s andcame to be known as the ‘Slatertradition’.

Slater’s contribution toIndian economics is significant.He presided over the AnnualConference of the Indian Eco-nomic Association held inAllahabad in 1920. One ofSlater’s distinguished pupils wasSir M. Ct. Muthiah Chettiar ofthe MCt family who foundedUnited India Life Insurance andwhose more popular sonM.Ct.M. Chidambaram Chet-tiar would later found theIndian Overseas Bank andTravancore Rayons Limited.Slater also wrote a foreword toL.C. Jain’s book, IndigenousBanking in India. In 2009, theUniversity of Madras publisheda set of essays on Indian ruraleconomy and dedicated themto Slater’s memory.

mostly on economics – aboutfour of which are related to In-dia. (In his 1924 book TheDravidian Elements in IndianCulture, Slater suggests anEgyptian origin for SouthIndian Brahmins even whileaccepting the prevalent Medi-terranean race theory for otherSouth Indian people.)

Slater strongly supported theretention of English as the me-dium of instruction in theMadras Presidency. In TheDravidian Elements in IndianCulture, he prophesied thedestruction of local vernacularsif Hindustani or any otherIndian language was made themedium of instruction

“All India labours under avery serious disadvantage be-cause the language which is themedium of all higher instruc-tion is different from the lan-

guage of the home. For thepresent, Dravida suffers least.On the average a student of theMadras University saves abouta year, as compared with stu-dents of other Indian univer-sities, in the time necessarilyspent in the preliminary study ofEnglish before beginning hischosen course of study. But, onthe other hand, the develop-ment of Bengali, Hindi or Urduinto an efficient medium forscientific and general educationis a much more hopeful propo-sition than the modernising ofany Dravidian language to at-tain the same result. NorthernIndia can reasonably hope tomake one of its vernaculars theliterary and scientific organ ofbetween two and three hundredmillion people; unification ofthe language of the masses withthe language of the learned inSouth India is most likely to be

reached with the disappearanceof the Dravidian vernaculars.”

Today, apart from a few eco-nomic historians and heritagebuffs, Slater remains largely for-gotten.

However, unlike in India, inEngland, Slater is a well-knownfigure to a small but influentialcircle of Shakespearean scho-lars. His 1931 book SevenShakespeares is a must-read forstudents of alternative author-ship theories of Shakespeare’sworks. In the book, Slaterclaims that the plays believed tohave been written by Shakes-peare were actually penned byseven different authors in differ-ent times. The seven, accordingto Slater, were Francis Bacon,the English dramatist Christo-pher Marlowe, the 5th Earl ofRutland, Mary Sidney of Pem-broke, the explorer Sir WalterRaleigh who founded Virginia,the Elizabethan army officer SirWilliam Stanley and Edward deVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.Slater suggests that all ofShakespeare’s plays may havebeen authored as part ofEngland’s propaganda againstits 16th Century rival, Spain,and their authorship was attrib-uted to William Shakespeare inorder to hide the real identitiesof their creators. Slater, thus,hints at the presence of a largeand well-organised conspiracy,and at the head of the con-spiracy, he places the Earl ofOxford – the ringleader, whowas instrumental in convincingShakespeare to lend his name.While there have been manywho have questioned the au-thenticity of Shakespeare’sworks, Slater was one of onlythree to suggest a “grouptheory” of authorship, the oth-ers being Harold Johnson (who,in 1910, attributed Shakes-peare’s works to a bunch ofJesuits) and H.T.S. Forrest(who, in his 1923 book The FiveAuthors of Shakespeare’s Sonnets,proposes that Shakespeare’ssonnets could have been writ-ten by five different people,thereby pioneering a theorywhich Slater probably builtupon).

A portrait unveiled by theformer Finance Minister ofTamil Nadu, Prof. K. Anba-zhagan, at the campus of theUniversity of Madras, on Janu-ary 22, 2009, is the only monu-ment in the city dedicated toSlater.

