WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXIII No. 21 February 16-28, 2014

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What the Law proposesthe hawkers duly dispose

The sorrystate ofour Fort

� by A Special

Correspondent

(Continued on page 2)

INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

•A mistress-maid case

•An Indo-Ceylon dream

• Early days of Koothu-P-Pattarai

• The Mylapore Fest

criticism of the Corporationofficials and the police. It alsoleads us to the sad conclusionthat despite the best lawspossible, just about everythingin India fails in its implementa-tion.

It was in 2006 that the HighCourt of Madras had, as part ofa judgement covering severalpetitions concerning thehawking problem, formulated anew scheme. This involved theenumeration of hawkers andthe issuing of licences to themby the Corporation. Theselicences were to be renewedeach year and could be passedon to those who wished to carryon the business should alicensed hawker retire or passaway. The civic body was thenasked to build/identify specificareas to which these hawkerscould be moved and from wherethey could continue plying theirtrade. To ensure that this wasdone quickly, a Hawking ZoneImplementation Committeechaired by Justice A Rama-murthy was set up. The schemewas to apply to ten zones iden-

We as a publication have always maintained that Fort StGeorge needs to be the administrative headquarters of our

State. It, after all, symbolises the beginning of modern history forthe whole country and has been the seat of administration ofSouthern India and, later, our State for 374 years. What is, how-ever, forgotten is that the Fort is also a historic precinct that drawsvisitors from the city, the State and the world over. Their interestsare not considered at all by the administrative juggernaut. In theprocess, the Fort is increasingly becoming a disappointment.

Take the very process of entry. The north and south sea gatesare closed to the general public who need to access the Fort from a

(By The Editor)

The Mylapore Festival Kolam Competition, 2014, as sent by Mylapore Times (Also see page 8).

side entrance that has to besearched for and located.Names have to be entered inmouldy registers. Visitors thenneed to be frisked, the womenin a makeshift shelter that onlythe hardiest of sightseers wouldlike to enter. Once inside, thereare no maps, brochures orroutes. The average tourist sim-ply wanders around, theChurch of St Mary and the FortMuseum being the only twofixed landmarks.

Where a person can wanderaround is also highly dependenton official whims. Thus, on anormal day, walking down StThomas’ Street (also known asSnob’s Alley) is allowed, but oncertain days this can be blocked

It is barely a month since theopening of the much-touted

and, may we also add, much-delayed shopping complex torehabilitate hawkers fromT’Nagar Usman Road. And yetthe hawkers are back on thepavement, much to the chagrinof the residents in the locality.The failure of what was praisedby everyone as a well-thoughtout solution has led to sharp

tified as having problems ofcongestion owing to indiscrimi-nate hawking.

Matters moved slowly there-after and it was only after aPublic Interest Litigation wasfiled a couple of years ago thatthe issue was once againbrought to the notice of the

High Court. The HawkingCommittee in its report la-mented that the lack of speedin implementation was mainlydue to official lethargy and apa-thy. The report also hinted atofficial connivance in allowingthe hawkers to stay where theywere despite alternative accom-modation being ready. TheChairman of the Committeeobserved that none of his obser-vations had been taken seri-ously by the administrative ma-chinery. That was when theCourt set a deadline and every-one had to comply.

Everyone was happy with thesolution provided, except thehawkers themselves. They werereluctant to move in due to amistaken belief that shopperswould not bother to come tothe complex. It is obvious thatnot enough time has been spentin counselling the hawkers be-fore the shift. Despite having agood facility, their apprehen-sions persisted. They have,therefore, begun moving out inlarge numbers and occupy thesidewalks and service lanes.And it is alleged that the localCorporation officials and thepolice are turning a blind eye tothis development, because it isin their interest that the origi-nal chaos continues.

The residents of the areahave, however, decided not toaccept the situation as it is.They have sent a series of let-ters to the Corporation askingas to why the orders of theCourt are being violated. Thesequestions have been raised andanswers sought under the Right

(Continued on page 2)

“I’m holding a red mug instead of red beacon, Sir... I’m surethis won’t be objected to!”

2 MADRAS MUSINGS February 16-28, 2014

(Continued from page 1)

The last house on Snob’s Alley.

The state of our Fort

off without reason. More con-sistent is the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) which,seated in Clive Building (reallyAdmiralty House), has a placardat the reception table, whichcategorically forbids visitors be-yond that point. As for its ownexcellent initiative, ‘Clive’sCorner’, which served as an in-formation centre on one of theFort’s most colourful occu-pants, this is kept locked all thetime.

When it comes to upkeep, itcannot be denied that the areasunder the control of the StateGovernment are the worst off.Haphazard parking of vehicles,litter from juice and tea shopsand, above all, the continuedand seemingly endless renova-tion of Namakkal KavignarMaligai, the ten storey tower,add to the chaos. Posters on thewalls contribute still further tothe poor image that the Fortpresents. What is the point inputting up signs that warneveryone against littering, whenthis practice is routinely carriedon with impunity by the occu-pants themselves?

The ASI has put up itsstandard blue boards at variousplaces declaring that the build-ing alongside is a historicmonument and that thosecaught defacing or damaging it

will be fined or punished. Butwhat about the monumentsthat have already collapsed orare very near to that? What isthe purpose in putting up thesesigns next to Wellesley House,for instance, part of which fellin the 1980s and has remainedrubble ever since? There aresome other buildings that theASI is supposed to be forever re-storing. One of these, the lasthouse on Snob’s Alley, is in thepicture above. It is anybody’sguess as to what restoration isgoing on.

As for any information onany of the buildings, just forgetit. Barring St Mary’s and theFort Museum, buildings thathave their histories inscribed onmarble, none of the other struc-tures has any detail. You are ex-pected to walk around and formyour own theories as to whateach one stood for. As for theravelins that form the Wallajahand St George’s Gates, thespace beneath them has beenmade over for debris. The gatesare at least kept clean as theyprovide access to the Fort Sta-tion. But the North Gate per-haps is the worst off, completelylittered, with the road leadingto it doubling up as a bazaarwhere vendors sell flowers andother things.

If this is the way we presentone of the best known monu-ments of our city, what price theother historic structures?

(Continued from page 1)

What the Law proposes...

to Information (RTI) Act. Thereply received is a classic case ofbureaucratese. The responses,and they are the same to allqueries, simply have it that,“under RTI Act 2005, replyother than the information onrecord cannot be furnished”,whatever that is supposed tomean.

The T’Nagar Residents’Welfare Association then re-presented the matter to theChairman of the HawkingCommittee, supporting itsclaims with photographs ofhawking that continues unaba-ted on the streets despite alter-

native facilities allocated. TheChairman has in turn written tothe Corporation seeking an ex-planation. Whether the same,or a similar, answer as was re-ceived by the residents of T’Nagar will come his way isanybody’s guess. If the responseand action by the Corporationare not satisfactory, the resi-dents propose taking the matterto Court once again. Which iswhere the matter was referredto in the first place.

It is sorrowful that the bestof schemes come undone at thehands of petty officials who carefor their own benefits, therebyignoring the interests of thecitizenry.

