WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXI No. 10 September 1-15, 2011

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• The twin castlets

• Madras Week blogs

• How old is Tamil Cinema?

• A sailing centenary

Chepauk Palace

Will Metro hide ourheritage buildings?

(Continued on page 2)

Recent random thoughtsof some theatre-loving

Chennai-itesOkay... the play begins at 7.30

pm, so get there by 7.15.ETD from home is therefore 6.30

pm…no, make that 6-ish, be-cause of that bane of earnestaudiences – free seating.

Over the last three shows, Ms Me-First and her passive-aggressivefriends have been hogging thebest seats, plus ‘keeping place’for hordes of their buddies.

As for yesterday – empty seats ga-lore... so, of course, Mr. Eight-Footer-with-the-Poosnikai-Head has to choose the onebefore us.

And – Heaven preserve us fromfoot-tappers, cough-ers andfidget-ers.

Time to leave.Tickets?Check.God, the traffic … thankfully, no

dignitary movement, no sud-den mass protests, no break-downs…

MOVE, can’t you see the lightshave … what are you honkingat?

Inching, inching ... Yay!Arrived.Hey – ever heard of a queue?Now – choosing seats. Too much

in front looks presumptuous;too much to the back seemsoverly humble ...

They’re starting.What the ...?!! I swear I put the

damn thing on ‘silent’.Everyone’s glaring.(Why is my left arm hurting?)(Later)…Leave minutes before the end. No

intense-discussion-obscure-analysis-and-how-did-you-like-the-play-ing.

(Much Later) ...(Note to self: Stay home; watch

TV ... and sing: This particularworld was never meant for oneas worrywart as you ... starry,starry evenings…)

Ranjitha Ashok

Is it on itslast legs?

(More pictures on page 5)

(By A Special Correspondent)

Signing forHeritage Act

“With all the rains and the trafficand queues and all that, let’s just readthe review of the play we are supposedto go to this evening in the papertomorrow!”

(Continued on page 5)

It has been touted the worldover as the first example of

the Indo-Saracenic style of ar-chitecture, a style for whichMadras became famous. Andyet, in the absence of any formof legislation to protect build-ings of its kind, historicChepauk Palace is rapidly goingto seed and, unless somethingfairly urgent is done about it,this historic precinct is unlikelyto survive long. That at leastwas the impression I was leftwith during a recent visit to thepremises.

Chepauk Palace was built asthe city residence of theNawabs of Arcot. Probably de-signed by Paul Benfield, a Com-pany engineer turned buildingcontractor, it was the first in-stance anywhere in the world ofthe Indo-Saracenic style. It also,more famously, marked the be-ginning of the takeover of theCarnatic by the British and,when it was nearing comple-tion, it was evident to most thatthe days of the Nawabs’ rulewere numbered. Sure enough,the Carnatic was annexed in

1801 though the ruling familywas permitted to use the palacetill 1855 when, on the pretextof liquidating the debts of theNawabs, the palace was ac-quired by the Government in asham auction. Since then, it hasbeen used by Government de-partments, of which the best-known are the Revenue andPublic Works Departments.The latter also has its own inde-pendent wing fronting ChepaukPalace, built by Robert FellowesChisholm.

A Heritage Act was thejoint request by the coordi-nators of the Madras Weekon behalf of the people ofChennai on the day of theMadras Week press confer-ence, August 19, 2011.

If passed, the Act willensure that not just the heri-tage of Madras is protected,but that of the whole of theState as well.

No sooner the bannerwith a request to pass theHeritage Act was unfurled,more than 40 signaturesfilled the campaign sheets onthe spot.

Work on the Metro Rail-way is progressing with-

out pause and in its relentlesswake it appears that severalheritage buildings are likely tobe affected. Some will have tobear the brunt of digging, drill-ing and construction activity intheir vicinity and, later, sufferthe vibrations bound to becaused by the continuousmovement of rolling stock.Now, the latest is that many ofthe buildings are likely to becompletely obscured by theconstruction of stations thatwill mask their facades. What isworse, such a construction will

be in direct contravention ofthe recommendations of thePadmanabhan Committee onhoardings which stated thatnothing ought to come up infront of heritage structures.

The Heritage ConservationCommittee constituted by theGovernment following a judge-ment of the High Court of Ma-dras is already looking into thematter. It is learnt that a sub-committee constituted to lookinto the designs of the stationshas found that some of thevents and entrance porches to

(By A Staff Reporter)

Tree growth has a field day at Chepauk Palace with its broken windows andwhat fills in for them when they have vanished.

2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2011

Will the Metrohideheritage buildings?(Continued from page 1)

the stations would not only bevisually intrusive but also bedangerously close to the heri-tage structures in the vicinity.For instance, vents of the pro-posed station near the Law Col-lege will be just two metres awayfrom the College building. Itsheight will also be around fivemetres and, thus, it will mask apart of the building. Similarconcerns have been highlightedwith respect to the proposedstation near the Ripon Buildingand Victoria Public Hall. An-other structure that is likely tobe affected is the Tamil WesleyChurch in Mannady. It is learntthat the concerns of the sub-committee have been passed onto the Metro Railway authori-ties who are studying ways andmeans of overcoming the prob-lem.

While it is good that thematter is being debated and dis-cussed without allowing theMetro Railway to bulldoze itsway through, what is of concernis that all this may end in a spiritof compromise with more givethan take on the part of theHeritage Conservation Com-mittee, composed as it is almostentirely of Government ser-vants or those from institutionslinked with government. Thiscould have been avoided had

there been a Heritage Act inplace with clear guidelines onwhat can be done and what isnot permitted in the vicinity ofheritage structures. In the ab-sence of such legislations, it isall open to interpretation and,going by past experience, it isunlikely that the results wouldbe in favour of the heritagestructures.

Bangalore, which is also acity that has no law for protect-ing its heritage, has progresseda great deal on its Metro. There,the heritage buildings have hadto bear the brunt of the con-structions and those that havesurvived are completely hiddenbehind monstrous stations andelevated rail tracks. In manyplaces, sewer and stormwaterdrains have been put up veryclose to architecturally signifi-cant buildings, marring theirbeauty forever. This must notbe allowed to happen in thecase of our city.

It is to be hoped that theConservation Committee willprove firm in its dealings withthe Metro. The Committeeshould also be pressing the Gov-ernment for legislation to pro-tect heritage. This was, in fact,one of the mandates of theCommittee that has rather con-veniently been given the go-by.Can we hope for some positiveaction before it is too late?

Another Mad-rush, oopsMadras Week is draw-

ing to a close. The celebra-tions are now confined to theson et lumiere programmesthat the Chief hadconceptualised at the Free-masons’ Hall, but when theWeek (or is it Month) was inprogress, you could scarcelymake up your mind as towhere to go and what to see.The Man from MadrasMusings hurried along fromsport to sport as he believesthe expression is, thoughwhat with his loyalties beingto this publication, he con-fined his attendance largelyto the talks and walksorganised by it. The Chief,on the other hand, MMMwas glad to see, was all overthe place, now enthusing thecadres, here shaking a hand,there cocking a quizzical eyeand somewhere else beingthe life and soul of the party.

as scheduled, though you couldhardly hear the speaker, the ali-mentary growls of the freeload-ers’ innards almost drowningwhat he was saying. But toMMM it was the best eveningof the week. Just watching thedisappointment on their facesand the silent enquiries theywere making to each other en-tirely through the language ofthe eyebrows was entertain-ment enough.

