Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/15-17 Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/15-17 Publication: 15th & 28th of every month Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • The ‘Socialist Capitalist’ • ‘Caviar’ for KVR • Pioneer’s fall from grace • Ecology of greening Vol. XXV No. 16 MUSINGS December 1-15, 2015 G Why is it happening? Know your Fort Another fire better – at a another heritage building (By The Editor) he recent rains did not wreak as much havoc Ton heritage buildings as we feared. The roofless Bharat Insurance Building and Gokhale Hall (both declared structurally weak over a decade ago) are still standing and may they continue to remain till their owners see the light and begin restoration activities. But the iconic Lawley Hall Fire at India Silk House’s . (Courtesy: building on Anna Salai/Mount The Hindu.) India Silk House Road was not so lucky. A sus- pected electric short circuit caused a fire that left a large part of its interior damaged. This incident, the latest in sev- The best of times, eral electricity-caused confla- grations in our city, has robbed the worst of times us of another piece of history. For the record, the building, t was, to quote from the well-known A Tale of Two Cities, the officially known as Lawley Hall, Ibest of times and the worst of times. The recent deluge saw two belongs to the Anjuman-i- different faces of Chennai on display and such were the contrasts Himayat-i-Islam (AHI) Trust. A gate for the Church Walk today? that they could have been two entirely different cities altogether. Constructed in the first years of First the positives – the infrastructure did not quite breakdown the last century, it was meant to G Church Street is one of the oldest thoroughfares in the Fort, for as thoroughly as was expected. The telephone lines worked in most be a hostel and training centre there are records of its existence from the early 18th Century. localities and as for power supply, it continued uninterrupted ex- for indigent Muslim children. There is some doubt as to its exact location, the name having been cept in areas where trees fell, cables snapped or transformers com- Built in the North Indian style given to at least two passages in the early years but by the mid-18th with chattries and named after Century, the alley that connected James (now absorbed by Charles) the then Governor, Sir Arthur G Street and St Thomas Street was known variously as Church Lane/ By A Special Correspondent Lawley, the building has had Row/Street. H.D. Love states that it was immediately south of the the honour of hosting a lecture Church and ran on an east-west axis. Today no such thoroughfare by Mahatma Gandhi in 1915. busted. The milk was delivered without fail. Ambulances re- exists. When you walk out of the southern doorway of the Church The Trust moved elsewhere in of St Mary’s, you step into a beautiful walled garden on the other sponded to calls. The real heroes were the policemen that manned the 1930s and the structure was the various signals at enormous risk to their lives, as were the oth- side of which is the immense bulk of the ex-servicemen’s hospital. leased to several commercial At the end of the garden, just before the health facility’s wall is a ers of the same profession who thought nothing of wading through entities. India Coffee House was chest deep water to rescue stranded citizens. Help even came via paved walkway with wrought iron arches at either end, connecting on the first floor for several de- it with Charles and St. Thomas Streets. If so, is the garden and the helicopters. A cab service claimed it ran boats but we will let that cades, but the one surviving oc- pass as a cheap opportunity for publicity. The Corporation staff walkway the space occupied by Church Street? We can only haz- cupant from early times is India ard a conjecture. worked overtime as did Metrowater. And, what is more, all calls to Silk House and the edifice is the civic body, the TNEB and the Metrowater were answered, po- If this was indeed Church Street, it was not so peaceful in its synonymous with this retailer of heyday. Located on it were the Company’s calico godowns for quite litely at that, and action was taken speedily. A city that is not ex- garments. The building is listed actly known for neighbourly spirit suddenly saw its residents rise to some time, at least till the 1750s. As early as the 1690s, Nathaniel as being in Grade 2 A category Higginson, the first Mayor of Madras and by then Governor, was the occasion and help each other. The next day, people had begun according to the ruling of the to get back to work. All this just showed that Chennai can handle writing about these godowns being much afflicted by the ‘white High Court of Madras, thereby aunt’ by which he presumably meant termites and not a female crises as well as any other metro. making it a structure of local The national media, used to making a hullabaloo of such in- relative. There are records of these structures being renovated importance with no changes shortly thereafter. By the 1770s, Church Street appears to have stances in other cities, hardly took any notice, but then we are possible on its façade, though its used to such treatment and perhaps don’t care. The local media become what we would today call a mixed zone – there were ware- interiors can undergo modifica- houses and residences. One of the latter was where Warren (Continued on page 2) tions. Hastings came to live, at a rent of 108 pagodas a month. It is not Given Chennai’s history of clear as to who the owner of the property was. heritage buildings catching fire By the time he came to Madras, Hastings was an old India hand. Also see page 3 Born in 1732, he had in 1749 been appointed a Writer in India. He (Continued on page 2) (Continued on page 8) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS December 1-15, 2015 Another fire Teaching parents to dance (Continued from page 1) front façade, a whole lot of fab- f you have lived long enough tante, some predictions on the Having put this together, ric stored in the upper floor, and Iin this Charitable Chennai bright future the child is cer- the parents get it printed in (see box below), the administra- plenty of wires hanging loose. If as it is referred to in a well tain to enjoy. The guru then outsize glossy art paper/board tion has had ample data to this is not a recipe for a fire, known Tamil hymn, chances praises himself/herself and and then set about prowling. analyse and come up with fire what else is? are that you would have throws in some desultory This is when people like safety codes for heritage struc- This is where we would have received more than your fair words about the student. Also MMM are particularly vulner- tures so that more of these do share of invitations to dance praised are the parents who able. They get these dossiers expected the Heritage Conser- debuts. The Man from Madras are, after all, shelling out the thrust at them through email, not fall prey. But that has not vation Committee of the Musings, who has been around cash. snail mail, Facebook and other happened. Most of these build- CMDA to be more proactive. for quite a while, gets them by The child then begins her such media, apart from the ings have immense quantities of With so many old buildings be- the ton. That measure of performance interspersed with most dangerous – personal dry and seasoned timber, which ing burnt down, was it not its weight is the mot juste, for the announcements and explana- mail. The last named means a is susceptible to catching fire es- task to visit other prominent invitations ‘soliciting’ MMM’s tory notes by the guru. The au- visit by the pushy parent in pecially when it exists in close edifices, see for itself their con- presence are getting weightier dience, none of whom is in any- person, armed with dossier proximity to old wiring. We are dition and then advise the own- by the day. And they are also way connected with the dance, and dragging the reluctant not entirely certain about the ers of what they needed to get getting larger in dimension, as is in a continuous state of flux, child along. After the initial age of the electric cables in done to prevent any accidents a consequence of which chez some leaving with return gifts, pourparlers, as MMM believes but anyone who has MMM may have to soon others coming in and greeting the expression is, the bio data Lawley Hall from happening? But the Com- invest in a larger mailbox. the parents while many others is produced and in case MMM passed by it can vouch for the mittee has long remained som- They all follow a standard are in animated discussion on does not read through it care- fact that the building itself has nambulant. Moreover, there pattern – a glossy cover depict- the state of the stock market.