(Continued from page 1)

’Tis the season of wedding bells. In the considered

view of The Man from MadrasMusings, the season’s popula-tion can be divided into threegroups – the first which is get-ting married, the second whichis in-charge of conducting theweddings, and the third whichis attending them. Of the thirdvariety, there are sub-groups:the ones that love attendingweddings and cannot be keptaway from them short of im-prisonment, the second thattakes them as a matter of dutyand breezes in and out, and thethird that grumbles andgroans. The last one is ratherlike the wedding guest inColeridge’s Ancient Mariner,beating his breast over what isa joyful occasion.

But what MMM has chosento ponder over in this missiveof his is not so much the wed-ding but the invitation cardwhich, rather like the eventsthemselves, have become big-ger and bulkier, though notany way better. There was atime when invitation cardswere two-sided, oblong, pinkon the outside and yellow onthe inside, and when foldedtwice, could slip into a smallenvelope. These were none toogreat on the eye, and as forreading the text, which wasblue on the pink and green onthe yellow, you had to havenear-perfect vision to manageit. But they were functional.You could identify a weddinginvite from a distance thoughyou may not have been able toread the text at close quarters.The printing process wassimple as well. You rushed offto the nearest alley and identi-fied a one-room printer inwhose backyard an assistantoperated a treadle press. Oneproof later, the cards were withyou. Then all that was neededwas to write the addresses onthe envelopes, daub the cor-ners with turmeric and then,ho, to the post office.

The whole thing has be-come hugely complicated now.These days, an invitation cardis not one unless it is half thesize of a window, as thick as atelephone directory and isborne in by a staggering set ofslaves. Entrusting it to thepostal system, which must bestill handling mails in sacks, isclearly out of question. Whatwould happen to the tinsel, thegilt edgings, the tassels and thepasted colour stones if thesewere unceremoniously dump-ed in sacks, hauled around bypostmen and then pushed intoletter boxes? The mind bog-gles.

These extra large cards,with a whole lot of shiny add-ons (MMM understands thatthe technical term for these iri-descent things is ‘bling’), whenopened, become several cards,each one colour coded for aparticular auxiliary event, all ofthem adjuncts to the weddingproper. If this is not enough,some cards have a book ex-plaining most unnecessarilythe entire process of the wed-

ding. Seriously, who is inter-ested in knowing all this, apartfrom some research scholar inthe United States of America?The bride and bridegroom haveother things on their minds, theparents are probably calculat-ing the expense and the guestsare interested in the food.

What most of these newbling cards overlook is plainreadability. By the time youmanage to evade the gold-splat-tered gods, the ornate borders,and the pietra-dura inlay workto locate who is marryingwhom, the wedding is probablyover. And as for storing thesecards till the actual day of theevent, forget it. There was atime when invitations used tocomfortably fit into mail-hold-ers. The ones of today don’t fitinto any receptacle includingdesk drawers. And woe betidesyou if the thicker ones fall onyour toe accidentally.

Discoveringcredit-worthiness

Given the exhaustive pro-cess the system goes

through, The Man from MadrasMusings has always wonderedat the way credit card compa-nies lament about defaulters. Inall his innocence, MMMthought that these due dili-gence assessments are done bygimlet-eyed detectives who canidentify a potential fraudsterwith ease. But the process ofverification (or verivification asMMM has heard it referred to)is so ham-handed that MMM isfairly certain that it is donewith only one objective – toirritate the applicant.

MMM has all along beenhappy with just one credit card.He is not one of those men whohave wallets bulging with plas-tic money. But came a daywhen having seen an advertise-ment for a new card, MMMsuccumbed. He duly filled inthe form and signed at as manyas 57 different places on it. Atthe end of it, the tied andheavily cologned representativesmiled and assured MMM thatthat was all and the card wouldbe on its way after a simple veri-fication. Little did MMM knowthat he was embarking onsomething that would makeOdysseus journeys simple incomparison.

It all began with a phone callwhere the caller, after wishingMMM a ‘very good morning’,asked MMM’s name. This af-ter having begun the call withthe words ‘Very good morningMr MMM’. A day later cameyet another call that wanted tohave MMM’s address. MMMhad just given the door numberwhen the caller rang off, hav-ing thanked him for the infor-mation. A day later came yetanother call, asking for the

Mega invitations for mega weddingsstreet name. When MMMasked as to why the caller ofthe previous day could nothave taken down this informa-tion, there was a stunned si-lence at the other end asthough nobody had everthought of this.

A couple of days later,when MMM was out earninghis daily bread, there was afourth call. The caller, thistime a stentorian male voice,wanted to know ‘at least twoprominent landmarks’ nearMMM’s house. When askedwhy, the voice said it was onits way to call on MMM andwas actually on the road whereMMM’s house stood but couldnot locate the building. WhenMMM replied that he was notat home just then, the voicewas disappointed. MeetingMMM was apparently the am-bition of a lifetime for thevoice and by not being athome, MMM had clearly bro-ken the voice’s heart. WhenMMM asked rather tartly ifthe voice expected MMM tobe at home at all hours, thevoice rang off without an ex-planation.

The last straw was the fifthcaller. This one after havingcheerily wished MMM a ‘verygood morning’ asked MMM ifhe was sure of all the facts thathe had furnished in the appli-cation form. It then said it, thevoice, was bound by rules toget verbal confirmation fromMMM for a few random en-tries in the form. MMM askedit to go ahead. The first ques-tion, without the batting of aneyelid, was whether MMMhad entered the ‘correctfather’s name’.

Educationist,educate thyself

The Man from MadrasMusings often walks by an

education institution run by aHoly Order. The walls are nowinscribed with biblical quotes,no doubt to keep posters atbay. But someone ought tohave paid attention to thespellings.

– MMM

SHORT ‘N’

SNAPPY

February 16-28, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

� On January 16th we had wondered whether concrete roads were the answer to our road condi-

tions. On February 1st, a reader wrote about the quality of these roads. Here, readers can see for

themselves the sad lack of quality to be found in newly laid concrete roads in the city.

When will we ever become quality conscious?

Unabating auto menace

Aside from the points statedin the article ‘If Chennai is

to be a tourist destination’(MM, February 1st), an impor-tant point which needs men-tioning is the fleecing by autodrivers. Even after fixing the re-vised auto meters, complaints ofover-charging are abundant.When the drivers take even theveteran locals for a ‘ride’, youcan very well imagine the fateof newcomers.

It was recently reported thata person from Assam who cameto Chennai for medical treat-ment was charged Rs. 1300from Central Station to Thou-sands Lights, a distance of 6kilometres, by an inhuman autodriver, and that when the visi-tor objected to the demand, hewas threatened with direconsequences. Following thevery bitter experience, the visi-tor decided never to visitChennai again.

In order for tourism to thrivein Chennai, the authoritiesmust first and foremostdiscipline the auto drivers. Thegateways like railway stationsand airport must be ‘sanitised’and monitored by the autho-rities so as to ensure thatthe auto drivers behave pro-perly.

Adhithi Devo Bhava must bepreached and practised by all.Even if we are unable to helpthe tourists, we should in noway be a hindrance or a threatto them..

V.S. Jayaraman31, Motilal StreetChennai 600 017

Madras English

I would like to share some ofthe observations that I have

made about the influence ofEnglish on the city’s linguafranca. It is my surmise that weSouth Indians are more faithfulto that legacy, English language,than certain other Indians.

While ‘sir’ may have be-come ‘saar’ here, elsewhere it is‘sir-ji’. I have always wonderedhow, in the earlier days, busconductors in the city wouldhave shouted ‘hold on’ or, forthat matter, ‘right’ or ‘right-right’, but in the recent past thewords I have heard are ‘tension’and ‘back-up’.