But, of course, the next daythey were all back in action, ata different venue, and makingup for the privations they hadsuffered the previous day. Allthis made one of the organiserssidle up to the Chief and en-quire if the next year all lightrefreshments ought to be re-stricted to just coffee and bis-cuits. The Chief replied that inthat case each man/woman(and here the female was dead-lier than the male) could take50 biscuits or more.

The Man from MadrasMusings is now at an age wheneven a glass of water is some-times a little difficult to digest.Watching these characters inaction and marvelling at theircapacity to ingest like ostriches,MMM feels that each of theseshould be induced to donatehis/her digestive tracts for medi-cal research, after they haveeaten their last meal and calledit a day.

MAD-rush Week, MMMtends to feel, now seems moreto imbibe food than knowledge.

Policing Heritage Walks

The Man from MadrasMusings learns from an

organiser of heritage walks thatit is now more or less manda-tory to obtain police permissionbefore conducting such events.

the Chief, who is rather proneto look on such goings-on witha benevolent eye, was movedto reprimand one or two of themore notorious ones. Eachevening this was repeated, withthe scene making MMMrealise what it would have beenlike in locations such as theKanji Thotti in the great fam-ine years of the 18th and 19th

Centuries in Madras.

But there is always a higherforce that watches over us andcame a day when the venuewas an establishment that wasfacing labour troubles. It wastoo late for a change of venueand it was decided to go ahead.And no food was served. Noteven a drop of water. The free-loaders came, saw and couldscarcely believe their eyes.Their jaws dropped, their eyesalmost popped out and theylooked at each other with awild surmise. The talk went on

The long arm of the law,MMM understands, is waryof any gatherings that exceedfour in number. The process,MMM is told, is not at all dif-ficult and the staff is courte-ous in the extreme. But thosewho watch over law and or-der of our beloved city areunable to comprehend theconcept of a heritage walk.Consequently, such eventsare classified under Fasts/Pro-tests/Processions. And thelaw looks askance at events ofthat variety.

MMM is fairly certain thatmost of the rules and regula-tions that govern public gath-erings were created in the erawhen Gandhiji made bold tochallenge an alien regime.And poring over the letterthat gives permission to con-duct heritage walk, he finds itcouched in the same languagethat belonged to that era as

SHORT ’N’ SNAPPY

Watching the Chief, MMMrealised, was to get an idea ofChurchill during the waryears and, heaven knows, weare on a war too, on the heri-tage front that is.

Elsewhere battles are be-ing won by men going onfasts unto death, but at theMadras Week events itwould appear to be a feastunto the same end. MMMalludes to the talks organisedby Madras Musings at vari-ous locations with each ofthem being preceded by tea/coffee and ‘light’ refresh-ments. Only the way some ofthe attendees swooped downon the food and piled it ontheir plates, you couldscarcely call it a ‘light’ re-freshment. If there werecakes, each of these freeload-ers took twenty of them andif there were cups of coffee,they took five or, sometimessix. Ditto with sandwiches,cutlets, puffs, etc. The hotelstaff was at its wit’s end atseveral locations, for scarcelydid they bring in replenish-ments when it all vanished,rather like the way it did inthe classic film Maya Bazaar.

Watching them, MMMwas convinced that theywere all members of a secretsect that believed in chargingahead at food counters andeach individual’s rise in thecult depended on how muchhe or she could snatch, pileon his or her plate and howquickly he or she could eatit. And considering that thesame faces (or should MMMsay mouths) were repeatingthese acts, MMM’s theory ofa cult or secret society couldnot be too far wrong.Anorexics could be sent tothem for counselling. Even

well. Permission was grantedwith several conditions at-tached and one of these wasthat “Toms Toms” wouldnot be beaten during the pro-cession. It also categoricallydenied any right to theorganiser to play any musicalinstruments. There had to befree flow of traffic, it stipu-lated, and the participantscould not gather on the mainthoroughfares.

While the tours went offpeacefully with all theserules adhered to, whatMMM could not help thinkabout was that practicallyevery other procession, be ita funeral, wedding or politi-cal, breaks every one of theserules. And so how is permis-sion granted? And if it isgranted under the same con-ditions, how is it that the rep-resentatives of the law standsilently and watch all theseviolations without taking anyaction?

The Black Box

Boxwallahs of Madras wasone of the subjects slated

for the Madras Week and itwas one of the best talks withthe Chief in conversationwith two senior executives ofBritish companies of thepast. These covenanted of-ficers were always known asboxwallahs.

The title, however, piquedthe curiosity of several. TheMan from Madras Musings re-ceived a call from a televisionchannel enquiring if it wasabout the television. MMMcould not understand theconnection till the caller ex-plained that it was after allknown as the idiot box!

– MMM

MAD-rush for food!51 thingsto do

St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral on Armenian Street, which is todaymore popular for the devotion to Saint Anthony by Catholics

and non-Catholics alike, and the Cathedral in San Thomé havelong been on my ‘must visit’ list and I strongly recommend them tovisitors.

Greater than the history, the heritage and the uniqueness ofplaces is the experience they offer. So, in connection with theMadras Day celebrations (www.themadrasday.in), a group of ushave launched the ‘51 THINGS TO DO IN CHENNAI’ blog.

We are hoping that this ‘51 Things To Do’ list will try and sug-gest places, people, things and events that are truly Madras/Chennai and offer the ‘experience’. So, instead of suggesting a visitto the church atop St. Thomas’ Mount, we would recommendenjoying your visit by taking the one hundred plus steps to the top,the views you should not miss, and the other little places aroundthe church.

To ensure that this ‘51 Things To Do’ listing has a local flavour,it is best enriched by people like you who know the city well. Lotsof people, especially young people, highly recommend visiting theBroken Bridge behind the Theosophical Society, a bridge whichonce linked Uroor kuppam in Besant Nagar with Srinivasapuramin Pattinapakkam. The bridge collapsed many years ago. They saythe view and the experience at sunrise or at sunset is amazing.

A walk on the Marina, well-stocked with sundal, bajji and rawmango slices dipped in salt and red chilli powder, is a must-do. I amsure you too can make a recommendation like that. Go towww.51thingstodoinchennai.blogspot.com – and don’t stop with aline. Give us at least two paras! Tips and all. – (Courtesy: MylaporeTimes.) Vincent D’Souza

September 1-15, 2011 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Sights and sound of Madras in the 1950sFor a young man in his late teens who came to Madras in the

early fifties, the sights and sounds were frightening and embar-rassing. The closely built streets, long stretches of busy roads andthe multitudes of crowds chattering in several languages were con-trast to me, haling as I did from a village in the deep south. Mostof the scenes in the streets and by-lanes were unusual and con-versations – though in Tamil – were unintelligible. It was muchlater that it dawned on me these were corruptions caused by theconfluence of migrants from various states into the city.

