District livestock farm in Hosur where the cricket ground was developed by Lt Col T. Murari. —DC
Krishnagiri:
Hosur is known for its salubrious climate and rapid industrial growth; but how many of us know that cricket in the southern part of India started from the cattle farm here, asked B. Venkatasami, 80, elaborating on the history of cricket in Hosur, 55 km from Krishnagiri on the Chennai-Bengaluru national highway.
Venkatasami, former MLA of the Swatantra Party of Rajagopalachari – the first Indian to become governor general of India – added that “Cricket was first introduced here by Lt Col T. Murari following his appointment as superintendent of the livestock research centre formed in Hosur as army remount centre.”
The octogenarian continued, “Murari, prior to his appointment at the Hosur cattle farm, served in the Second World War under king’s commission and later rose to the rank of a major.”
He has several firsts to his credit like the first Indian to become officer for the veterinary department and the first Indian to become member of the Marylebone Cricket Club and Madras cricket club during British rule.
Venkatasami recalled the history as narrated to him by his father late M. Beere Gowda. “The lieutenant colonel, while studying veterinary science in Oxford University, was approached by Hilson, director of agriculture department, asking him to join the department as officer.”
Following his consent, the British appointed Murari as superintendent of the livestock research station in Hosur, the first Indian to become officer of the veterinary department following the formation of Madras Veterinary College.
Murari, while in Hosur, formed a cricket team by training people who did menial jobs in the cattle farm. The team regularly played matches against teams in Bengaluru and Mysore.
He was also the first Indian to become member of the prestigious United Services Club in Bengaluru and was a founder-member of the Karnataka state cricket association, formerly known as Mysore cricket association.
Venkatasami was concerned about the status of the historical cricket ground formed by Murari. “A ground with a small visitors gallery to watch the game was there for some time after Independence, but the historical monument was removed for development works,” he rued.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Sanjeevi Anandan / October 21st, 2013
INVIGORATING EXERCISE: Yoga session under way at Gandhi Memorial Museum./ Photos: G. Moorthy / The Hindu
True to the Gandhian ideology of empowering women, Gandhi Memorial Museum offers vocational training programmes
Thamilmozhi Jeyaseelan, a former software engineer, is a busy entrepreneur today. The success story of Mrs. Jeyaseelan, the mother of a four-year-old-girl, is awe-inspiring.
She had enrolled her child in a personality development course conducted by the education wing of the Gandhi Memorial Museum in April. To while away her time, she joined the self-employment course organised by the museum and underwent training in the manufacture of 15 household items such as floor cleaners, ink, ‘oma’ water, phenyl, washing and dish-wash powders. “The seven-hour training was a turning point in my life. It gave me the confidence to leave my job as a software engineer in a private hospital and start a business venture. Today, I am able to spend more time with my family and provide employment to six poor women,” Mrs. Jeyaseelan says. She is manufacturing and marketing phenyl, dish-wash powders and ‘oma’ water. “The ‘oma’ water has become an instant hit in the market. The profits are good and I am glad to provide employment and empower womenfolk,” she adds.
True to the Gandhian ideology of empowering women, the Gandhi Memorial Museum offers a slew of vocational training programmes, besides offering summer classes for school students, yoga and spoken Hindi classes throughout the year.
The museum, housed on the premises of the historic summer palace of Rani Mangammal, is one of the major tourist attractions in Madurai. As per its 2011-2012 annual report, the museum attracted more number of visitors than the National Gandhi Museum in Delhi. From the 2013 fiscal, the museum had drawn 1,94,846 visitors, of which 14,135 were foreign tourists. The museum has not restricted itself to just enthral the visitors, but has been indulging in activities that are fruitful to many. With an extensive library, a research and publication section, an Institute of Gandhian Studies and Research (IGSR) and an education section, there is no dearth of activities in the museum.
The library draws an average of 85 readers every day and has nearly 300 registered members, according to records available in the museum.
