Books help human beings lead a good life, said former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in the city on Saturday.
In an interactive session with the students of Presidency College, Mr. Kalam said when he was studying at the Madras Institute of Technology in Chromepet, he used to come to Moore Market complex to buy old books.
When asked about his first failure, Mr. Kalam said, in 1979, he headed a team which was involved in launching a satellite at Indian Space Research Organisation, Sriharikotta.
On the day of the launch, the satellite, instead of moving on its scheduled orbit, fell into the Bay of Bengal. That was his first failure from which he learnt and conducted several successful missions.
Answering another question on the importance of technology and research, Mr. Kalam said intensity was lacking amongst researchers today.
To improve this, there is a need to rewrite the curriculum in a way that it promotes research. Students should also learn to accept defeats and celebrate it, he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – June 22nd, 2014
US President Barack Obama plans to appoint a Madras University graduate and alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology as a member of the National Science Board of National Science Foundation.
The proposed appointment of Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan, Senior Vice President of the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development at Arizona State University (ASU), was announced by the White House Friday with 15 other key administration posts
“Our nation will be greatly served by the talent and expertise these individuals bring to their new roles. I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” Obama said.
At over thirty, the Obama administration has more Indian-Americans working at high places than in any other previous administration.
Panchanathan, who has held his current position at ASU since 2011, previously worked as a Data Communication Engineer for International Software India Limited in Chennai, India in 1986.
He received a BSc from the University of Madras, a BE from the Indian Institute of Science, an MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, and a PhD from the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Panchanathan has held a number of positions at Arizona State University since 1998.
He has been a foundation chair professor in Computing and Informatics since 2009 and a founding Director of the Centre for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing since 2001.
Panchanathan founded the ASU School of Computing and Informatics in 2006 and the Department of Biomedical Informatics in 2005.
Prior to working for ASU, Panchanathan served at the University of Ottawa as a founding Director of the Visual Computing and Communications Laboratory from 1990 to 1997.
He worked as Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1994 to 1997, and Assistant Professor from 1989 to 1994.
Anuradha Sriram will host a radio show on the Mozart of Madras
Singer Anuradha Sriram has taken on a new role – she’ll be hosting a radio show titled Rahman Ungaludan. As the name suggests, it will talk about everything about the Mozart of Madras – tales and trivia about the man of few words.
For the singer, who perhaps kick-started the idea of reality music shows in television when she hosted shows way back in 1996, it is a challenge and something to cherish at the same time. “Radio is a different ballgame but the fact that I’ll be speaking about a person who has been a mentor to me makes it exciting,” she says. Anuradha first sang for Rahman for Mani Ratnam’s Bombay; it was not a full-fledged song but a few notes that she hummed. “He told me then that my voice was divine,” she says, “With Rahman, there’s always space to improvise and experiment. He lets you be who you are. Perhaps that’s why the output is always good – from then to now.”
It will be a learning experience for her, she hopes. “As a singer and a person interested in music, it’s fascinating to see how great minds work. I hope to track Rahman’s journey in music…and learn from it.”
‘Anbendra Mazhaiyile’, one of her songs for Rahman, remains fresh in the memory of the classically-inclined. “He wanted me to sing that particular song because he felt I evoked divinity in listeners,” recalls the singer, who later also branched into singing fast-paced kuthu songs like ‘Malai Malai’ (Chocolate) and ‘O Podu’ (Gemini).
Few people know that ARR has a sense of humour too – the singer recalls how he used to call her ‘Gnanapazham’. “He was very interested in classical music and used to discuss ragas extensively. I will talk about those sessions in the show and try to provide a perspective of the composer that only a few people know,” says Anuradha, who also ventured into music composing when she, along with husband Sriram Parasuram, worked on Five Star.
Starting tonight, Rahman Ungaludan will play every Monday to Friday at 9 p.m. on 92.7 BIG FM
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Srinivasa Ramanujam / Chennai – June 15th, 2014
Family members of Major Mukund Varadharajan at the function on Wednesday./ Photo: R Ravindran / The Hindu
At a function, a host of distinguished personalities paid their respects to Major Mukund Varadharajan
The Tapovan Hall at the Chinmaya heritage centre on Tuesday evening witnessed the city paying respects to a son who sacrificed his life safeguarding the boundaries of India.
Major Mukund Varadharajan (32) of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Shopian district, South Kashmir, on April 25. Mukund, who hailed from Chennai, was cremated with full state honours.
