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It’s a person
The term ‘Printer’s Devil’ appears in two places (Letters, columns 2 and 5) in MM, November 1st, and in both places it would appear that you are perhaps equating the term to a typo. Could it be that ‘Printer’s Devil’ is now accepted as a typo?
I was quite a bit disappointed with your very touchy reaction to Dr. G. Sundaram’s well meaning criticism of the private sector and the fourth estate in his excellent letter.
H. J. Pavamani
126, Velachery Road, Guindy
Chennai 600 032
Editor’s Note: In one instance we stated “the printer’s devil was at work” and in the other “suffered at the hands of the printer’s devil”. To us the references are clear; the printer’s devil is a person.
Re. our “touchiness”, we still fail to see how the inability to contact one reporter can be considered a failure in the whole private sector. And if seeking clarification on what we fail to see is considered touchiness, then no question can be asked of anyone who has drawn a certain conclusion.
Traffic books
On completion of eighty years of age in 2013, I brought out a book titled. Taking the High Road – Research in Transport in Developing Economies (1955-2013), summarising the contributions mady by me in the field of traffic and transportation. This year, I have written a book titlted Traffic Engineering and Planning under Mixed Traffic and Other Prevailing Conditions in India, bringing out the salient aspects of some of the important studies carried out by me in the field of traffic engineering and planning in India.
For the benefit of those who are interested in this field, the full text of these two books is made available in the library of the website: www.nssriniva santraffic.com
For any clarifications or further details, I can te contacted at the address given in the website.
N. S. Srinivasan
tafsrini@yahoo.com
Mongoose encounters
I read with interest Ahana Lakshmi’s article on mongoose (MM, October 16th) because of my own encounters with this interesting animal.
When my wife and I were living in a colony of bungalows in Mehsana, Gujarat, there was a fairly good vegetation in the colony although it was certainly an urban setting. We found the milk in the vessel disappearing, without even a drop being left in it. In time, we discovered it was the work of a mongoose and not a cat!
Our second encounter – it was a real encounter – was in the house of the French Consul-General in Pondicherry in the late 1960s. When we visited them once, two or three mongoose appeared in the drawing room and rolled over there much to our consternation. The Consul-General and his wife assured us they were pets and not to worry!
As the pet dogs do, they also smelled us and disappeared. But that was the first time I realised that mongoose could also be pets. The French couple also told us that they were afraid of snakes and had been keeping the mongoose. But I told them that at the place they were living by the beach, there were no real snakes, but only a lot of human snakes!
Dr. G. Sundaram
ias (rtd.)
Keshav Perumal Puram
Greenways Road
Chennai 600 028
Fantabulus!
The reference to Enfield India (MM, October 1st) reminded me of the Company’s scooter ‘Fantabulus’ which was popular in the late 1960s in Bhilai Steel Plant township. Many owners were enamoured of the unique features of the two-wheeler: a sturdy design (118 kg), with a self-starter mechanism (a forerunner of all present-day scooties), a four gear leg-operated system, instead of normal three gears, and clutch handle bar design.
However, due to low fuel efficiency and high operational and maintenance costs, the vehicle went into oblivion within a decade of introdution.
It was a sad failure of an in-house design by a renowed company.
Bhilai Gopalan
1/6 Sankara Flats
1, 6th Cross St, Shasthri Nagar
Adyar, Chennai 600 020
Memories of advertising
Re. the article ‘Growth of advertising in Madras’ (MM, October 1st), after passing an advertising course I tried to join one of the leading advertising agencies in Madras, viz. D.J. Keymer’s, but was told that I might have done well in my course but I should first join a small firm and, after gaining experience, try to join a leading firm.
To my good fortune, one fine morning in 1952, V.C. Sivaswamy dropped in our residence and informed my father, his friend, that he had started an advertising firm called Epoch Advertising in the Deepak Insurance Building, Errabalu Chetty Street, George Town. At Sivaswamy’s suggestion I joined Epoch. I worked for them till the end of 1955. I learnt much about advertising from VCS.
In 1953, VCS took me with him to Vittal Mallya, the Chairman of McDowell’s. He offered Epoch a spacious room in McDowell’s premises and we moved there. McDowell’s, within a few months, took over Epoch. Its other major clients were Bush Boake Roberts and Foods, Fats and Fertilisers.
P.S.G. Rao, the chief at Keymer’s, Ramachandran of Efficient Publicities, freelance advertising stalwarts like P.N. Srinivasan, Chari and others were deeply involved in the growth of advertising in Madras.
Epoch also did considerable work for the promotion of the Santosh Trophy tournament for the national football championship.
One morning, M.K. Radha, the hero of the Gemini hit Chandralekha, and A.T. Krishnaswamy, eminent film director in the 1940s and ’50s, suddenly turned up at Epoch, and told us that they were contemplating producing a film named The Governor’s Cup and would like us to handle their publicity. To start with, they wanted our artist, R. Natarajan, to design a newspaper advertisement for the film. On the spot, Natarajan designed something which they liked. The staff’ of other units of McDowell’s were surprised to see the leading star of those days with us.
Sivaswamy left McDowell’s to join as Advertisement Manager of The Mail. He stayed there till his retirement.
V. Theetharappan
32, VOC Street, Valasarawakkam
Chennai 600 087
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In his article on outdoors advertising, R. V.
Rajan (MM, November 1st) has carefully avoided the names of agencies, clients and artists involved – obviously to dispel controversies.
Nevertheless, I would consider it worth mentioning those whose work has been well appreciated. M. F. Hussain once mentioned that the hoarding painters of Madras did an excellent job. He was himself a painter of hoardings in his early avatar and had watched the Madras hoardings with awe during his visits.
Baba Arts, Babu Bros. and Baktha gained fame for their numerous productions.
No one can forget the Avi India hoarding at the rear of Dhun Buildings and United India Insurance hoarding all over Anna Salai. Every passer-by had a hearty laugh at the humour.
There was, however, an accident case in the early 1990s in which a State Transport vehicle driver was hauled up in Court. With the aid of a sketch drawn by my draftsman on the scene of the accident, the driver referred to a 200 feet long hoarding on the walls of Church Park Convent and argued that the film artiste in bright yellow clothing distracted him from seeing the overbridge near Safire theatre and he lost control. He reported that the shining sun reflected from the bright hoarding and blinded him – hence the mishap.
S. Krishna
81/2, Fourth Main Road
Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600 020
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