WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXV No. 22 March 1-15, 2016

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

•No chequebook charity

• Eri-s still around

•He cleans up lakes

• The fan clubs craze

(Continued on page 8)

Freeby culturewe can do

without

If Mysore can,why not Madras?

� by The Editor

(Continued on page 2)

(Continued on page 2)

(By A Special Correspondent)

Know your Fort

better

� Historically, we can trace at least four ‘squares’ in the layout ofFort St George. The Fort Square was perhaps the oldest, its bound-aries being those of the first Fort House built when Madras wasbegun. Today this is occupied by the Assembly and Secretariatbuilding. Parade or Barracks Square we have already seen and itcontinues to exist. Fronting the Arsenal was Hanover Square andin the late 1700s it was taken over for the construction of severalbarracks. Portuguese Square was the fourth and it spanned the areaon which the multi-storey Namakkal Kavignar Maligai wasconstructed in the 1980s. This building houses the offices of manyGovernment departments today.

It must be remembered that the Fort was not meant exclusivelyfor the British in its early years. We have seen earlier thatArmenians lived here and several Indian dubashes owned propertyin the Fort. As the name suggests, Portuguese Square was firstoccupied by the nationals of that country who, formerly resident inSan Thomé, fled to the relative security of Fort St George early in1640. Unlike the Company’s civil servants, the Portuguese weredevout Roman Catholics and felt the need for a priest who couldminister to them. Their prayers were answered when in 1642,Father Ephraim de Nevers arrived at the Fort. A French Capuchinpriest, his destination was Pegu (now Bago in present dayMyanmar). He had landed at Surat in 1641 in order to travel byland across India to the Coromandel Coast and from there by seato the place where he was ordained to preach. But he was destinedto never leave our city, as the Portuguese residents of the Fortpetitioned Agent Andrew Cogan that he order the priest to stayback. The request and the Agent’s sanction are both dated June 8,1642, indicating that there was a great urgency to retain FatherEphraim.

He on his part was quite willing but was apprehensive as to whathis superiors, and the priests of San Thomé would have to say.Permission was therefore sought from Rome and while it wasawaited, Father Ephraim was given land for building a church tothe north of the then Fort, which we know was just Fort Square(present Assembly and Secretariat). The Capuchin church of StAndrew’s which was in reality a timber shed, and its surroundingsbecame known as Portuguese Square. The choice of name of thepatron saint is a mystery and it is quite likely that it was a doffing ofthe hat to Andrew Cogan who was the numero uno of the place.The timber shed made way for a permanent structure in 1675.

Father Ephraim became something of a legend in Madras. In aFort that was established solely for commercial purposes, he tookno money for services rendered by way of baptisms, weddings orburial. He accepted gifts by way of rice and some bare essentials.

The revenue deficit forTamil Nadu, presented as

part of the interim budget earlyin February, is alarming to saythe least. The Government hasrevealed that its expenditureexceeds its income by overRs. 9,000 crore. While this as afigure is bad enough, whatmakes it worse are two attitudi-nal issues – the first is thatwelfare measures cannot bereined in and second that otherStates in the country fare farworse than us in revenuemanagement. These are notindicators of a bright future forour State – often touted as amodel in administration.

This is the third consecutiveyear that Tamil Nadu has notbeen able to adhere to the fiscalresponsibility norm of zero rev-enue deficit. Any small businesswill tell you the elementaryrules of financial discipline –you cannot be making cashlosses. But that is what we aredoing right now and with notiny or manageable figures. Thedeficit has been attributed totwo factors – fall in revenue,owing to decreased petroleumprices, and a sharp increase in‘welfare measures’. The latter isnothing but a euphemism forfreebies. These have, sadly,become integral features ofgovernance, no matter whichParty is in power in our State.This was not the case till a cou-ple of decades ago.

Tamil Nadu is no stranger towelfare schemes and many ofthese were much needed. TheState has been the pioneer inseveral measures that have gonea long way in improving thestandard of living. These in-clude steps taken in the fields ofeducation, healthcare, housingand women’s welfare. In manyof these, we were far ahead ofother States of India and whenit came to the noon meal

scheme, we were ahead of manycountries in the world. Nonecan therefore deny the merits inthese. It must also be pointedout that all of these helped intransforming lives at a funda-

mental level – they were trulyagents of social uplift.

What has since happenedreeks of populism. We do notwish to comment on free goatsand cows, as there are sectionsof society where these wouldqualify as valued capital. Thesame goes for financial assis-

tance for weddings, perniciousthough the practice is of eventhe weakest sections of societywanting to spend hard earnedmoney on lavish ceremonies.But does everyone really need atelevision set, a mixer, a grinderand a laptop? These are allitems that people ought to as-pire to buy. Does it become theState Government’s responsi-bility to ensure that everyhousehold has all of these?What motivation then exists forpeople to work hard, earn a liv-ing and then strive to improve

The results are in and theGovernment’s Swacch

Survekshan – a survey of 73cities of India – confirms whatlast year’s private study found:Mysore is India’s cleanest city.Chennai is nowhere in the topten, though it must be someconsolation that it is not in thebottom ten either. Ranking 37,our city has shown that itscleanliness record is at bestmiddling. That is not bad, but itcertainly is not good when youconsider that we have alwaysclaimed we are a world-classmetropolis, or almost there.

The survey, conducted by 25teams, visited 46 locations ineach city and these includedreligious places, railway and busstations, markets and toiletcomplexes. The availability ofdustbins was also marked. Oneof the chief criteria was the wayeach town managed its solidwaste. Over 100,000 residentswere quizzed on whether they

were aware of what their civicbody was doing to promotecleanliness. In all of this,Mysore came out tops, followedby Chandigarh and Tiruchirap-palli. And before we take solacein the excuse that all of theseare tier 2 towns not facing theproblems of the larger metros,let us also mention that NewDelhi came 4th and GreaterMumbai stood 10th. That givesus much food for thought, doesit not?

What is it that Mysore hasdone that we are incapable of?Plenty apparently. The last fewweeks have seen enough andmore news reports on thesuccess of the erstwhile capitalof the eponymous princely statewhen it comes to its cleanlinessquotient. Here are some glean-ings.

Six years ago, Mysore wasgiven a blue ranking – diseasedbut recovering status. In India,

Portuguese Square, now Namakkal Kavignar Maligai in the background.

2 MADRAS MUSINGS March 1-15, 2016

Those who know The Manfrom Madras Musings per-

sonally will vouch for the factthat while he is not exactlyslim, trim and athletic, he doesgive fat a good fight and trieshis best to ensure that he doesnot become one of those menwho open doors with theirstomachs. Of this latter vari-ety, MMM notes, our cityabounds – most people over-work, overeat, overindulge andgenerally go over the top. And,as a consequence, they have allbecome people that Julius Cae-sar would have loved, for wasit not he who once famouslywanted to have men about himthat were fat?

MMM realises that obesityis an issue and not many mayactually be in a position to con-trol their embonpoints andtheir avoirdupois for there canbe many reasons for these. To-wards such people MMM hasnothing but sympathy. But hecannot understand why men inthe prime of their lives in ourcity let themselves go in alllateral directions. In Chennai,as MMM often notes, shortly

that is a dead giveaway. If it re-mains open even as the eyesclose, you know you are in thepresence of a snorer.

