Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/12-14 Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/12-14 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 • At talks and walks (3 pages) • Celebrating our city • Madras Week in colour (2 pages) • Etched in copper Vol. XXIV No. 10 MUSINGS September 1-15, 2014 Will it next be a Madras Landmarks ‘Madras Season’? – 50 years ago (By Sriram V., Associate Editor, Madras Musings) nd so, the 375th birthday encouraging the organisers and Week clearly is becoming Aof Madras that is Chennai presenters even more. The younger each year and that is a has come and gone. What re- number of heritage walks in the very healthy sign. The presence mains is a wonderful memory, a city and events of a similar na- of the young also ensured that happy recollection of a great ture was a mind-boggling 38, all IT companies sat up and took week gone by, when several sec- of them with full participation. notice. tions of society celebrated the There were three factors The second was the way the birthday with unprecedented that made a key difference to electronic media took an inter- enthusiasion. Truly, Chennai this year’s celebration. The first est in the celebrations. This has has notched up another first – was the participation of the never happened in past years. the only city in the country to youth. For the first time, True, the English media did celebrate its birthday each year Madras Week was not some- report on it in the past, but the and commemorate its 375th in thing that attracted only the Tamil TV channels had largely a most befitting manner. middle-aged and above. It had dismissed the event as elitist The team of coordinators is gennext in full force, organising, and being celebrated by a no longer small. This year, we conducting and participating in minority of people. This year saw the coming of age of the events exclusively meant for that was not the case. It was in Madras Week celebrations – them. It was a spontaneous ex- fact the Tamil channels that there were scores of volunteers pression of love for the city. The took the lead. On August 22nd, from every part of the city. Yes, young also took Madras Week most of them had flashing mes- even North Chennai that into the world of social media – sages on the ticker tape indicat- G Art Deco is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with usually remains aloof organised there were Facebook posts, ing that it was Madras Day. machinery age materials and shapes. Beginning in France in the 1920s, it an event or two. More impor- tweets, blogs and instagram/ They also had special program- became popular the world over and lasted till the 1940s. It came somewhat tantly, each and every event flickr updates that kept the mes. The radio channels too late to India where it is perhaps best associated with cinema theatres. Art was well attended, thereby internet world buzzing. Madras (Continued on page 5) Deco arrived in Madras by the late 1930s, with Parry & Co’s Dare House, constructed between the late 1930s and early 1940s, being among the first. With that iconic building dominating the skyline of Esplanade Road/ Madras Week – China Bazar Road (now NSC Bose Road), it was but natural that neighbouring structures when built decided to follow the same style. All of these came up on land once occupied by the classical edifices of the Madras Christian College and School, which functioned in this area before shifting a people’s celebration to Tambaram and Chetpet from the 1930s. Its buildings were all bought over by finance and insurance companies which functioned in them till the (By The Editor) 1950s when they began demolition in order to build new offices in modern ver 150 events spread insula, civic conservancy and the Pallava, Chola, Pandya and style. The sole survivor of the college structures is the Anderson Church. Oacross several locations the economy. There were views Chera kingdoms. If that is so, One of the newcomers was the State Bank of Mysore. and organisations of the city expressed on the challenges why was this opportunity not The State Bank of Mysore came into existence in 1913 as the Bank of have just come to an end. All of that the city faces in its journey taken to highlight the relics of Mysore Limited, established under the patronage of the Maharajah of that these were to commemorate the to becoming a world-class me- that glorious past, of which princely state, on the advice of Sir M. Visweswarayya. It was, however, only 375th birthday of our city. The tropolis. There were presenta- there are several in the city it- in the 1950s that it opened an office in Madras, purchasing the erstwhile events witnessed full houses tions on the lives of several self? Why were special trips not College Hall of Madras Christian College. This was demolished and the and were held with the enthusi- noble residents of the city who organised to the Pallava cave at new structure came up in pristine Art Deco style. The chief architect was astic support of the hospitality went on to make powerful con- Pallavaram, perhaps the first in- B.R. Manickam, then the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, industry and the media. If this tributions to the world. The stance of a temple being hewn Mysore (afterwards Karnataka). Of note is that, he was also later the ar- was not a sure shot success, current generation, to which out of a rock in India? Could chitect of the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore. Assisting him in the Bank of then what was it? Certainly it the British Raj is something that not events focussing on the Mysore building was the firm of C.R. Narayana Rao. was NOT what a Tourism De- is only in text books, came out grand temples that dot the city’s partment official apparently dis- in full strength to participate. coastline have been planned? Built with the grey stone with which several of the Bangalore edifices of the period were constructed, the Bank of Mysore building was inaugurated missed as a celebration of the Are these expressions of a Could the Museum not have on September 5, 1957 by K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Madras, in the ‘colonial’ in a display of a mind- ‘colonial hangover’? What we been asked to showcase its presence of S. Nijalingappa, Chief Minister of Mysore. Two years later, the set out of tune with the times. did was celebrate our city, warts Bronze Gallery and its magni- bank was reconstituted as the State Bank of Mysore, becoming a subsidiary Consider the facts – much of and all. ficient collections of inscrip- of the State Bank of India. what went into celebrating The same official apparently tions? By merely dismissing Madras Week this year con- also said that his department is Madras Week as a Brown Sahib The building continues to be in use and is well maintained, at least from cerned the here and now. There only mandated to celebrate the event, the Department of Tour- outside, barring a distressing tendency to replace the original windows with were discussions on business ancient Dravidian age, the plate glass. Along with its neighbours, it presents a uniformity of skyline that leadership, security of the pen- Sangam era, and the glories of (Continued on page 2) is rare in an increasingly cluttered city. CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 1-15, 2014 Karnataka plans to protect Weak after Madras Week t is done, Chief! Exactly as events, though for what earthly to the periphery and there they Iyou had predicted it would purpose MMM does not know. eked out a precarious living in heritage sites be a celebration worthy of 375 May be he plans a parallel areas such as Royapuram, years. Old Mother Madras event in the underworld. Then Wall Tax Road and Park G The Deccan Herald, Bangalore, recently reported never had it so good before. there is he of bouncer-build Town. All this was said with a the following: Cakes, books, talks, walks, who feeds on everything that is breezy insouciance that only a film screenings, exhibitions, on offer including, in MMM’s politician can bring to a sub- he Archaeology, Museums and Heritage Department, quizzes, rides, sails, TV fea- view, the paper plates and the ject that he knows nothing T Karnataka, has proposed to bring heritage sites in the State tures, news reports, tweets, fb polystyrene cups. At one event, about. If MMM had been on under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act (KTCPA) posts, blogs, photo sessions… MMM, not having much else the spot he could have asked for their protection and conservation. you name it, we had it. And to do, counted the man con- the man as to how was it then Once the heritage sites are brought under the KTCPA, the The Man from Madras Musings suming twenty savouries, fif- that most of the streets of was happy to see you, Chief, teen cups of sweets, twelve George Town were named urban development authorities, such as the Bangalore Develop- flitting from spot to spot, so to plates of fritters and six cups of after Indian dubashes. ment Authority and the Mysore Urban Development Authority speak, always being greeted by coffee.