Dr. Gilbert Slater

Lastly, at the same time, weneed to recognise that the pe-destrian is no paragon of virtuein our city. Jaywalking is ram-pant and, let us face it, most ofthe concrete medians in the cityare witness to pedestrians jump-ing over them to cross roads atwhat appear to them to be themost convenient spots in termsof distance but certainly not in

terms of safety. Elsewhere, insome cities, pedestrians practiseroad discipline, too. We need toeducate our people on this.

All this requires a great will,greater coordination and anenormous effort. What we arewitnessing on the roads is aculmination of several years ofapathy. But it is never too lateto make a start in a newdirection.

A birthday feature

Slater was nominated to theMadras Legislative Council inNovember 1921. In the Coun-cil, Slater was one of thegovernment’s well-known “yesmen” along with the likes of SirC.P. Ramaswami Aiyar and SirMuhammad Usman and wasthe target of constant brickbatsfrom the Indian National Con-gress benches. Slater’s stint asmember of the Council wasbrief and insignificant, but forhis proposal for the adoption ofa common script for the wholePresidency.

Slater sailed for England in1923, but returned a few yearslater as Labour Commissionerfor the Presidency. He wentback to England again in thelate-1920s, this time never toreturn. Slater died in his homein England on March 8, 1938.

During his lifetime, Slaterwrote more than a dozen books,

� by K. Ravichanderravirustam84@gmail.com

8 MADRAS MUSINGS May 1-15, 2012

A Chola templenear Tambaram

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

Since 1856,patently leaders

— A WELLWISHER

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

Published by S. Muthiah for ‘Chennai Heritage’, No. 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014, printed by T J George at Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006, and edited by S. Muthiah.

F.L. Smidth Limited

UCAL AUTOPRIVATE LIMITEDTVS MOTOR COMPANY

Bata India Limited

The HinduGroup of Publications

A view of the Mandapa at Dhenupurishwarar Temple, Madambakkam.

Entrance to DhenupurishwararTemple, Madambakkam.

One among the numerousmonuments under the

protection of the Archaeo-logical Survey of India in andaround Chennai is the historicDhenupurishwarar temple inMadambakkam, close to Tam-baram. It is a temple datingback to Chola times and muchenlarged in the subsequentVijayanagara era. Walking intothe temple is like going back intime.

The entrance is through ahalf-completed gopuram ofVijayanagara workmanship.Most visitors hurrying in andout of this monument miss see-ing the intricate carvings on thesides and the ceiling of this en-trance gateway. If we stood andlooked, it would be our mutetribute to the unnamed artisansof the 15-16th Centuries whosculpted such minute designsand figures on the hard graniteceiling more than twenty feethigh. Passing through thisgopuram, you see a multi-pillared mandapam in whicheach stone pillar is studded withmany superb sculptures of dei-ties.

It is interesting to know thatthe most ancient inscription inMadambakkam was not foundin the temple, but dug out fromthe backyard of a house of oneof the residents of the village.This stone slab, already dam-aged when discovered, has aninscription in the Tamil lan-guage and script of the Cholatimes (10th Century C.E.). Itrecords a grant of land for Siva,the presiding deity of thistemple, known in those days asSittreri Mahadeva.

Walking through the innercircumambulatory passage of

the temple around the apsidal-shaped main sanctum is a de-light for historians, archaeo-logists and heritage-enthusiastssince there are numerous epi-graphs to be seen on the north,south and west outer walls ofthe shrine. Neatly etched inTamil script of the Chola andVijayanagara times, theserecords, which register dona-tions of land, livestock andother details, are a mine of in-formation for understandingthe past. The Chola epigraphshere are dated to the kings ofthe 13th Century C.E., likeKulottunga III and Rajaraja III.Of Vijayanagara times, thereare a number of inscriptions ofEmperor Mallikarjuna (15th

Century C.E.) whose lithicrecords have also been found in

Tirumullaivayil and Kunnatturand also of Sadasiva Raya (16th

Century C.E.), during whosereign the sack of the gloriouscity of Vijayanagara (present-day Hampi) took place. InChennai, an inscription of thetime of this emperor is found inthe Parthasarathi temple inTiruvallikeni.