There are, of course, vari-ous varieties among these.There is the concrete mixerblender that MMM already hasreferred to. We also have thereclining Wagner in which casethe bass, the tenor and the so-prano all take turns to appear,each time rising to great cre-scendos. There is also the mo-torcycle with starting troubleand the cats out on a prowl in arubbish tip. MMM’s favouriteis the Q&A – where the snoreis in two cadences – the risingone ending on a questioningnote and the subsequent onethat culminates in a subsidingnote as though a question wasasked and an answer given. Incase you are unable to identifyany, give MMM a call and hewill be glad to give you a dem-onstration.

These are days of freebiesand it is time the Governmentconsiders a hardship allowancefor non-snorers when they arefaced with fellow travellers whoare of the other kind.

Troubles in a trainwhich MMM understood fromthe conversations were withthe male half’s sister. Thecouple had stayed with herbriefly and, during their stay,the hostess had not fed thecouple’s child well. This strip-ling was a bulbous mass thatshook all over like a badly setjelly and was even thenmunching through a bag ofpotato chips on the top berthto which he had been heavedwith difficulty by the father. Itwas difficult to imagine thatthis bulging child had been ill-fed.

The conversations led tomassive arguments. The fe-male of the couple declaredover the phone that she wouldenter the erstwhile hostess’residence only as a dead body.This sentiment was probablylauded at the other end of thephone, whereupon the twowarring sisters-in-law hung upon each other only to have thehusband’s sister call him up onhis cell phone and tell himwhat she thought of his wife.The battle was then joinedbetween the couple and each

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

after marriage, the male of thespecies develops a distendedabdomen irrespective of whe-ther the female does owing topregnancy. If MMM ever cameto be in a position of power, hewould demand that men inChennai give up their surplusfat just as the present incum-bent wants people to give upgas subsidies.

Now why did MMM beginthis train of thought he hasquite forgotten... Ah, yes! Hehas it. It has to do with the factthat most of these people whenthey go to sleep tend to makenoises like an electric mixer orgrinder that is at that point oftime pulverising some particu-larly hard substance. As towhat they do in the privacy oftheir homes is none of MMM’sbusiness though their wives(or, in these politically correcttimes, their significant others)have his sympathy. But whenthey board trains and, moreimportantly, come to shareMMM’s cubicle, he stronglyobjects to their snoring.

Nowadays MMM has totravel by night train quite a bit.In fact, if the railways had anyscheme like the airlines,MMM would qualify as a fre-quent traveller. And he doesenjoy going around in trains.But the joy is significantly re-duced each time he sees anobese co-passenger wheezingin, who, after a heavy meal re-plete with fatty junk foods andaerated drinks, goes to sleepimmediately with his mouthhanging open. It is this orifice

More rail sounds

If the difficulties that MMMfaces with snorers, the prob-

lems he has with incessant cell-phone users is a lot more. Veryoften, these are the same kindof people – they snore whileasleep and when their phonerings (it is never on silent orvibrate mode), they get up andspeak loudly into it. When thecall gets over, they are back tophase one, viz snoring. Now forsome reason MMM was of theview that the kinds of businessthat take place in the witchinghour of midnight would notbear scrutiny but in this he isapparently wrong. These daysland transactions, conferencecalls, arguments, discussionson TV serials, all these happenright through the night andpeople are forever on thephone endlessly chatting. Andof course, these talkers imaginethat just about everyone else onthe train is deaf for they speakfreely on just about anything –difficulties in conceiving(which is not surprising giventhe amount of time people areon phones at night) to frankand forthright opinions onmothers in law – just about ev-erything is expressed on thephone, in public.

And so it was a couple ofweeks back. A couple boardedthe train along with MMM andhe could see even then that allwas not well between them.Shortly after the train pro-ceeded on its journey there be-gan a series of phone calls,

began a listing of the other’srelatives and what their weak-nesses were. Uncles and auntswere enumerated and roastedand it must be said that thehusband was clearly at thelosing end, his wife having asharper memory for past suf-ferings and a quicker tongue.

By 11.00 pm, matters haddegenerated to each declaringthat his/her death was nearand that the other could marrywhomsoever they wanted, butthe only thing that preventedthem from jumping off thetrain was the fat kid (who bythe way had gone to sleep withmouth hanging open and wassnoring). It was then thatMMM decided to intervene.He told the couple to shut upas he needed to sleep. Thatworked like magic. The onlydrawback was that the hus-band was a heavy snorer andso MMM remained awake thewhole night.

Tailpiece

The Man from MadrasMusings has a suggestion

for the railways. Since theyprovide pillows, bed sheets andblankets in the upper classes oftravel, why not consider ear-plugs as well? This was oncebeing done by a highflying li-quor and airline baron beforehe became well and trulygrounded. MMM would beeternally grateful.

– MMM

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 (RupeesOne hundred) payable to CHENNAI HERITAGE, MADRAS, assubscription to Madras Musings for the year 2015-16.� As token of my support for the causes of heritage, environment and abetter city that Madras Musings espouses, I send Chennai Heritagean additional Rs...................... (Rupees ....................................) Pleasekeep/put me on your mailing list.Name : ...................................................................................................Address: ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................All cheques to ‘Chennai Heritage’. DD/Cheque should be sent by SpeedPost only.

Freeby culturewe cando without(Continued from page 1)

IF MYSORE CAN,WHY CAN’T WE?

(Continued from page 1)

their living conditions? And, ifthese are to be given free, willthe recipients cherish and valuethese gifts? It is common sensethat what is received gratisrarely has any importanceattached to it.

There is also the issue ofchronic misuse of such privi-leges. Yes, there are people whobenefit from subsidised food,water and medicines. But thereis no mechanism today to en-sure that those who are earning

well also do not avail of thesefacilities. The net result is thatmany people eat at these can-teens and what is saved is spenton alcohol, which is also vendedby the State.

Freebies have come to stayand are, unfortunately, going toget bigger. Once the belief hasset in that the only way to winvotes is by giving such gifts,there is no end to it. And it willcreate a culture of lotus-eaters,people who do not wish towork. Is this the Tamil Nadu wewish to bring about?

most cities get a black rating –indicating they need consider-able improvement. It was thenthat Mysore’s municipal corpo-ration decided that it wouldtake up several initiatives toachieve green ratings – markingit a healthy city. Chief amongthese was the elimination ofdefecation in the open, themanagement of solid waste, re-cycling of wastewater, and thesegregation of garbage atsource.

All of this is not new to thetown, but then Chennai is nonewcomer to these either. AtMysore, the effort in the lastfive years has been to installseveral public toilets and, moreimportantly, keep them cleanand usable. The waste segrega-tion effort in the city was accel-erated by making evangelistsout of the Corporation workers,referred to in local parlance asPaurakarmikas. These peoplehave been fanning out intotheir localities and askinghouseholds to segregate theirwaste. It is, however, not asthough the town is free of allproblems – its waste disposal isstill not perfect, it all ends in alandfill, and strikes by its sani-tation staff happen frequently.

Yet, it is the small steps it hastaken that have made for ahappy result. In Chennai, wastesegregation has not taken offdespite tall promises and whenwas the last time a Corporationworker came home to tell youto separate your rubbish intocategories?

Studies also reveal anotherreason for Mysore’s cleanlinessfetish – its tourist influx. TheGovernment realises that withover 30 lakh visitors annually tosee its heritage and architec-ture, the city has to be a show-piece worthy of the time andmoney that they spend in com-ing over. This consciousnesshas percolated to the lowest lev-els and residents feel that it istheir responsibility to ensurethat Mysore presents its bestface to the tourists. We neednot elaborate on what Chen-nai’s track record has been inthis regard. While it has donecommendable work on parksand open spaces, its score as faras heritage buildings and pre-cincts are concerned is, at bestmiddling. It is no wonder thatour overall cleanliness record isalso just so. Mysore has not yetmade it to green, but is well onits way. Chennai remains solidlyin the black.

