Museums All – In Letter and Spirit

In Letter and Spirit

You cannot deny, that ours is a city that is most dynamic. And in the eyes of The Man from Madras Musings nothing can be more representative of this than the current craze to develop museums among the various government departments. They seem to have come a long way from the time when they wanted to demolish and destroy anything of heritage value that they possessed to now when they not only want to restore but also convert them into museums. MMM, who has been called in very often for his views, has expressed himself very clearly. At a time when the best of museums in the city are unable to attract footfalls chiefly owing to poor displays, lack of circulation of artifacts, and no vision on how to attract people, what can several more museums do? But his words have thus far fallen on deaf ears.

Having decided to protect their built heritage, and then having decided to convert it into a museum, the powers that be are now puzzled over what to populate these museums with. MMM learns from credible sources that it is only now that the government departments are waking up about heritage not being just buildings but also a lot by way of photographs, files, and a thousand other things that a historic city can actually be in possession of ! The problem is that much of these have been thrown away over the years as worthless and have no doubt made some scrapdealer into an antique dealer. The net result is that the government departments are now scrambling for displays that they can put into their museums.

It is interesting that many seem to think that MMM may be having something that concerns their history. Many of them get their minions to call MMM and ask for strange things such as newspaper clippings, photographs, and what have you. In fact, ‘what have you’ is the correct description because the general telephone conversation always goes that way after the ubiquitous greetings of “Saar” and the hope that the saar is doing well. And when saar replies in the negative, deep dejection and despair follow. There is always a tight deadline with a minister arriving for inauguration and so can something makeshift be done? Some of them even ask MMM albeit ever so gently, as to how he can call himself a historian, when he does not seem to be in possession of what they want! To this MMM has to say that he is only a historian by accident and that even if he is one, his intention is only to collect information and not artifacts.

From what little MMM knows of these departments, he is fairly certain that tucked away somewhere in their vaults is everything that they need to have to put up in their museums. It is just the usual bureaucratic sloth and the lack of awareness as to where all their archival material is stored that prevents them from searching. A good place to begin for instance in MMM’s view would be the Tamil Nadu archives where every unwanted paper of the government ends up never to be seen again. The same is true of bureaucrats as well.

Why can’t all these government departments have an archivist who can work towards protecting their history and heritage? That way the government would also be giving employment to several students of departments of history and archaeology in the various universities and colleges.

MMM is glad that these government departments are now waking up to heritage. They also now need to realize that it is more a journey. Protecting the building is just the first step. Protecting what you have by way of other artifacts is a never-ending journey.

A Hairy Tale

The Man from Madras Musings was working away as usual when he got an urgent message on his mobile phone. A well-wisher had suddenly panicked and sent a message. Was MMM aware, asked the Good Samaritan, that some lottery company in the United Arab Emirates was making use of a video of MMM for marketing its products? The sender had also forwarded the link and asked MMM whether the whole video was generated by AI. He also suggested that MMM ought to take steps to protect his identity in future.

MMM was not perturbed and neither was he flattered. After all, as you know, MM has fans in China and so what is the UAE? But he nevertheless decided to go and take a look at the link. It was not a video of MMM. The only ­similarity was that the man who was speaking in that genuine video for a lottery agency was completely bald just like MMM is. And he was wearing spectacles. Having had a hearty laugh over it, MMM sent a message to the person who had alerted him about the possible fraud saying that that bald head was another bald head and not MMM’s bald head. The sender responded thanking MMM and said that he had been taken in by a passing resemblance. That ended that story!

But that was not all. Last week MMM received a call from the printer of MM. An old friend of MMM’s is this man and his father was a close friend of the late chief’s. In fact, many a time has MMM accompanied the chief to the printer’s office when printer senior was still around and has been privy to the interaction between the two men. They would sit opposite each other, drink cups of tea and not exchange words, and after a while the chief would leave. But the goodwill between the two was palpable. The same can be said about the relationship between the printer junior and MMM. Occasionally he will call MMM or the other way round and exchange the news of the day. There is yet another commonality between the two – both MMM and the printer are what you may call, challenged in matters of hair, not possessing any where it ought to be.

The printer called MMM to register a formal complaint! Did MMM notice that two photographs of MMM had been published in the September issue of MM asked the printer. MMM said that he was aware and asked him as to what the matter was. The printer then replied that one photograph was taken from the rear of MMM showing the back of his head and the other was taken from the front showing the front of his head and both of them had appeared side by side. The printer said that these were not aesthetic photographs and could MMM make sure that the quality of what goes into MM gets a little attention. MMM is now left wondering – is it the face or the back of it that was not aesthetic in the eyes of the printer or is it the fact that there was no hair on it that had offended him? MMM thinks that it is the latter, and on that hairy note MMM lets the matter rest.

– MMM