The IGSR is probably one of the few places in the country which offers courses on Gandhian Thought. “We offer free courses such as Certificate in Gandhian Thought, Diploma in Gandhian Thought, Diploma in Inter-Religious Dialogue and PG Diploma in Peace and Value Education. The courses are affiliated to Madurai Kamaraj University. Students from Gandhigram Rural Institute and Madurai Kamaraj University undertake research works here,” says S. Jayaraj, research officer at the museum.
Several volumes of books on Gandhian Thought have been translated in the research and publication section, which also documents newspaper reports that resonate Gandhian ideologies such as non-violence and peace, he adds.
According to Mr. Jayaraj, while handing over Rani Mangammal Palace for the establishment of the museum, the State had envisioned a centre where research would flourish. The research centre was established in 1997 and became an approved institute of Madurai Kamaraj University in 2003 and has been disseminating Gandhian Thought and related subjects to the public, he adds.
NO AGE LIMIT
But for the summer courses, the others offered by the museum such as spoken Hindi class do not specify any age limit. “We have been conducting various certificate courses, especially for women, for the past five years. Mostly women attend the tailoring, jewellery-making and household item manufacturing courses and quite a few of them are successful in their business ventures,” says R. Natarajan, education officer of the museum. The education wing also conducts value education courses in schools and colleges to spread the Gandhian values of life.
D. Sridharan, a retired pharmaceutical executive, who is taking the two-month Spoken Hindi lessons in the museum, says spending time learning in the serene atmosphere of the museum is a bliss. “Unlike other centres, the Gandhi Museum charges a nominal fee and teaches us even the fundamentals of the origin of the word. The museum is one of the best places in Madurai and could be spruced up,” Mr. Sridharan says.
ORGANIC FOOD CANTEEN
With the assistance from the State and the Centre, renovation work is under way at the museum. According to M.P. Gurusamy, museum secretary, an organic food canteen will be inaugurated in January. “We are planning to convert the open-air auditorium into an indoor facility. A museum and a park for the children will be constructed,” he says.
The open-air auditorium is given on nominal rent for purposes other than political, communal and religious-oriented events, he says. “The resource persons, who provide training in skill development programmes, are those who are interested in Gandhian ideology. The museum does not pay them and they are volunteers. They only demand a nominal fee of less than Rs. 200 from the participants to meet the expenses of the core materials,” Mr. Gurusamy adds.
According to K.R. Nanda Rao, curator of the museum, the main gallery will soon be refurbished with good lighting.
The yoga training centre, approved by the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University Centre, has been functioning since 1998. “As of now, those who take part in training come on the advice of the doctors. Yoga should become a lifestyle habit,” says K. P. Gangadharan, yoga coordinator in the museum. People between the age group of 35 and 70 undergo yoga training and at least 100 students enrol for the certificate programmes in yoga every year, he says.
For people such as M. Soundararajan, a retired BSNL employee, who grew up in Madurai, the museum needs better care. “The museum needs more staff to clean the premises. When I was in school, I remember the area behind the palace having beautiful plants. Now, we have trees and more saplings could be planted. A new toilet should be constructed,” concludes Mr. Soundararajan who is now a student of Spoken Hindi.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by M. Vandhana / Madurai – October 21st, 2013
As the nation celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, his faithful stenographer who took the speeches of the celebrated monk to the world, remains unhonoured and unsung.
Josiah Goodwin, an Englishman, followed Swami Vivekananada from London and documented his speeches in UK, Sri Lanka and India before he died in 1898 in Ooty following illness. He was buried near a church in Ooty.
“In his death I have lost a friend as true as steel, a disciple of never-failing devotion,” said Swami Vivekananda from Almora (UP) on receiving word about Goodwin’s demise.
Born to an English couple at Yorkshire in 1870, Goodwin came in contact with Swami Vivekananda during his second visit to the United States in 1895. “Followers of Swami Vivekananda placed an advertisement for a stenographer and Goodwin, who had come to the US in search of job, was chosen. From then, Goodwin travelled with Swamiji recording his speeches,” said a senior monk at the Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai.