March 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

No chequebookcharity for himRelaying of roads

The relaying of roads inChennai after the floods

testifies to the fact that the au-thorities are either blind to thewelfare of the people or arehand in glove with the contrac-tors responsible for the work.

In most places, especially inthe interior, roads are being laidwithout milling the old layer.Such a practice over the yearsthat raises road level way abovethe floor level of houses hasbeen identified as a major causefor the inundation and contin-ued water logging in residentialareas.

However the authorities areleast concerned and are carry-ing out the relaying of roadsagain without milling. Won’tthe Government think of thepeople’s plight even after thecalamity of just a few weeksago?

Dhandapani Alagiriadpani1998@gmail.com

An extra leap

Thank you very much for the‘Dates for Your Diary’ col-

umn (MM, February 16th). Ifound I had no entries in my di-ary for February 30th. Now Iknow – I will go to ApparaoGalleries and be there for thelast day of the Tree of Life exhi-bition.

G. Ram MohanAkshaya

1, Sriramnagar South StreetAlwarpet Chennai 600 018

Questionable mark

With the printer’s devil atwork, a question mark

that should not have been therefound itself added to the head-ing ‘Entrepreneur’s progress’(MM, February 16th). Ourapologies to the sucessful entre-preneur.

– The Editor

This vaccination warrior from one of the oldest Rotary Clubs in India – RCMadras – has been in the forefront of colossal work done for immunising

children against measles and polio.

Not all Rotarians in India would be aware that one of their biggest triumphs– winning the battle against polio – began in a major way in India with thevintage and prestigious Rotary Club of Madras in 1989. This happened whenthe then Rotary International President Hugh Archer said “we’ll give you $4.6million for polio immunization for five years,” recalls S.L. Chitale, who com-pleted 50 years in his Rotary journey last July.

As a cub reporter with The Indian Express who regularly covered theimmunisation work done by RC Madras in the late 1970s, I recall the impecca-bly dressed gentleman in white who passed on his infectious enthusiasm andpassion for protecting children against debilitating diseases and getting goodcoverage of this Rotary programme in mainstream newspapers. That wasChitale, a leading architect in Madras.

� by Rasheeda Bhagat

Recalling that journey withstars in his eyes while seated inhis office, Chitale and Sons, anarchitectural firm started by hisfather in 1932, he explains thebackground of their initial workthat got the eye and confidenceof the RI President.

Chitale’s Rotary journeystarted in 1965 – earlier he wasa Round Tabler – when hejoined RC Madras. In 1979, thegolden jubilee of the Clubwas to be celebrated. Its presi-dent V. Chidambaram said,“Let’s do a big project whichwill be remembered for a longtime.” It also being the Inter-national Year of the Child, theyzeroed in on vaccination formeasles, the biggest killer ofchildren.

The Club struck a collabora-tion with R.C. Whitby ofCanada, which agreed to giftthe Indian Rotarians 65,000doses, “which were sufficient foronly Nungambakkam orMylapore, and not Madras,”smiles Chitale. But this partner-ship gave RC Madras its biggestbenefactor and Chitale, adear and lifelong friend inKen Hobbs, who came down asa volunteer and got so hookedto the Madras Rotarians andthe immunisation project thathe would later come down ev-ery year with his wife for thenext 30 years. With CMCVellore’s eminent microbiolo-gist and past president of RCMadras, Dr. Jacob John, too be-ing part of the team, measlesimmunisation work was in fullswing.

“We partnered with RI, KenHobbs worked very hard for usfrom Canada and eventuallythe vaccination workers of Ma-dras managed to get 5.2 milliondoses of the measles vaccine.The number swelled due tothese dedicated Rotarians’efforts, but the next big hurdlewas ‘how to bring the vaccineshere, who would pay theCustoms and other duties andwhere to store them’ … wecouldn’t keep them in our draw-ing rooms!”

After several meetings Rota-

rians had with officials, they gotall duties waived. “We couldconvince government officialsthat we were only helping themin their work in child health.”The vaccine, to be stored atminus 8 degrees Centigrade wastransported by Air India fromNew York to Madras.

“For five years, AI flew freeof cost 650,000 doses every sixmonths. And we got the KingInstitute to store the vaccine forus. I kept telling my fellow

Rotarians that if you want to doa project of this magnitude, youneed government support andyou should make it your partnerbecause it has all the infrastruc-ture and facilities; we can onlythrow in a few inputs.”

Well, Chitale is modest.What the Rotarians did wasmuch more than contributing a“few inputs.” They shored upthe cold chain required to storethe vaccine doses at the requi-site temperature by spendingRs. 40 lakh – a huge sum 35years ago. “Otherwise we wouldhave been administering thechildren only distilled water,”he says.

Slowly, the measles immuni-sation programme grew from asingle club to a district (then323, the 0 was added later tomake it 3230) project and thattoo over five years. Chitale givescredit for the success of measlesvaccination to the team who“did an excellent job – JacobJohn, Venkat Subbiah, Puru-shottaman from Salem, Vish-wanatha Reddy, Saravanan,R.K. Swamy.”

Meanwhile, much earlier (in1979), RI had begun its poliovaccination initiative withPhilippines. “While there itremained more of a governmentproject, Indian Rotarians gotwholeheartedly involved inpolio immunisation and TamilNadu was the first state in Indiato be declared polio-free,” saysChitale proudly.

He recalls that though theRotarians’ job was to makeavailable polio drops and thegovernment staff administeredthem in hospitals, “whereverthere was some deficiency andour services were required, wepitched in. We also conductedcamps to administer them.”

It was Ken Hobbs who madesuch a huge success of theimmunisation programmes, saysChitale. “He was a wonderfulman and came here every year,

at his own expense all the wayfrom Toronto.” Much later, in2002, when he got the Order ofCanada, he responded toChitale’s congratulatory note,“You were the catalyst thatmade it happen, without you itwould have never happened. Ifeel so fortunate to have you asa trusted friend for the last 23years.” Hobbs passed away in2010.

For the CHILDS TrustHospital in Chennai, a privateand prestigious children’s hospi-tal that Chitale helped to set upwith his close friend and emi-nent paediatric surgeon Dr.M.S. Ramakrishnan, Hobbshelped raise a total of $700,000.“That was the kind of wonder-ful and generous friend he was,”adds Chitale.

His close involvement in theimmunisation programmes forchildren and the hospital, saysChitale, was related to his owndifficult childhood. “I lost mymother when I was only 8, hadno siblings, and always wantedto do something for children.”

Though he grew up inChennai, his forefathers camefrom Maharashtra and “were alltemple priests. Even in theRound Table I worked for thePallipattu (SS) Boys Home, andI carried this passion into Ro-tary.” With Dr. MSR he startedCHILDS Trust, because Ma-dras then had only one child-ren’s hospital – the Govern-ment Institute for Child Health.

“And if doctors have to look atsome 2,000 to 3,000 children aday, what attention will they beable to give to the patients?MSR did the medical portionand I did the building and pub-licity.”

So why did such a premierand vintage club such as RCMadras, one of the oldest inIndia, being founded in 1929,lose the importance and halo itonce had, I asked him.

“Well, we’ve returned centrestage with the polio flame,” hereplies quietly.