A large section of people including former civil servants, military personnel, judges and other noted personalities gathered in the evening to commemorate the brave soldier from the city and honour his contributions to the country. Also present were his family members, including his young daughter.
Gita Menon of Chinmaya Mission began the tribute, saying “We bow to the proud son of India.” She went on to add that soldiers provide a sense of security to every citizen in the country.
Nonagenarian V. Kalyanam, who was the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi, was also present during the evening. In his brief words to the Major’s family, who were in the front row, he said the officer was a brave man and wished the family well.
“Brave men like Mukund give their today for our tomorrow,” stated retired Colonel David Devasahayam from the Indian Army, to the applause of those gathered in the auditorium. Retired IAS officers M G Devasahayam and Naresh Gupta also paid tributes.
Swami Mitrananda, acharya of Chinmaya Mission, Chennai, honoured the late Major’s family members with a memento towards the end of the evening which concluded with a mime titled Paapa by theatre artist Krishna Ganapathi. A video recording of tributes by personalities who couldn’t attend was also screened.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – May 21st, 2014
In Goregaon’s Aarey colony there were firecracker showers and arrack being served all night after J Jayalalithaa swept Tamil Nadu with 37 seats
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa, greets supporters as she arrives for a political rally in Madras, India, Tuesday, March 9, 2004. Indian general elections, which will determine India’s leadership for the next five years, will be held in four rounds, beginning April 20 and ending May 10, 2004. (AP Photo/M.Lakshman)
AIADMK’s celebratory cheer has touched the 8,000 plus Tamil settlement inside Aarey colony in Goregaon.
Most here are AIADMK supporters, who celebrated with crackers when they heard J Jayalalitha had swept 37 of the 39 seats. The arrack rounds which began in the evening went on till morning. Arun Shanmugan, 70, who had a bit himself, said, “It was available free. Of course we are very happy that our Puratchi Thalaivi Amma has won.” Then, we don’t know whether it was the emotions or the effects of arrack as he suddenly broke into tears. “We should have won all the 39 seats.”
Shanmugan’s neighbour, Rajendran Appadurai, 34, a local mason, hails from Elumalai in Madurai. “I was on the phone till afternoon when I heard that R Gopalakrishnan had won with a majority of 1,97,436,” he says and adds with the cockiness of a psephologist, “Then I knew AIADMK would sweep it. The one who wins Madurai wins the state.”
Though many here are daily wage earners they don’t mind going back home to vote. “Our voter cards are from there,” says Sunder Kaundar, 28. The women are more forthcoming. “There we get rice, pressure-cookers, TV sets and idli dough grinders to go vote. What’ll we get here?” laughs elderly matriarch Maniamma Nadar. But, the settlement is divided between Amma’s supporters and those who swear by the DMK. Shanmugan’s house with paintings of Jayalalitha demarcates the two groups.
Though DMK supporters are only around 2,000 their views aren’t any less fierce. Both K Rajendran and Magesh Selvam insist, “Annan is like God. He has done so much for the poor,” he says, referring to DMK patriarch Karunanidh’s son M K Alagiri. “Without him, how can there be a future for the party. I hope he’s brought back into the fold.”
They brush off all questions about DMK’s ministers being caught in corruption. “When you give things like rice, TVs and mixer-grinders there will be expenses. Now they can’t keep giving all this from their own pocket, can they?” asks Rajendran. Their neighbours Tyagarajan and wife Tilakavanti who had gone to Tirunalvelli to vote say, “Once the cases tighten the noose around Jayalalitha, AIADMK supporters will understand.”
Across the city in Bhandup, the largely Christian Tamil fishing community of Madraswadi feels the AIADMK’s performance is the outcome of the Jayalalithaa-government’s work. “Amma increased cash assistance during non-fishing season, set up fish-processing parks and seafood export processing zones in Nagapattinam and Karaikal,” said Mary Arul who has promised to offer a crochet veil to the Velankani shrine if AIADMK does well. “When my cousin and his neighbours were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy it was Amma who had them released.”
In Mumbai’s Iyer-Iyengar stronghold of Matunga Jayalalitha finds acceptance more because she is an Iyengar. “Just look at how poised she appears compared to Karunanidhi with his ridiculous dark glasses and the constant dribbling. Obviously anyone would choose her,” says Padmalaxmi Iyengar, 54.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Mumbai / Place:Mumbai, Agency:DNA / by Yogesh Pawar / May 19th, 2014
The Governing Council of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) has nominated Akbar Ebrahim, a renowned driver coach and former Formula race driver, as India’s deputy representative at the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA).