Conversely, it is commonknowledge that ‘mulligatawny’and ‘catamaran’ from Tamilentered the English lexiconyears ago.

T.K. Srinivasa Chari99, Journalists Colony

SrinivasapuramTiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600 041

Correct usage?

In the article on Concreteroads (MM, January 16th)

the Latin expression ‘et al’ isused. I wonder whether et al canbe used for other than people,in place of ‘etc’.

Chambers dictionary doesdefine et al as referring to peopleand things. However, The GoodWord Guide edited by Martin H.Manser from Bloomsbury saysas under:

“Et al is an abbreviation of etalii and means – ‘and otherpeople’. It is used particularly inwritings of a formal technicalnature to indicate the omissionof other names. * Similar find-ings have been recorded byJones, Bernstein, et al. Alterna-tively, it is sometimes used in-

formally in ironic or humorouscontexts:

* Here comes Bill et al. Itshould not be used in ordinarywriting or in speech, and shouldbe used only when a list isspecific and does not start withfor example or such as.”

H.J. Pavamani126, Velachery Road, Guindy

Chennai 600 032

Tourism destination

Although most of our met-ropolitan cities present

ugly scenes, Chennai tops themall. Mumbai with all its handi-caps is a better administeredcity.

Living in Chennai, ifgarbage is the worst offender,the dirtying of the city’s walls byinnumerable ugly cinema andother kinds of posters comessecond. The authorities thinkthat keeping certain VIP roadsclean is enough.

Many local corporation play-grounds too have been handedover to contractors to dumptheir materials and theyvandalise them. This is a newphenomenon.

Complaints to the Corpora-tion or to MLAs bring no relief.Is this a city being listed as aworld class destination (MM,February 1st)?

T. Santhanamtyagasanth@gmail.com

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Till February 20: Group 4 an exhi-bition of the work of AchuthanKudallur, Amitabh Sengupta,Dhiraj Choudhury and R.B.Bhaskaran (at Focus Art Gal-lery).

Till February 23: Attachment, anexhibition of collection of workby Ganesh Selvaraj, NarayananV. and Yuvan Bothisathuvar (atCholamandal Artists’ Village).

Till February 23: Reflections OnGrace, an international photofest (at Indian Institute ofTechnology, Madras).

Till February 23: Squaring TheGlass Circle: Art and Artisanship(at DakshinaChitra).

Till February 26: Anatomy OfForking Paths by Reena Kallat (atArt Houz).

Till February 28: Words NeedWords an exhibition of work byC. Douglas (at Gallery SriParvati).

Till February 28: Signals, Signposts.Voyages: 4 From The MadrasMovement, C. Douglas, Murali-dharan, Nandagopal and Palani-appan (at Artworld).

Till March: Raghu Rai’s India byRaghu Rai (at Gallery Veda).

Till March 9: Stains Of Stimuli bySujith S.N. and Interface: a groupshow (at Forum Art Gallery).

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4 MADRAS MUSINGS February 16-28, 2014 February 16-28, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 5

A mistress-maid case

(Continued on page 7)(Continued on page 6)

of long, long ago

There are at least two more instances in the early history ofMadras, of domestics/slaves being killed by their employers.

Both of them are mentioned in Dodwell’s Nabobs of Madras (1926).The first was Mrs. John Turing (one of a long line of Turings in

Madras that culminated in James Matheson Turing whose sonAllan is said to be the father of modern computing), who in 1761had several ‘Coffree girls’ in her service. In 1769, according toDodwell, she came “into painful prominence, being indicted forcausing the death of one of her slaves. Though acquitted, she with-drew from the settlement for some time.”

The second was the Rev. St. John Browne, who in 1775 wasappointed Parson of St Mary’s by the Court of Directors without,as the Church of England was careful to add later, “reference to theArchbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London.” Browne wasdisgraced when his servant, while trying to escape his master’s blows,fell from a terrace some twenty feet high. “The wretched man wasleft lying there all night and died two days later.” Some were of theview that the Rev. Browne had to be pardoned as he committed thecrime under the influence of alcohol. But he was tried and foundguilty of ‘homicide through misadventure’. He was sent back toEngland.

A Turing anda Reverend too!

The newspapers have beenfull of the story of Devyani

Khobragade, the Indian diplo-mat who recently faced chargesof ill-treating her maid in NewYork. Whatever be the truth inthe reports, it brings to mind thefirst ever trial by jury in India,which took place in our very ownMadras. This too was a mistress-employee case. On trial for themurder of her native slave girlChequa, alias Francesca, washer mistress, Ascentia Dawes.Ascentia was the wife of an EastIndia Company employee.

Arthur Mitchell Fraas, in his2011 dissertation submitted toDuke University (They HaveTravailed into a Wrong Lati-tude:The Laws of England, IndianSettlements, and the British Impe-rial Constitution 1726-1773)writes that she was Luso-Indian(of mixed Portuguese andIndian blood).

At the time this episode tookplace, there was a WilliamDawes who by 1656 was Secre-tary of the Council. In 1657,found guilty of corruption, hewas imprisoned for over a year.By the 1660s, however, he hadbounced back and was onceagain in the Council, a trustedright hand of Sir Edward Win-ter, the Agent for Madras, whowas later responsible for the firstcoup in the Settlement. Whenby 1664-65 Winter incurred thedispleasure of the EIC, an inves-tigator was sent out, whereuponWinter retired in high dudgeonto Madapollam, a village in theWest Godavari District, andfrom there sent letters of protestto England all of which weresigned by Dawes as well.

Sometime in 1664, Chequadied allegedly at the hands ofAscentia Dawes. The Agent,George Foxcroft, and his Councilwere uncertain of their powers totry a capital crime and wrote toEngland seeking guidance fromthe Company. The EIC too wasuncertain of the powers vested inthe heads of its outposts and, so,referred the matter to the PrivyCouncil, which in turn passed iton to Sir Heneage Finch (after-wards the first Earl ofNottingham), then Solicitor

General of England, and muchlater the Lord Chancellor. Finchin due course pronounced thatthe Company had the jurisdictionto try such crimes, taking its pow-ers from the Charter of 1661 is-sued by Charles II.

While matters progressedslowly in the trial of Ascentia Da-wes (and we do not know if shewas placed under arrest duringthis time), things were hotting upon the Winter front. By early1665, the Company, not waiting

for its investigator’s report, sentGeorge Foxcroft to supersedeWinter as Agent. The composi-tion of the Council remainedotherwise unchanged, Winterbecoming Second-in-Council.Foxcroft began a detailed inves-tigation of Winter’s transactionsand discovered incriminatingevidence. With the balance ofpower shifting, Dawes abando-ned Winter and became a confi-dante of Foxcroft. Dawes wasappointed Magistrate in Black

Town in place of the dubashesBeri Thimmappa and KasiViranna. This at a time when hiswife was accused of murder!

On September 14, 1665,Winter barged into the Councilchamber and made several ac-cusations against the Agent. Aheated argument ensued, Will-iam Dawes in particular beingvociferous in support of Foxcroft.Later, Foxcroft ordered the con-fining of Winter to his chambers.