On what he enjoyed mostabout being in Rotary, Chitalesays it was forming a team andforging great friendships. “KenHobbs became such a dearfriend; the way his and mychemistry worked was amazing.But for Rotary I wouldn’t haveeven met him.”

On what has changed inRotary over half a century,Chitale muses for a momentand says, “I think the involve-ment, friendship and participa-tion were much greater in thosedays. In any project that Rotarydid, we became personally andpassionately involved. I amafraid today, it is more cheque-book charity, and not so muchpersonal involvement. It’s like Isign a few cheques and havemade my contribution. But inthose days, we would ourselvesgo to camps with our ladies anddo all the work… taking downnames, maintaining records…”

Today much more money isavailable in India with Rota-rians and others for charity;how did they manage in thosedays when financial resourceswere lower, but travel and otherexpenses had to be borne?

“Oh, where was the moneyfor all that? We used our ownfunds. The money that came …the $4.6 million we got from RIhad to be used only for vaccines… and the cold chain.”

As for professional worksuffering, he says they were tooprofessional to neglect their

(Continued on page 6)

MADRAS MUSINGSON THE WEB

To reach out to as manyreaders as possible who

share our keen interest in

Madras that is Chennai,and in response to requests

from many well-wishers –

especially from outsideChennai and abroad who

receive their postal copies

very late – for an onlineedition. Madras Musings is

now on the web at

www.madrasmusings.com

THE EDITOR

S.L. Chitale.

4 MADRAS MUSINGS March 1-15, 2016 March 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

There are still

eri-s around

� The lakes of Madras – 2

When a fishing village likeMadras grew rapidly and

transformed into a bustling,crowded metropolis the demandfor land naturally increasedexponentially. In time, lakes,lake beds and flood plains werereclaimed and that has conti-nued till date. The folly of suchan approach came back to hauntus in the year of The Flood.

Among the lakes that havedisappeared are Spur Tank andthe Long Tank, comprise theMylapore Tank and the Nun-gambakkam Tank. Another tankthat has disappeared is theVysarpadi tank which was fed bywater from over twenty tanks.When we drove right downCook’s Road till we reached theVyasarpadi postal zone andenquired about the Vyasarpadieri, a local retorted “Eri, whateri?”, pointing to a huge complexof hi-rise buildings, and said Idhudhan eri. (this was the Eri). TheVyasarpadi Industrial Estate hasnot taken off in a big way, but thearea is chock-a-block filled withcolleges, hospitals, commercialestablishments, homes, andwhat-have-you. En route I stop-ped by to take a look at theOtteri Nullah (canal) whichoriginates at Mullam village andruns eastward upto Pursawal-kam, thereafter passing throughthe Buckingham and CarnaticMills, Perambur. The nullah joinsBuckingham Canal north of Ba-sin Bridge Railway Station. Thepictures taken at the Purasawal-kam stretch show how pollutedthe canal is with all manner ofjunk and filth floating in it. Thisdespite it being bang next to aplace of worship dedicated toHanuman. If only this canal

� by Sudha Umashanker

could be cleaned up and given anew lease of life!

Ambattur is a familiar beat forme, thanks to my stint with theRotary Club of Ambattur and itsprojects. So I did not have to

Lake View Main Road, CanalBank Road and MedavakkamTank Road (where is that tank?)and area names ending withthangal (which stand for embank-ments) – as in Pazhavanthangal

actually has a Hospital namedafter it at one end, extending asit does all the way to Kolathur.

Korattur eri: If you want tosee some of our city lakes youhave to clamber up to a suitablespot to get a view of the lake.This is a fairly large lake extend-ing all the way to Oragadam andThirumullaivoyal and there arefamilies living bang on the banks.I asked a member of one suchfamily whether it was safe to doso and whether they were af-fected by the floods and she had

Otteri Nullah (canal) and the sad state it is in.

Ambattur eri.

struggle too hard to locate thelakes here – the Ambattur eriwhich you can see from theAmbattur–Ayapakkam MainRoad (on some days you can seepeople fishing here) and theAyapakkam eri not far fromCamp Tonakela. Much of thelatter has been eaten up by theHousing Board lay-out, as thelake was once larger than theKorattur tank. Since Googlemaps didn’t show much of a wa-ter body in Annanur, I gave thata miss as I did with another smallone by the Ambattur Panchayatoffice.

While there are roads like

and Iyyappanthangal – theRettai eri, though overtaken byencroachments along its fringes,

Ayapakkam eri

Rettai eri.

Korattur eri:

Mangal eri.

a tale of woe to narrate. The wa-ters were knee deep and herfridge and washing machinewhich were floating in the waterpacked up. But she seems to con-sider the floods as a one-off oc-currence. “We have been livinghere for many years and nothinglike this has ever happened.”There are houses coming up inthe vicinity in a very haphazardfashion and it does not look likethe authorities insist on a set-offarea around the lake.

Mangal eri: This eri inMogappair west, spread over5.32 acres, was once a majorsource of water for the area.With the coming into being ofthe Ambattur Industrial Estate,Mangal eri became pollutedthanks to the sewage and efflu-ents discharged by some of theindustries in the Ambattur belt.The Ambattur municipalityrenovated the lake-cum-park in2009 and it now also has awalker’s track and play areas forchildren. When we visited theMangal Eri Park, it was four inthe afternoon and was locked. Agroup of young boys wieldingtheir cricket bats invited me inand pointed to a wicket gate.Though they suggested I squeezethrough the grill bars adjoiningthe wicket gate I wasn’t game forit. As I chatted with the boys,one of them recalled that thepark was once a dust-bin of sorts.

While in ICF Aynavaram try-ing to locate the water body inAynavaram near the TechnicalTraining Centre, I found myselftraversing roads like BartonWright Road (named after Will-iam Barton Wright, Chief Loco-motive Superintendent of theMadras Railways), ConstableRoad, Sergeant Road (spelt as‘Sargeaunt Road’), Morse Road

and East Seeyalam Kenal Road(wonder what Seeyalam refersto). As we stood in front of theOffice of the Chief WorkshopManager, Loco Works, we got aview of the water body from adistance (not being allowed toget any closer) and left the restto our imagination.

Avadi threw up some lovelysights. Past the Ordinance Fac-tory, as we took a right turn nextto the 750-year-old SundararajaPerumal Temple, there was alovely eri (Kovil Pathaagai tank).It is a vast expanse, the water isclean and the place is quiet andserene. Only on one side hadpeople dumped garbage! Retrac-ing our steps, we came to theSundararaja Perumal templewhich is in a postal zone called

Kovil Pathaagai. The temple wasclosed, but the bhattar told methat the place used to be calledKovil Padukai (footwear) whichgot corrupted or changed toPadhaagai, meaning flag. TheSundararaja Perumal templetank too is one of Chennai’s old-est water bodies and was nearfull. The temple looks decep-tively small but if you go aroundyou realise how large it is. It has abeautiful vimana and, outside, amajestic Hanuman greets you. Asmall shrine dedicated toNigamantha Mahadevar is alsoopposite the temple.

You encounter a lot of inter-esting, and sometimes unhelpful,people on explorations like this.When I requested a policeman topoint me in the direction of the

Avadi lake, he said, “See thatlamp post there, that’s where itis.” We drove down to the lamppost and found the area chock-a-block full of houses. Through anarrow lane between the build-ings we could see some water.We went around to get a betterview and came back to where westarted and drove in the oppositedirection, and saw what was leftof the lake. Not for nothing is thelake referred to as the ‘HousingBoard eri.’ That’s a no-brainerreally and there are many suchHousing Board eri-s in Chennai.There were brand new construc-tions that were coming up on thebanks and I wondered if anythingwould change in the aftermath ofThe Flood.