FMSCI Chairman Vijay Mallya endorsed the decision and the FIA was informed about this, according to a FMSCI Media release here Saturday.
Mallya is the Titular Delegate of India and a member of the prestigious World Motor Sports Council of the FIA, which is responsible for all aspects of international motorsport at every level from karting to Formula One.
Ebrahim has replaced Vicky Chandhok in the role and will represent the FMSCI to lend a hand to Mallya in the FIA, the release added.
Ebrahim said: “While my predecessor worked hard to get F1 to India, my priority now would be to get more Indians into F1 and its likes. We are going to work hard to create opportunities for our sportspersons to step out and take on the world.
“We will make sincere efforts to align with global best practices and avail all possible assistance from international associates.
“India has all that is required for our kids and our sport to unleash, and what we need to do now is to package and present our case to the world. To start the campaign, we need to lead the charge in the Asian Region.”
Ebrahim had recently met FIA President Jean Todt at the FIA Asia Pacific Region Motor Sport Forum in Sri Lanka, where Todt had drawn everyone’s attention to FIA’s taskforce that is currently in operation in the Asia Pacific region.
“The idea behind this initiative is to interact, assist and coordinate between motor sports federations in this region,” said Ebrahim.
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Sports / by IANS / Chennai – May 17th, 2014
Dignitaries at the release of Ambedkar Oliyil Enathu Theerpugal | Martin Louis
Releasing a book written by former Madras High Court judge K Chandru, N Ram of Kasturi & Sons Limited said that Chandru was one of the judges who stood up for the welfare and rights of the marginalised sections of society. Speaking here recently after releasing Ambedkar Oliyil Enathu Theerpugal, by Chandru, Ram highlighted how Chandru continued his fight for the rights of Dalits and other marginalised people even after being sworn in as a judge.
“As an advocate, he worked for the welfare of the marginalised and weaker sections. Many had doubts whether he could continue the good work after becoming a judge. But he believed that, within the limits of the law, he could work for the welfare of the marginalised,” Ram said.
In the introduction to the book, Chandru recalls that an incident in 1968 in Venmani village of Thanjavur district, where 44 Dalits were burnt to death, made him write this book.
VCK leaders Thol Thirumavalavan and Ravi Kumar, columnist Gnani and professor Pa Kalyani participated in the event.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / May 12th, 2014
Indra Nooyi is the Charman/CEO, PepsiCo, a highly profiled and globally acknowledged businesswoman. Indra has entered into popular culture as the self-made female CEO. Indra began her career in her native India, working at Johnson & Johnson and textile company Mettur Beardsell, after studying for a BS from Madras Christian College in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. She moved to the USA in 1978 to study for a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management at Yale, interning at consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton during her studies. She then joined Boston Consultancy Group, followed by managerial positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri, before joining PepsiCo in 1994.
At PepsiCo, Indra has headed up the company’s global strategy for more than a decade, as senior vice president of corporate strategy and development between 1996 and 1999, senior vice President and CFO of the company in 2000 and 2001, President and CFO from 2001, President and CEO from 2006 and CEO and Chairman from 2007. She has overseen major changes for the business, including the acquisition of Tropicana (1998), merger with Quaker Oats (2001) and divesture of the restaurant company later known as YUM! Brands, inc. (1997). 2010 saw the completion of PepsiCo’s $7billion takeover of Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas, leading to the formation of the wholly-owned subsidiary Pepsi Beverages Company. The acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in 2011 was the company’s largest ever international takeover, making Pepsico the number one food and beverage provider in Russia.
Indra has a considerable public profile, being regularly ranked among lists of the world’s most powerful women, including in Forbes and Fortune – the latter naming her the most powerful woman in business each year from 2006-2010. Forbes also ranked Indra third in their list of ‘Most Powerful Moms’ and media attention often centres on her position as a role model for women (and mothers) in the business place. Honours and awards include her election to a fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, being titled CEO of the Year in 2009 by the Global Supply Chain Leaders Group and being named in the Best CEOs list published by Institutional Investor in their All-America Executive Team Surveys from 2008 to 2011.
Indra is married to Raj K. Nooyi and the couple have two daughters. The family is based in Connecticut.
In own words, “I grew up in the south of India in a city called Madras, about 10 million people there, now it’s maybe 15 or more. And I grew up in a city where there was no water. Every morning, my mom would get up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. in the morning and she’d wait for the taps to start releasing water because the corporation would release water from the central reservoir and water would trickle in. My mom would find every pot and pan to fill water in and to give the kids and my dad three containers of water, which was your quota for the day. And you’d learn how to wash yourself, to clean yourself, your uniform had to be washed in it, everything with those three containers of water.”
