Unforgettable fare in George Town
The notes on Modern Cafe (MM, April 1st) reminded me of the several vegetarian restaurants in George Town and other areas of Madras city during the 1940s and 1950s.
Modern Cafe, Ramakrishna Lunch Home, Arya Bhavan, Ambi’s Cafe, Indra Bhavan, Sankar Cafe, Nehru Cafe, Shanmugananda Cafe, Andhra Mess, North Indian restaurants in Sowcarpet, Udipi Home on Mount Road, Rathna Cafe in Triplicane, Geetha Cafe in T’ Nagar were some of them.
Many of the children of the owners of those restaurants were students of Madras Christian College School where I was a student in the 1940s and we often visited these restaurants.
Modern Cafe was owned by W. Seetharama Rao, who later established Dasaprakash Hotel. He was a strict disciplinarian and a God-fearing personality. Rao gave much importance to the quality of food served and the behaviour of the waiters. I have seen him on a number of occasions going around the tables during busy hours and, when a waiter was placing a plate (of dosai or any other item), would suddenly ask the waiter to stop and with a spoon he (Rao) would taste the item and would quickly get angry, and he would call for the chef concerned and scold him in Canarese for the poor quality of the dish and ask him to send another plate with the best quality stuff to the table. If my memory is correct, Modern Cafe was the first hotel to introduce masala dosai in Madras City and it was priced at 4 annas. Those days, the masala in masala dosai would be a finely mixed and mashed gravy of real masala ingredients, not like now when it is a watery mixture of potato pieces and onion scrapings. Seetharama Rao was a pioneer in the introduction of Udipi foods.
Rao’s nephew U. Anand Rao used to assist him in the management of the restaurant. Seetharama Rao’s bungalow on Rajah Annamalai Chettiar Road, Purasawalkam, was the venue for religious discourses held every Friday and I used to attend them.
Most of the Udipi hotels of the time served quality food preceded by an appetiser – khashayam!
Ramakrishna Lunch Home was owned by V.R. Ramanatha Ayyar from Travancore. He was just the opposite of K. Seetharama Rao. He was an extrovert. His restaurant was well-managed by a team of able persons. V.R.R. was a prominent personality in Madras. He was the Mayor of the city for a term. He had a very big garden in his sprawling bungalow Muktha Gardens on Spur Tank Road, Egmore. He was a member of the executive committee of the Agri-Horticultural Society of Madras. V.R.R.’s elder brother was the history master of the M.C.C. School.
Mani Aiyer of Ramakrishna Lunch Home was in-charge of the first automatic billing machine of the restaurant. After many years’ service he left to start his own Egmore Cafe opposite Egmore Station. A few buildings away from Egmore Cafe was the Tourist Home, a boarding and lodging house owned by Al. Rm. Alagappa Chettiar.
One Shama Bhat from Udipi started a small canteen on Vepery High Road, next to the Madras Veterinary College in the early 1940s. After a few years he moved it to Commander-in-Chief Road, next to the Egmore Post Office. He served very good food.
Those days, we would practise driving from Kilpauk and Purasawalkam to the Marina Beach Road in early mornings and it was always past his restaurant (Pudupet, Harris Road, Chitra Bridge, Casino, Round Tana. Wallajah Road). On our way, we would have coffee at his place and on our way back (by 9.30 a.m or so) we would have breakfast at the Udipi Hotel, Round Tana, where the a/c room charge was 2 annas per head,
Later, Shama Bhat constructed a hotel at 1, Halls Road, Egmore, very near his old establishment. His growth was noteworthy; he even established a restaurant in New Delhi also.
Arya Bhavan in Govindappa Naicken Street was established by North Indians and their sweets and dishes made of pure ghee were very popular. An uncle of mine, Madai Dalavoi Kumaraswamy Mudaliar, ran a hotel in Courtalam and during the season, he would get a few chefs from Arya Bhavan to prepare the sweets.
On Govindappa Naicken Street there were many other North Indian sweet stalls. There was also an Andhra Mess. Many politicians, like Gopala Reddi, Brahmananda Reddi, and Guntur Narasimha Rao, would visit it. So did we from M.C.C. School.
V. Theetharappan
32, V.O.C. Street, 1st Block
SVM Illam, Kaikkankuppam
Valasarawakkam, Chennai 600 087
More on breweries in India
I foun an article on the Internet entitled ‘Imperial hops: how beer travelled the world, especially to Asia’ by Jeffrey M. Pilcher (http://www.yale.edu/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/13pilcher.pdf), which includes a few references to brewing in Madras (MM, February 1st). Pilcher refers to ‘hops’, which is a principal component in English beer. (Hops is Humulus lupulus Cannabaceae, the plant family which includes Cannabis – the hemp and in the brewing industry ‘hops’ refers to the female flowers of this plant. These are used as a flavouring and stability agent in beer to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavour.)