Vivekananda had such immense faith in Goodwin’s work that he started calling him ‘My faithful Goodwin’. “Though Goodwin was chosen to record Swamiji’s speeches for a salary, he refused to take money after a while,” said the monk. Goodwin travelled along with Vivekananda to the UK and India. “In 1897 when Swamiji reached Colombo, apart from the speeches delivered by him, Goodwin also recorded the reception given to the spiritual master at various places including the mammoth rally from Egmore to Vivekananda House in Madras,” said the monk.
After accompanying Vivekananda through his tour to Almora, Goodwin was sent back to Madras by the Swamiji with a plan to start a newspaper in English with Goodwin as its editor. But the newspaper plan did not materialise and Goodwin was involved in bringing out an English monthly journal of the ‘Mutt’ called Brahmavadin, which is now called the Vedanta Kesari.
“The Englishman could not withstand the heat of Madras and migrated to the cooler climes of Ooty but hardly took care of his health and finally died in 1898,” the monk narrated.
On hearing about Goodwin’s death, Vivekananda wrote a small poem to his mother called ‘Requiescat in Pace’ (Rest in peace). This poem is inscribed in Goodwin’s grave at the cemetery at St Thomas Church, Ooty.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> Swami Vivekananada / by B SivaKumar, TNN / October 21st, 2013
A statue of Rani Mangamma, a Nayak queen of the 17th century who undertook major irrigation and flood management projects and was well known for her administrative acumen has been found near a temple built in that era, a statement of a research body said.
The idol with a crown is seen with folded-hands, carrying a sword in her hip and a saree covering the ankles, a press release from the Pandiyan Historical Research Centre said.
The statue found chiselled onto a pillar opposite the temple.
The Centre’s secretary S Santhalingam said stone inscriptions in the temple revealed the queen had built it in 1693 in memory of her late father.
The athitana (standing place) mandapam of the temple was found damaged. The temple’s name was mentioned as “Hanuman, Azhwar”.
Though the inscription mentioned a temple of Lord Ganesha near the area, it could not be traced, the release said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by PTI – Madurai / October 20th, 2013
The St. Thomas Basilica in Mylapore, in the city of Chennai, India, is one of only three church in the world to have been built over the tomb of an apostle of Jesus. (JG Photo/Wahyuni Kamah)
It was a hot and clear day when a friend of mine dropped me off nearby St. Thomas Basilica in Mylapore, an old district in Chennai, India.
“This is a neighborhood where you can see different houses of worship, churches, mosques and temples,” she explained.
In ancient times, Mylapore engaged in active trading with the Roman Empire. The settlement of Santhome in Mylapore was mentioned by merchants from Arab when they came to the area in the 9th and 10th centuries.
When I was entering the huge compound of the white cathedral, it was hard to believe I was in India, a country where Hinduism is the major religion and Hindu temples are ubiquitous.
In Chennai itself, Catholics make up about 5 percent of the population and the cathedral was built by the Portuguese after they arrived in the 16th century with no local influence.
The St. Thomas Basilica is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore, and the complex houses some other buildings. One of the newer additions houses a museum and an underground tomb chapel. Pilgrims are allowed to pray in an underground tomb chapel without disturbing the sacred functions in the church.
There were only four other foreign tourists during my visit, while a mass was being held in Tamil.
Upstairs, a simple museum exhibits artifacts and the history of St. Thomas and the basilica, including how Christianity dispersed in India.
According to the tradition of the Christian church in Kerala on the south west coast of India, St. Thomas, one of Jesus’s apostles, arrived around 52 A.D. from Judea. He died as a martyr in 72 A.D. in the outskirts of Chennai, which is now known as St. Thomas Mount. The body of St. Thomas was buried on the spot where the basilica was later built.
In the 19th century, when the British colonized India, they rebuilt it as a church with a cathedral status.
Pope Pius XII increased the status of the cathedral into minor basilica in 1956, and it has become a popular destination for Christian Indians since. The St. Thomas Basilica in Chennai is allegedly one of the three churches in the world that was built over the tomb of the 12 apostles of Jesus.