After I saw the lovely eri by

Avadi eri.

the Sundararaja Perumal templeand the Housing Board eri inAvadi, I wondered where onearth the Avadi eri was. Googleearth showed me exactly wherewith a Ram Nagar in the middleand Vivekananda Nagar, Kuma-ran Nagar East and PeriyarNagar around it. But ask peoplein Avadi where any of the Nagarsare and they will literally driveyou round the bend. Sowe switched on the GPS andfollowed the directions. Aftercruising on the Avadi-Poona-mallee High Road we turnedon to Avadi main road anddrove a considerable lengthwhen we spotted the embank-ment. We had to scramble up asmall slope to get a bird’s eyeview of the lake. Though the

Thiruverkadu Lake.

The man who cleans up lakesFor Arun Krishnamurthy it’s

the heart that rules the head.In his heart there is a passion torestore the health of waterbodies,the ecosystem and the organismsthat depend on it. He is thefounder of the NGO, Environ-mentalist Foundation of India(EFI) which has cleaned nearly20 lakes in the city.

The fact that funding for aproject or sourcing volunteerswas never a block for him toachieve his targets proves that theorganisation is its own ambassa-dor. He claims to know the geog-raphy of Chennai like the back ofhis hand. Equipped with a degree,from UNESCO-IHE, Nether-lands, in fresh water and stormwater management and a verysupportive family, he is able toinstill environmental conscious-ness in many young minds.

What triggered your passion tocare for water bodies?

I am a native of Mudichur, asmall hamlet near Tambaram. Ithas a beautiful lake which was apart of my childhood. I witnessedthe slow deterioration of thescenic place. I decided to save thelake which was close to my heart.

I organised a clean-up activitywith my schoolmates. I neverrealised then that it was only thebeginning.

You quit your job in Google topursue a social cause. Did you havea plan of action or did you justfollow your instinct?

At Google we were alwaystaught to step out of our comfortzone, and I did exactly that. TheEFI was born in 2006 with a planto restore water bodies as ahabitat through a communityconservation model. Now we arean NGO with a core team of 47people. The ‘Cause’ is the heroand our focus is always on thelake. Our work is completelydocumented, right from theofficial permissions required, theexpenses incurred, the groupinvolved and the photographs ofthe work done.

What is the agenda for a clean-up? Does it vary with every lake?

Each lake is unique and auniversity by itself. We take upan initial survey of the workinvolved, study the water body,and do the relevant lab test forwater, soil, etc., for which we

have the support of resourceswith good knowledge of hydro-logy and geology. The actualwork involves clearing the sur-rounding area of garbage,desilting if necessary andstrengthening the bund with thesilt. We then go on to plant na-tive plants in the buffer zone,which is the area between thelake and the catchment area.

How do you manage the fund-ing?

Mostly it is crowd sourcing. Iwork out the cost of hiring exca-vators, tipper truck or the heavymachinery required and the logis-tics for the volunteers. We alsoprovide gloves, masks, rakes andbuckets for the participants. Wepost the project report onFacebook.

Funds are raised through con-tributions, not monetary but asservices. There is complete trans-parency. For the Perumbakkamlake cleanup, the residents pooledin the money.

Did you have a problem findingvolunteers? How do you sustaintheir interest in the cause?

You do not realise how large-hearted people are. They justneed a platform to express theircommitment to the society. Theycut across barriers of caste, race,religion or even social status towork for a cause. In every project,I see new faces. Involving the lo-cals lends life to the work. Theysupport us with valuable informa-tion and guidance. We alwaysprogramme a revisit to the site

every eighth weekend from thedate of clean-up to do a follow-up. After the recent floods thereis more work but there is a posi-tive and generous mood amongresidents.

What are your other projects?

We organise ‘Clean for OliveGreen’ to clean the beaches fromInjambakkam to Besant Nagarduring the nesting season ofturtles, from December to Aprilevery year. In December 2013 wedid a marathon clean-up from 6p.m. to 6 a.m.

What would you like to say toAdyar residents?

The neighbourhood shouldorganise a community driven ini-tiative and hold talks on a clean-up plan for Adyar River. We needpeople to strengthen our cause.There are 312 visible lakes inChennai. One lifetime is notenough to beautify the city. I onlywish more people wake up to thisreality.

Readers interested to work forthe cause can contact Arun atinfo@indiaenvironment.org.(Courtesy: Adyar Times.)

– M. Rajini

Arun Krishnamurthy.

bushes and trees came in theway, we finally saw Avadi Lakeat long last.

I was left with energy for justone more lake and we headedtowards the Thiruverkadu Lakealso known as the Ayanam-bakkam Tank. I was particularlykeen on seeing this tank becauseabout four years ago during theNovember rains, the tank bundwas breached, flooding many in-dustrial units in the Ayanam-bakkam area. As I stood theregazing at the vast lake I won-dered what Madras must havebeen like a hundred years ago.Fancy a lake in the middle of asacred forest of herbs and roots(Thiruverkadu).

(To be concluded)

6 MADRAS MUSINGS March 1-15, 2016

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

to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. Which city retained the topspot for being the cleanest city inIndia, the recently released‘Swachh Sarvekshan 2016’?

2. Name the first indigenously de-veloped light revolver, weighingmerely 250 grams and describe,too the lightest made in India,successfully introduced recently.

3. Which team beat India to winits maiden ICC U-19 CricketWorld Cup?

4. In a path-breaking first, whatastronomical phenomena, firsthypothesised by Albert Einsteinin 1916, was located 1.3 billionlight years away from earthrecently?

5. Which famous university,founded by Bharat Ratna MadanMohan Malviya, turned 100 onFebruary 13th?

6. In which southern State capi-tal is Apple all set to initiate itsfirst technology centre at a cost of$25 million?

7. Which Indian has been chosenthe Hilton Asian Tour Golfer ofthe Year?

8. Amar Chitra Katha’s firstromance novel, A Kingdom ForHis Love, recently released, is aretelling of which Sanskrit play?

9. According to the Union HomeMinistry’s new guidelines fordisaster warning, which coloursare given for severe, moderateand low type of disasters?

10. In which State did India andChina recently hold their firstjoint tactical exercise ‘Sino-Indian Cooperation 2016’?

***

11. Which Tamil Nadu city isranked third nationally in therecently released ‘Swachh Sar-vekshan 2016’?

12. The Union Textile Ministryhas bestowed the Indian Hand-loom Brand tag on which type ofsarees from the State for theirunique designs and identity?

13. After whom is the Intellec-tual Property Office in Guindynamed?

14. The State Government’s newinitiative to supply drinking waterto those who cannot afford to buypurified drinking water from pri-vate players is called ...?

15. Ponmani (CR 1009), BPT5204, and ADT 44 are popularvarieties of which edible item inour State?

16. What is the Tamil name forthe hybrid called ‘Damask Rose’?

17. In 1955, R.P. Sethu Pillai wasthe first recipient of which covet-ed award?

18. What edifice in Chennai,built by Friar Pedro de Antogia, ishalf-a-millennia old this year?

19. Which respected and popularschool completed 60 years onFebruary 3rd?

20. Which millionaire Englishbusiness moghul has revealedthat his great-great-great-grand-father John was a shopkeeper andJohn’s father Harry an auctioneerin Madras?

