The right use

Thank you for reproducing the superb after-dinner speech on cricket by the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister (February 16th). Mr. Menon also deserves thanks for bringing it to your attention and requesting you to reproduce it.

Regarding a museum to be set up in the renovated Senate House, I agree with your reservations about such a step to bring back the glory of the Senate House. It must be used for the purpose for which it was built. The convocations held there were spectacular and dignified. It can still be used not only for convocations but also for lectures, conferences and seminars of a national and international character. There are a few rooms where classes used to be conducted earlier. One or two of them could be utilised for setting up a compact and electrifying museum that projects the history of the Madras University and the march of university education in the State and the country.

The University has an excellent list of publications; another room could be used for the display and sale of the publications.

When the Senate House is not in use for a convocation or conference, public could be allowed to go round it, dwelling on the splendour and the beauty of the structure. At that time a small entry fee could be charged, and the earnings earmarked for the maintenance of the building. No new structure should be raised inside or outside the building.

N. Harinarayana
Director of Museums (Retd)
120, Big Street, Triplicane
Chennai 600 005

Insidious effect

‘Bins of cruelty’ (MM, March 1st) takes up the sorely-neglected issue of our attitude to other creatures. Years ago during bus rides along Marina beach I used to notice some rabbit-shaped ‘toilets’ sporting standard Western style seats and lids on the roadside. I then wondered whether anyone would actually use those contraptions out in the open! There was no evidence of a flushing cistern or water/drain connections. In due course, I realised they were actually meant to be garbage bins, and were soon seen in various avatars all over the city. Often enough I had resolved to write to the editor of a daily or to Madras Musings on the subject, but found myself too worked up to state my viewpoint coherently in readable or printable language. My thanks to U. Thirunavakkarasu for expressing some of my sentiments so eloquently.

The issue really goes much further. A recent review of J.M. Coetzee’s Lives of Animals informs us that there are thinking people who take pains to critically examine these ‘unpopular’ topics, though it seems unlikely that such efforts will ever influence the decisions of our strictly commerce-oriented ‘civilisation’. The problem of our attitude to animals (and other humans in less-privileged situations) is an old one, which has been highlighted by many writers such as Upton Sinclair in The Jungle over a century ago.

I am now convinced that our use of animal symbolism is extremely insidious. The cartoon comics, which I admittedly enjoyed a lot, and the subsequent cinema ‘shorts’ and video/TV displays using animal images have surely played a major role in desensitising us (supposedly literate, educated, enlightened types) to the all-pervading culture of violence and, in its wake, profanity and vulgarity. Worse, children are their primary targets. I understand the great majority of toys and computer games today also only serve to promote violence in the minds of users, young and old. It is easy to just laugh and ignore the pain or violence in the episodes where Tom and Jerry or Donald Duck get squashed or blown up, for we detach ourselves from real-life violence as well, until we are personally affected. But shouldn’t we be more concerned about their insidious effect?

Thomas Tharu
xteesquare@yahoo.co.uk

The sweetest sound

Thanks for “mentioning me in despatches” in the concluding para of Short ‘N’ Snappy (MM, March 16th). But to him, his name is the sweetest sound in the language!

My name is not only cut short but mis-spelt, Dharmes, for Dharmeshwaran or at least Dharmesh.

C.G. Prasad has reason to feel elated for being mentioned by his initials CGP, like GBS!

N. Dharmeshwaran
Plot 456, II Link Road
Sadashiva Nagar
Chennai 600 091

For name’s sake!

The point made in ‘Whats in a name?’ (MM, February 1st) is absolutely spot on. The idea of naming institutions after personalities is ill-advised.

There is a hospital near Washermanpet called Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar’s Lying-In Hospital. The apostrophe with the ‘s’ makes it sound like Ramaswamy Mudaliar is lying in the hospital!

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After reading about Thomas Bowrey’s Madras (MM, March 16th), it seems to me in hindsight that the British did leave us something worth its while, our penal laws and civil codes.

Otherwise, there would have been many more Naickers of Mylapore and other places going to the funeral pyre accompanied by 27 wives and concubines. He could not have done justice to 27 consorts during his lifetime and finally denied them justice even on his death!

Incidentally, Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj’s visit to Madras, October 1677 (according to stone inscriptions in Kaligambal Temple), was during Bowrey’s India service (1669-1668). Will Dr. A. Raman tell us whether there is any mention of it in the Bowrey volume. Another dose of excerpts from Bowrey’s Madras would be much welcome.

C.G. Prasad
9, C.S. Mudali Street
Kondithope, Chennai 600 079

A sad story

My reaction to ‘Madras 1669-79 as seen by Thomas Bowrey’ (MM, March 16th) was one of untold sadness. 27 women burnt alive in a single instance of ‘Sati’ in Mylapore?

I console myself, I didn’t live then.

P.K. Visvesvaran
Vasanth Colony
18th Main Road
Chennai 600 040

A bird ‘bunting’

I had the good fortune recently of spotting about 20 tiny birds roosting on the street wires across the EVR Periyar High Road from where I stay. My first impression from afar was that they were the little triangular flags of buntings. But on seeing some of them taking wing, my excitement knew no bounds! I was told by avian enthusiasts that they were drongoes!

My attempts to photograph them with my own camera, and later through a studio photographer, were a success to some extent! We took the snaps from the terrace of the Kamaraj Building amidst the hustle and bustle of the highway. I hope readers enjoy the picture.

T.K. Srinivas Chari
4/39, East II Cross Street
Shenoy Nagar, Chennai 600 030

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