A clerical job in one of the trading establishments in a narrowstreet of George Town and living accommodation in a back-laneof Triplicane were both unnerving to the novice. Dirty streets,pavements filled with whole families living there and desecratingthe area, and sewage overflowing added to the scene of filth, mak-ing it difficult for one to reach his workplace. Buffaloes in largenumbers sullied the residential lanes as the owners of the animalsdid not bother to clean them. Restaurants were heavily crowdedat lunch time. It was a common sight as scores of hungry custom-ers fixing lunch tokens on the tables even before the earlierlunchers had finished eating and waiting till the tables werecleaned (half-heartedly). The hawkers of various trinkets jostledwith the pedestrians in China Bazaar. The ubiquitous trams withtheir perennial clang-clanging all the way and black and yellowtaxies speeding through the crowds presented a picture of chaosand impending danger.

The most intriguing sight of those days was the numerous lep-ers begging everywhere who threatened passers-by as if to touchthem with their sore-ridden finger stumps. Occasionally onecame across a sad scene of someone covered like a corpse and laidon the pavement, while several men and women wailed and de-manded money for the cremations. Someone later explained tome that it was all make-believe. Later, I found it true, for whenthey had collected sufficient funds for meals and drinks, the scenewound up with the erstwhile corpse sprinted along with theothers.

All the massive buildings along the first and second line beachroads looked like ghosts as they were covered with thick layers ofblack soot emanating from the ships and coal wharfs. Streams ofnavy men and sailors of various nationalities could be seen wan-dering aimlessly. They used to sell fancy goods and fragrances fora small profit. Emaciated rickshaw-pullers were everywhere, bar-gaining with heavily-built northerners before accepting custom.“Paathu pottu kudu sir!” was the oft-repeated refrain. But thefrugal passenger would neither get down from the hackney norpay a paisa more. It was common knowledge that law enforcesoften hauled the rickshaw-pullers in under the Immoral TrafficAct as they acted as brokers of call girls and lured the lemmingsto shady lodges.

The hardware merchants of Mannady who hailed mostly fromKayalpatnam spoke a peculiar lingo (not their ThirunelveliTamil) sounding Arabic or Swahili though they swore it wasUrdu.

As the evening sun descended on the horizon scores of officeworkers trudged along the beach road to reach home. This habithelped them to save the one-way fare besides an improvement ofhealth in the evening breeze. On the beach, there were regularlisteners for the Corporation Band. Some others used to sit-around a pole with a loud speaker broadcasting radioprogrammes. This encouraged one cine lyricist coin a song“Maayamaana kambu onnu manisan pola paaduthu” ( a magicalpole sings like a human being). There were groups of urchinsgambling with cries of “Vai Raja Vai” and disappearing at themere sight of a “Mama” (Police man). Sporadic rallies of millworkers or communist party workers shouting “InqulabZindabad” terminated imperialism and capitalist exploitation.

Another familiar character in the beach on Sundays was astreet artist known as tape Thangavelu. Tapping two pieces ofwooden plates similar to chipla kattai, he used to sell strange po-tions and cures for scorpion bites, simultaneously singling politi-cal songs, changing sides at every venue depending on the area’spolitical leanings. If one was in praise of ThevarMuthuramalingam on any day, it was on Periyar the next day.

The city’s sounds nay noises were also beyond one’s compre-hension. It was discomforting to hear people of all ages address-ing everyone else in singular. In the districts this was consideredoffensive. It took me a long time to understand shouts ofsappadapayya, kuruvikal and mughumaavu as equivalents of sa-pota fruit, red oxide ball and powdered calcium used for decorat-ing house fronts. The product “Payoria tooth powder” made oneto wonder if it would clean the teeth or cause “Pyorrhea” a funnysound “ooooyi” denoted curd.

Rahman a blind hawker of agarbathis solicitated custom withhis call, “nooru bathi aaru anna” in China Bazaar, while a tooth-less beggar woman played a noisy harmonium and sang raucouslyall through the day in the Evening Bazaar bus stop. Bouts offights and arguments brought forth nasty expletives bordering onvulgarity. The only decent words often heard were “kayalath”(kaiyaal ahaathathu- useless) and “kasmalaam” (derived from theSanskrit word “Kasmalam – filthy). These are now seldom heardas other variants have come into use. Comedian Chandra Babuexpertly used these words in his dialogue and “Cho” had a richrepertoire for his portrayals.

These were the days when English was spoken and understoodwith relative ease and all other Southern languages, particularlyTelugu were predominant. The one instance coming to mind isthat of a Police announcement outside the General Hospital ad-vising jay walkers to keep off the road. An earnest policemantranslated such warning into chaste Tamil. Making fun of it, asenior citizen quipped “Here is a fit candidate for a Tamil Readerin the University”. And we the listeners had a hearty laugh.

S. KrishnaNew 81/2, Fourth Main Road

Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 20

Missing bulwark

Senior citizen morning walk-ers at Besant Nagar Beach

have a fund of informationwaiting to be tapped. One ofthem, N. Chandrasekaran, Su-perintendent Engineer, MadrasPort Trust (Rtd.), supplied thefollowing:

The bulwark was built toprotect Fort St. George andBlack Town. The top stonesused were of 2 to 3 ton weight,laid over smaller rubble stones.The smaller bed stones wouldprevent under-scouring andsinking of the top stones. It ex-tended up to Clive Battery.

Before the harbour was con-structed, cargo was handled us-ing masula boats which wentout to the ships anchored in thedeep. Due to high waves, thereused to be considerable loss ofcargo.

While dredging for JawaharDock in the 1980s, a Dutch firmsalvaged about a dozen copperplates measuring 3-foot squareand 1/2” thick. They bore wit-ness to the sea being so near theFort St. George. The plateswere handed over to the Mu-seum.

The Coromandel coast has anatural phenomenon called lit-toral drift. This causes accretionof moving sand on the southside of any project or structureand erosion on the north side.Perhaps, Marina Beach, due tothis phenomenon, consequentto the Harbour breakwaters, isprojecting into the sea andcausing accretion on the southside. To prevent erosion on thenorth, the then Madras Gov-ernment maintained the shoreby dumping stones (similar tothe bulwark) for a length of 1¾miles. This was made obligatoryunder the Madras Port TrustAct of 1905.

T.M. RaghunathanA 2/2 13th Cross Street

Besant NagarChennai 600 090

Snakes & the Bible

Dr.B.Vijayaraghavan’s notes(MM, August 16th) on

snakes make interesting read-ing. It has been rightly pointedout that no such snake, like thecockatrice or basilisk, is knownto science. The reference to aBiblical text (Isaiah 11:8)prompts me to say the follow-ing. The mention of ‘cockatrice’in the Bible is exactly 400 yearsold. What was then launched asthe Authorised Version (KingJames Bible, 1611) is not au-thoritative any more in English.The Hebrew word translated as“cockatrice” in the text actuallymeans “a creature thrusting outthe tongue” and, hence,“cockatrice” has been rejectedin all critical and subsequenttranslations of the Bible.