(Answers on page 8)

Creating Madras’s2nd lighthouse

� by Dr. A Raman

Before launching on the con-struction of the lighthouse,

Smith did his homework thor-oughly. He impresses by theclarity he had with regard to thecontext of his project and by hisadeptness in matching his taskwith local soilscape and otherrelevant factors, such as cli-mate. With regard to the lightapparatus, he explains themodifications he thought ofearlier and made later in theconstruction of the lamp bysubstituting plated reflectors forbrass reflectors and by increas-ing the size of each reflectorused to reduce their numbersand, thus, their load. He elabo-rately explains the design of thelantern (referred to as ‘frame’)to achieve a superior compact-ness and strength, and to enableeasy access to various parts situ-ated within it for service andmaintenance. He had thor-oughly examined and weighedadvantages and benefits againstdisadvantages and weaknesseson using a French dioptricapparatus and oil.

Stone-tower design was themost popular design for light-houses in the 19th Century,although a few around theworld were constructed using

timber and iron, not having thetower design. Therefore, astone-tower design chosen byan experienced civil engineersuch as Smith does not surprise.Due to strong winds and peri-odical cyclonic rains along thecoast of Madras, Smith decidedto use the best, locally availablerock material, Charnockite. Inother parts of the world, light-houses were mostly built usingrock materials such as lime-

stone. I could not access any ofthe drawings and notes made byhim, when he built the column.I guess that he must have fol-lowed the design used by JohnSmeaton, while building thePlymouth lighthouse, whichinvolved the interweaving ofrock blocks, reinforced withdovetail joints and marble dow-els. Moreover, the then con-temporary civil-engineeringpractice recommended usingrock materials in such edificesrather than bricks, since thebricks were considered lessamenable in achieving a circu-lar shape.

The next need then was tofix the light with the same de-gree of brilliance of a revolvinglight as proposed by Fresnel.Fresnel’s concept advancedthat each of its concentratedpencils of rays of a revolvinglight would fall successively onthe eyes of the viewer, princi-pally with no gap from whereverit was viewed.

Smith favoured using a gas –oxy-hydrogen – flame. Burningoxy-hydrogen gas as a light-gen-erating source (also known asthe ‘koniophostic light’,‘Drummond light’, lime light’)was then popular as a useful en-ergy source for use in light-houses. The new lantern (inte-rior diameter of 9’ [2.74 m],height 4’ 6" [1.35 m], with apyramid roof, surmounted by acowl) – meant for placing atopthe Madras lighthouse – was a12-sided gun-metal object, ofwhich nine sides were transpar-ent and the rest were blindedwith copper sheets. An exteriorbalcony enabled cleaning ofthis. The skeleton of the lanternwas made of iron and the rest ofthe fittings with wood. The up-per curb of the lantern frameincluded an iron cross, whichcarried a plate and friction roll-

ers supporting the spindle of theframe. The lantern also in-cluded eight small and eightlarge air vents that could be ei-ther closed or opened fromwithin the lantern.

The novelty of Smith’s appa-ratus was the reciprocating mo-tion to the lamp, making it glideand re-glide over 90o. Compar-ing the strengths of a fixed lightagainst a revolving light, Smithargues that in the fixed light,the effect produced is preciselyproportioned so that none ofthe light is lost, since none ofthe reflectors is directed inland;in a revolving light, on the con-trary, provided the revolution iscompleted, a part of the light isexpended with no purpose. Therevolving light, however, hasbeen found useful in many in-stances, since it is only by a se-ries of flashes and eclipses suc-ceeding in a determined order,that the particular lights on athickly-studded coast can berecognised from each other.Therefore, Smith proposed “inplaces where lighthouses arenot numerous, to stop the revo-lution of the apparatus after acertain portion of the circum-ference has been traversed andthen to reverse the motion so asto cause the light to reciprocate.The action of the reflectors isthus confined to the sea-sideonly. By this means a light maybe obtained at five-eighths ofthe expense usually incurred,”which was effected in Madrasby him in 1838-1839.

The lantern (or the frame, asdescribed by Smith) does notexist at the top of the Doric col-umn lighthouse today; only atop-vacant column remains to-day as a ‘protected monument’with the Department of Ar-chaeology, Government of In-dia.

In 1894, the Governmentsaw the need for a taller light-house than the Doric columnlighthouse and favoured creat-ing a new one. The third light-house had its lantern placedatop the Madras High Court’stallest dome. Was the recipro-cating-motion lantern designedby Smith moved to the new(third) lighthouse in 1894? Orwas it dismantled?

(Concluded)

clients. “Simple, we workedovertime, to accommodateboth.”

To get an idea of the brilliantarchitect he is, let us go backto the auditorium he con-structed for the VenkateswaraUniversity 40 years ago. Chitalejoined the JJ School of Archi-tecture in Bombay in 1947;“there were only two suchschools in India then, now wehave 400-500!”

After graduating, he joinedhis father’s firm that has com-pleted 84 years. On his table liesa recent issue of the RIBA(Royal Institute of British Ar-chitects) magazine, with thecover picture of a prize winningshell-like building. A smilingChitale points to the picture ofa strikingly similar buildingpinned on his drawing boardbehind the table. “I designedand built such a structure 40years ago. And I sent them apicture of it, saying so, but thereis no reply!”

The building was an audito-

rium built for Sri VenkateswaraUniversity. “The VC, Dr. D.Jagannatha Reddy, was a veryforward looking man andwanted something really good,and not an ordinary structurewhere you just put a false ceil-ing and call it an auditorium. SoI created this unique concept;that of a saddle-back shell madeof concrete which is 160 ft longand can seat 1,500 students,and is 1.5 inches thick, other-wise it will become too heavy asthe whole thing is made of con-crete.”

As he traverses his profes-sional and Rotary journey,Chitale can look back withsatisfaction on his work …measles and polio immuni-sation; CHILDS Trust Hospi-tal; renovation of 36 templetanks in Chennai; rainwaterharvesting 20-25 years ago;work for the Worth Trust inVellore for handicapped chil-dren; etc. In June 1992, whenRajendra K Saboo was the RIPresident, Chitale was amongthe first 50 in the world to begiven the RI ‘Service AboveSelf’ award.

So what has Rotary taughthim and what advice would thisvintage Rotarian give to hisyounger colleagues?

“That you should devotetime, think your projectthrough carefully, give it yourfull attention. Person-to-personcontact is the most important; Idon’t believe in thischequebook charity concept atall. Only when you get fully in-volved, your project will benefitpeople. Most important of all,work always as a team. Nosingle man should say … I didit!”

Also, he adds, his team waslucky to have had Dr. H.V.Hande as Health Minister andDr. Kapali as the Director ofPublic Health. They under-stood the importance and valueof the Rotarians’ work. But hecautions that vigilance on polioimmunisation has to continue.“There is a danger of polio com-ing back; measles has comeback because we stopped; it wassad to see it return after we hadworked so hard. So we have tobe vigilant on polio.” – (Cour-tesy: Rotary News.)

No chequebook charity(Continued from page 3)

Third lighthouse’s location – in thesame campus as the second’s.

