Opportunity lost

You have been leading a­crusade to protect Chennai heritage. You should crusade against how new development is now taking place. I recently made a trip on the O.M.R. area. The road goes through newly deve­loped areas. What I saw was extremely saddening: Haphazard, unplanned, most­ly dirty-looking constructions. An opportunity lost to develop great suburbs. I feel that you should go for a drive from Mahabalipuram to Thiru­van­miyur or to Pulicat etc. and write about your visual experience. It may stop what is going on.

S. Sundar
2-B, Sahas Manor
3-C, Third Street
North Boag Road
T. Nagar, Chennai 600 017

Are they the answer?

To the list of disadvantages of concrete road you have given in MM, January 16th, it must be added that these roads are difficult to repair. As a remedy, the Corporation has added layer upon layers of concrete on many roads during the last ­decade. Roadside homes have almost become basement --accommodations.

I have lived in Taramani for over a decade. Until about 2002, Taramani village, as it was called then, had no tar or concrete road. Then, almost hesitantly, a tar road was ­attempted at. But a rain or two later, and aided by Metro Water and BSNL, it was soon in a state of disrepair. Then it was changed to concrete. Since then, damage to the road has only been answered with another layer of concrete. In the last ten years, the road has risen three times. Consequently, residents of homes that used to overlook the road now have to tiptoe to look up to the road and to get out of homes.

It has triggered a sort of race between citizens and the Corporation. A number of old houses otherwise in good condition had to be demolished to escape ­being flooded in the rains. The new houses in the area are built with unnecessarily high elevation of their plinth to avoid becoming subterranean. But no one is sure how high will be an insurance against possible burial. Many have accepted this with a sense of resignation, enduring the misery every monsoon. Others have sold ancestral property and moved out. Taramani no longer has many natives. Neither does it have a word of concern from those who matter.

Shreesh Chaudhary
Prof., Dept. of HSS
IIT Madras, Chennai 600 036

‘Singara Chennai’ – some observations

Life in the metro offers many vignettes. Some of them are plea- sant, others are otherwise – and not cared for.

• The other day, I noticed a man being served at a medical shop. He had been prescribed six tablets of a specific drug – one each to be consumed twice a day for three days. But the pharmacist said that the item comes in packs of fifteen and cannot be sold loose – the reason being that the rest could not be sold for want of takers. On enquiring what to do with them, the pharmacist had no answer but a scowl. For the customer, the extra money paid was a total loss.

• Many are the dog lovers in the city who take their pets for a routine stroll and incidental defecation. Many of these pets show a keen interest in iron gates to lift a leg or squat in the middle. The owner or the handler is not at all concerned about the ­inconvenience being caused to others who walk that way.

In our locality, however, a man, while taking his pet out for such a routine stroll, always takes with him a sheet of old newspaper, removes the poo and deposits it in the garbage bin located in the street corner. I was thrilled to see this one day and stopped near him to salute him for his civic consciousness. May his tribe ­increase.

• Over the last decade, the Corporation has been engaging contractors to remove the garbage. While Onyx started the assignment with gusto and did quite a good job, its successors have not paid that kind of attention. The sweepers do a half-hearted job and remove only large size garbage and leaves from the streets, leaving aside small and tiny leaves, twigs and rubbish of other kinds. While the handymen in compactors dump the waste into the vehicle’s belly, a lot of it is returned to the road to be trampled upon or blown away by the wind. There is no proper supervision or even occasional inspection to verify the quality of the work done. Besides where have the sanitary inspectors gone? Or is it beyond their calling? The selection of the garbage contractor, it has been reported, was based on tenders and comparative quotations. But experience over the years indicates that good quality work cannot be obtained cheaply.

• A similar case in point is the difference you can notice in the quality of building in government quarters and hire purchase flats. The former, built three decades ago, are in good shape, while the latter have breathed their last in half the number of years and have been demolished. I wonder if the two arms of government, the PWD and Housing Board, have different standards for building.

• All over Chennai, we find shops dealing in FMGs, clothing and electronics announcing price reduction sales. They announce ‘Season Sales’; ‘End of Season Sales’ and ‘Off Season Sales’; in addition to “Closing down” and “Seconds Sales”. Can anyone explain when a Season begins or ends, as this process goes on round the year?