Though several kinds ofsnakes find mention in the Bible,only two have been scientificallyattested so far – CerastesHasselquistii and Vipera palas-tinae. Some English versions ofthe Bible have rendered a por-tion of a different text (Isaiah14:29) to mean cockatrice aswell as basilisk. But they remainmythical, though containingsome cultic significance.

It appears that a Meso-potamian seal impression datedto about 2000 BCE resembleswhat William Crooke andDr.Vijayaraghavan refer to as a“cock-headed snake”. MarijaGimbutas, an authority on thepantheon of Old Europe, hasarchaeologically traced the pres-ence of a snake as a goddess to5000 BCE. She has also postu-lated the ambivalence of thisrepresentation. This is strikinglysimilar to what Dr. Vijaya-raghavan notes as “born of theegg of a cock (and ... not a hen).”

The common name for snakein Hebrew is naahaas (phoneti-cally simplified). Its link to theIndo-Aryan counterpart ‘naga’ isobvious. With the addition of

the sibilant (so fittingly articu-lated!), it is converted into‘snake’ in English. These philo-logical items betray cosmic as-sociation with “primordial wa-ters” too (Amos 9:3). A syn-onymous Hebrew wordsaaraap, meaning flame-coloured serpent, is perhaps re-lated to sarbha of the pan-In-dian realm. The terms paab(Toda), paambu (Tamil) andits variant haavu (Kannada)seem to indicate a differentcultural genesis for theDravidian etyma. The same isapplicable to the archaic Tamilaravu.

Rev. Philip K MulleySt. John’s Church

Mount Road, CoonoorThe Nilgiris 643 102

A’s and O’s

MMM’s madam/muttdilemma (MM, August

1st) seems a tough one to re-solve! And what do we makeof Sevalia? Now, we’ve alllearnt to dot our i’s and crossour t’s, but not to chop our a’sand change our o’s! Unfortu-nately, this is what seems to

have happened with the new nameboards for Patullo’s Road andConran Smith Road. The roadnamed for Archibald Patullo hasbecome Patullas Road, while theone named to honour Commis-sioner Smith has become ConronSmith Road! The Chennai Corpo-ration certainly has its a’s and o’smessed up.

T.T. Srinivasaraghavantt@sundaramfinance.in

* * *

While the new signboardsindicating road names is a

welcome development, I am ap-palled at the way road names havebeen spelt. Maloney Road is speltas Melloni Road (Editor’s note: Itreally is Molony’s Road), andPernpet (near the YMCA) I pre-sume is meant to be Burnpet? Howmany more names does our Corpo-ration/Municipality want to dis-tort? As it is, taking out so-calledcaste indicators on road names hasbrought its own distortions. It isdistressing, to say the least, to seesuch ridiculous spellings of roadnames.

C.K. Jaidevckjaidev@gmail.com

Correct answer

In the issue dated August16th, the correct answer

for question No. 20 in theRamanan’s quiz is Raja RajaCholan starring SivajiGanesan and a host of otherleading stars. The film wasproduced by G. Umapathy ofM/s Anand Theatre and notMaaveeran.

T.S. SivakumarNew No 6, 3rd Street

Padmanaba NagarAdyar, Chennai 600 020

MADRAS MUSINGSON THE WEB

To reach out to as many read-ers as possible who share ourkeen interest in Madras that isChennai, and in response torequests from many well-wish-ers – especially from outsideChennai and abroad whoreceive their postal copies verylate – for an online edition.Madras Musings is now on theweb at www.madrasmusings.com

THE EDITOR

September 1-15, 2011 MADRAS MUSINGS 54 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2011

Where stood

de Havilland’s

twin castlets?

View of the magnificent interior of St. Andrew’s Church, Madras, built by de Havilland. (Colour lithograph byJ.B. Maxwell after Gantz, 1825.)

Lost Landmarks of MadrasAn occasional series by SRIRAM V.

This was the splendourthat was Chepauk Palace...

... Is it now on itslast legs?

... And this is whatit is today...

A garbage dump lying untended beside deteriorating walls.

Temporary storage facilities built along the palace walls

Temporary van shelters and corrugated iron sun-shades for windows. Note the state of the walls.

During the years that theMadras Bulwark was being

constructed (MM, August 1st)the English had begun movingout of the Fort and the needarose for a church close to theGreat Choultry Plain. BishopMiddleton, Bishop of India,Burma and Ceylon, had thun-dered from Calcutta about theugliness of buildings beingerected as churches and so therewas pressure to create somethingclassical. Designed by Chief En-gineer Col. James Caldwell andsupervised by Major deHavilland, St George’s Cathedralwas completed in 1816, the con-secration being done by a much-pleased Middleton. deHavilland’s reputation wasmade. No doubt, in order to beclose to this great project, he pur-chased land in Poodoopauk(present day Pudupet abuttingMount Road) and built his resi-dence. This was an unusual con-struction for it comprised whatwas later described by Love astwo castellated circular towers,standing on the opposite ends ofa vast garden. These became theEastern and Western Castlets. Theintervening garden would be putto good use by de Havillandwhen he was entrusted with hisnext project – the building of StAndrew’s Kirk in 1816. deHavilland decided that the newstructure would be circular inplan and topped with a dome.

In order to closely study thenative technique of dome build-ing, he had a team build a domein the garden of his house, just asthe arch had been built inMysore. Having observed themclosely, he gained confidenceand went ahead with the con-struction of the kirk. The storyof the foundations of the kirkneeding terracotta wells to sup-port them (again a native tech-nique that de Havilland bor-rowed) is too well-known to

Chepauk Palace’s long de-cline began in the 1950s whenthe Government decided tobuild Ezhilagam to house manymore of its departments. Thenew edifice completely cut offthe Palace from public view, atleast from Beach Road, a viewthat many early writers on thecity claimed was the one whichshowed the buildings at theirbest. But a worse blow was to fol-low in the 1980s when the Agri-culture Department offices werebuilt, despite protests, on theWallajah Road side of the Pal-ace. This meant that the Palacecould only be seen and accessedfrom the rear. And to add to thedamage, an aerial corridor wasbuilt connecting the old Palaceto the new building, for which agaping hole had to be made inthe historic walls. But all thisfades into insignificance in theface of the wanton neglect of thepalace, which has caused untolddamage to it.

As offices proliferated insidethe Palace, toilets have beenbuilt any-which-way-you-please.There are water tanks on theroof, which seep and add to thedamage. Maintenance is shoddyand posters are pasted all alongthe walls of the buildings, at leastup to the height that humanhands can reach. Trees are nowgrowing on the walls and severalchunks of ornamental plaster-

(Continued from page 1) work have come off. There areunsightly grilles, ostensibly toprovide security to what is ironi-cally used as a free thoroughfareconnecting Wallajah andKamaraj Roads! A family appearsto have made the rear portico itshome and when I walked by, anold man among the squatterscame up and demanded that thebuilding be soon demolished andrebuilt with modern amenities!A yard on the side is filled withdiscarded furniture, all of itawaiting an uncertain fate.There are also vast rubbish tipsin the courtyards.

