Delightful discourses

In the mid-1950s, attending the discourses of the late Sri Anantarama Dikshidar in the Madras Sanskrit College and in Triplicane was a major attraction for youngsters of my age group, cutting across barriers of caste, because in those days his Brahminical Tamil was easily understood by all Tamil speaking people. Persons of eminence like Rajaji, Khasa Subba Rau of Swarajya fame, T. Sadasivam of Kalki and M.S. Subbulakshmi were among the regulars, to mention only a few. Much later, Soundara Kailasam, the divinely gifted Tamil speaker, writer and ‘poetess’ once told me that she was also one of such ‘regulars’ and added humorously that some of the then Mylapore ladies even mistook her for a Brahmin lady while conversing with her; she did not have the mind to ‘disillusion’ them by revealing her identity.

When Sri Dikshidar’s discourse for the day concluded, usually it was quite late. The frequency of buses on our city roads connecting various suburbs was very poor then. I recall that many of us never thought it a strain to walk back home to places like West Mambalam and Purasawalkam from Mylapore and Triplicane! It was actually such a pleasure walking on the city pavements and even mid-roads in those days, while indulging in discussing not only the inspiring discourse of the evening, but also the other hot topics of the day!

Some of us never missed Jawaharlal Nehru’s beach meetings of those days on the sprawling, clean Marina. It was such a delight to see Panditji jumping on to the table on the stage to address the gatherings; he never spoke sitting on a chair. A majority of the audience would not have understood what he spoke in English, but his voice had a magic of its own and his gestures cast a visible spell on the enthralled audience. Rajaji’s meetings also drew equally large gatherings – spontaneous ones and not ‘hired’ people. His Tamil speeches were punctuated with gentle humour, and loud laughter and joyful clapping of the audiences proved that his message went home instantaneously. His English speeches were, of course, intellectual treats, never to be missed even once. Very often, after such public meetings, we walked home happily, people of all age groups, mind you! Can we imagine doing it these days? ‘Law and Order’ was always there then – it was never a topic of discussion in those good old days.

K. Vedamurthy
‘Sri Krishna’, 62, 28th Cross Street
Indiranagar, Chennai 600 020

Some thoughts

Some thoughts on letters and other items in Madras Musings, April 1st. Firstly, was this new Assembly complex required at the cost of a heritage building being pulled down? Secondly, will it be maintained well, given our record for indifferent housekeeping? Apart from anything, why do our legislators need such a big building, when most of the time they stage walkouts and do not remain in the building?

Regarding our airport. No doubt it has an ISO 9000 certification. This only means that set systems are followed. The systems so set and approved by ISO have nothing in them regarding clean housekeeping. Thus, in the absence of clean housekeeping procedures, the stated ISO certification criteria have been met. ISO certification does not necessarily guarantee quality.

As for the overzealous practice of renaming roads, most often such names are never used. An example of this is Nungambakkam High Road. The official name now is Uthamar Gandhi Salai. If you ask any auto driver to take you to Uthamar Gandhi Salai, he will probably refuse to ply. Then there are names with only a few alphabets remaining. Examples are TTK Salai and CPR Road. Ask most of the young persons living in these areas who these men, TTK and CPR, were and they would blink like our traffic lights.

C.S. Ananth
csa063@gmail.com

TNPSC surroundings

One of the buildings in Government Estate demolished to make way for the new Assembly and Secretariat was the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission’s Office.

I remember clearly the period 1951-54 when I worked as a 9A (1) clerk with the TNPSC in the new building, having moved there from Rutland Gate.

The plight of the temporary clerks was very bad. We had to attend office by 8 am and leave only by 8 pm, but we learned the job and got involved with it. With the encouragement of the Section Superintendents, we never felt that we were being forced to overwork. We worked round the week, with no Sundays or festival holidays, but the treatment meted out to us by the seniors and superintendents was excellent.

There used to be a mobile Annaporna Cafeteria run by a social service organisation on Wallajah Road across the compound wall. It offered a good tiffin and a good tea at one anna per cup.This cafeteria was used to be manned by a Parsi social worker who used to be very kind; she even extended small credit facilities.

The Round Tana used to be a car parking lot and the transport service was provided by Madras Electric Tramways. The clanging bells and screeching tones of the rails and the wheels were more pleasant to hear than the present-day air horns.

L. Chandrasekaran
B17/11, TNHB, Bagalur Road,
Hosur 635 109

MKT mania

In the 1940s, in Negapatam town (the Dutch could not pronource Nagapattinam!), one of my uncles got a municipal licence to run a tent talkie and screened Sivakavi as its first film. Sivakavi ran for six months, even after the licence for the tent was over! My uncle became known as ‘Sivakavi’ Subramania Iyer in the town for generations (he recently died at the ripe age of 96). Such was the mania for MKT (MM, March 1st) in those days and many of us sported jilpa crops aping MKT’s hairstyle!

In 1952, MKT came to the town for a Carnatic music concert at the Exhibition Grounds, and his singing of ‘Manmatha leelaiyai venrar ....’ on our popular request still rings in my ears.

After independence, his rendition of ‘Parukkulle nalla nadu’ became our school prayer song.

In the 1960s, HMV brought out two LPs of MKT’s Golden Voice. Now, Modern Cinema, a video company in Madurai, has brought out a DVD album of 50 of his songs from Sivakavi, Haridas, Chinthamani, Thiruneeelakandar, etc. – a fitting tribute to MKT in his centenary year – enthralling in particular his fans like me who have crossed 70 years of age!

Bhilai Gopalan
F-6, Sankara Flats,
1, 6th Cross Street,
Shastri Nagar,
Chennai 600 020

The prediction

My mother studied along with Dr. C. Minakshi at Women’s Christian College. Dr. Minakshi used to tell college-mates that according to her jathagam she would have an outstanding academic career but would die young. While working for her doctorate, her mother accompanied her to various archaeological sites and showed interesting things. When news about her untimely death was announced, they all remembered her words.

D.B. James
37, Sadasiva Metha Street,
Metha Nagar, Chennai 600 029

Before the Crescent?

The answer to question 19 in the quiz in MM, April 1st, may not be quite correct.

While Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty did own and run the Crescent, I think there was an earlier English newspaper called the Native Circulator, run by a person called Narayanaswamy Naidu.

Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty bought the paper and changed its name to the Crescent. The paper was founded to take on the missionaries who ran a journal called the Record.

Karthik Bhatt
akkarthik2000@gmail.com