I quote here from Pilcher with page numbers indicated:
p.5: “Colonial brewers initiated their first efforts in the cooler climates of the hill stations, and even established experimental hops plantations in Kashmir, although the yields were poor. By the 1880s, a dozen breweries operated in the northwestern province of Punjab, which was also the leading source of malted barley. Beer was also made sucessfully on a smaller scale at Bangalore, Bombay, Lucknow, and Madras.”
pp. 6-7: “Evidence is mixed on the native consumption of beer, either ale or lager. In 1908, Sir George Watt observed: ‘Consumption of country-brewed (English) beer and ale by the Natives of India is not important, though in some provinces it is more extensive than in others.’ He cited the Punjab and the hill districts around Madras as areas of growing use. That same year, the colonial government doubled the customs duty on imported beer and other alcohol to discourage Indian subjects from drinking, and perhaps because Germans had captured so much of the market. That Germans alone were importing by this point twice as much beer as the entire colony had downed three decades earlier suggests a growing native market since the European population of India had not increased at a comparable rate.”
My interest in providing these details is that someone in Madras may want to follow the social history guided by this beverage.
Dr. A. Raman
ARaman@csu.edu.au
The creature on Westcott Road
My photograph is of an exotic being that inhabits Westcott Road in Royapettah. It is not what you think it is. For the past two years (yes, two years) and more, my wife and I have been observing, during our morning walks at the crack of dawn, this creature evolve in all its glory. It presently resides on the stretch of pavement/road between a commercial complex, Bhattad Tower, and the Wesley/Meston College compound alongside Westcott Road, right opposite a popular theatre.
Not being zoologist or biologist, I have tentatively named it Copula telefisicus royapettalis because of what it looks like rather than what it actually is. It resembles a coiled snake with both ends suspended from adjacent masts. No head is visible; neither are any eyes nor mouth visible. I m not sure if the creature belongs to the family of reptiles or invertebrates.
Its most fascinating characteristic is the ability to change its position. One day it lies majestically on the road adjacent to the pavement, the next day it rests at an angle of 45 degrees in a reclining pose, resting its body against the edge of the pavement. The day after, it lies prone on the pavement, as seen in the photograph. All this on one of the busiest roads in Chennai.
It appears to ingest whatever nutrients it requires through a process of osmosis. Copula royapettalis has adapted superbly to its environment and seems comfortable, be it sun, rain, cyclone or garbage. It also seems to be harmless to humans, considering that it lives on a very busy thoroughfare with heavy pedestrian traffic.
Another remarkable thing, and this is important, is that the creature seems to be at a crucial stage in its evolution. As you may be aware, millions of years ago when our ancestors, the apes, left the tree tops to move around on terra firma, the first steps were taken towards the evolution of the two-legged homo erectus and homo sapiens. I dare say that Copula royapettalis is similarly at a critical stage in its evolution, having left its usual perch atop a pole or a mast to move freely on the ground.
And to think that about a year ago, I had mistaken this exotic creature for a coil of TV cable and sent a complaint to the Corporation! How foolish of me. On the other hand, it redounds to the credit of all the Corporation staff and supervisors who have recognised its true value and left it alone. (Even petty thieves, it seems, have given it a wide berth.) I am writing this specially to recommend a suitable reward for all Corporation staff who have carefully nurtured this creature for more than two years.
Recently in a survey conducted by The New York Times, Chennai that was Madras has been ranked 26th amongst 52 of the world’s most desirable destinations to be visited. I am sure Copula royapettalis will be a big draw for tourists, particularly from the West, who can never hope to see such exotic creatures on their drab, sanitised roads and walkways. It is a perfect example of peaceful co-existence between the 3 Cs – Creature, Citizen and Civic officials! All the more reason for you to ensure that Copula royapettalis is well protected. The Corporation may also like to check if members of this species inhabit other areas of the city.
K. Balakesari
3/1, Kesari Kuteeram, 27, Westcott Road
Royapettah, Chennai 600 014
Is this Singara Chennai?
During the last month I walked some distance and met many people in and around Chennai and saw many slums. Above are a couple of pictures of what I saw near Palmgrove Hotel.
Only when we change this scenario, will we see Singara Chennai.
Prabhakar J
jp.sangamam@gmail.com
Vanishing grove
Though my subject is Mathematics, I was a Founder-life member of the Association of Geography Teachers’ Association of India (MM April 16th). I hosted one of its annual conferences in Coimbatore when the respected trio mentioned by you, Dr. A.R. Irrawathy, Visharadha Hoon and M.P. Rajagopal, were the key persons conducting the proceedings.
MPR was an able administrator who brought out the monthly journal regularly. I came in contact with Dr. Irrawathy when I was associated with the Distance Education Programme of M.K. University. She identified the Kadamba tree mentioned in Sangam literature and developed the Kadamba Vanam in the varsity campus. Alas, vice-chancellors thought that land was for constructing buildings and not for growing trees and the Kadamba Vanam disappeared. Dr. Irrawathy’s passion for her subject was legendary.
S.S. Rajagopalan
30, Kamarajar Street
Chennai 600 093
Worthy practice
I was greatly interested to know from reader S. Krishna’s letter (MM, May 1st) that there is, in his locality, a man who collects the poo of his pet dog in a newspaper and deposits it in a garbage bin everytime he walks with his pet.
In the USA, it is a criminal offence not to do so. It is for this purpose that everyone who walks his/her pet dog over there always carries a plastic bag. It is indeed commendable that at least one person in Chennai follows this practice in the interests of a clean environment. Is it too much to expect others to follow this creditable practice?
K.P. Mahalingam
6-B, The Peninsula
778, Poonamalle High Road
Kilpauk, Chennai 600 010
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