Registered with the Reg. No. TN/PMG (CCR) /814/06-08 Registrar of Newspapers Licence to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. WPP 506/06-08 Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • A great collaboration • What is funda? MADRAS • Ramunni Menon & Gandhi • Suggestion to save heritage Vol. XVIII No. 4 MUSINGS June 1-15, 2008 Is VPH to get a new “Look“A ‘Sound at theand Light’bright show side, with- the humidityout any sound today oris light...only 40%... Brilliant, Isn’t I thatthought!” cool?! With warm greetings Listen, we realise you’re just do- ing your job, but could you dial it down a little for us? It’s summer for some, you shrug, adding that it’s been designed this way, and who’s These statues had once been Vestal Virgin white – though when these pictures (above) were taken ‘us’ anyway – specifically? sometime ago they had got blotched through sheer neglect. But when their white gleamed, they were as Oh, we’re number three from The Old...eye-catching as My Ladye’s Garden was. Today, in Technicolor, they are cinematic embellishments ...& The New you. You know... the blue that are an affront to aesthetics – unless you are a Tamil cinema poster collector. one? And specifically, we’re the ones who, right now, are on the spot, your spot, slowly melting into grease. What’s that? Our kind has been known to extol the glories of those such as you, etc, etc, so what are we complaining about? Point taken – but you really shouldn’t let that kind of stuff go to your incandescent, gor- geous head. You get carried away – we’re done for... well- done, at that. You know what happens to us mere mortals when you Uni- verse types decide to step high and plenty? Look, news headlines are warm enough – what with all those ‘inflation heats up’ reports, and even the gentle, ubiqui- tous idli finding itself in the middle of a price row. The powers-that-be shouldn’t give us a sort of package deal of rising prices and tempera- An ecosystem tures. Chennai goes blindly Unfair. That thick, wild, fiery mane, under threat Technicolor that glowing smile – awesome (By A Special Correspondent) (By A Special Correspondent) image... still, can you ease up, he recent decision of the The latest announce- old friend? TState Government to sanc- ment follows a series of de- ho governs public aesthetics in Madras that is Chennai? Is Just a bit? tion the building of a shipyard- velopments that have taken Wthere a body that looks into aspects such as these when the That way, we can strive for a cum-port with private partici- place in the Kattupalli area, Government announces “beautification” schemes such as those in place amidst you. pation at a cost of Rs. 3000 each degrading the environ- progress on the Marina and elsewhere? True, there have been So much nicer than having it crore in the area of Kattupalli, ment further. The North concerned citizen forums and local newspapers which have taken some interest, but is there a panel of eminent independent citizens thrust upon us. 25 km north of Chennai, has Chennai Thermal Power raised questions – and protests Plant, the Ennore Port and (Continued on page 2) Ranjitha Ashok – from ecologists. (Continued on page 7) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS June 1-15, 2008 Chennai goes blindly Reporters in search of soundbytes he arrival of a new daily ing off whoever calls with a Saidapet. He also helpfully Tin the city has thrown the terse “No comment.” added that he needed to write Technicolor newspaper world of this city 100 words about the area. (Continued from page 1) into turmoil. In fact, the churn Crossed talk Realising that a few sentences began much before the daily would amount to just that and which monitors such grandiose plans and their ultimate fruition? made its actual appearance. t least one request for a would save him the job of re- The answer is a resounding NO. If such a monitoring body had Several journalists think that Asoundbyte deserves re- searching, MMM suggested existed, we would perhaps have never got those rockeries with The Man from Madras Musings cording in the annals of Madras that he could read Madras Re- stone birds and deer on the beachfront. The same goes for the has all the answers to queries Musings. discovered. “Peace Monument” next to the War Memorial which is, at best, a on Madras and keep calling The reporter called The “But, Sir,” came the reply, memorial to a super-fatted dove relieving itself on a globe. him. A few weeks ago these Man from Madras Musings and “It has 500 pages and I have fif- calls diminished in number asked if he has heard of a par- teen minutes to write the piece.” Now the city is becoming extremely colourful. And the colours and, instead, he began getting a ticular starlet from the Hindi “Look up the index,” was are not the ones any person with a sense of aesthetics would sug- host of calls from strange and film industry. MMM confirmed MMM’s sage advice. He’s lucky gest. You need to only look around to see the liberal use of colour. unrecognised telephone num- that he had. Whereupon he he did not contact the Chief The Dental College on Muthuswami Iyer Road has been painted bers. MMM, who has the habit was asked if he knew that she who would have snapped his in blue. Victoria Technical Institute on Mount Road, which was of avoiding calls unless he had recently been in the thick head off and informed him that white till recently, first went pink (often referred to as ‘mittai’ recognises the numbers, ig- of a controversy over a particu- after 60 years in journalism he pink in local parlance) and has now gone parrot green – or should nores them all. In this respect, lar sitting posture of hers in a knew all about deadlines. we say ‘bilious green’? There is also a flourishing trade in fluores- MMM differs from his good film. MMM had not and all this cent paints, with many residences in the city now donning yel- lady, who answers all calls and while MMM’s blood pressure, Railway billboards low, saffron and purple. These colour changes are apparently be- manages to strike a conversa- always apt to reach great ing recommended to those seeking to appease the Vaastu gods. tion with even those who call heights, began its ascent. ow that the hoarding in On a more mundane level, there are tales spun about those left inadvertently. However, that is The reporter then pro- Ndustry has gone into a with a large surplus stock of fluorescent paints. neither here nor there. ceeded to ask MMM if he could temporary exile, those who To get back to the main tell her what, as per the need to advertise are desperate Even statues are not being spared. There was a time when story, MMM eventually got shastras, were the acceptable for new venues and what better these were put up with their natural bronze or a coat of black around to answering the calls sitting postures of women! than the sides of railway paint at the most. But now many of these are painted a bright only to have the callers rather MMM replied that, alas, he coaches? Given that our rail- gold, as the Swami Vivekananda statue on the beach will attest. sheepishly confess that they knew nothing about our hoary ways are commercialising with Even worse has happened to the statue of the Travancore Maha- had made a change and were scriptures. There was a click of a vengeance, it is a win-win rajah Chitra Tirunal Balarama Varma. This was for long in the now in new offices. To MMM, exasperation at the other end of situation for one and all. That Travancore Maharajah’s Park opposite the Annamalai Manram. it is all rather like a game of is, if you do not consider aes- Then the park became a bus terminal and the statue became a musical chairs, only there seem thetics and passenger conve- convenient urinal. All this while, however, it retained its bronze to be fewer reporters and more SHORT ’N’ nience. These two, of course, finish. But well-wishers of the Maharajah felt that he was better jobs available. do not matter in today’s world. off enshrined in the Ananthapadmanabhaswami Temple in Adyar SNAPPY Now, given such a situation, To The Man from Madras and shifted the statue there. And, lo! some bright spark thought all these young ’uns are under Musings, there is nothing uglier the ruler was better off painted in multiple colours and he now great pressure to rustle up some than a railway carriage which is stands looking like a clay doll in polychrome hues. the wire. “But, Uncle! I thought covered from top to bottom on story or the other and very often you were an expert on heri- they are given about the same the outside with vinyl sheets or Nowhere is this “Benneton”isation of statues more evident tage!” whatever they are, advertising than in the My Ladye’s Garden, which possesses five statues in time as it takes for a mosquito to You could see that MMM breed. Consequently, old fogeys products ranging from cell all, four depicting Venus, Prosperity, A woman writing a letter, had fallen from his pedestal.