Well, not quite, but you get our meaning. From a time when VP Hall was practically given up for good, the building is coming into its own, with the Greater Chennai Corporation funding its renovation.
The long decline began in the 1960s, when CN Annadurai discovered to his horror that the trustees were then planning to demolish it to construct a film theatre there. Anna put paid to that but thereafter very little happened till the 1990s, when the then Sherriff of Madras, Suresh Krishna took steps to restore it. Post 2006, the Corporation took control of VP Hall after prolonged litigation and a restoration was taken up, but Chennai Metro Rail delayed things. Now, the work is almost complete and there are plans on how best to use the Hall, as part museum and part event venue.
VP Hall is now well connected by public transport, with the Metro having a station just outside the building. Let us hope that this grand edifice can take advantage of such synergies and become a city hub.
I am happy to learn that this famous venue of great orations in the past is getting another life, I would like to propose that this edifice be named after our great poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Incidentally, I am to state here that during the preparations of his centenary celebrations in May 1961, the then I & B Minister Bezawada Gopala Reddy asked all the states and the union territories in the country to build a cultural centre of repute in the name of Rabindranath Tagore in their capitals. For this purpose, the then Central Government also given Rs. 2 Lakhs each towards such construction for all the states and union territories. All the states and union territories in the countries obliged to this request and constructed cultural edifices such as Rabindra Bhavan, Ravindra Kalakshetra, Rabindra Kalamandap etc., with the sole exception of Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu.
I have come to know about this from Bezawada Gopala Reddy himself during the 125th Birth Anniversary of Tagore and upon his request, I have tried my best to take this message to the authorities of Tamil Nadu Government in various ways. I have written in detail about this in my book on Tagore ‘தாகூர்- வங்கத்து மீகாமனின் வாழ்க்கைச் சித்திரம்’ (கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம் வெளியீடு)
I am taking this opportunity to appeal through this forum that since Tagore was closely connected with this city since 1919 to 1934 through various programmes, let the citizens of Madras appeal to the Corporation of Chennai to name this hall after our great poet Tagore who have given our national anthem. (In March 1919, a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore was unveiled by The Hindu Editor S. Kasthuriranga Iyengar at the Boys’ Hostel of Madras Christian College in the presence of venerable Poet Sarojini Naidu – just to prove how the citizens of Madras loved the poet for so long)
Such a move will redeem the prestige of the city to a more higher level.