Inside, it would be no exag-geration to state that the variousdepartment files are holding onthe roof. There are towers made ofoffice files and there are steel cup-boards which serve as walls andwhich are dragged about the oldflooring – leaving permanentscratch marks. Parts of the roofcollapsed a few years ago owing toprolonged neglect of the woodenbeams that held the roof on. Theoffices in these sections have beenshifted but nothing has been doneto repair the damage and theseportions remain as they are, add-ing to the wear and tear.

It is quite evident that thePalace is crying for restorationand if this is denied or even de-layed, we may not have thebuildings with us for long. A fewyears ago, a restoration projectwas announced but it is not clearas to what became of it. The

Palace, however, did get a freshcoat of paint. But that can hardlyhide the obvious signs of stress.And, so, Chepauk Palace joinsthe rather long line of heritagebuildings in the city that are inurgent need of some loving care.Given its importance, it willhopefully charge ahead of othersin the queue.

But, in the absence of a Heri-tage Act, are we likely to see anyaction? Or, is the Governmentwaiting for the buildings toweaken? Then it will be very easyto get a certificate from one of itsown departments to the effectthat the building is “unfit forhabitation” and the rest of theprocedure will follow – anothernew Government-built mon-strosity with more offices andpiles of files, built over anothergraveyard of history.

merit repetition. The kirk whencompleted was (and is) magnifi-cent but the dome resulted inpoor acoustics. When ques-tioned about this de Havillandblamed it all on the “voice of thereverend!” He went on to writeAn Account of St Andrews Churchin 1821, which later was in-cluded in a more detailed paperby him – Delineations and Descrip-tions of Public Edifices in and nearMadras (1826).

According to the Rev A.Westcott (Our Oldest Indian Mis-sion, A Brief History of the Vepery(Madras) Mission, Madras Dioc-esan Press, 1897), de Havillandwas asked to take a look at thepossibility of restoring St.Mathias’ Church in Vepery. Hereported it to be beyond repairand bids were invited for a newbuilding. The quote of John Law,a graduate of the Male OrphanAsylum, was the lowest. Workbegan and de Havilland, greatlyoffended at losing the bid, waited

till the church was completed in1825, complete with a magnifi-cent steeple. Then, in his capac-ity as Chief Engineer of the Presi-dency, he inspected the buildingand declared that the steeple wasa security risk, for guns could betrained on the Fort from its pin-nacle! Fully aware that the kirk’ssteeple was just as high he de-clared that, unlike the St.Mathias steeple, the former“yielded no facility for themounting of mortars and howit-zers.” His word was taken andthe St. Mathias steeple was de-molished at great expense andreplaced with a diminutive towerwhich, according to Westcott,was a lasting testimony to deHavilland’s spite.

This colourful character ap-pears to have retired to his na-tive Guernsey in 1825. His fatherhad died in 1821 and it was nec-essary for him to return and man-age the estates. Among his lastacts was to compile a compre-hensive report on what he feltwas wrong with the MadrasCorps of Engineers. Dated No-vember 23, 1821, it also had sug-gestions for improving the qual-ity of engineers and what en-

hancements in skill was neededfor them to take up civil works.This led to fiery exchanges be-tween him and Col. R.B. Otto,the then Quarter Master Gen-eral of the Madras Army. Ulti-mately, however, de Havilland’ssuggestions were acted upon. InGuernsey, he built/rebuilt(sources differ on this) HavillandHall in the classical style. He en-tered public life and was electedJustice of the Royal Court. Hedied at the age of 90 in 1866. Heclearly did not lose touch withMadras for, in 1836, he warmlysupported Col. Arthur Cotton inhis scheme for building a break-water off Madras, the first of themany projects that ultimatelyculminated in the MadrasHarbour in the early 1900s.

What of de Havilland’s resi-dence in Madras? It is very likelythat he sold his property beforehe left in 1825, though it is un-clear as to who purchased it fromhim. By 1887, when QueenVictoria’s Golden Jubilee wascelebrated, Eastern Castlet washome to Addison’s Press. In hisNarrative of the Celebrations of theGolden Jubilee of Queen Victoriain the Presidency of Madras,Charles Lawson (Madras, 1887)mentions that Addison’s hadplaced a large flag on the EasternCastlet. It would appear that this

castlet was subsequently demol-ished when Addison’s got intothe retailing of cars and builttheir handsome showroom onMount Road. Today, that show-room is one of the offices ofAmalgamations Limited, whichacquired Addison’s in the 1940s.

Western Castlet appears tohave survived much longer,though its exact location is evenmore difficult to identify. Con-sidering that most accounts sayit was off Mount Road, it is verylikely that Eastern Castlet was onMount Road itself and WesternCastlet to its rear. After they weredivided, it is probable, WesternCastlet was accessed by a servicelane from Mount Road.

Western Castlet became West-ern Castle in the 1920s. Ataround this time, LadyWillingdon (then First Lady ofMadras) founded the South In-dian Nursing Association whosemembers were trained Anglo-In-dian and European nurses, al-most all of them working at theLady Willingdon Nursing Home.The nursing home functionedfrom 1931 at Western Castle andremained there till it shifted in1951 to Pycroft’s Garden Road.In the 1990s, this facility becamea branch of the SankaraNethralaya. The Nursing Asso-ciation merged with the LadyAmpthill Nurses Institute(founded in 1904) in 1998 andformed the nucleus of theChennai Willingdon CorporateFoundation, focussing on publicservice programmes.

But what happened to West-ern Castlet/Castle is a mystery.Was it demolished? What is evenmore intriguing is that not asingle photograph of eithercastlet has survived. There is,however, an early aquatint in theBritish Library that shows howthe two structures looked in deHavilland’s time. Love wasclearly not entirely accuratewhen he described them as twocircular towers. Each comprised

a central tower with three or foursmaller circular towers surround-ing the central tower and shar-ing common walls with it. By thetime of the British Library aqua-tint, a compound wall had comeup between the two castlets,thereby indicating that the prop-erty had been divided into two.Another garden house can beseen in the distance, but withoutknowing the coordinates fromwhich the painting has been ex-ecuted it is difficult to identify asto which building is that. And sothe exact location of the twocastlets remains a mystery.

But if the space that answersto the description of where East-ern Castlet stood is indeed thepresent Addison showroom,then certain possibilities emerge.As you walk to the rear, downthe lane running beside Addison,and which is rather grandioselyreferred to as TNEB Avenue,you come to a vast compoundthat now houses the ElectricityBoard offices. Old-timers recallan old bungalow with apedimented portico supported bycolumns standing here, whichwas demolished to make way forthe TNEB’s ghastly creations.Was this where the LadyWillingdon Nursing Home washoused? If so, this garden housemust have been a successor toWestern Castlet, for its descrip-tion in no way matches what isshown in the British Library pic-ture. The name of the olderbuilding must have been carriedforward and applied to the laterstructure as well.

What is interesting is that thislane still houses a couple ofheritage buildings. There is theTNEB Club, which must clearlybe at least 100 years old. Andadjacent to this, in a separatecompound, stands an old bunga-low now occupied by a seniorarmy officer. But were they alsoonce part of de Havilland’sproperty? If only stones couldspeak.

