Click here for more...

(ARCHIVE) VOL. XXIII NO. 1, April 16-30, 2013
Our Readers Write


Editor's Note: Ganga Powell writes that she is sorry that she could not reach her mother's picture to us in time for her article that appeared in Madras Musings on April 1st. But better late than never. This picture of Jayalakshmi Kumar was taken in those days when she was campaigning for women's emancipation.

Doctors recalled

It was great to read about the eventful days of Stanley Medical College in the recent issues of Madras Musings. I belonged to the 1953 batch.

Dr. Raghavachari made me act in the plays, Kalvanin Kadali as the heroine. As it was for the Cardiology Fund I agreed. Dr. Venkataswami and Dr. Kizar Ahmed and Dr. Kalyani acted in the play staged in Annamalai Mandram with chief guests T.K. Shanmugam and T.K. Bagavathi. My father warned me that he would stop my medical education if I took part in such activities in future. I promised not to do so and continued my studies. It was 57 years ago when I was 20 years old.

Dr. G. Janaki
Rtd. Chief Medical Officer
Indian Railways
A-34, RBI Quarters, Jalda Tata Press Lane
Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025

* * *

Dr. B. Ramamurthi was known as BRM among our fraternity. We might not have recognised him if he was referred to as BR (MM, March 1st and 16th).

Dr. BRM was made Hony. Brigadier by the Indian Army for the changes he made in tank design which reduced the incidence of head injuries to tank personnel. He used to proudly display the star and flag on his car.

Dr. Solomon Victor, the renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, was an alumnus of Stanley Medical College. He was the first Indian to get the Hallet's prize in FRCS exam. He was an FRCP. He delivered the prestigious Hunterian lecture on evolution of the heart. He was an accomplished accordion player and used to play it without hesitation during annual day celebrations at Stanley.

Dr. K.V. Thiruvengadam, best outgoing student of 1950 and later Professor of Medicine, and Dr. N. Rangabashyam, Professor of Surgery, who later started the MCH Surgical Gastroenterology course for the first time in the country at Madras Medical College, took a keen interest in the students. If we were waiting for a bus to go back home and they saw us, they would not hesitate to give us a lift. Being a T.Nagar-vasi I have been dropped many times near my house.

Dr. P.S. Venkateswaran
Retd. Prof & HOD of Surgery
Madras Medical College
17/8, Gopalakrishna Iyer Street
T. Nagar, Chennai 600 017

Not much change

The article on Katherine Mayo (MM, April 1st) makes interesting reading because a dispassionate analysis will show that from 1925 till now not much has really changed, notwithstanding the fact that we have, in the meantime, become one of the largest economies in the world. Our prickliness over foreigners writing about us remains as high as ever, perhaps even higher with our newfound global confidence; just consider the various book bannings, visa refusals, etc.

Do we really believe child marriages are a thing of the past? May be not on the same scale, but consider the recent events with photographs in the media that point out us that it is very much prevalent in the hinterland. Child bearing conditions have vastly improved, but the BIMARU belt still exhibits unacceptably high levels of maternal and infant mortality. Several indicators show that even the sub-Saharan countries are better, where malnutrition levels are concerned.

It is not only the lowest caste women who are illiterate. The literacy rate in several northern states, especially eastern UP, parts of MP, Bihar and Orissa, is unacceptably high in this time and age. Do we question the fact that a large percentage of our women are still controlled by menfolk and tradition. Let us not look at the urban, upper class, double income, no kids, software type professional couples when we analyse this situation.

Mother India has a lot to worry about, with the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, between the rural and the urban, indeed between the South and the North, and the pressures that are set to tear the social fabric of our nation. Perhaps she is Mother of India and not of Bharat!

Dr. Prem Chandran John
10, 32nd Cross Street
Besant Nagar
Chennai 600 090

Beri migration

The following information on Beri origins (MM, February 16th) should be in order. The proceedings of the British Privy Council (1836-72) contain some particulars relating to Byri Comaties, who are most probably of the same stock as Beri Chettis. Some Vaishyas of Orissa filed a suit against a Brahmin organisation which had declined to provide them priestly services of Vedic rituals, concluding that the so-called Vaishyas had been practising Shudra customs for two thousand years (sic).

It had led to, among others, three sub-castes, Byri Comaties, Borkka Comaties and Nogaram Comaties, dispersing from their original abode in Orissa to the neighbouring Andhra and, eventually, to Tondaimandalam in Tamil Nadu. This is historically tenable. Hence, it is certainly not fair to hazard making a link between them and Papua New Guinea!

P.S. Prof. G.S. Ghurye, an internationally acknowledged Indian social scientist, disclosed this evidence in his seminal publication in 1932.

Rev. Philip K. Mulley
Anaihatti Road
Kotagiri 643 217
The Nilgiris

Great innings

Ceylon's veteran batsman Sathasivan's innings in 1947 at Chepauk has been described as the greatest ever seen on that ground. That knock of 215 was pure whirlwind which blew away M.J. Gopalan, C.R. Rangachari, N.J. Venkatesan, Ghulam Ahmed and B.C. Alva!

There may be some cricket-watching elders who would have seen that innings as well as the recent ballistic double century of the Indian skipper M.S. Dhoni against Michael Clarke's bowlers. I am 66 and I haven't seen such an awesome batting blitz as Dhoni's.

In my opinion, the only difference between the two innings is: whereas Satha must have had cocktails the previous evening, 'MS' probably drank a quart of milk to power his 'helicopter' heave.

P.S. Nowadays when one says 'MS' one means Dhoni and not Subbulakshmi.

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

Please click here to support the Heritage Act
OUR ADDRESSES

In this Issue

Planning again to clean the Cooum
Knowledge Park threatens DPI campus heritage
A tribute – The engineer who knew his economics
Friends of the Earth
Smile-a-while with Ranjitha:
Loving Limits
The scholar whose family came first
He cemented Indo-European cricket relations
If you see a snake...

Our Regulars

Short 'N' Snappy
Our Readers Write
Quizzin' with Ram'nan
Dates for Your Diary
Madras Eye

Archives

Download PDF

Back to Archives

Back to current issue...