But Winter was not without

supporters. Two days later, theCaptain of the Guard orderedthe arrest of Foxcroft and his sonon charges of treason. He askedthe Agent to surrender so thatbloodshed could be avoided.When Foxcroft refused, muske-teers were ordered to march tothe Council chamber where-upon Foxcroft, his sonNathaniel, Jeremy Sambrooke(another member of the Coun-cil) and William Dawes came“hastily running downe, withpistoll cocked and swordsdrawne”. In the ensuing scuffle,the Foxcrofts were arrested,Sambrooke injured and Daweswas killed. Foxcroft’s accounthas the full gory details – “all myclothes on my left side burnt by ashott levelled particularly at me,but did only burne my clothesand race the skin off my side,and went forward to Mr. Dawesthat was behind me, and wentquite through him, in at the bellyand out at the backe.” Dawes“dyed that afternoon.”

Winter became Agent onceagain and, according to a letter

written by Foxcroft to the Com-pany on September 6, 1660 whilein prison, “seized on Mr Daweshis house and all that he had,leaving his wife destitute where-with to feed her family.” Fromthis it can be seen that Ascentia,assuming that she was the wifeof William Dawes, was not un-der arrest even a year after shewas charged with murder.

Meanwhile, the Company,having received legal opinion inthe Acentia Dawes matter,wrote to Foxcroft (unaware thatWinter had taken over thegovernment) stating that therespective “Governours andCouncells Established by us inany of our fortes, Townes, etc.,have power to exequute Judge-ment in all Causes Civill andCriminall.” It also pointed outthat this was arrived at after con-sulting the King’s counsel. Toclarify matters further, a letter tothis effect had been obtainedfrom the King, a copy of whichwas enclosed. To vest the Agentwith proper authority, it wasdeemed fit to “Constitute youGovernour of our Towne andForte where the fact was Com-mitted, as well as Agent, and toappoint you a Council under ourSeale, which together with someInstructions and directions howto proceede in the Triall of thiswoman, and of such as were As-sistants to her, if any were, weehave likewise herewith sentyou.”

This despatch reached Will-iam Jearsey, the Chief atMasulipatam, who was sympa-thetic to Foxcroft. Following thecoup, Jearsey had warned shipsto stay off Madras in order to de-prive the Fort of vital supplies.The vessel bearing the docu-ments avoided Madras andberthed at Masulipatam. FearingWinter, Jearsey sent his assistantRobert Fleetwood, a friend ofWinter, to deliver the King’sCommission and the EIC’s letter.Winter received him in the Forton March 28, 1667, and permit-ted him to publicly read theKing’s Commission. Also readwas the warrant issued byJearsey, commanding Winter toset free and reinstate Foxcroft,in the light of the papers receivedfrom England. Winter, however,chose to ignore the letter. He infact wrote back to the EIC stat-ing that he was certain that thedocuments were counterfeit andwondered at the boldness ofJearsey in issuing warrants ofsuch high consequence!

Winter had held back all des-

patches from Madras ever sincehe took charge and it was onlyon January 18, 1667 that the EICgot to know of the coup, thanksto a letter from another Foxcroftsympathiser, Sir GeorgeOxinden, the Chief at Surat.The King asked the Lord Chan-cellor to investigate. Consequentto this, a commission was issuedon December 4th, ordering thereduction of Fort St George andthe restoration of Foxcroft to hisoffice. A fleet of five ships and afrigate, fitted out for “warfare ortrade”, sailed for Madras. Thevessels arrived on April 21, 1668and after a protracted negotia-tion with Winter, got him toyield. Foxcroft was made Gover-nor by October, and permissionwas granted to Winter to stay onin Madras. All was now set forthe trial of Ascentia Dawes.

Following the procedure setout by the King’s Counsel, 24persons were summoned to forma grand jury. It returned the in-dictment as it was, confirmingthat she had to be tried for mur-der. It was decided that the juryfor the trial would comprisetwelve men, six English and sixPortuguese, and 36 people weresummoned, the large numbernecessary in the event the ac-cused objected to some of themsitting in judgment. As it hap-pened, she objected to just three– Sir Edward Winter (whichprejudice is quite understand-able), Robert Fleetwood (a Win-ter man) and Hugh Dixon,Gunner of the Fort and probablya participant in the coup. Theforeman of the jury was EdwardReade, a son-in-law of ThomasWinter, the brother of the erst-while Agent and whom, surpris-ingly, Ascentia does not appearto have objected to.

The trial was held in April1669. The examination of wit-nesses went on for about twohours at the end of which theforeman sent in a note to theGovernor and his Council, whoconstituted the Court. It saidthat the jury found Ascentiaguilty of murder but not in themanner and form described inthe indictment. It also soughtfurther instructions from theCourt which responded statingthat it was the duty of the jury tobring in a verdict of guilty or not.

An Indo-Ceylondream ofthe 20th Century

According to mythology,Lord Rama, when he

wished to invade Ceylon to re-cover his consort Sita, who hadbeen carried away by Ravana,the Demon King of Ceylon,crossed the Pamban Pass fromMandapam on the mainland tothe large island on the Indianside and got as far as Dha-nushkodi only to find his furtherprogress barred, but – so the storygoes – a causeway known asAdam’s Bridge came into being,making it possible for Rama tocross the sea and reach MannarIsland and from there the Ceylonmainland where he recoveredhis queen. Such a crossing hasbeen discussed often in more re-cent times.

The possibility of connectingIndia and Ceylon by a railwayacross the bank of sand extend-ing the whole way from Rames-waram to Mannar was exploredfrom time to time in the secondhalf of the 19th Century. Itpicked up momentum from 1895and various schemes were sug-gested.

� February 24th, being celebrated as the inaugu-ration day of the Pamban Bridge, is really theopening of the Indo-Ceylon rail connection withthe Boat Mail. But that was only the beginning ofwhat had been planned as a permanent linkbetween the two countries. It was a dream neverfulfilled.

In 1907, Sir Henry Kimber, theChairman of the South IndianRailway (SIR), on an inspectiontrip to India, received a depu-tation of Ceylon planters whourged that improved means ofcommunication should be provi-ded, to enable Indian labour toreach the plantations safely. SirHenry later met Lord Morley, theSecretary of State for India, andLord Elgin, the Colonial Se-cretary, in London. As a result ofthese discussions, the Ceylon Go-vernment Railway (CGR) ag-reed to construct a 67-milebranch railway track from Mada-wachiya on its main line to Talai-mannar on Mannar Island. Onthe Indian side, the Madurai-Mandapam railway was to be ex-tended across the Pamban Pass bya bridge to Rameswaram islandand thence to Dhanushkodi.

When these two extensionswere completed, the two coun-tries were only about 21 milesapart across a narrow and shal-low strait. The project was againinvestigated with the idea ofconnecting the two terminal sta-

tions by a railway constructed ona solid embankment raised onthe sand bank known as Adam’sBridge, to supersede the ferrysteamer service which was to beestablished between the twopoints.

In 1913, the SIR made a de-tailed survey and a project reportwas prepared. The report con-templated the construction of acauseway from Dhanushkodi toTalaimannar, a length of 20.05miles of which 7.19 miles wouldbe on the dry land of the variousislands, and 12.86 miles in thewater. The sections on dry land

consisting of low banks of sandpitched with coral presented nodifficulty. The section throughthe sea was to be carried on acauseway constructed on adouble row of reinforced con-crete piles driven into the sand.The piles were then to be bracedtogether longitudinally withlight concrete arches and chainsand transversely with concreteties, struts and chains. Behindthe piles, slabs of reinforced con-crete were to be slipped into posi-tion, the bottom slabs being sunkwell into the sand of the sea bot-tom. Lastly, the space enclosed

by the slabs was to be filled inwith sand.