March 1-15, 2016 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

The fan clubscraze in the City

� by Sridhar Chandra

Before you decide to act in aTamil movie in any role –

doesn’t matter what role it is –beware of the lurking danger ofa few urchins accosting youwith a proposal for a fan-club inyour name. This is symptomaticof only one part of the world,Tamil Nadu! Here is a Statethat shocked the wits out of theformer Bond movie-star RogerMoore when he was informedthat there were 267 (a bit exag-gerated, but not by much) fanclubs for him in Tamil Nadu.Take the case of Khushboo, amovie star who till she acted inTamil movies had as much con-nection to Tamil Nadu asOsama Bin Laden had to Ahim-sa! The Tamil Nadu urchin-gang (including the not-so-ur-chins as well) built a chain oftemples in her honour havingbeen blown away by her rotundcharms!

Every Tom, Dick and Harrywho acts in movies has fan-clubs in TN… the list can bepretty exhaustive and mind-numbing in many ways. To giveyou stray examples, there arefan clubs for people as diverseas Goundamani (a yesteryearcomedy sidekick) to QuentinTarantino (a Hollywood moviedirector, who has never heardthe name Chennai – at least sofar in his life), on to Bo Derek(who acted in a couple ofmovies in the 1980s, her claimto fame being her “nude” scenesin one of those), etc.

There are instances over theyears where the fan-clubs ofTamil Nadu/Chennai haveturned rather innovative intheir methods of differentiation.Some snapshots:

1. Understanding that MGRfan-clubs were more in number,Sivaji’s fans came up with thenovel idea of Parakkum-Padai(Flying Clubs). If you hadguessed that these ‘Sivaji’ fanswere into aviation in some way,I am sorry to disappoint you.Nothing of the sort. In fact,their exertions were firmlyrooted to terra-firma, but theyused to speed around Chennaion a bunch of motorcycles/mo-peds/scooters/auto-rickshaws asthe case may be, for no particu-lar reason! This was rather aim-less wandering except that theymoved around the city, therebydifferentiating themselves frommore static MGR fan-clubs!

2. Rajini fans started the newconcept of deifying their mati-nee-idol by performing milkabhishekam-s (a practice hith-erto limited to idols of HinduGods such as Siva, Murugan,etc.) before large Rajini cut-outs in front of theatres on the

date of release of his movies!There are instances when somefans were badly hurt falling froma height of about 35 feet (that isheight of some of these card-board cut-outs). They promptlyfollowed this up by some fren-zied camphor-burning (againpractised only in Hindu temp-les, hitherto) in front of themovie-screens inside the the-atres when Rajini first appearedon screen! Rajini’s fans startedthis new trend, and I reliablyunderstand fans of even muchlesser stars such as Simbu,Karthi, Vishal, Bharath, etc. arenow following this ‘holy’ prac-tice!

3. Realising the futility ofmatching wits against the nu-merically superior Rajini fans,Kamal fans started donatingblood. This became a bit of aproblem. In an urge to be differ-ent, they came in droves to

blood-banks on the day of aKamal movie release! I am talk-ing about the days when blood-banks were ill-equipped to storeblood and were basically takingdonor blood for immediatetransfusions and other needs.What do you do, when hun-dreds of blood-donors queue upwhen you basically need 5 unitsof blood? I am sure you get thepoint here…

Thus, steadily grew the fan-club movement of Tamil NaduChennai, paving the way for anew ecosystem around fan-clubs for, with time on theirhands, every urchin in a kuppamstarts identifying himself as a‘fan’ at some point in his life.This could be age 10, 12, orwhatever. But the key is oncehe declares himself a ‘fan’, he isno longer plain Murugan orDavid any more. He becomes‘Rajini Karthik’, ‘Kamal Muru-gan’, ‘MGR David’, ‘SivajiSelvam’, etc. This is just the re-naming part. But there is more.Every single event in his lifenow starts revolving around hisnew identification. When hecompletes 10th Grade (many ofthem actually don’t, but that isa problem we are not tacklinghere), he persuades his father(who himself is ‘MGR Muruge-san’) to put up a giant poster atthe entrance of the kuppam,which has two big images – theimage of Rajinikanth (assumingthat is the affiliation of our sub-ject) and an image of our sub-ject, albeit in a submissive posein front of his matinee-idol.And then there is a small write-

up congratulating the subjecton his successful completion of10th Grade! And so it goes…posters spring up on his gradua-tion, his employment, hisengagement, his marriage, hisgetting a child, his girl childattaining puberty(!), his 40thbirthday, his 50th birthday, etc.

So with the kind of compul-sions that the average urchin isunder, you can imagine thescramble for stars/actors to as-sociate with. MGR, Sivaji, Raji-ni were hot commodities simplybecause everyone wanted to betheir fans. In the fan-club peck-ing order, there is an unsaidhierarchy that is in constantoperation. MGR and Rajiniwould be certainly at the topfollowed by the likes of Sivaji,Kamal, Vijay, Ajith, Suriya, etc.But as you can easily surmise,these get taken rather swiftly inevery kuppam! So there is a mad

scramble for any and everyother actor who sounds like he/she may last at least for a while.Many ‘idols’ chosen, however,do not last the pace.

For example, you cansympathise with the urchin whoearly in life plumped for MikeMohan (the guy who lip-syncedall those memorable Ilayarajanumbers of the 1980s). After abrief period of glory, Mohanliterally vanished from the silverscreen around late 1980s. Soour subject who had a beamingposter wherein he starred along-side his hero Mike Mohanduring his school-leaving days,soon found himself badly disad-vantaged at the time of his wed-ding! A huge poster today for anon-existent star would havebeen a travesty of sorts.

Some fans, however, areknown to switch and othersmake a huge leap into Holly-wood sometimes. That is one ofthe reasons we have fan-clubsfor the likes of Bruce Lee, JackieChan, Van Damme, SylvesterStallone, Jet Li, etc. Hollywoodmuscle-men are easy picks asopposed to classy actors likeDustin Hoffman, De Niro, etc.

You may wonder if the filmactor in question has anythingto do with the frenzied follow-ing that he/she accidentally in-spires. The answer is ‘yes’ and‘no’. It is a resounding ‘No’ forunsuspecting actor-victimssuch as Jet Li and Tom Cruisewho have no clue whatsoeverabout their surging fan-clubsmushrooming in murky kup-pam-s of North Chennai. You

can’t exactly blame someonelike Claude Van Damme if Vel-murugan, Secretary of SevenWells Van Damme Fan Club,spends the hard-earned moneyof his labourer-mother to put upa giant poster for his (Velmu-rugan’s) engagement to ‘TrishaSelvi’ where on one side wewould see Van Damme and onthe other “Trisha”! I wouldimagine Van Damme wouldheartily disagree and discourageVelmurugan from squanderinghis mother’s hard-earned mo-ney like this… but, alas, he hasno clue that such a fan exists ina remote corner of the world!

But when it comes to Indian(specifically Tamil) actors, theanswer may be ‘Yes’. For ex-ample, if a bunch of auto-driv-ers put up an ‘X’ Auto-Standwith a picture of actor ‘X’ andsmall passport size pics of allautodrivers of that particularkuppam, X may actually wel-come it. He may even part-fundthis activity as long as the costdoesn’t pinch him. There areinstances when some actors gotfed up with requests such as thisand disbanded their respectivefan-clubs. A recent example isAjith. He perhaps figured outthe futility of this whole fan-club jing-bang. He simply an-nounced to the press that he isdisbanding his fan-clubs!

If you were to analyse thiswhole phenomenon from aphilosophical perspective (how-ever futile that exercise maybe), you are sure to come toonly one conclusion. That theaverage Tamil Nadu kuppam

urchin is much more comfort-able associating himself withanother person than being him-self. And then there is this mat-ter of peer-pressure. Whateverit is, finally, you cannot denythe sheer fun of watching a su-per star’s movie on the first dayof its release as it is sure to un-leash the beast among his fans.