A big ‘Thank You’ to 25 of youWe publish below the list of donors who have, between 16.07.11 and 15.08.11,added to the support Chennai Heritage and its voice, Madras Musings, havealready received. We thank all of them for their support for the causes ChennaiHeritage espouses. – Chennai Heritage

Rs.50: N.Ganesan, B.Ganesh, LR.Srinivasa MurthyRs.100: B. Bhaskar Acharya, Keshao G Hazari, TC.Krishna, V.Varadarajan,

R.Lakshmanan, CK.Vijayraghavan, Padmini Sarathy, P.Prabhakaran Nair, CalibreEducational Foundation

Rs.200: S. Bulchand Sushila, Dr.SelavarajRs. 300: R.VenkatesanRs.400: Challa Soma Sundaram; S. Mahendran, Dr.Christopher Roy, Captain

KSV.Sharma, KS.Dhatha ThreyanRs.500: Mahalakshmi Gourishankar, Vijayalakshmi BhaskarRs.900: K.SangameshwarRs.1000: K.Sangameshwar, M.Gomathi, Dr.Prithika Chary

Chepauk Palace as seen c. 1900. (Courtesy: Vintage Vignettes.)

A permanent toilet block.

New buildings that have come up to completely shut out thepalace. Note the tangle of wires.

6 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2011

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period August 1st to15th. Questions 11 to 20 per-tain to Chennai and TamilNadu.)1. Which country’s engineers didPakistan allow, according to USofficials, to photograph the re-mains of a hi-tech helicopter usedin the Osama bin Laden raid.

2. Name the popular star of Hindifilms known for his Yahoo! Cry,who passed away recently. (Hint:His first name was onceShamsher.)

3. Which agency’s recent down-grading of the credit rating of theU.S. led to panic in the globalmarkets?

4. Astronomers discovered‘TrES-2b’ recently. What is itsclaim to fame?

5. What was the ‘single’ payingtribute to India released by A.R.Rahman and his group‘SuperHeavy’ recently?

6. Which cyber-giant boughtMotorola’s Mobility business for a$12.5 billion recently?

7. Which high-profile Arsenalplayer recently moved toBarcelona FC?

8. Name the solar-poweredNASA spacecraft launched re-cently on a five-year journey toJupiter.

9. What was the fall-out of thekilling of 29-year-old MarkDuggan by the British police inearly August?

10. Which in-the-news templerecently saw a Devaprasnam, anastrological process to ‘discernthe will of the god or a deity’?

* * *11. Which garden house inChennai, owned by Gilbert Rick-etts, was taken over by Govern-ment in the 19th Century by set-tling a Rs. 35,000 mortgage?

12. The statue of Subburathinamis on the Marina. How is he betterknown?

13. In the context of the presentcivic administration in Chennai,who is J.K. Tripathy?

14. Which road in Chennai wasnamed either for the father Johnor son Henry, both Chief Secre-taries of Madras?

15. Which eight-lettered, one-word description could be usedfor 43 acres in Egmore grantedon August 21, 1778 to HallPlummer (civil servant andcontractor)?

16. What was the erstwhile nameof the Sriramulu Park inChennai?

17. What first can be attributedto the HQ of Grundfors inChennai?

18. What does the frieze at thebottom of the massive Cornwallisstatue in the Fort Museumdepict?

19. Name the church in Vepery,once known as the New MissionChurch, deemed to be an ex-ample of ‘humphy-dumphy’Gothoid architecture.

20. In Chennai, what will youfind where the Nawab’s Octagon/Marine Villa stood?

Walking children through

The Madras Heritage Lovers’ Forum put up a fascinatingexhibition at the Padma Seshadri School in KK Nagar. Most

of the members are past 50, with consultant architect D.H. Rao,who organised and ‘choreographed’ the entire show, being wellpast 70. More than anything, it was rare commitment on display,a passion for a city and its heritage.

The forum is made up of Rao, V. Prabhakar, Winston Henry,S.A. Govindaraju, John Moses, Lazer, Roland Nelson andHemant Chopra. Some of them were there throughout at thethree-day event, standing for the most part in a hall without theairconditioning system turned on.

Govindaraju is 80 years old, but his passion for old books andmagazines hasn’t diminished a bit. He has been collecting them

FROM THE MADRAS WEEK BLOGS

for more than four decades and has over 5000 books and 10,000magazines, paper clippings and advertisements. A retired labourlaw consultant, he runs a small garage (Rare Books, R.A.Puram, 2nd Main Road) where he sells these books. What isremarkable is that he is able to identify each of the books just bythe look of it – including its author and publisher’s name, eventhe date of publication.

According to John Moses, who had a striking display oflamps, kerosene was first imported to Madras by Best & Com-pany in 1879. It was sold in tins by the brand names Chesterand Monkey. With the import of kerosene from abroad, importof lamps from England, Germany, Hungary, France, Japan andthe United States followed.

Moses and Winston Henry (who helps put up aquariums andaviaries) have a passion for collecting anything old. Moses saidhis collection of old lamps, watches, pens and cycles was so largethat there was hardly enough space at his home in Kilpauk tokeep them. “My family just manages to tolerate me,” he said.

Winston said just about the same thing. The passageways inhis house are lined with large containers filled with old books.He had brought along the 1870 edition of Francis Buchanan’sJourney from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canaraand Malabar, published by Higginbotham and Company, Ma-dras (187?). The pages were almost falling apart and the yearshad taken its toll – but you were taken to another world just bygrasping the book.

Another participant who merits special mention wasVenkatesh, an attender at the Padma Seshadri School. He hasbeen an avid collector of coins and has always sought an outletto exhibit them. Two years ago, he came up with a similar dis-play (see picture). School duties have not blunted his enthusi-asm for his hobby. His is an example many should follow.

These are the people who make Madras Week what it is.They toil hard all day long, expect little publicity, prefer to keepa low profile, are happy with even the smallest word of apprecia-tion, and treat every person with dignity.

The passionate collectors

history“We South Indians don’t know how to

blow our trumpet,” declares KavitaRau, adding, “We are very passive. We aresitting on a goldmine of heritage, yet do noth-ing about it.” Four other women in the roomnod vehemently; they know what she is talk-ing about and they are all doing somethingabout it – not by blowing trumpets but bytalking about Madras’s rich history to schoolstudents.

The five women – apart from Kavita, thereare Nandini Arun, Shama Prasanna, LakshmiKishore and Sundari Sidhartha – are nowleading heritage walks in certain pockets ofthe city, bringing to life for children ageingbuildings that Chennaiites whiz past everymorning and evening without sparing muchthought for their historicalvalue.

They were roped in by SushiNatraj of Chennai Heritagewho, recognising the increasingdemand for heritage walks dur-ing Madras Week celebrations,and who hopes these womenwould soon be able to help withheritage education throughregular walks, got Sriram V. totutor them on leading heritagewalks and did dry runs withthem on the two routes theyhave chosen.