The top of the concrete workwas to be carried to six feet abovehigh water level, and the railswere to be laid at that level. Thecauseway was to cause the sus-pended sand brought up by thecurrents to settle on either side,bringing about rapid accretionand, eventually, making one bigisland of Rameswaram andMannar Islands. The total costof the causeway and work at thetwo terminal points was esti-mated to be about Rs. 111 lakh.

This scheme was given up infavour of a simpler one. AtDhanushkodi and at Talaiman-nar two piers were built, one onthe north side for use during thesouthwest monsoon, and one onthe south side for use during thenortheast monsoon. Betweenthese two points a steamer ser-vice was to be provided. Thiswas originally intended to be atrain-ferry, whereby the trainswere to be conveyed bodily,without transhipment, fromRameswaram to Mannar, and,so, provide through carriages be-tween India and Ceylon. Amodified scheme was, however,agreed on, whereby the sea pas-sage was to be made with pas-senger-carrying steamers. OnFebruary 24, 1914, the Indo-Ceylon connection was opened.The opening ceremony was at-tended by the three Governorsof Madras, Ceylon and Pondi-cherry and other dignitaries.

Of all the work on the Indo-Ceylon connection, probably themost interesting was the span-ning of the Pamban Pass. Com-mencing from Mandapam, therailway extension follows for

The steamers for the 21-mile crossingThe South Indian Railway

had a major marine depart-ment headed by a Marine Superin-tendent posted at Dhanushkodi.For the Indo-Ceylon connection,they ordered as ferries three tur-bine steamers, which the RailwayGazette of May 9, 1913, describedas follows.

“The vessels have a length over-all of 260 ft. a breadth of 38 feet,and depth to promenade deck of18 ft. 9 in. and a mean loaddraught of 6 ft. and are built ofsteel throughout, the registeredtonnage being 688 gross, 562 un-der deck and 278 net. They areabout 800 tons load displacement.

“They are fitted with 40 ft. top-gallant forecastle and promenadedeck extending nearly the wholelength, and affording good accom-modation for passengers. At eachend of the promenade deck is alight sun-deck of teak and amid-ships a portable awning is fitted.On the promenade deck is placedthe chart house with navigatingbridge overhead. Under the prom-

enade deck forward of boiler cas-ing a large deck saloon or loungehas been constructed for first classpassengers, with convenient lava-tory accommodation, and belowthis is the first class dining saloon.Both of these apartments are fit-ted in teak. The promenade deckabove the saloon, sheltered as it isby a light sun-deck and fitted withside screens, will furnish a valuable

supplement to the other accom-modation for the first class passen-gers. The Officers’ cabins are situ-ated on the upper deck aft of thefirst class deck saloon.

“The details of lighting andventilation have been carefullystudied in connection with the lo-cality and climate in which the ves-sels are to be employed. Electriclight has been installed through-

out the vessels, and electrically-driven fans assist the ventilation.Suitable provision is made for In-dians as well as European first classpassengers; the accommodationfor a large number of third classpassengers, who will usually be In-dians, is extensive and well ar-ranged. A cabin for their exclusiveuse is provided on the lower deckaft.

“Provision is made for carryingcattle and sheep on the after partof the main deck, and arrange-ments are made forward on themain deck for the carriage of mo-tor cars...

“The lifting appliances havebeen so arranged that motor carscan be lifted on board by the ship’sown derricks and carried on thefore deck...

“The leading condition withregard to speed was that the ves-sels should start from rest andreach the end of their journey 20nautical miles distant, in about 72minutes; instead, the journey wascompleted in 65 minutes duringtrials.”

The Scherzer Bridge.

The proposed rail link.

s. s. Elgin (left) and s. s. Hardinge at Dhanushkodi Pier.

(By Sriram V.)

A portrait of Sir Edward Winter

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– The Editor

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

6 MADRAS MUSINGS February 16-28, 2014

(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period January 16th to31st. Questions 11 to 20 pertain

to Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. Which community re-cently became the sixth to attainminority status in our country?2. Syedna Mohammed Burhanu-ddin, who passed away recently,was the spiritual head of whichcommunity?

3. Name the probe which was‘awoken’ recently from a hiberna-tion of 31 months to ready for anunprecedented mission to orbitand dispatch a lander to thesurface of a comet.

4. Which ‘robot-headed’ musicalduo won the record of the yearand album of the year at the an-nual Grammy Awards recently?

5. The RBI has decided to with-draw all currency notes issuedprior to which year?

6. Name the two people whohave been honoured with PadmaVibhushan this year.

7. January 31st was the beginningof the Chinese New Year ofthe….

8. Name the Telugu cinema icon,a Dadasaheb Phalke awardee,who passed away recently.

9. Who was the Chief Guest atthis year’s Republic Days Paradein New Delhi?

10. Who are the new AustralianOpen singles champions?

* * *

11. Name the Scot, whose nameis synonymous with a Madrasbusiness house of yore, and whostarted his career as a doctor withthe Nawab of Carnatic in the late18th Century.

12. Mayavaram VedanayakamPillai is considered the ‘Fatherof…’.

13. Which two legendary archi-tects built two versions of thefamous pavilion at the MadrasCricket Club that stood between1866 and the 1980s?

14. Which American, whosename is synonymous with ‘beingrich’, was instrumental in theWCC buying the DovetonHouse?

15. By what name is MuhammadIsmail, the first President of theIndian Union Muslim league,familiar to most of us?

16. Where could you recentlycome across Harry Potter, NelsonMandela, Kavingar Vaali and MaPo Si together in Chennai?

17. Jaya-Hindustan’s ‘Vimo-chanam’, released in 1940,commemorated which politicaldecision taken by the then Pre-mier of the Madras Presidency?

18. Which old centre of learningis located in ‘Conway Gardens’ onPoonamallee High Road?

19. What was the great contribu-tion of R.M.S. Sundaram Iyer torender into posterity the work ofsaint-composer Thyagaraja?

20. Which Tamil eveninger wasfounded by Subbaraya Kamath in1917?

(Answers on page 8)

THE MISTRESS & THE MAID

(Continued from page 4)

Tales from historyto degree coffee

At first glance, the title of Nirmala Lakshman’s new book, Degree Coffee by theYard, seemed like some kind of literary device. However, on further reading,

I found a whole chapter devoted to the much loved brew which Tamilians expertlytransfer from tumbler to dabara and vice versa, either to reduce the heat or tocreate frothness or both. Needless to say, this is one of the lighter chapters in thisbrief biography of Madras.