Going around the sanctumfor Goddess Parvati, enshrinedhere as Dhenukambal, isequally rewarding as there arerecords on the walls belongingto the reign of the illustriousemperor Jatavarman SundaraPandya (1251-1268 C.E.), in-scribed in the 13th CenturyTamil letters. It was this heroicmonarch who transformed thePandyan kingdom into an em-pire of which the territory nowknown as Chennai was a part.

Madambakkam was knownin the Chola days as Ulaguyya-vanda-Chola-Chaturvedi-mangalam. It was situated inthe ancient territorial sub-divi-sion of Nedukundra-Nadu, inPuliyur-kottam aka Kulot-tunga-Chola-Valanadu, a sub-division of Jayamkonda-Chola-mandalam. The fact thatMadambakkam was also known

as Anidhira Mangalam is gath-ered from a Chola inscriptionfound in the Nitya KalyanaPerumal temple at Tiruvidandai(another A.S.I. protected his-toric temple) on the East CoastRoad which records a donationof gold to the sabha (administra-tive organisation of a village) atAnidhira Mangalam aliasMadambakkam. From its inter-est earning they agreed to sup-ply a certain amount of gheeevery day for a lamp in theTiruvidandai temple.

A polished granite slab nearthe main gopuram of theMadambakkam temple, do-nated by a philanthropist in therecent past, has the accuratedetails of the history of thistemple neatly etched in Englishand Tamil. A worthy donationindeed, as it helps visitorsrealise they are in a historic sitemore than a thousand years old.

It is a delight to visit this an-cient Siva temple in Madam-bakkam. Not only is it spick andspan, the centuries-old gopu-ram, mandapams and sanctumshave been restored from theirdamaged condition with muchcare and dedication. Moreover,the inscriptions have been su-perbly preserved, unlike manythat have been obliterated invarious other temples inChennai in the name of reno-vation.

– Chithra Madhavan

May, June & July: Sakti BurmanRetrospective, a travelling showby Apparao Gallery on SaktiBurman, a well-known con-temporary artist who was born inIndia and lives in France. Therewill be over 100 paintings, watercolours, drawings and litho-graphs (at DakshinaChitra).

Till May 30: Macro World, a pho-tography exhibition of flora andfauna by Poochi Venkat and hisstudents: Flora and Fauna (atDakshinaChitra).

Till June 15: A solo show of SophieJo’s paintings. Her brilliantlycoloured works are inspired byeveryday life that she captureswith a sense of humour (atApparao Galleries).

June 1-17: Paintings and sculptureby Shanthi (at DakshinaChitra).

June 20-30: Puppets of South In-dia from the DakshinaChitra col-lection (at DakshinaChitra).

DakshinaChitra WorkshopsFor childrenMay 11: Junk ArtMay 18: Traditional gamesMay 25: Pottery & Clay Model-

ling

For adultsTill May 6: Table Mat WeavingTill May 12: Studio PotteryMay 25-27: Glass Fusing

(jewellery)June 8-10: Kalamkari +

Kalahasti visit

For details: 98417 77779

Answers

to Quiz

1. Sinking of the Titanic; 2. Dr.Khalil Chisty, 3. Indonesia; 4.Prakash Karat; 5. Falklands War; 6.J.K. Rowling; 7. James Bond; 8.WhitePlains; 9. Apple; 10.Facebook.

* * *

11. Sadras; 12. Poompuhar; 13.Fourteen, 14. Surajmal’s; 15.Sambandar, 16. Ravana vahana; 17.Thatikonda Namberumal Chetty;18. They were workers who werekilled when laying drain pipes inthe area; 19. Pilot; 20. ChepaukPalace.