While Nandini and Shamalead the Marina walk, briefingthe students about the historyof the buildings on the stretch

PATHFINDERS (left to right) Shama Prasanna, Nandini Arun, Sundari Sidhartha, Lakshmi Kishoreand Kavita Rau with Sushi Natraj (second from right) of Chennai Heritage. (Photograph: R.Ravindran.)

from the lighthouse to the WarMemorial, Kavita, Lakshmi andSundari do the Park Town walkfrom St. Andrew's Kirk to RiponBuildings, with a trip to MyLadye’s Garden thrown in.They have been doing the walksthe whole of July and August.

“They are doing it only forthe love of it. There is nothingin it for them; even the weatherhas not been of much help,”says Sushi, adding, “The idea isto have 25-30 people like themand make these walks a perma-nent feature so that both citi-zens and visitors get to knowabout Chennai.”

Sriram, the women say,opened their eyes to their cityduring the dry runs. “Imagine,we had been living here all ourlives but didn’t even knowabout the existence of theChepauk Palace (the oldestIndo-Saracenic buildings in thecountry) or the history of IceHouse,” says Shama. SundariSidhartha, a Sanskrit scholarassociated with the Theosophi-cal Society Library and who, be-ing in her seventies, is the old-est in the group, says, “TheVictoria Public Hall is anotherplace we were not aware of. Atleast I was not aware of it,though I've lived all my life in

Chennai. The walks gave us achance to learn about our ownheritage.”

“We read a lot before westarted the walks. When Sriramtook us on trial runs, we re-corded everything he had to sayand kept listening to it over andover again. We also read S.Muthiah's Madras Rediscov-ered,” says Lakshmi. AddsKavita, “And since the studentsare invariably accompanied bytheir history teachers, theteachers also get a chance tobrush up their knowledge ofChennai's heritage. Without

(Continued on page 7)

Venkatesh, one of the passionate collectors (see text).

(Answers on page 8)

September 1-15, 2011 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

How old is

Tamil Cinema?

Mouthwatering 19th CenturyThanjavur fare

the anecdotes we narrate, thebuildings are nothing but rel-ics.”

As of now, students fromseven schools across the city,from Classes 8 to 10, have par-ticipated in their walks, whichcommenced at 6.30 in themorning. The women, most ofthem homemakers, say theirnew-found passion has not in-terfered with their schedules athome. “It is life as usual. Ourfamilies have been very support-ive,” says Nandini. Everyonenods. “As long as they getbreakfast on time,” laughsLakshmi

To say that Tamil cinema is75 years old is not only a

gross mistake but it disowns aprecious heritage of the indus-try – the silent era.

An automobile spare partsdealer, Nataraja Mudaliar, wasfascinated by moving picturesand decided to make films him-self. He travelled to Pune,sought and met Steward Smith,a cinematographer of the Brit-ish Government, and learntfilm-making. As the primitivecamera was operated by handcranking, it took only a few daysof learning. Returning to Ma-dras, he set up a studio, IndiaFilm Company, in Miller’sRoad, Kilpauk, and madeKeechakavatham, the first Tamilfilm in 1916.

The characters spoke Tamil.However, sound system in filmhad not been invented yet; sowhat they spoke was written oncards (called ‘title cards’) thatappeared on the screen betweenshots. If you have seen CharlieChaplin films like Gold Rush,you will know what I am refer-ring to. The viewers, instead ofhearing, read the dialogue. Forthe benefit of those who couldnot read, a man stood near thescreen and read the dialoguealoud. Soon a few other studioswere set up in Madras. In thenext 18 years, nearly 110 Tamilsilent films were produced. Thefirst talkie picture, Kalidas, wasreleased in 1931. Silent filmscontinued to be made till 1934.

In Madras, there were atleast three studios regularly pro-ducing films. The leading com-pany was General Pictures Cor-poration, known as GPC,

founded by A. Naryanan. It washere that many of the later di-rectors and actors of the talkieera had their initial training. Itwas a school for film-makers.Many films were based on

(1931) was directed by the leg-endary Raja Sandow. Thesefilms were reviewed in contem-porary Tamil magazines.

So how old is Tamil cinema?95 years old. No cinema in theworld disowns its silent era.That is where the roots of anycinema lie. Every cinema in theworld glorifies its silent filmsand counts its own history fromthe silent era. Look at Britishcinema. Many of CharlieChaplin’s films, including theclassic Gold Rush, a silent film,are part of British film heritage.Russian film-maker Eisenstein’sunforgettable silent film Battle-

ship Potemkin is almost a symbolof Russian cinema. Our ownHindi cinema celebrates DadhaSaheb Phalke and hisHarishchandra (1913). Therules of film grammar wereformed during the silent era.The silent era is to cinema,what childhood is to a humanbeing.

There were some pioneers inTamil Nadu who had made

R. Nataraja Mudaliar.

Walkingchildrenthroughhistory(Continued from page 6)

In the Saraswati Mahal Library with PRADEEP CHAKRAVARTHY

If India is well known for her hospitality, Thanjavur mustcertainly rank as amongst the best areas in the country. An eclec-

tic combination of Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Marathi cuisinesmakes Thanjavur a foodie’s paradise, albeit the really best food isserved at homes and not in the ‘hotels’.

The Thanjavur Saraswati Mahal has a fascinating book calledthe Raghunatha-Adbuthayamu. Written in the 16th Century, it re-counts one day in the life of Vijayaraghava Nayaka and includes amouthwatering array of 38 dishes that formed part of the royalfeast. From the Maratha collections are two manuscripts and somerecipes from them have been published in a book called SarabendraPaka Shastram. Another publication of the library is the BhojanaKuthukala that deals with food that is more medicinal in nature.

The manuscripts from which the 144 recipes in the SarabendraPaka Shastram were taken are dated 1816 and 1825. They wererecorded from oral statements (Jabbani) of “Butler” Venkatasamiand Narayanan. Serfoji II had three kitchens in his palace – one forvegetarian food (Brahmani), one for non-vegetarian dishes(Marathi), and the third for English preparations (Angrezi). Notethat the food in the court was quite different from the Maharashtrafood. Tamarind, for example, was used extensively and, in fact, it isbelieved that sambar as we know it today was created in Tanjorewhen a Maratha cook added tamarind to dhal. Several streets inTanjore still bear names of ‘Mudubhogi’, or palace chefs.

In addition to the kitchen was the Sherbet Khana, a depart-ment that specialised in liquid drinks – sorbets, milk, liquor, etc.Quality of ingredients was also carefully supervised.

The book has a collection of recipes in both English and Tamiland is divided into the following parts:

NON-VEGETARIAN DISHESa. Pulavs; b. Kababs (similar to our cutlets); c. Kaliha, Kurma

and Sauces; d. Gola, Sunti, Dalsa, Fried varieties. Here is a samplerecipe:

Mincemeat Pooris

Ingredients: Mutton – 1 pound, garlic and coriander seeds – 1 tola(10.5 grams) each, pepper and cloves – 1/32 of a tola each, onions – 10tolas, paneer – 5 tolas, salt – 1 tola, Ginger – 3 tolas, Cinnamon – 1/16of a tola, Cardamom – 1/3 of a tola, Ghee – 10 tolas, Mint leaves – ½tola, Maida flour – 40 tolas, and Ghee – 30 tolas.