In this ‘biography’, Lakshman weaves personal anecdotes about the city of herchildhood and the city where she grew up in the 1960s and 70s, with a chronicle ofhistorical and sociological facts about a city that has kept changing over the yearsto what it is today. It is a story that begins with finding among excavtions in thePallavaram area a hand axe (the first discovery of an Old Stone Age tool in theIndian Subcontinent) by British geologist Robert Bruce Foote in 1863-64. Goingon from there, in relating the story of Madras (Chennai), Lakshman says, “What isperhaps most interesting about the region is that archaeologists and historians bothaffirm the continuous presence of human beings in the area since the PalaeolithicAge. If we leap forward amillion years or so, Roman coinsand painted pots found in areaslike Egmore, Kilpauk, Chetpetand Mambalam are a sign thatthere were flourishing commu-nities and people living in theregion were involved in tradewith lands across the seas. Infact, the town of Mylapore wasknown even to the Greek geo-grapher and astronomerPtolemy (who lived at the endof the first Century CE and intothe second Century CE) andfigures in his writings as ‘Mylar-phon’.”

Going beyond references tothe Chola, Chera and Pandyadynasties and to the Kalabhrasand Pallavas are mentions oftwo present-day landmarks, theParthasarathy Swamy templeand the Kapaleeswarar temple.The former is the only Vishnutemple where the deity has amoustache and the punnai treein the outer courtyard of thelatter temple is said to be theoldest in Chennai. Mylapore(where the Kapaleeswarar tem-ple is located) also witnessedthe coexistence of the earlyBuddhists and Jains and wascalled Mayura Sabda Pattinam.Fearing persecution, many ofthese people might have con-verted to Islam. The Kapalees-

� by T.K. Srinivasa Chari

warar temple’s tank was built onland donated by the Nawab ofCarnatic and, till today,Muslims are allowed the use ofthe tank on Muharram day.

Moving ahead to 1639,Lakshman points out that “Fort

St. George (Madras) becamethe citadel of British adminis-tration in India long before theCrown acquired Bombay orfounded the city of Calcutta.It was the first Corporation tobe granted a seal by theBritish East India Company in1687.”

Striking an anecdotal noteelsewhere in the book, Laksh-man tells us about her connec-tion to the much-loved Tamilidol Subramania Bharatithrough her maternal grandfa-ther, to the freedom movementthrough Mahatma Gandhi’s vis-its to her house, the simplicityand administrative ability ofKamaraj and the rise of theDravidian movement. She re-calls a visit to the beach withher children many years agowhen she spied the Chief Min-ister of the day, M. Karunani-

dhi, sittingwith his as-sociates onthe sands. She pointed this outto her older son who went up tohim and said, “Hello, my nameis Narayan” to which the Chief

Minister replied, “Hello, myname is Karunanidhi.” And asthough being politically correct,she mentions the prodigiousmemory of Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa which the late vet-eran stage actor R.S. Manohartold her about. When he chal-lenged her to answer questionsfrom a tome she seemed to beskimming through, she wasequal to the challenge, answer-ing about a dozen of them,quoting even the page numbers.

As a journalist whose man-date is a wide range of interests,she also looks at the arts and atsport. She offers an insider’sview of Chennai’s ‘DecemberSeason’ where over 2000 musicconcerts are held during acouple of months, mentions therise of the colloquial gaanapaattu, and offers much infor-maton on cinema and theatre.

She also emphasises thatthough Chennai, like all othercities, has an enormous appetitefor cricket, it stands out by dis-playing a rare knowledge of thegame and a sense of apprecia-tion for home and oppositionteams alike. She recalls “the re-sponse from the crowd whenPakistan dared to take a lap ofhonour (after winning a match)in Madras, to thank them in1999. The crowd greeted andcheered and gave them a stand-ing ovation.”

Lakshman may conclude byasking the question ‘Is home theouter world, the neighbourhood(Alwarpet in her case) or theinner world, our aspirations?but she has already answered itearlier when she observed: “Asense of community, mutual de-pendence and a common dreamthat the city is the answer to ourdreams and is the glue thatholds the city’s many layers to-gether.”

The book, a part of an Alephseries on Indian cities, willstrike an enjoyable note withmany a reader who knowsMadras that is Chennai, but isan all too brief introduction ofit to others.

free and passed from the pagesof history forever.

The case of Rex vs Dawes,however, set a precedent. TheGovernor and Council, in theirletter to London on April 15,1669, lamented that the casehad come to such a conclusionbecause “we found ourselves ata loss in severall things, for wantof Instructions, haveing noeman understanding the Lawsand formallityes of them to in-struct us…” This was to markthe beginning of a process of ju-dicial reform in Madras which,

The jury went into a huddleagain and after a short whileReade declared that theaccused was not guilty. As thiswas contrary to all expecta-tions, the Court thought hehad made a mistake and askedhim again, whereupon herepeated that Ascentia was notguilty.

The Court then asked themembers of the jury, and theyagreed with the foreman. Withthat Ascentia Dawes was set

after several stages, culminatedin the formation of the HighCourts of Judicature in 1862. Italso saw the upgrading of thepost of Agent of Madras to thatof Governor, who remained theexecutive head till 1947. Thenote from the King's Counselon how the trial was to proceedwas to serve for years as thebasis on which the EIC settledcases in its possessions in India.

What was not new then, andcontinues even now, areconflicts over the treatment ofdomestics.

MADRAS MUSINGSON THE WEB

To reach out to as manyreaders as possible whoshare our keen interestin Madras that isChennai, and in re-sponse to requests frommany well-wishers – es-pecially from outsideChennai and abroadwho receive their postalcopies very late – for anonline edition. MadrasMusings is now on theweb at www. madrasmusings.com

THE EDITOR

February 16-28, 2014 MADRAS MUSINGS 7

The early days ofKoothu-P-PattaraiIt was a fashion in the early

1970s to drop names like CheGuevara and Pablo Neruda toproject yourself as different andprogressive. It was a kind ofbranding in a soft form. In re-cent times, Koothu-P-Pattaraihas become a sort of brand formany. Many new actors in mov-ies these days make it a point todeclare their association withKoothu-P-Pattarai or theirtraining there. I am indeedhappy about the publicity itgenerates for the organisation,but it amuses me when I reflecton its beginnings.

It was sometime in 1976-77that Na. Muthuswamy,supported by ‘Pragnai’ Ran-garajan (aka Veerachamy), wascrusading for Terukoothu withthe cooperation of Cre-ARamakrishnan. Their immedi-ate task was threefold – first, tomobilise resources to rehabili-tate Terukoo thu; second, towork towards gaining accept-ability for Terukoothu in the

� by E.R. GopalakrishnanA former actor/director of Koothu-P-Pattarai.

‘cultural space’ of Chennai;third, to persuade PurisaiKannappa Sambandham to re-turn to his village and learnwhatever he could from hisfather Purisai KannappaThambiran instead of drivingan autorickshaw in Madras forhis livelihood. Na. Muthu-swamy and Cre-A Rama-krishnan provided the financialcushion for Sambandhamduring that period.

It was a wonderful gesture,given their personal constraints.Their efforts were not wasted,going by the recognition PurisaiKannappa Sambandham enjoystoday as a leading Terukoothuexponent and the recognitiongained by Terukoothu in theclassical milieu of Chennai.

There has been some criti-

cism that Muthuswamy was try-ing to remove the rustic ele-ment and raw beauty ofTerukoothu and that he was kill-ing the true spirit of the form.Others, however, have hailedand compared his endeavourwith Dr. Shivarama Karanth’sefforts in reviving Yakshagana inKarnataka.

* * *I first came to know about

the activities of Koothu-P-

Pattarai in 1977 through apamphlet given to me while Iwas sharing a room in a narrowbylane in Karolbagh, NewDelhi. The pamphlet was an ap-peal for donations to supportthe activities of Koothu-P-Pattarai in reviving Terukoothu.There was no indication thatthe organisers were also in-

volved in contemporary theatreactivities.