“In the case of Gossip Girl, it really improved my standing with my kids because I never watched the show. I don’t even know what the show is about except that I got a little text from my daughter saying, “Mom, what happened? Why are you on Gossip Girl?” And I said, “Did I do something bad that they’re gossiping about me?” She said, “No, Blair wants to be like you.”
with me. If you think of a name like, you know, a simple name versus say name that’s kind of complicated like Indra Nooyi, I think it sounds a little bit more exotic. So, it has nothing to do with the person and all to do with the name. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.”
“I’m going to tell you something from first-hand experience. Of all the countries in the world, the US is still the most open and the most welcoming country bar none. I don’t see any evidence of anything changing in a meaningful way.”
“We need jobs and I am not talking about 5,000 or 10,000 jobs, we need several 100,000 jobs fast so that we get confidence back in the economy, we can get people back to work then have the multiplier effect of people going back into construction jobs and then the multiplier effect of them dragging other jobs with it.”
“Growing up in India, I had a long-distance love affair with America. I admired everything about this country — its ideals, its commitment to justice, equality and its willingness to break barriers.”
While Indra advises business people to be ambitious in their careers – “there are no limits to what you can do” – she argues that “it isn’t money, prestige, or power (which constitutes success) because net worth can never define self worth.” Rather people should work out what fulfils them personally – “devoting your time, your life, to doing what you love most.”
She also wants her company to make the world better and expand at the same time:
“I watched the incredible meltdown of the global economy because there was a singular flaw in capitalism. Capitalism lost its conscience. There was a maniacal focus on today; there was a maniacal focus on 24 hours out. People forgot what the consequences of each of their decisions would be for society at large because they didn’t worry about the stakeholders; they worried very narrowly about a narrow group of shareholders.
“So, performance of purpose was born, and performance of purpose only means deliver great performance while keeping an eye on all of the stakeholders. So, you as a company can do better by doing better. It is not corporate social responsibility. Every aspect of purpose delivers profit. When you use less water, you have lower costs. When you use less energy, you have lower cost. When you do a plant-based product, PET bottles and plastic bottles, you have less commodity volatility, you deliver more profit.
“Performance and purpose are linked; it is not corporate social responsibility. But it’s born out of a deep-seeded experience that I’ve had, and it’s also born out of the nature of society today.”
Indra has always stressed the importance of sustainable and ethical business, in part stemming from her childhood experiences: “you can’t have a large corporation using excess water in a town where there’s no water to eat or drink or live – I think that’s a fundamental problem with this.”
Behaving responsibly is, for her, entirely compatible with wider business goals: “Success comes with reaching out and integrating with the community…and giving back to the communities and neighbourhoods, more than what you took out of them.”
She particularly emphasises the importance of women being able to express and pursue their ambitions, listing her own mother as one of her “greatest role models”
For women to succeed in business she sees them as having to “help each other — coaching, mentoring, and providing tips.” She explains: “we all understand the issues we face. Many of us work in important jobs where we can also help other women navigate a world that is not so full of women.”
source: http://www.businessdayonline.com / Business Day / Home> Leading Woman / May 02nd, 2014
The Making of the Madras Working Class./ Photo by D. Veeraraghavan / The Hindu
High Court and Napiers Park saw the country’s first May Day celebrations
On the evening of May 1, 1923, as factories across the country were winding down for the day, labourers of Madras city revelled in the first recorded May Day celebrations of the country at Triplicane Beach. Legend has it that it was in the celebrations near Madras High Court and Napiers Park that red flags were first unfurled.
The events which led up to this day reveal a dramatic story which saw the city becoming an arena where volatile class wars were waged.
India’s first organised labour union was born near the Perambur Barracks in the vicinity of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills of Madras. Selvapathi Chettiar and G. Ramanjalu Naidu, shopkeepers whose shops were patronised by millworkers, on hearing about the appalling working conditions in factories, resolved to form a union.
Providing the historical context, A. Sounderajan, CPI (M) MLA of the Perambur constituency, says, “Workers were treated like slaves in the mills. With the end of the First World War in 1918, the management revoked concessions it had granted for uninterrupted production. Discontent was high but news of the Bolshevik Revolution in Soviet Russia instilled hope.”