Stained-glass windows show images of St. Thomas inside.
Back outside on Kutchery Road in the Santhome neighborhood, many of Santhome’s buildings are related to Catholicism, such as the college, pastoral center and school, I also passed a Hindu quarter with shops selling goods needed for services and ceremonies in Hindu temples.
Just a few meters across, I spotted a small Jain temple. Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world with most of its followers hailing from India.
By the end of my temple trail in Santhome, I was almost overwhelmed by the great diversity of faith, but at the same time, it was a relief to see that people of different religions can live peacefully side by side.
source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com / Jakarta Globe / Home> Category: Features, Travel / by Wahyuni Kamah / October 20th, 2013
The city police commissioner’s office in Egmore that is being vacated was, for long, a bungalow in a paddy field.
At one point, the police department functioned from the above building on Police Commissioner Office Road in Egmore. It is not known why and when the office moved from Pantheon Road to here and then back — Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
According to historians, the property was bought by Arunagiri Mudaliar for Rs. 36,000. On May 1, 1842, the police moved into the bungalow from their headquarters in Vepery for a monthly rent of Rs. 165.
“In 1856, when Lt. Col. J.C. Boulderson, 35 regiment of Native infantry, took charge as the first police commissioner of Chennai, the land and bungalow were purchased by the police for Rs. 21,000 and till date, the office is situated on the same land,” said historian V. Sriram. “The building is a classic colonial bungalow with two storeys. It has Doric columns with Madras terrace.”
After 170 years, the police are all set to move lock, stock and barrel to the same locality — Vepery — where they were headquartered earlier.
A close study of the building’s history raises certain questions. “There is another building on Police Commissioner Office Road which houses the police photographer’s department currently. It has a circular plaque with the inscription — Colonel W.S. Drever CSI Commissioner of Police, R.F. Chisholm, architect. The year inscribed on the plaque is 1882,” said Mr. Sriram. Why and when did the office move from Pantheon Road to Police Commissioner Office Road and then back, he wondered.
The current move to Vepery seems to have left senior police officers with a heavy heart.
“Ours is a very old police force that has been functioning from this building for over a century. This is like second home for many of us,” said a senior police officer.
The commissioner’s office on Pantheon Road may gradually be converted into a police museum — Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
The commissioner’s office on Pantheon Road will be temporarily used as the offices of the joint commissioner of police (east), deputy commissioner (security), armed reserve administration office and a few other wings of the police.
After these sections are shifted to the new building, the commissioner office in Egmore may be converted into a police museum.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / byu Vivek Narayanan / Chennai – October 11th, 2013
We were a gang of five in Presidency College, Madras, in 1944 when we recalled the heady days of the Quit India Movement and spun and wore only khadi. We’d never met Gandhiji and were excited at the thought of being able to see and hear him at a prayer meeting. We were lucky that our classmate had a house by the side of the maidan from where we could have a ringside view of the dais and the people who had gathered.
We left college after lunch and took a bus to the Hindi Prachar Sabha grounds. Already we could see busload of people being ferried to and fro. Although it was just noon, the roads were choc-a-bloc with people walking to the venue. The prayer meeting would start only at 6pm. Such was the veneration Gandhiji was held in.
Standing on the terrace of my friend’s house we watched the crowds below. They were well behaved, patient and did not need the police to control them. Volunteers went round serving water to the thirsty as the afternoon sun was hot and relentless. Slowly evening set in. The heat became less, the clock ticked on, and just a minute before six, Gandhiji came onto the dais and bowed to the people. There were no loud, noisy claps to greet his appearance. It was as if one was in the presence of someone divine. The silence was electrifying.
Then my friend’s daughter, about 12, dressed in a pavadai and blouse, sang the prayer effortlessly and with full-throated ease. Gandhiji then started to speak. Did the crowd understand what he was saying? It did not matter. They had come all the way, borne the scorching sun just to have a darshan of him. Gandhiji spoke on, frail as he was. The setting sun cast an orange glow as he ended his speech.
