Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/09-11 Registrar of Newspapers Licence to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. WPP 506/09-11 Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • When a Heritage Act? • The Congress in Madras • Chennoise – that’s us • In search of the tribals Vol. XXI No. 7 MUSINGS July 16-31, 2011 Delhi & Ahmadabad steal a march You know Kittu Maama! The more and more he washes his hand, the greater he has enjoyed the But can we at least saappadu!! That ‘Sink’ing feeling get a Heritage Act? Wedding Yellai Sapaads are great – grand tradition... (By A Madras Week Coordinator) yummy food.... But – t was announced last week that Delhi will be applying to There’s a tricky side. IUNESCO that it be recognised as a Heritage City. The Indian They tend to get ...er...wet- National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has put ish....you know? together a dossier on the subject and has approached the Archaeo- Which means that the after- logical Survey of India with a request to make the application to meal dash to the rather UNESCO. Ahmadabad is already in the race and Delhi hopes that, Built for the new Secretariat and Assembly complex. strangely named ‘wash area’ by virtue of its being the capital requires strategy and timing, city, it will be given priority. as it involves drippy fingers Now where does that leave and possible damage to outfits Chennai which is nowhere near Whatever the views on this building, (both your own and of oth- ers). even a locally enacted legisla- That’s when you realise fellow tion to protect its heritage? to good use it must be put sink-users come in various This year, the team that forms – and they all cause de- helps catalyse a Madras Week he State Government has fall prey to vandals. Its vast size ing to the Tamil Nadu Agricul- lays. in August hopes to launch a sig- Tfirmly rejected all sugges- also means that it has the po- tural University. Surely this The Have-Mirror –Will-Look- nature campaign to press the tions that it should continue to tential for unlawful activities Government-sponsored com- ers: These tend to gaze ear- Government for the passing of operate some of its departments and may become the den of pany can fit all its departments nestly at their own faces; pat- a Heritage Act. With almost all from the recently built Assem- anti-socials. The area to the into the new Secretariat, ting their hair, adjusting eye other modes and avenues hav- bly-cum-Secretariat building. It rear is still under development thereby sparing the Nandanam makeup, while the queue be- ing been exhausted, this ap- has been decided that Fort St and there is no clear-cut plan property? At least we will this hind grows and languishes. George will be its home and the on what is to come up there. way have some use for a build- The Argle-Bargle-Garglers: pears to be the only way ahead. Readers of Madras Musings reasons being given for this are What is ironic is that the ing that has cost us Rs. 1000 This variety likes to spring that the new building is yet in- State Government is eternally crore and more. clean their mouths, throats.... need hardly be reminded that and judging from the sound – the draft of a Heritage Act was complete and that there is an in need of space. Several of its Every property requires the inside of their toes – in the completed in 2002 and had it enquiry pending on alleged ir- departments are functioning maintenance and that will hap- open. Should you call the cops been adopted then, we would regularities in the construction. from rented premises in various pen in the new Secretariat only – or an ambulance? not be a city minus buildings If that decision is irrevocable, parts of the city. Accepting the if it is occupied. If it is left to the The OCD Hand Washers: Boy, such as Gandhi Illam, Capper then the Government also elements, it will soon decay and, do they wash, wash, wash, House, the erstwhile Madras ought to specify as to what its as and when the Government while the queue behind stea- G Club building on Express Es- plans are for the building. It By The Editor decides to move in, a huge dily ages. does not make sense to have a amount of expenditure will be The Lingerers: They’re done – tates, and Government House. And Bharat Insurance Building vast edifice standing empty af- incurred in refurbishing the but will chat with co-sinkers, Government’s argument that it discover long lost friends, call would not be facing an uncer- ter a huge amount of money has place. That can certainly be out greetings, oblivious to tain future. However, with been spent on its construction. is impossible to have depart- avoided if the building is glares or dark mutterings. Queen Mary’s College being You just need to walk down ments functioning from two lo- peopled from the start. Then, the I-Don’t-Care-About- threatened in 2003, the draft Mount Road to notice that the cations (the Fort and the new The Government may well The-Next-User Messers – regulations were quietly building is already going to seed. Assembly) implies that having want to take a leaf from the ghastly. shelved. Since then there have The neon signs announcing some of the offices in far-flung book of neighbouring Karna- Maybe we need signs....or Do/ been attempts at revival in fits that it was indeed the State locations is equally inconve- taka. When in the 1950s the Don’t pamphlets handed out Chief Secretariat and Assembly nient. Surely these can be ac- Vidhan Soudha was being con- along with the handfuls of and starts, but nothing concrete has emerged. have been removed. The gar- commodated in the new Secre- structed, there were allegations bless-the-couple akshatai. dens are devoid of any security tariat? We also have Chennai of irregularities against the then Seriously – some rules here, The High Court then took guys. the initiative and, in response to and at night the building is Metro Rail Limited, which has Chief Minister Kengal Hanu- Otherwise, we’re sunk...er.... (Continued on page 6) completely dark without any for the purposes of its office manthiah. But that did not ‘sink-sunk’. light anywhere on the campus. taken over a vast and verdant Ranjitha Ashok (Also see page 2) This way the structure will soon campus in Nandanam belong- (Continued on page 3) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS July 16-31, 2011 When do we Hi-decibel weddings get a he Man from Madras unfortunately heard what he a schedule was published and T Musings is still reeling said to the caller which was it was announced that the rota from the impact of the wed- clearly inappropriate and inaus- system would be followed ding season and those of you picious to the occasion. strictly. But that was observed Heritage Act? who read his columns will Shortly thereafter, he was more in the breach than in have no choice but to hear back on the air addressing the practice, and now MMM has more on the subject. And audience, this time giving a de- made his own private schedule eritage generally refers to that its preservation for the hear, as far as MMM is con- tailed account of what happens which, simply put, means you Hsomething we have inher- benefit of the present and fu- cerned, is the operative word. at a marriage. The audience was can expect a power cut when ited from our ancestors. It is ture generations is an urgent is- For, MMM notices that our too busy talking to itself to no- you least expect it. There are used to relate to cultural heri- sue of worldwide concern, weddings have become high tice, for after all nothing out-of- days when power is turned off tage, natural heritage, virtual UNESCO proclaimed certain decibel affairs which need to the-ordinary ever happens in at the main for a full day, os- heritage, heritage canals, heri- principles and adopted a Char- be seriously monitored for any of these events. Then, after tensibly under the claim of tage routes, etc. Underwater ter in 2003. Virtual systems and noise pollution and aural dam- a few desultory chants and a few maintenance. We must surely heritage and movable heritage multimedia pioneered the field age. phone calls (“Yes, you can buy be the only place in the world have also been seriously consid- of virtual heritage over a decade There was a time when those shares”), he was once where maintenance of an es- ered in recent years. UNESCO, ago. UNESCO’s strategy in- weddings in the city were again addressing his flock and sential utility requires it to be characterised by the nagas- this time he gained everyone’s turned off at the main! Or is it in its convention held in 1972, cludes conservation of movable waram ensemble, with the attention. “We are now tying that the powers-that-be in the noted that cultural and natural heritage and museums. only other sounds being those the knot,” he thundered and electricity department are heritages are increasingly ‘Underwater cultural heri- of the conversation, the laugh- that made the audience go si- working overtime to cover up threatened with destruction not tage’ encompasses all traces of ter and the priest steadily in- lent even as the pipers and for lack of maintenance in the only by decay but also by the human existence that lie or toning the hymns.