This was the time whenVenkat Swaminathan, in hiswritings, was highlighting thelack of initiatives for new ex-periments in the field of art andliterature in general, and in thefield of theatre and cinema inparticular in Tamil Nadu. In hisbook Paaliaiyum Vaazhaiyum(Desert and Oasis), he lamentsthe Tamil environment thatlacked the urge to improve itsquality in artistic expressions,and the lack of will to strive tobe at par with works presentedin other regions of India andabroad. He was also critical ofthe lethargy of Tamils in mak-ing efforts to expand their in-

ventiveness in artistic expres-sion. His observations were theresult of his exposure to variedworks of art (fine arts and per-forming arts) facilitated by hisliving in Delhi for nearly fourdecades. He used to expresssimilar sentiments at the meet-ings of the Delhi Tamil Writers’Association.

Venkat Swaminathan intro-duced me to the plays of theNational School of Drama pre-sented at NSD’s small indoorauditorium and at the PuranaQila. There were plenty ofprogrammes at other venuestoo. Street plays were staged inthe university area or in Con-naught Place. As I had lived inthe ‘sabha culture’ as a residentof Triplicane for over 20 years,my exposure in Delhi con-vinced me that there was truthin Venkat Swaminathan’s con-cern. I too began to feet that wehad not moved any further inthe field of theatre and cinema,compared to the works of peo-ple from West Bengal, Keralaand Karnataka and even theworks from a small State likeManipur were simply over-whelming. Most people workingin the field of theatre in TamilNadu do not make sincere ef-forts to know or experiencewhat is happening the worldover. Stagnation by itself is nota problem but not being awareof it should definitely be a mat-ter of concern.

* * *I returned to Madras in 1978

and found the theatre scenarioby and large unchanged. TheStreet Plays of Gnani and‘Veedhi’ Ramaswamy were theonly new additions. Dr. Rajen-dran was part of the VeedhiNataka Iyakkam. He went on toqualify from NSD, where he isnow Director-Research. Duringthis time, Na. Muthuswamy’sNaarkalikkarar was translatedby Alfred Franklin and stagedby students of Guindy Engi-neering College.

This was also the time Na.Muthuswamy was working onforming a modern theatre rep-ertoire. He brought in K.C.Manavendranath and P. Kri-shnamoorthy to work together.Krishnamoorthy, an artist fromthe College of Fine Arts, Ma-dras, is one of the early entrantsin cinema as an art director. Itoo joined the group.

(To be concluded)

THAT INDO-CEYLON DREAM

about 2 miles the narrow sandypromontory, on which thistownship is situated, to its endat Thontiturai Point, and thenacross the sea on a viaduct,about 1¼ miles long, con-structed on the sandstone reefconnecting the mainland withthe island of Rameswaram.Although a portion of the reefis awash, yet there is an average6 or 7 feet of water over it. ThePamban Channel is an artificialchannel, used by coastingvessels having a draught notexceeding 12 ft.

The viaduct that was built is6,776 ft. long and consists of145 openings, 143 of 40 ft. span,one of 43 ft. and one of 44 ft.There are 113 spans on the westside and 32 spans on the eastside of the Pamban Channel,and the latter is spanned with atwo-leaf Scherzer rolling liftbridge. This bridge is 289 ft.between the piers and leaves forvessels a clear way 200 ft. wideand 14 ft. deep. The bridge wasdesigned by the Scherzer Roll-ing Lift Bridge Companyof Chicago, and was con-structed by Head, Wrightson &Co. Ltd. of Thornaby-on-Tees,UK.

The piers of the viaduct areof granite masonry in cement,with cement concrete founda-tions enclosed in steel cribs orcaissons, the tops of the cribsbeing fixed at mean sea level.

Much of the work on the cribswas done by skin divers whohad to contend with rough seasfrom time to time that causeddamage and subjected the workto interruptions.

For the sea service betweenDhanushkodi and Talaimannarthree fine steamers were spe-cially designed. They were builton the Clyde by Messrs. A & JInglis from the designs ofthe late Sir William Whiteand named the Curzon, theElgin and the Hardinge, afterthree Viceroys of India.(Editor’s Note: They were laterreplaced by the Irwin andGoschen)

The Indo-Ceylon connec-tion completed in 1914 gaverise to competition between theSouth Indian Railway Companyand the British India SteamNavigation Company that of-fered regular sailings betweenTuticorin and Colombo. Therewere also country boats, thatoffered passage, but the incon-venience and risks attendant ontransport by such means weregreat.

The Indo-Ceylon connec-tion was open for quite a num-ber of years. The South IndianRailway and, later, the South-ern Railway continued operat-ing the 1 Up/2Dn Ceylon BoatMail from Madras to Dhanush-kodi Pier, where passengerswere transhipped to a ferrysteamer to cross Adam’s Bridgefor Talaimannar and thence to

Colombo. The crossing used totake 1½ hours.

Alas! This rail route is nowno more, tragedy having over-taken it in 1964. Amit Garg, inan article ‘Journey to Death’published in a Southern Rail-way Women’s Welfare Organi-sation publication in 2002, gavethis vivid description of thetragedy:

“The six-coach Pamban-Dhanushkodi Passenger (No.653) left Pamban at 11.55 p.m.on December 22, 1964 with 110on board, including a party ofschool students and fivemembers of the railway staff.The signal at DhanushkodiOuter went dead and the trainstopped for a while. The driverthen gave a long whistle anddecided to take the risk. A giant20-foot wave rose from theturbulent sea and smashed thetrain. Though the initial reportsput the casualty figure at 115based on the number of ticketsissued at Pamban, it wassuspected that the toll would bearound 200 as more passengerswere said to have travelledticketless on that night.

“The tragedy came to lightonly on December 25th whenthe Southern Railway issued abulletin based on the informa-tion received from the MarineSuperintendent, Mandapam. Itsaid: ‘The train was caught inthe cyclonic storm and was pre-sumably hit by high tidal wavesas a result of which the whole

train got submerged in waterwhile entering Dhanushkodistation. Information has beenreceived that a portion of theengine is visible six inchesabove water.’ There were re-ports that huge pieces of thetrain’s wooden carriages hadbeen washed ashore on the SriLankan coast.

“Another major victim ofthe cyclone was the PambanBridge, built by an Irish engi-neer exactly 50 years before itwas washed away by thetidal waves... As many as 126girders collapsed. Only 19 gird-ers and the lift span, namedafter its designer Scherzer, werespared.

“The restoration work beganimmediately. Almost all thegirders were salvaged from thesea. ‘Emergency girders’ werebrought from as far as Assam.The work was completed withinthree months.” The metregauge line now has a terminusat Rameswaram.

The Scherzer Bridge is a veryspecial steel structure. It opensfrom the centre, the two armslifted up from the huge mecha-nical devices at the two piers.The Bridge has always been avery special structure of theSouth Indian Railway and laterof the Southern Railway.

(Excerpted from: SouthernRailway – A Saga of 150 Glori-ous Years 1852-2003, by R.R.Bhandari).

(Continued from page 5)

Na. Muthuswamy and P. Krishnamoorthy.