What was it about Gandhiji, “an ugly old man” as Sarojini Naidu affectionately called him, that so endeared him to people? Why was he worshipped by the common man? Was it because he sacrificed his career, went to jail many times, and wasn’t afraid to give up his life for his principles, taught ahimsa? It may have been all of these. But what endeared him most to the common man was that he was like one of them, to whom they could relate. He wore the scantiest of clothes, wooden chappals and cheap rimless spectacles. He ate sparsely. If ever there had been a politician who was dear to the hearts of the common man, it was this man. No wonder they called him the Mahatma.
One could say that “the elements so mixed in him/ That nature could stand up to all the world and say This was a man”.
I am filled with nostalgia when October 2 nears. To have been ruled by the British, to have witnessed the fight for freedom, to have seen how people sacrificed their careers and even their lives, all led by one man and then to have been freed was an exhilarating experience.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very Heaven.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Opinion / by Radha Padmanabhan / October 05th, 2013
Striking architecture, history and faith greet K. Jeshi as she visits some old monuments
Tipu Sultan offered prayers at Kottaimedu. His soldiers prayed at the Thondamuthur mosque. On their way to battle at Palakkad, they rested at Idayarpalayam with their horses. Then in the 1800s Athar merchants from Tirunelveli made Coimbatore their home and built the Athar Jamath mosque. According to M.I. Mohammed Ali, general secretary of Coimbatore District United Jamath (that heads 193 Jamaths in Coimbatore district), there are 120 mosques within the corporation limits. “In some mosques the older structures have given way to expansion while some Jamaths have taken efforts to preserve them.”
Minarets of Athar Jamath Mosque on the Oppanakara Street in Coimbatore / Photo: K. Ananthan / The Hindu
Athar Jamath Mosque
Oppanakkara Street
A pair of silver minarets shimmer in the morning. It’s 9 a.m. and sun rays filter into the Mosque on the bustling Oppanakkara Street, one of the oldest mosques in the city. Traders stroll in one by one, some of them straight from the market with their goods, spend a few minutes in silent prayer and get going. It is not just Muslims, people from other religious communities too stop by.
At the entrance, a giant hand-crafted wrought iron gate gives way to a hauz or a water pool (where Muslims perform a ritual before offering their namaz) and then comes the prayer hall. The building has Italian and Mohammedan architecture influences. The white pillars that dot the prayer hall are Italian while the colour scheme of white and green and the multi-coloured window glasses are quintessentially Mughal. Externally, the domes are decorated with geometric designs. “It was a thatched hut in the 1830s built by our forefathers who were athar sellers from Tirunelveli district,” says Abdul Kaleel, a retired Tahsildar and muttavalli (head imam ) of the mosque. The Jamath has over 1000 members, all descendants of athar merchants. An executive committee with 15 members looks into the maintenance of the mosque. The construction, spread across 10,000 sq.ft., began in 1860 and was completed in 1904, under the supervision of 52 athar families. “Our forefathers had their homes in the area and built the mosque here,” says Kaleel. The mosque is built beside the tomb of Hazrat Jamesha Waliullah, which is now a dargah. “On the same road, we have St. Michael’s Church, Koniamman temple and the mosque. All the structures are over 100 years and they stand testimony to a time when communities beautifully co-existed. Even today, the Koniamman temple car procession halts at the mosque for a few minutes and then proceeds,” he says. Personalities including Russian premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and stalwarts such as Kamarajar and Kalaignar Karunanidhi have visited the mosque. The prayer hall easily accommodates 3000 people during prayers on Eid. “Fifty years ago, we could see the minarets of the mosque when we trekked to the Marudhamalai Hills,” says Kaleel.
Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath Mosque
Kottaimedu
Hidayuthul Islam Shafi Jamat Mosque at Kottaimedu is one of the oldest mosques built by Tipu Sultan.in Coimbatore./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath stands tall at Kottaimedu. It dates back to the 17th Century and is one of the biggest mosques to be built in Coimbatore during the reign of Tipu Sultan. He is supposed to have offered prayers here. “The original mosque was built in 1776 by Tipu Sultan, which was destroyed by the British,”says T.I. Abdul Wahab, general secretary of Kottai Hidayathul Islam Safia Jamath Mosque.
