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Madras Housing Unit quarters

Please find attached a picture of the Single Person Quarters by the Madras Housing Unit. Must have been in the 1950’s or 60’s on New Avadi Road, Kilpauk. This is now a bunch of shops near Hotel Krishna Bhavan.

Thought it was a great initiative by the then Government to have come up with this scheme.  Any further info on this would make it an interesting article in Madras Musings.

B. Arun Kumar 
barun9911@gmail.com

1942 evacuation

Coimbatore saw a stream of Chennaites during the great exodus of 1942. The much spoken Japanese invasion did not take place. Rt. Hon. V.S. Srinivasa Sastri was one of the notable figures who came to Coimbatore. Not willing to idle away his time, Sastri took classes in English Grammar and pronunciation for school teachers. I used to accompany my father to the classes. The job given to me was to open the Webster’s Dictionary and show the page where the word written on the blackboard was. This began my lifelong habit of referring to the dictionary. Sastri was a village-mate and classmate of my maternal grandfather. In those days Coimbatore had a salubrious climate. For Chennaites it was a refreshing departure from the heat.

Dr. S.S. Rajagopalan
30, Kamarajar Street
Chennai 600 093

Hoping for restoration

This refers to the two write-ups under the headings, ‘Finally, a (Notified) Heritage Act in Place’ and ‘Short ’N’ Snappy’, in Madras Musings dated May 1st. It was saddening to know from the interesting and informative account of the heritage walk led by MMM, that a prominent heritage building owned by a respectable institution in Adyar was in a state of neglect.It was all the more surprising that the locals did not know who owned the structure. One would hope that the Heritage Commission which is expected to be in place in July, this year, would take up this matter with the institution concerned and get the building refurbished.

N. Rama Rao
Retired Deputy Registrar General (Census) and UN Census Adviser
1A, Sri Kripa Apartments
44,Third Main Road, R.A.Puram
Chennai 600 028

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