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The film’s name
Bhilai Gopalan in the letter ‘Raja & Rahman’, (MM, June 16th), has got the name of the film wrong. The song ‘Porale Ponnutayee’ was picturised by Bharatiraja in Karuthamma. Of course, the music was by ARR. The movie was about female infanticide and won many awards.
T.K. Srinivasa Chari
Journalists’ Colony
Thiruvanmiuyur, Chennai
Branched tree
I was a resident of Mylapore from 1943 to 1960 (on Luz Church Road) and thereafter of Mambalam (not T’ Nagar!). I too have nostalgic memories of Madras that was. There was a huge betel nut farm (vethalai thottam) right across the road from my grandfather’s bungalow, which extended upto East Abhiramapuram (Bhaskarapuram). I used to cut across this farm as a short cut to P.S. High School!
All that is another story. Why I write is the reference to 12 or 16 branched coconut trees in Vasu Street (MM, May 16th). I am much involved in water management and have also written a book on it. Varahamihira, the famous author of Brihath Samhita, has given a number of natural indicators for detecting water at shallow depths and one of the indicators is a coconut tree which is branched, forming a y! I have been looking for one for years. I was told that there was one such in the old Vauhini Studios in Kodambakkam. It is amazing to read reader V. Kalidas’s statement that there were so many of them at one site. I once went by car from Mangalore to Goa and saw coconut trees all along the route but could not see even one branched tree!
Indukanth Ragade
isragade@yahoo.com
Music bondage
I was one of the lucky few to listen to young John Higgins (MM, June 16th), rendering Siva Siva ena Radha in Panthuvarali at Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja aradhanai in 1965. We gave him a standing ovation. Later, an LP album was released by EMI Columbia in the1970s.
Young Americans’ interest in Carnatic music continued in the 1980s. Like David Reck, inspired by Visva, another young American who came to India to learn veena and vocal on a fellowship was Richard Kent Wolf. He stayed in Madurai in 1982-83 and in 1984-85 to learn the veena under the guidance of Karaikudi Lakshmi Ammal, and vocal music under the guidance of Kamala Ramamurthy. Wolf now heads the Department of South Asian Music at Howard University and visits India once a year to pursue his interest not only in Carnatic music but also in Adivasi folk music.
Long live such Indo-American musical bondage!
Bhilai Gopalan
1/6, Sankara Flats
1, 6th Cross Street
Shastri Nagar, Adyar
Chennai 600 020
Toe-holds & stirrups
The Governor’s Bodyguards’ horses (MM, June 1st) were stabled near Munro’s statue (now the bus depot).
Riding lessons were offered for a fee by the authorities and sowars used to take the riding lessons. Some of us who availed of this facility had to trot past Munro’s statue and the sowars used to berate us “Don’t look at Munro without stirrups, poor man.”
It is “toes up, heels down” and “knee grip trot”, I muse again here. The old Hindu chaturanga sena boasted thurangas, or cavalry. They had ropes which had toe-holds for better stability in the saddle when using their sabres, lances, etc. They used the big toe for grip. Hence “toe hold”. This later has developed into the stirrup.
T.M. Raghunathan
“Sankar Kripa”
A2/2, 13th Cross Street
Besant Nagar
Chennai 600 090
Note on author
The article on U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer (MM, June 1st) was written by my father, the late S.R. Venkataraman, President, Servants of India Society. This article was republished in the volume on Swaminatha Iyer’s 80th birthday celebrations in 1936 by the Madras Law Journal Press. In March 1906, the Tamilians in Mangalore met at Ullal Raghunathaih Memorial Hall under the presidentship of S. Ramachandra Iyer, Professor of Mathematics, Aloysius College, to celebrate the event. This meeting passed three resolutions and requested S.R. Venkataraman to convey them to U.Ve.S.
S.V. Ramakrishnan
D 156, Hindu Colony
Nanganallur, Chennai 600 061
The correct name
In my letter (MM, June 1st), I had erred in musing that the name of the violin shop in Jaya Mansions was ‘Everest Musicals’.
Actually, it is ‘Violin Crafts’. By chance, I sighted its advertisement in the last page of a paper printed and circulated by musician-scholar ‘Dhanaraj’ (guru of Ilayaraja) when he read a paper at the 1963 conference of the Music Academy.
N. Ramanathan
ramanathanhema@gmail.com
Reminiscing on the ‘Oceanic’
The community of netizens, over Facebook and Blogs, has responded to the article on the Oceanic Hotel in last fortnight’s Madras Musings. Here is a compilation from those responses.
Raja Ramanathan recalls that the Oceanic was the first hotel in the city to have a disco. It was called ‘Cyclops’. Rangachari Raghavan says he played music along with Rizwan Sharif and others from his batch at Loyola College one evening in 1973 at ‘Cyclops’. Ejji K. Umamahesh, however, has a different take on ‘Cyclops’ – it was hardly a disco, he says, more of a walled-in, badly echoing dance floor. He also adds that it was a now-on, now-off affair and that it paled in comparison to the disco in the basement of the Safire Theatre. According to him, the heyday of the Oceanic was when a part of Queen Elizabeth’s retinue stayed at the hotel when she visited the city. Dr. Vithal Rajan from Hyderabad says he stayed in the hotel over 50 years ago – “they charged over the top rates, but the food and service paled beside the Connemara.” Sridhar Krishna from Bangalore says a number of Tamil Bond films starring Jaishankar were shot there. R.V. Rajan says that the second oldest Rotary Club of the city, Madras South, used to meet in the Oceanic before moving elsewhere.
A strong memory for everyone is that during Test matches the Indian team would stay at the Oceanic. Raja Ramanathan recalls going with a cricketer friend to meet Pataudi and Inderjitsinhji. A more memorable visit was that of Usha and it is best said in her own words:
“I cannot forget Hotel Oceanic! In those days, 50 years back, whenever there was a cricket match, the Indian team stayed here. The visiting team would be in the Connemara. I remember this particular match and a group of five of us cut class (the PT class while in the Tenth, Rosary Matric) and went to Oceanic to see the cricketers. Abbas Ali Baig and Kunderan were my favourites and Wadekar too. We were wearing our PT uniforms... white shirts and divided skirts. There they were, the cricketers, standing in the balcony and we waved at them in all glee... and tried to enter the hotel when this grumpy old watchman asked us to scoot off!!
“Did we? No! We went towards the side and tried to scale the walls, when his back was turned. The cricketers – Kunderan, Jaisimha and a few others – were laughing and cheering us till the watchman got wind of what we were doing and came down heavily upon us and asked us to GET OUT, screaming, ‘Dhaavani poadara vayasaachu,’ aambali pinnaala suththa vekkamaa illai? (You are old enough to wear half sarees. Are you not ashamed to run after men?) He spat venom! And we made a glorious retreat! Aw! Indha vayasula aambala pinnaala suththaama, madisaar kattindappurama suththa mudiuma?’ (If we don’t run after them now, will we be able to do it when we are in nine-yard sarees) was what I thought. Of course, I didn’t have the guts to ask him that.”
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