If free TV sets, why not free public toilets?

One of the serious public health issues is the habit of people urinating in public places, even near places of worship.

Apart from this, the maintenance of public toilets in cinema theatres, public auditoriums and even educational institutions is extremely poor in most cases. Such conditions contribute to the spread of diseases such as leptospyrosis. Such conditions affect particularly people in the lower income group, since they lack nutrition and are vulnerable to disease attack.

Some time ago, I took a walk from 4 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. from Besant Nagar to Royapettah, crisscrossing various streets and lanes in Adyar, Mandaveli and Mylapore. During the walk, I counted as many as 23 men in different age groups urinating in public in various places. I was shocked to find two instances where people driving a car (obviously from higher income group) stopping the car, getting down to urinate and then getting back into the car and driving away.

The other thing I found was that there were not many public toilets. At places like Besant Nagar beach and Besant Nagar bus terminus, there were paid public toilets, but I found people urinating outside such toilets. Perhaps, they felt that it was too expensive to pay for urinating. I immediately began wondering why government should not make these public toilets free, particularly when it can afford to provide thousands of television sets free to the people.

I recently saw a campaign aimed at getting schoolchildren wash their hands. Cannot a similar campaign be launched by government to persuade people not to urinate in public?

I wonder what is the policy of Government on building a large number of public toilets. Does it have any target for building public toilets vis-a-vis the local population in different areas? Is not building public toilets even more important than building public gardens on which Chennai Corporation is spending lakhs of rupees? The Government that is spending crores of rupees on productive and non-productive schemes cannot plead resource constraint for such elementary requirement as public toilets.

A visit to even the existing public toilets, particularly those which are not pay-for-use toilets, shows that a proper drainage system is non-existent in many cases and the periodical fumigation practice is totally absent.

I strongly believe that clean public toilets and the use of such toilets by the public – instead of urinating in public – is a basic sign of civilised living. Where does Tamil Nadu stand from the point of view of this parameter?

N.S.Venkataraman
M 60/1, 4th Cross Street
Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090

House down

With much regret I write to inform you that the house once occupied by renowned Tamil scholar Thiru.Vi.Ka in Ganapathy Street, Royapettah (near the Music Academy), is being demolished to build a block of ten new flats. His press from where he printed his books and newspapers was there too.

Prof. S.G. Mahmood
8/19, Ganapathy Street
Royapettah, Chennai 600 0014

Heritage forgotten

I am wonderstruck why heri-tage valued so much by Tamil Nadu has been given the go-by in putting up a modern, I.T. corporate-like building for the Assembly complex. The Assembly complex in Karnataka – the Vidhan Souda – built by the late Hanumanthiah is a standing example of a modern public heritage building.

I think Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where Cholas, Pandyas and Pallavas built magnificent structures, deserved an Assembly building to reflect their architectural contributions.

V. Jayaraman
‘Jayasaras’
131, Chamiers Road
Chennai 600 028

Kanchi memories

MMM in Madras Musings, April 1st, wrote that he could “confidently state that the town itself is beyond salvation.” This made sad reading.

When we came to Madras from Kerala in 1956, it was my dream to go on a pilgrimage to all the famous temples of the State. And the first temple we went to was in Kanchi. I had my one-and-a-half-year-old son and six-month old daughter with me. We stayed in a government bungalow, not far from the temple, but could worship only in 3 or 4 temples, as the children were small babies and we had to come back early.

It was a Friday and Kamakshi Amman looked so beautiful with dazzling jewellery and fragrant flowers. I remember going round the temple leisurely, reciting all the sloka-s I knew about Devi. The temple was neat and clean, without much crowd. The streets were clean and the old-styled tiled houses were well-kept.

On our way back, though I had no idea about Kanchipuram sarees – I had only heard about them – we entered the first shop we saw, a small house with raised platforms on either side of the verandah. The owner brought out about a dozen sarees from a shelf kept inside. Without knowing anything about the quality of silk or jarigai, I just picked up two ‘silk’ sarees – one green with thin yellow stripes and another blue with small pink circles. I paid Rs. 100 (Rs.40 and Rs. 60).

Of course, after that first visit in 1956, I have been to Kanchi umpteen times (and by God’s grace could worship in all the major temples). In later years, costlier sarees with intricate designs and jarigai were bought by me in Kanchipuram. But my first visit to the temple and the two simple sarees I bought then give me immense happiness to recall, even now. The two sarees are still with me, the colour and sheen intact, even after more than 50 years!

Bhavani Menon
Rajamalli, Q 47, Anna Nagar
Chennai 600 040

Water for fires

The city fire service is at present solely dependent on tanker water for fire fighting. A working fire hydrant system was in place some years ago but is now buried under relaid roads. Numerous surface static water tanks and underground water storage tanks were also in use some time ago. But all these were systematically annihilated. Chennai, however, can boast of its waterways for fire fighting. Schemes are afoot to refurbish the Buckingham Canal and the River Cooum, not forgetting the River Adyar. During such renovation, sumps should be provided at convenient and strategic points – for example near the Mount Road dargah, on Swami Sivananda Salai near the new Assembly complex, and near the Central Station – for the Fire Service portable or trailer fire pumps to suck water for fire fighting. Using such sources, i) dependence on Metrowater can be minimised; ii) treated water can be conserved; and iii) congestion and confusion at fire spots can be avoided.

A sump consists of a channel cut from the middle of the waterbody to the border of the river/canal, where a well-like structure is erected. Water collects in the well from where it can be sucked by fire pumps. War-time sumps still exist.

Aaron David A.M. (nfsc)
Divisional Fire Officer (Retd)
2, Thommayappan Street
Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

Packaged music

Reading the various articles about the concentration of music and dance concerts in the George Town area of Madras about a hundred years ago and their later flight to Mylapore and other places makes you muse on how entertainment has changed over the years.

In those days, there was not even a radio broadcast. It seems people used to throng the narrow street in which nestled Dhanammal’s house and maintained nose-screw-drop silence to listen to that grand old lady’s veena pluckings. Certainly they had better discipline than the cell phone-toting rasika of today making a nuisance of himself in the sabha-s.

After that age came cinema (especially talkies) and people filled the theatre halls to listen to Thyagaraja Bhagavathar (MM, March 1st) sing 20-30 songs in a film. Such was their patience and passion for music! Today’s youth like remixes of old melodies which are nothing but noise packaged as music. Music taste has changed, too.

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

What’s the name?

The road where SIET College is now, is named K.B. Dasan Road or Kavignar Barathidasan Road.

This road had an old name. Can anyone tell me what it was?

C.S. Baskar
17, Ramarao Road
Mylapore, Chennai 600 004