Clive Hostel memories
V. Sriram's lively notes (MM, January 16th ) on the landmarks of Trichy brought to mind fond memories of my collegiate days there. I was one of the handful of fortunate hostellers, who was for two years successively allotted the same room in Clive Hostel. We occupied the elevated block on the left, Teppakulam always in our sight and surrounded by the ambience of all the hustle and bustle of the neighbourhood. We were told that at one point of time the block was known as Pigeon's Loft.
My taste for history made me seek the following information about Clive's life from our Warden, none other than the venerable Fr.Thomas Sequeira. After his retirement as Principal of Loyola College, he shifted to Trichy; he was also our Professor of English. According to the information gleaned from him, it was as early as in 1883 that some sort of hostel accommodation was organised at Clive's. But it soon failed. A new attempt was made in 1893 to cater only to the Brahmin students. Then from 1898, the admission into the hostel was made open for all. The hostel was housed in the old buildings which were part of a property called The Colony. It was associated, of course, with Clive and his establishment. A separate mess section for the Malayali students was opened in 1910. By 1913, most of the old buildings were levelled to the ground and new rooms came up around the then "quadrangle". By 1943, a handsome two-storeyed building was erected, which now presents such a horrendous facade.
Please permit me also to add the following information relating to the Christ Church, Trichy. It is certainly not the second oldest Anglican Church, East of Suez. Following St.Mary's (1680) in Fort St. George, Chennai, St.Anne's Church at Kolkata was established in 1709. When Siraj-Ud-Daula marched to Kolkata against the British in 1756, he completely destroyed it. What is at present called St.Thomas Cathedral in Mumbai was consecrated in 1718. Following the demolition of St.Anne's in Kolkata, St.John's Church in the Old Fort at Kolkata was founded in 1760.
Rev.Schwartz, unarguably the most distinguished of the European missionaries in India, spent a total of 48 years here, without a single furlough. He was the first one to introduce vaccination against small-pox in India, in 1794. The government then followed suit. He passed away exactly 215 years ago (February13). He is also commemorated in St.Peter's Church, Thanjavur (in addition to St.Mary's, Madras).
P.S: A representation of the Rock Fort is to be found on a memorial tablet to Maj.Stringer Lawrence (Clive's Commander) in Westminster Abbey, London.
Rev. Philip K. Mulley
Anaihatti Road, Kotagiri 643 217, The Nilgiris.
BERI origins
With reference to the article 'The story of migrations eastwards" (MM, February 1st), there are many names of mountains, rivers and places in Papua New Guinea that are akin to the Dravidian and Sanskrit words. I have also found that people from two places in Africa bearing the name Beri have settled in countries in Europe and Asia. In some places they have modified the names but with the root word Beri.
There is a community called BERI (Chetty) in Tamil Nadu. They appear to have their community name from the place of their origin. On searching the Web for the places having the name BERI, I have found ten places, one each in Bangladesh, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Serbia and Montenegro. But there is not a place in Tamil Nadu bearing the name "BERI". Further research is called for.
S.N. Mahalingam
P 64-A, Kalamegam Street Extn. SBI Colony II Street
Kamarajapuram, Chennai 600 073
Editor's Note: Beri Chetties are from Andhra, who settled in Tondaimandalam among other places.
The power crisis
It is no surprise to learn from the article in MM, February 1st, that the TNEB is burdened with accumulated losses of over Rs 50000 crore. But to say that the generating capacity is 10,000 MW is not fully correct, as it excludes over 7,000 MW of wind and remewable energy (RE). More importantly, the State had -installed capacity of 7,513 MW during 2000/01 and this went up by a meagre 10,237 MW by 2010/11, but what was generated was only 25,147 million units (MU) in 2000/01 and 25,639 MU in 2010/11, while the purchases of power from Central Government, etc. rose from 16,617 MU to 49,351 MU, during the same period and there are reports to say they bought them even at Rs 7 per unit, while at the same time buying wind power at Rs. 3.05 and selling it to consumers at Rs 4.99 per unit.
Talking in terms of MW alone does not make sense as what really matters is how many million units we can get per MW per year, as there is great amount of variation depending on the source of power and other reasons. Here are some averages for the year 2010/11 for Tamil Nadu.
| Thermal Power | 6.42 MU/year |
| Thermal Power, Central, Purchases | 6.83 MU/year |
| Hydro-Electric Power | 2.33 MU/year |
| Windmill Power | 1.48 MU/year |
| Solar Power (estimated) | 1.20/1.30 MU/year |
The 2010/11 average for Tamil Nadu is 2.5 MU/year. Obviously there are serious lapses and the economics has not been worked out for decades.
K. V. S. Krishna
kvskrishna@gmail.com
For the record
Regarding V. Sriram's contribution to the subject of Mylapore's judges and lawyers, the following may be noted:
None of Alladi's sons-in-law became a High Court judge. Umamaheswaram was his brother-in-law, and he was appointed to the Madras High Court just before the formation of Andhra State and then went to the Andhra High Court in Guntur on its formation.
Krishnaswami Raosaheb was made Cabinet Secretary by Indira Gandhi in 1981 and continued in the post with Rajiv Gandhi till February 1985 when he retired and went on to become an Executive Director of the World Bank.
Viswanatha Sastri was never a judge of the Andhra High Court. He retired from the Madras High Court at the age of 60 in 1951, two years before Andhra State was formed. Bhaktavatsalam's house was number 11 N. Mada Street and was well away from S. Ramachandra Iyer's residence. Next to Number 11 was the house of S. Muthiah Mudaliar who was a Justice Party Minister.
K. V. Ramanathan
ramganga10@ymail.com
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