Hidayuthul Islam Shafi Jamat Mosque at Kottaimedu is one of the oldest mosques built by Tipu Sultan in Coimbatore./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
In 1901, Haji Mohammed Pillai Rawther raised the structure and it was completed in 1910. The inner pavement is of white marble slabs, ornamented with black borders. It is beautiful and lends coolness to the place. The white marble pillars represent Indo-Arabic styles. The floors are lined with exquisite pink carpets that came from Mysore. Traditionally, smaller size bricks were used for the construction of pillars, which were then polished with a mix of limestone and egg. The mosque also imparts education. A madrasa, a higher secondary school and an Arabic college function on its premises.
Ahle Sunnath Dakhni Jamath mosque or Tipu Sultan Mosque
Idayarpalayam
Ahle Sunnat Dakhni Jamat ( Tipu Sultan Mosque) at Idayarpalayam in Coimbatore is over 250 years old./ Photo: S. Siva Saravanan / The Hindu
A muscular limestone wall, two gleaming teak pillars with intricate work, an elaborate teak wood roofing with horizontal and vertical wood panels, and a central enclosure (for the Imam) that has a semicircular arch-like entrance with delicate carvings … the Tipu Sultan mosque at Idayarpalayam is a piece of history. Built in the Mohammedan style, it is as old as 250 years. “Tipu Sultan, his horses, and his soldiers rested at Idayarpalayam on their way to Palakkad, and that’s when he built the mosque,” narrates E. Nizamuddin, president of Ahle Sunnath Dakhni Jamath Mosque. He says references to this event can be found in the book Danayakan Kottai, a history on Tipu’s reign at Dandanayakan Kottai in Sathyamangalam. “ Those days, 13 people could stand in a single line inside the prayer hall and offer namaz. A small thinnai in the front accommodated some more and totally 40 people could worship at a time. Now, after making extensions, 400 people can pray together.”
The traditional prayer enclosure is covered on three sides with a single entrance and no windows. “This was a strategy followed by Tipu to protect themselves from backdoor attack by enemies,” he says.
The Jamath has over 600 members from Idayarpalayam and the president says with considerable pride how different communities co-exist peacefully. Now, they are geared up for the grand celebrations of Hazrat Noorsha Aulia’s dargah that completes 255 years on October 19. “The celebrations begin at the house of Oor gounder P. Radhakrishnan. He leads the procession of ‘santhanakudam’ that culminates at the dargah. This is followed by night-long prayers in which everyone participates.”
This article has been corrected for a factual error.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by K. Jeshi / October 15th, 2013
Lt. Col. G.S. Gill was among the first of the prominent Punjabis who settled in the city and made important contributions./ Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Lt. Col. G.S. Gill was among the first of the prominent Punjabis who settled in the city and made important contributions
Fellow heritage enthusiast Sreemathy Mohan posted this photograph on Facebook leading to much merriment. Ironically, the ‘Gill’ who is commemorated was a doctor and therefore, technically, a giver of life.
Born on September 16, 1893, Gurdial Singh Gill was from Faridkot, Punjab. Sent to England to study law in 1912, he opted for medicine and moved to Edinburgh University from where he graduated in 1919, throwing in for good measure, a few months service in the Indian Field Ambulance Training Corps during the World War I.
Dr. Gill and his English wife Rena Lister Gill set up his practice and home at Bolton near Manchester for a while and raised a family of four sons. In 1923, they came to India where he joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS) and became Lt. Col. G.S. Gill, IMS. With the IMS being abolished in 1930, he moved to prison service and became inspector general of prisons, Madras, which meant all gaols in the presidency were under him. Most Madras-based Congress leaders arrested during the Quit India movement became his wards and there developed a close affinity between them and the warm-hearted Sikh.
