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VOL. XXIII NO. 17, DECEMBER 16-31, 2013
Our Readers write

Roads & congestions

The ‘Pits’burgh condition (MM December 1st) is due to non-execution of road works according to SSRB of Highways Department. I have observed that concrete roads in our panchayat area have developed pits within a year.

Also, T. Nagar was conceived as a residential area, with some stretches set apart for commercial activities. The expansion of commercial activities we see now is happening with the connivance of politicians and civic authorities. Legislation alone cannot prevent this for it will never get enforced.

S.N. Mahalingam
email: santhri@rediffmail.com

The ‘Bs’ and ‘Ps’

As usual I was chuckling over the Short ‘N’ Snappy piece from MMM in Madras Musings (December 1st).

The news announcer with his RIBBON building is not the only one of his kind.

I have noticed that many of us are unable to pronounce the English letter “P” and this letter is always pronounced by some with a “B” sound.

Often, the much mispronounced “Parotta” (transformed from “Paratha”) is always pronounced as “Barota”.

Similarly Padma becomes “Badma”... poor thing!

Years back there was a drama running in Chennai, called Soorapadman.

It was always pronounced as “SooraBadman”!

At Tambaram railway station, the universal cry at 9 am is an agonised “Bast Poyiduchchaa?”

This “Bast” refers to a fast local to Chennai Beach. ‘Fast’ transformed into “Past” local and from there “Bast” is another jump.

The inability to sound B interested me so much that I once tried an experiment on a friend of mine, asking him to say “P.B. Srinivas”.

Even after numerous attempts, poor fellow, he could not get it right. He could only pronounce it “B.P. Srinivas”!

S. Rajaram
62/1, Tamarai Flats
M E S Road
Chennai 600 059

Split value

Here is a scanned copy (above) of an old and cancelled house document on a six-rupee stamp paper purchased on 7.7.1947 in Triplicane. This was dated just a month before Independence.

What I specially noticed in the stamp paper was that for its six-rupee face value, the stamp paper was printed as two rupees on the left and rupees four on the right side and in the centre Six Rupees!

Was it a common practice at the time for all denominations to be split or was there any significance behind splitting the stamp paper value?

M.D. Chander
5/12, 5th Block, Mogappair West, Chennai 600 037

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In this issue

Restoration sans any regulation
Banners the Bane of Our City
Masters of 20th Century Madras Science
A Landmark year for M.S. Swaminathan
A Search for Identity
The Wooing of Isabella Druitt
A Printing Press In a Garden
Tamil Theatre a Lost Legacy
Dates for Your Diary
An All Time Madras XI

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Short 'N' Snappy
Readers Write
Madras Eye

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