I had a recent experience onthe day of the release of Robot(Enthiran in Tamil) when fanswent berserk, lighting 10,000-wala and 20,000-wala crackersall over the city. I was told thatcoconuts, milk and camphorwere in short-supply because ofthe demand for abhishekam-sand aarthi-s at all the screensthat released the movie (morethan 60 in Chennai alone)!Fan-clubs had pre-booked alltickets for all shows and if anaverage person like me wantedto see it on the first day the onlyoption was to buy in black (Ihad to cough up a huge summyself, just for the experience!).What else do you expect in aculture where even a God is re-ferred to as Thalaivar (meaningleader)?

The fans create their heres tallerand taller.

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Answers to Quiz:

1. Mysuru; 2. ‘Nidar’; 3. West Indies; 4. Gravitational Waves;5. Banaras Hindu University; 6. Hyderabad; 7. Anirban Lahiri;8. Swapnavasavadattam; 9. Red, Orange and Yellow; 10. Jammu &Kashmir.

* * *11. Tiruchchirapalli; 12. Chettinad cottons (kandaangi);

13. Murasoli Maran; 14. ‘Amma Kudineer Thittam’; 15. Long durationvarieties of rice; 16. Pannirpoo; 17. Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil;18. Luz Church; 19. Vidya Mandir, Mylapore; 20. Richard Branson.

Know your Fort betterHe ran a school at his residence in the Fort and,being a ‘polished linguist’, fluent in French, Por-tuguese, Dutch and English besides being conver-sant in Persian, Arabic and other Oriental lan-guages, spent his time translating the gospels intoPortuguese. He allowed his should to be used byThe Presidents an worship. He also mediated indisputes between Fort St George and San Thomé,much to the chagrin of the priests in the lattertown.

Matters came to a head when, in 1649, FatherEphraim, having been invited to San Thomé for adiscussion, was seized near the Luz Church andimprisoned. It was in vain that Agent Greenhillprotested against this highhanded action, for thepriest was clapped in irons and sent off in a ship toGoa where he was to face the Inquisition. In re-taliation, Greenhill did what he thought was best– he kidnapped the Chief Padre Governor, thethen chief ecclesiastic of San Thomé, and con-fined him to Fort St George. Thus the two parties

by the latter that the former owed their success tothe treachery of the Capuchin priests in the Fort.Thus, when Madras was restored to the English in1749, among their first acts was the expulsion ofPadre Severini, the then priest, and his associatesfrom the Fort. Though the Company’s Board ofDirectors in England was against the demolitionof the Church itself, they being of the view that itcould be put to alternative use, it was razed in1753 and the materials from it sold. The next year,a row of buildings came up on the site. The Capu-chin Mission applied for permission to carry on atthe site of the Portuguese burial ground in the cityin present day Armenian Street. Father Ephraimhad begun an ‘open pandall chapell’ here in 1658.This would eventually grow into the today’s StMary’s Co Cathedral.

Portuguese Square with its historic buildingsremained till the 1980s when the Government, incontravention of all accepted norms for heritageprecincts, decided to build a multi-storeyed struc-ture inside the Fort to house its burgeoning de-partments. Portuguese Square was the site se-lected and the structures that stood on it were de-notified of their heritage status to facilitate demo-lition. The new building, named after poetNamakkal Ramalingam Pillai, soon came up andsticks out like a sore thumb, dwarfing everythingelse in the Fort.

In the early 2000s, it was found that theMaligai was in an enfeebled condition, just 20years after its construction and despite every carebeing lavished on it. In sharp contrast stood thecenturies old structures around it, most of themdevoid of maintenance. A debate arose as towhether Namakkal Kavignar Maligai ought toexist at all in the Fort. But with the powers-that-be declaring that it was an early example of mod-ernist construction in the State, it was found wor-thy of preservation. It underwent a Rs 28 crorerestoration and was re-opened a few years ago. Toensure that the makeover was complete in everyrespect, it was centrally air-conditioned and thatneeded a plate glass front thereby adding to itsincongruity. The tall pillars fronting it, we aretold, are examples of modern Chola architecture.The airconditioning plants located to the rear ofthe building add to the moisture in the Fort, weak-ening other buildings in their vicinity. There is nodoubt that the Namakkal Kavignar Maligai is anunfortunate addition to our Fort.

Let us now proceed to the last of the monu-ments inside Fort St George – the Exchange andthe Museum it now houses.

(Continued from page 1)

� T.S. Baliah – CentenaryBiography by T. Santhana-krishnan (Nizhal Publications).

Nizhal, a quarterly journaldedicated to publishing well-re-searched articles, also publishesbooks and, periodically, holdsfilm workshops and competi-tions for short film makers. Thejournal is not a fanmagazine but forthose who try to gobeyond the images.But for Nizhal, acritical edition ofSadat HassanMunto may havetaken a long timeto reach Tamilreaders. (SadatHassan Munto,like Premchandtried his hand working withBombay producers to create abetter class of films.)

Tiruninravur Santhana-krishnan is an avid collector offilm memorabilia. Nizhal andSanthanakrishnan have madepossible an authoritative biog-raphy of T.S. Baliah on the oc-casion of his centenary.

T.S. Baliah was a versatileactor, and, in the early years, itwas difficult to classify him as aleading player, a villain or a co-

A versatileactor’s story

median. I first saw him inAryamala back in 1941 and he,physically no match for P.U.Chinnappa, made up for it byhis agility and ferocity. Thosewere World War II years andthe ‘big’ companies were ‘ex-pected’ to do their bit for thewar effort and Modern Theatres

of Salem made twofilms where thebaddies were Japa-nese and T.S.Baliah played inboth of them as asuave, stylish foil.When his age andgirth grew, he madea gentle switch tocomedy. The twofilms, KathalikkaNeramillai and

Bama Vijayam were sheer joybecause of Baliah. When thelatter was made in Hindi,Prithviraj Kapoor did his best tomatch Baliah and ended as aworthy second.

Santhanakrishnan’s booksticks to facts and has a chrono-logical list of all of Baliah’s films.The book is a worthy additionto the growing body of studiesof Indian cinema.

Ashokamitran

� by Sriram V.

‘stood on Equall basis’ to quote Greenhill. But theChief Padre was not without supporters in theFort and one night, helped by Richard Bradbury,Drummer, he shinned up the walls using the‘laceings of a cott’ and made good his escape toSan Thomé, along with his accomplice.

Father Ephraim was released in April 1652 andreturned to Madras. By then, permission fromRome had come – the river Cooum would be thedividing line between the two parishes. Thesewould eventually become the dioceses of Madrasand Mylapore, eventually uniting in 1952 as theArchdiocese of Madras-Mylapore with SanThomé basilica as the cathedral and St. Mary’s inGeorge Town the co-cathedral.

The Capuchins’ stay in Fort St George de-pended on the whims of the Governor. Thus, Fa-ther Ephraim was expelled from the Fort in 1664by Sir Edward Winter for propagating ‘Popish re-ligion’. He and his fellow priest Father Zenon livedin San Thomé till 1668 when Winter’s rivalFoxcroft had them brought back. The two wereto live for long. Zenon died in 1687 at the age of85. Father Ephraim died in 1694, after an incred-ible 52 years in the city. By then, the CapuchinMission in the Fort had four priests, all French.

In 1746, when the French occupied Madrasand the British retreated to Cuddalore, it was felt