Palm Grove
Kesari Matriculation School, Royapettah |
This mansion, designed on classical lines, with some of the finest wrought-iron grillework to be seen in the city, was built by L.A. Govindaraghava Iyer, a well-known lawyer of Madras. It subsequently became home to S. Doraiswamy Iyer, a top-ranking lawyer who was known for his extremely strict business practices, which often included fighting for social causes without a fee. Doraiswamy Iyer came from a musical family. He was a descendant of the composer ‘Veena’ Kuppayyar. He learnt the veena from Syama Sastry, a descendant of the great composer Syama Sastry (1762-1827). He was also a close associate of Subramania Bharati.
Doraiswamy Iyer’s peaceful life was shattered by the death of his son. He gave up law and retired to the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Palm Grove came up for sale and was purchased for Rs. 70,000 by Dr. K.N. Kesari (1875-1953), a famed Ayurvedic physician. He gifted it to a school that had been set up in the city to impart education in Telugu to students of Andhra origin. This subsequently became Kesari High School. Dr. Kesari constituted a committee of trustees to manage the affairs of the institution and administer the properties.
In April 1947, Dr. Kesari donated a further Rs.1 lakh to the trust towards education of girls. The ‘Kesari Education Society’ was formed and registered in February 1951. Today it owns this property and runs the school. (Courtesy: KalamKriya.)
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