8 MADRAS MUSINGS February 16-28, 2014

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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— A WELLWISHER

The Mylapore FestThe annual SundaramFinance Mylapore Festi-

val’s 2014 edition came to anend, with Sundaram Finance’s‘Spirit of Mylapore Award’ be-ing presented to tennis legendRamanathan Krishnan. Theaward was presented on thefourth evening of the Festival.

Sundaram Finance had inJanuary 2009 instituted its an-nual award to recognise onelongtime resident or institutionof Mylapore who/that has con-tributed significantly to the cul-ture and heritage of Mylapore.Previous recipients have beenroadside bookseller R.K. Azh-war, the legendary musicianS. Rajam, Dubba ChettyKadai, Rasi Silks, and LadySivaswami Girls School.

A variety of events wasenjoyed by at least 25,000 peo-ple during the four days of theFestival, which has come to bethe city’s one-of-its-kind cele-bration. Some of the events du-ring the Festival as reported byMylapore Times were as follows:

� A few days before the fest, theKapali Temple office orga-nised another event at theNavarathri mandapam wherethe classical dance events ofthe Festival were planned. Soa makeshift stage was createdon the eastern side, next tothe Saneeswarar sannidhi. Anice change: the dancerscould also look up at themoon-lit skies and lit vimanas.Kuchipudi dancer Madha-vapeddi Murthy and hissishyas performed an item onthe brass plate adjusting theirmovements to the space.

� Young nadaswaram artisteMylai R. Mahendran and histeam of artistes began thefour-day proceedings on thefirst day on the main stage infront of the 16-pillar manda-pam. The team arrived ontime, performed to time andkept a low profile.

� The open space inside LadySivaswamy School was a riotof colours on all four days.This was the arts contestspace. The judges were cho-sen from the audience. Thechildren didn’t really careabout the toffees that weredistributed by the volunteers;each one only wanted a prize!

� Young singers seated on a gal-lery at the Nageswara RaoPark this year let the musicswirl. Some bright voices,some still sleepy. Mistymornings, but the mosquitoesdidn’t seem to spare anyone.

� It is a challenge to run afestival of this magnitude inopen space. Artistes reachingthe venue on time, the propsthat need to be brought in, alldepend on the traffic and thecriss-crossing of many in theaudience. You need to liter-ally float in the crowd toreach backstage. This was thestory of the Krishna imagethat couldn’t reach the stagefor the Thiruvadira Kalidance by artistes from Kerala.

� The band of 55 young artistesin the dance drama SuraSamharam had travelled fromVirugambakkam. These sish-yas of guru Sheela Unnikrish-nan just smiled and wentabout touching up theirmake-up, after squeezing intoa small house. Partly reno-vated with glossy tiles, thehouse of Venkataramanplayed host to the artistes onall days of the Festival.Seetharam of Kanchi Wea-vers’ Saree House was ano-ther gracious host to perfor-mers who needed someprivacy.

� The Festival realises thatpeople want to compete ingames, irrespective of their

age.There was the chess con-test at Nageswara Rao Parkand Dayakkattam and Pal-lankuzhi at Lady SivaswamySchool. A surprise fun eventwas the ‘Karumbu kadi’ con-test held at the theradi. Thesugarcane stick had to bepeeled using hands and teeth!Seven rounds of five partici-pants each took part in theevent. And still there werepeople waiting for theirchance.

� The Kolam contest, theFestival’s flagship event, con-tinued to receive huge par-ticipation. Foreigners alsotook part; an Aurovilleanwon a prize and so did twomen. The Fest team was notsure if children of this genera-tion could draw kolam. Buttwo dozen plus children whoparticipated in the kolam con-test proved the organiserswrong. The kolam area infront of the eastern gopuramlooked beautiful with chil-dren in traditional attiredrawing kolams.

� Three hosts treated guests toelai sapad. Lakshmi of DevadiStreet and Jayashree ofKesava Perumal West Streetwere not new to the concept;they had hosted elai sapad lastyear too. For Padma Sanka-ran, this was a new experi-ence.

� When C.A. Raja’s Pranavamtook the stage for the vintagefilm music concert, the audi-ence sat glued to their seats.Many sang along, somedanced and a couple wasin tears and enjoyed therewind, talking of the daysthey had seen MGR films for40 paise!

� The Tank Street was a bazaarzone teeming with shoppers.

Pitchu Pillai Street had spacefor students from the Collegeof Fine Arts, led by Sakthivel,and the Chennai WeekendArtists. The organisers havea dream: to make this an ex-clusive Art Street.

� Who could think that themandapam leading to the thercan be a place for perfor-mance? When the lights wereturned 180 degrees andbeamed on the mandapam,the audience too turned theirchairs towards it. Youngdancer Sumitra Subrama-niam danced to music byyoung singer J.B. Keerthana.

� The exhibition – ‘100 years ofIndian Cinema’ – on the firstfloor of Bharatiya VidyaBhavan could be set up onlya little late. The displayboards didn’t arrive on time.The team of collegians work-ing on the project conceivedby director A.L. Venky wasmore than happy to later seea steady stream of visitors.But they were disappointedby an unknown fan of MGRwho kept taking away the pic-tures of the legend they hadput up!

� The idea of having a smallsnacks kiosk at the theradiworked well. A team of bub-bly young mothers along withtheir children sold traditionalsnacks like uppama, kozha-kattai and vegetable poli.They made it ‘no onion-nogarlic’ on Vaikunta Ekadasiday. Idea worked.

� The food street was packed.Unmanageable on Sunday.From the traditional dosas toMangalore kadubus, kozhakat-tais and North Indian snackson offer, the foodies had theirfull.

� The venue for the two week-

end talks was Lady Siva-swamy School. PradeepChakravarthy moved to aclassroom when he found thecurious Dayakattam playersstill playing in the hall. Thelisteners attending his talk onDevadasis took over thechairs, benches and desks!Ram Mohan spoke about hisgreat days in Pelathope inMylapore.

� Shivananda Hegde and his15-member Yakshaganatroupe gave two back-to-back shows. Photographersshot hundreds of pictures ofthe artistes doing the make-up and getting into theirconstumes in the mandapam.

� While Sriram V. strolleddown Kutcheri Road takingalong two dozen people withhim and sharing stories,Ramanujar’s team cycleddown the Mylapore area. TheCycling Yogis had ten Ameri-cans who were here to attenda yoga camp. And the foodiesfilled up on Sridhar’s well-planned Food Walk – fromRayar’s Mess to Janal bajjikadai. (Courtesy: MylaporeTimes)

Answers to Quiz1. Jains; 2. Dawoodi Bohras;

3. Rosetta; 4. Daft Punk; 5. 2005;6. Scientist R.A. Mashelkar andyoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar; 7. Horse;8. Akkineni Nageswara Rao;9. Shizno Abe, Prime Minister ofJapan; 10. Stanislas Wawrinka(men) and Li Na (women).

* * *11. John ‘Deaf’ Binny; 12. Tamil

novel; 13. Robert Chisholm andHenry Irwin; 14. John H. Rocke-feller; 15. ‘Quaid-e-Millat’; 16. Atthe Chennai Book Fair where therewere lanes named after these lumi-naries; 17. Introduction of Prohibi-tion by Rajaji; 18. St. George’sOrphanage and Higher SecondarySchool; 19. He single-handedly gotthe kritis of Thayagaraja carved inmarbles at his samadhi in Tiruvai-yaru; 20. Deshabhaktan.