• And speaking of the Corporation and ‘Seasons’, once mosquitoes were considered ‘seasonal’; now they bite throughout the year. Much money is spent on various methods to ward off the insects, but nothing works. When and how will the Corporation come to our rescue is at the top of everyone’s mind.

S. Krishna
81/2, Fourth Main Road
Gandhinagar, Adyar
Chennai 600 020

‘ Save this slowly vanishing plaque ’

• Madras Musings has in the past brought to the ­attention of the public the danger faced by the Coja Petrus Uscan plaque on the Maraimalai Adigal Bridge (Saidapet), with the Metro Rail work going on alongside it.

Recently, after the visit to Madras of a couple of members of the ­Society for Armenian Studies, when they were shocked to find the state the plaque was in, the International Union of Land and Culture Organisations, ­Society for Armenian Studies, Paris, wrote to His Excellency Mr. Ara Hakobyan, Ambassador of Armenia in ­India, New Delhi, stating:

‘Your mission in India as an Ambassador has undoubtedly made you, more than anybody else, sensitive to the significance of the Armenian ­patrimony in this country. Besides, being associations founded around people in Armenian diaspora, it can only be ­natural for us to consider you our legitimate representative. That is the ­reason why we are turning to you today hoping that your position could make possible an ­effective intervention from your part into the ­direction of appropriate authorities regarding the critical point related hereunder.

Last February, some historians belonging to our associations went to Chennai on a study trip on the path of the ancient and so brilliant Armenian colony of Madras, with a view to issuing a publication. This document is to be centred for some part on the inscriptions alluding to the very famous merchant Coja Petrus Uscan, a highly generous benefactor to Madras in the XVIII ­Century.

The most known building of public interest among those funded by Petrus Uscan is Marmalong Bridge, also named ­Armenian Bridge (today Saidapet Bridge). A plaque recalls this ­historical milestone in three languages ­(Armenian, Persian, Latin).

The point is we have felt indignant when we discovered through watching the photographs brought by these historians that this plaque is now partly covered with concrete because of the ­construction work for Metro Rail. As a result, the Armenian section of the writing is completely covered up.

The plaque before the construction of the elevated railway (on left) when the Armenian lettering was partially covered and the plaque as it was in February 2014 (on right) with the Armenian lettering fully covered.

In his time, Coja Petrus Uscan himself funded several works of public interest among which was Marmalong Bridge. That work of art, sometimes named “the Armenian Bridge” has often been depicted by artists such as William Daniell.

"The Armenian Bridge, near St Thomas's Mount in 1820", by William Daniell.

On a very elegant and well-known plaque set on this bridge, the merchant indicated, within an inscription in three languages (Armenian, ­Persian, Latin): “This bridge was built for public interest by Coja Petrus Uscan, belonging to the Armenian nation, A.D. 1726.”

In 1966, Petrus Uscan’s bridge was destroyed and replaced by today’s Saidapet Bridge. But in those days the plaque had been preserved and moved to the end of the new bridge where it was hardly put into light and where the writing in ­Armenian was beginning to be covered up.

Its patrimonial value has been even more ­significant since the destruction of the old bridge. It has repeatedly been studied by researchers, be it in Armenia, India and many other countries. Moreover, it is well-known far away beyond the expert’s area as it is referred to by many press ­articles in several countries as well as on the Internet where its photograph is displayed on the Wikipedia pages dedicated to Petrus Uscan.

But the patrimonial value of this plaque is ­utterly obvious. We hope that the damage is not irreversible; that is why we are mobilising, so this plaque could be carefully extricated and placed in a more appropriate location where it could be more honorably put in light.

Already before the construction work started, some active members of the association, INTACH of Chennai and the bi-monthly review Madras Musings, two institutions working at the preservation and enhancement of the patrimony, had alerted the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Company in charge with the building of the Metro Rail, but their alarm had unfortunately ­remained unnoticed.

We are delighted that the installing of a new Armenian monument should be currently ­considered today in Chennai to tighten the links between India and Armenia. But, along with this project, it would be suitable to preserve the ­existing patrimony which is a testimony of the ­Armenians’ historic presence in this town.

Thus, we are hoping that, as the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia in India, you will have an easy access to the right persons, so that ­regrettable error could be corrected.

We ensure Your Excellency of our support in case you would need to resort to us at any time in this mission.

We strongly wish that our combined efforts will be successful.

We are vividly hoping that our request will ­attract your Excellency’s attention.’