Method: Make minced meat of 40 tolas of mutton after it is cleanedand washed. Add ½ tola salt and 10 tolas of water to cook. When thewater evaporates, grind the cumin, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cloves,pepper very well and then add it to the meat.

In a vessel, pour 10 tolas of ghee and when it is hot, add the onionsand when they are brown add the meat and cook till moisture evapo-rates. Remove from heat and add the mint leaves finely chopped andthe paneer finely shredded.

Make maida dough and between two small discs of dough placesome of this meat and then fry it in a vessel with 30 tolas of ghee as youwould make regular pooris.

VEGETARIAN DISHESa. Rice dishes; b. Sambar, Kolambu and sauces. Here is a sample

recipe.

Curd sauce

5 pounds of thick sweet curd. Grind it into a paste after frying it inghee with 1 tola each of cumin and pepper and 2 red chillies. Grind thefollowing: 1 tola garlic, 2½ tola ginger and 3 tola salt and dissolve theminto the curd. In a vessel, heat 4½ tolas of ghee and to that add ¼ tolaof cumin seeds, 1 tola mustard seeds, ¼ tola asafoetida, a small bunchof curry leaves. When the sound abates, add the curd and immediatelyremove it from the fire. Add coriander leaves and the other remainingpaste. Well-cooked vegetables and vadas without holes (amavadai) canalso be added after they have been cooked/roasted in ghee.

ENGLISH PREPARATIONSa. Jellies, jams; b. Meat dishes and accompanimentsc. Pickles. Here is a sample recipe:

Mango jelly

12 green raw mangoes (approx.160 tolas), remove skin, cut to piecesand keep aside. Mix 1 tola powdered cardamom, 4 cups sugar, and 2tolas rosewater. In a tinned vessel kept on fire, add the mangoes and20 tolas of water. Cook this well and strain the juice out for about 4cups with a clean white cloth. Separately mix 160 tolas of sugar with15 tolas of water into a thick syrup. Ensure the syrup is crystal clear.Mix mango juice into the syrup when the latter is boiling and add therosewater and the powdered cardamom (in a small cotton bag tied).Remove vessel from fire, remove bag of cardamoms and check for bitsand pieces in the jelly. Cool and store in glass jars.

Appendices have useful information on conversations aboutmeasures used for the book in our terms, English and Tamil words forMarathi words used, and a bibliography. The author laments the dis-appearance of the Maratha Military Hotels (in 1988, when the firstedition was published) and it will be interesting to compare their menuwith those in the book.

The Sarabendra Paka Shastram can be purchased from the Libraryat Rs.150.

� by

Theodore Baskaran

Puranic stories like Macha-vataram (1927). Some werefrom the epics, like the filmKovalan (1929). A few socialsalso came out: the film versionof Vai. Mu. KothainayakiAmmal’s novel Anadhai Penn

short films in the silent era,even before Nataraja Mudaliar.A landlord from Thanjavur,Marudamuthu Moopanar, film-ed the coronation of George Vin 1911 in London and screenedit in Madras. When the first air-plane landed on the Islandgrounds, he filmed it. From1905, Swamikannu Vincenttravelled all over India screen-ing short films in tents. Hetravelled up to Peshawar. Laterhe built a cinema house calledVariety Hall in Coimbatore . Healso made a few films. Thoughall these films were lost,the details have been docu-mented.

It was the pioneers of the si-lent era, like Nataraja Mudaliar,A. Narayanan and S. Vincent,who laid the foundation forTamil cinema. Hopefully, whenwe celebrate the centenary ofTamil cinema in 2016, we willremember these pioneers.

8 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2011

Published by S. Muthiah for ‘Chennai Heritage’, 260-A, TTK Road, Chennai 600 018 and printed by T J George at Lokavani-Hallmark Press Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Edited by S. MUTHIAH.

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Madras Musings is supported as a public service by the following organisations

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Answers to Quiz

1. China; 2. Shammi Kapoor; 3. Standard & Poor’s; 4. It is consideredthe darkest exoplanet ever; 5. ‘Satyameva Jayathe’; 6. Google; 7. CescFabregas; 8. Juno; 9. Widespread riots across London and other places inthe UK; 10. Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

* * *11. Raj Bhavan; 12. Bharathidasan; 13. He is the Commissioner of Po-

lice; 14. Chamier’s Road; 15. Pantheon; 16. Loane Square; 17. It is thefirst commercial building in India to win a Green Gold rating; 18. TipuSultan handing over his two young sons as collateral security; 19. St.Matthias’ Church; 20. The University Library and the Teaching (clocktower) Block.

Old Club House.

International Regatta 2010 held in Madras.

Evening tea and cake being served in thetraditional style.

Prize-giving head table.

Celebratinga sailingcentenarySailing first started in Ennore,

north of Madras, more than 100 years agoand then came to the city. Sir Francis Spring,the first Chairman of the Madras Port Trust,founded the Madras Sailing Club in 1911. TheClub was later accorded ‘Royal’ status by a war-rant from the Sovereign of the United Kingdomand its name was changed toThe Royal Madras Yacht Club.

The Club used to be locatednear the timber shed area of theharbour. The popular class atthat time was the Bembridgewhich is a largish boat like theSea Bird today. The RMYC wasa livewire club where the bot-tom line was Fun. The photo-graphs of the parties held at theRMYC in the middle part of thiscentury are those of ladies andgentlemen dressed in longdresses and tuxedos respec-tively. The dinners were formal“sit down”, service was classy,the waiters wore white uni-forms, turbans, etc. and the am-bience “proper”.

Today, after a number of re-locations, the RMYC has comea full circle and is back at the

original premises selected by SirFrancis Springs; the area is nowknown as the SpringhavenWharf. The new club house wasinaugurated on February 4,1987.

The first of the Inter-ClubRegattas, which this year’s Cen-tenary Regatta commemorated,was held in 1924 between theRoyal Colombo Yacht Club andthe RMYC in Madras.

The Club was affiliated tothe Yachting Association of In-dia after the YAI was formed in1960 and has been conductingnational sailing events.

At the international level,Rohini and Ajay Rau, PallaviShanbhag, Zephra Currimbhoy,Vir Menon, Deep Rekhi,Kuruvilla Abraham, DronaNarayanan, Navaz Currim-

The Bembridge class of boats.Claudius Cup – Race to the Marina Beach in the late 1990s.

bhoy, Sandeep Srikanth,Niloufer Jamal, Rohit Ashokand Varun Prabhakar repre-sented India between 1970 and2010 winning many prizes.

During the December 2004tsunami, the Club lost 12 boatsand materials worth Rs. 25 lakh.Rafiq Sait, Munna Jamal, JayrajRau and many others kept theClub afloat during those toughtimes.

The present Commodore ofthe Club is Capt. VivekShanbhag, a keen sailor and anAirbus flight instructor in AirIndia.

The Club has planned to cel-ebrate Madras Day on Septem-

ber 4, 2011 by sailing from theHarbour to Elliot’s Beach in aprocession. It has welcomed

members of the public inter-ested in the sail to join them –for a fee.