Post independence, Gill opted to stay on in Madras. He and other prominent Punjabis settled here at that time were to make important contributions to the city. The Punjab Association was founded in 1937. The body was to be tested to the hilt in 1947 when scores of Partition refugees began arriving, most having no idea about the city to which they were making their way.
Lt Col. Gill would invariably meet them at the station. A ‘sharanagat rahat punarvas’ (refugee rehabilitation) committee was set up and with money obtained from donations, a colony was formed. The enterprising newcomers soon struck roots, becoming successful entrepreneurs and professionals. The colony became Gill Nagar.
Lt. Col. Gill was a close confidante of Maharani Vidyawati Devi Sahib of Vizianagaram, a princess from Keonthal near Shimla, who had married into a princely Andhra family and had, like him, been transplanted to the South. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had been an early protégé of hers. In her, Gill found a powerful patron and supporter. In 1951, when the Punjabis in Madras felt the need for a gurudwara, it was the Maharani who helped. Work began in 1952, with Gill personally supervising the work. When the Maharani died she left her personal properties in a Trust to be administered by Gill, the income to be used for education.
Being the founder president of the Guru Nanak Society, in 1971, he got the Trust to part-fund the Guru Nanak College. Gill Adarsh Matriculation Higher Secondary School, set up in the 1980s and managed as one of the Adarsh Vidyalaya Schools run by the Punjab Association, also commemorates him. Lt. Col. Gill died in May 1982. His son was the celebrated Lt. Gen. I.S. Gill, PVSM, MC, whose life was documented in ‘Born to Dare’ by S. Muthiah.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sriram V / June 04th, 2013
Mylapore is one of Chennai’s oldest areas, predating the metropolis by centuries. It is this heritage that the Chennai Corporation is now seeking to highlight through a proposed redesign of the roads into a pedestrian-friendly zone. Long-time residents of Mylapore are cautious in welcoming the plan, and have expressed their burning desire for a greater planning and organisation of shops, traffic and other amenities in the area.
When he expresses his opinion about Mylapore, 83-year-old Ranganathan speaks with the comfortable reminiscence that only the thought of home can evoke. He lived in various parts of the locality, before moving to Velachery to live with his daughter. “I was born there. My uncle was a priest at the Adi Kesava Perumal Temple, so we have stayed in many houses in the area over the years,” he says.
Ranganathan recalls the idyllic air that used to hang over the area. “It isn’t calm anymore. There is a lot of activity that some people call development. But that is not necessarily all good. Also, it is impossible to get the younger generation to live in these small spaces that I grew up in. They are more affluent in their mindset,” says Ranganathan.
When people started selling off the old properties in the area – especially on North, East and South Mada Streets – in the late 1980s, Ranganathan says he was part of a group of like-minded locals who petitioned the government to freeze development in the area and compensate the residents so that the area’s heritage would be retained. But there was little response. “All this so-called development has an unstoppable nature. I understand I have become a relic from another time, but the fact of the matter is that a large part of the heritage of Mylapore has already been lost,” says Ranganathan.
But some dark clouds come with silver lining and not all clouds are dark. All the tearing change that the area has seen over the past two decades does throw up advantages, according to Meenakshi Balakrishnan, a retired teacher who has lived in Mylapore for the majority of her life. Her family lived in the area, and the household she was married into was from Mylapore too.
“We have seen this place change. We have lived in our present house alone for about 40 years now. Some of the shops are useful and some are not. After all, how often do we buy jewellery or saris?” she asks. However, the area still holds it charm for her as it has seen a growth in the amount of cultural activity happening here.
“The halls have grown. The scale of the cultural activities has increased. There are more venues in this area now. So, we are extremely comfortable here, as we are very close to the kutcheries and dance performances,” she says.
Meenakshi, however, sees a flip side to this as well. She says Mylapore could do more with a proper plan for its organisation and management than some boards that talk about its heritage. “They need to bring the hawkers and shops under control, make it easier for pedestrians to cross the road and find a way to regulate traffic. Only then can any attempt to talk about Mylapore’s heritage be relevant to the inheritors of that heritage,” she says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / October 02nd, 2013