The specific incident which propelled action was the plight of a B&C millworker who was left no choice but to soil his work station on being forbidden a break to relieve himself. Outraged at the humiliation meted out to a fellow worker, as many as 10,000 employees of Carnatic mills, Perambur Works and other factories assembled at the Janga Ramayammal Garden at Stathams’ Road in March 1918. TV Kalyanasundara Mudaliyar (Thiru Vi. Ka.) editor of Desa Bakthan, and B.P. Wadia the Parsi theosophist, over the next month, delivered a series of lectures on the need for collective action by labourers. Finally, on April 27 1918, the Madras Labour Union (MLU) was launched with B.P. Wadia as its first president.
B. P Wadia, the first president of the union. / The Hindu
Five years after the first labour union in the country was inaugurated, Singaravelar Chettiar, a labour activist commemorated May Day. Urging Indian labourers to join in the celebrations, he said that the occasion would serve as a source of strength as on this day, workers across the globe would unite in a show of power.
One can only imagine Napiers Park and Triplicane resounding with stirring union sloganeering — Reduce working time! Better Wages! More Leave!
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Nitya Menon / Chennai – May 01st, 2014
A rather confused reader, L.A. Rajendra sent me a letter shortly before May Day wondering who really had started the first trade union in Madras. He’d heard of at least four claimants to that honour and was thoroughly confused by not only these claims but also by the different stories circulating about those beginnings.
In fact, I’ve heard six names mentioned, Annie Besant and Ramanujalu Naidu were the additions to Rajendra’s four: M. Singaravelar Chetty, B.P. Wadia, G. Selvapathy Chetty and Thiru Vi Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar. But as far as I can gather, the story goes like this.
Singaravelar Chetty / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Selvapathy Chetty, a small businessman, took over a sabha his father was running and moved it to D’Mellow’s Road, Perambur, alongside the Buckingham & Carnatic Mills campus, where it was converted into a club of sorts. Moving on from religious discourses and bhajan singing that the sabha had originally offered, it began offering lectures by eminent personalities on a variety of current topics. Then, during the Great War, there were daily discussions on the progress of the war and what it all meant to India. A large number in the audience were mill workers and, before and after meetings, they would pour out tales of woe about the happenings in the mills to Selvapathy Chetty and his friend and fellow trader Ramanujalu Naidu. The two helped many of the workers to write petitions to the management, but, gradually, as they got more involved with the problems of the workers, they began to feel that something formal needed to be organised to negotiate with the mills’ management for the amelioration of the harsh working conditions.
On March 2, 1918, the two organised a public meeting near the mills where several speakers addressed a 10,000-strong audience, mainly of mill workers. Philosophical and religious themes, as advertised, were the subjects of all the speakers bar one, whose topic had only been whispered about. Thiru Vi Kalyanasundaram (ThiruViKa) forcefully urged them to form a trade union; that would be the only way they would get fair treatment, he had argued.
Selvapathy and Ramanujalu next went to meet Annie Besant of New India and invited her to address a meeting where the union would be inaugurated. She was unavailable but B.P. Wadia, her colleague, was. With Wadia presiding, a mammoth meeting was held on April 27, 1918 in Perambur at which the formation of the Madras Labour Union (MLU) was announced. Wadia was its first President, Selvapathy and Ramanujalu its first General Secretaries and ThiruViKa, Sella Guruswamy Chettiar and Dewan Bahadur Kesavapillai it first Vice Presidents. The Union survives to this day.
It has been claimed that this was the first trade union in India. This claim is perhaps in the context that it is still in existence, its name unchanged, and was formed as an organisation in rather formal circumstances. A year earlier, a union had been formed by mill workers in Ahmadabad, but from reports I’ve heard, it did not survive for long nor did it have a formal structure.
As far as the MLU is concerned, if I had to pick a founder, I would choose Selvapathy and Ramanujalu as its joint founders, though from what I’ve heard the latter would have most likely given the honour to the former.
Singaravelar was undoubtedly a fellow-traveller with this group when it came to trade unionism, but he was more a political figure. He was associated with the Congress Party, but broke with it over differences with Gandhiji, and, on May 1, 1923, at what was then the High Court Beach and Triplicane Beach, he announced the formation of his Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan and wanted May 1st declared a holiday. And, so, May Day, International Workers’ Day, came to India thanks to Singaravelar. He next helped form the Communist Party of India (CPI) over whose founding he presided in 1925. Then he broke with the Communists and became associated with the Self-Respect Movement and its overtones of Dravidian politics.
But thereafter, with age catching up, he gradually faded from the political scene, though maintaining an interest in all the causes he had espoused.
*****
An architect’s story
My quest for information about J.R. Davis of Prynne, Abbott and Davis (Miscellany, April 21) brought me much information from P.T. Krishnan, who had a latter day connection with a successor firm, and a rather rude phone call from a reader who refused to send me his information in writing, which is the only way I like it as I am averse to long telephone calls that necessitate taking notes I’m hard put to later decipher.
From what Krishnan and I have been able to piece together, it would seem Prynne, Abbott and Davis (PAD) had its beginnings in one of the first firm of architects in Madras, Jackson and Barker, who set up practice around 1922. They were responsible for converting the Spencer’s-owned Connemara Hotel’s building, that at the time resembled something better suited to a forest lodge, into a then modern hotel building that reflected a classical art deco style. The remodelled Connemara opened in 1937 to rave reviews. Today’s façade and much of the main block are what Jackson and Barker bequeathed to the Connemara.
Shortly before World War II, H.F. Prynne took over Jackson and Barker when the partners were planning to return to the U.K. Prynne, curiously, was no architect; he was the Governor’s ADC. And his first architectural work, so to speak, was to convert the stables of his house on College Road into his firm’s offices. He was joined by Abbott and Davis. It is stated that Abbott never took his place with the firm, passing away during his journey to India. When Prynne went back to England in the early 1950s, Davis stayed on and ran the firm till the 1960s, when Kiffin-Petersen and Bennett Pithavadian (whose father changed his name from Fenn to Pithavadian), who had worked for the firm, took it over. Amongst the best buildings PAD designed were the University of Madras’s Library and Teaching (Clock Tower) Block and the Centenary Building, both raised in harmony with Senate House. If Abbott never made it to Madras, the bespectacled person explaining the Centenary Building’s model to Prime Minister Nehru in my 1957 picture today must have been Davis, though the University has named him as Abbott in a caption it has used. Davis was also responsible for the Bombay Mutual Building and Dare House on N.S.C. Bose Road.
The Davis-Nehru picture of 1957. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Another noteworthy building the firm did design was Adyar Villa in Kotturpuram, the assignment for his home being given to it by M.A. Chidambaram, who was a good friend of Davis. The design, however, was by Kiffin-Petersen, an Australian, who favoured the Spanish villa style that Florida’s Palm Beach had made famous in the 1930s. Many of the corporate houses in the Boat Club area too were designed by him. Davis returned to England in the early 1960s before construction of Adyar Villa started and the building was raised during the Petersen-Pithavadian partnership that succeeded Davis.
When Kiffin-Petersen left Madras in the late 1960s, Prynne, Abbott and Davis was taken over by Pithavadian who ran it as a proprietorship. Then, in 1972, he took in partners and renamed the firm Pithavadian & Partners. Of Pithavadian Krishnan, who had worked with him, says, “A McGill University, Canada, graduate, he was a modernist more concerned with the problems of a poor country and used his civil engineering skills to produce functional and economical buildings. He won the President’s Gold Medal for the design of a low-cost house during the early years of his practice.” Later, however, he was responsible for another type of landmark in Madras, the IOB Building, “the first highrise in Madras responding to principles of designing for the tropics.”
I’d be glad to hear from my caller who prefers telephone-chat to writing if he has anything more to add to this — provided he sends it in duly written.
*****
When the postman knocked…
– A copy of Ravenshaw’s 1822 map of Madras is with P.T. Krishnan and, he tells me, the five boundary pillars of the second esplanade, the one beyond the New Town Wall (Miscellany, April 14), are marked on it. Only, the present site of the Washermenpet Police Station is nowhere near where the boundary marker is shown on that map. The plaque had obviously been moved, as I had conjectured. Krishnan also tells me that the boundary markers also indicate on the map the boundaries of Royapuram, Tondiavoodu (Tondiarpet) and Washermenpet. Three paths led out of gates in the Wall and crossed the esplanade. These paths became, from west to east, Tiruvottriyur High Road, Monegar Choultry Road, and Mannarsamy Koil Street. Their gates, I reckon, would have respectively been what were called Ennore Gate, Trivatore Gate and Pully Gate. I look forward to more details of this area from Krishnan.
– Dr. R.V. Rajan (Miscellany, April 21), writes Dr. P.S. Venkateswaran, had studied to become a surgeon and went to England where he got his FRCS, but got interested in Venereology and became an internationally recognised expert on the subject. Dr. K.S. Sanjivi, who was part of Dr. RVR’s intellectual circle, retired as Professor of Medicine and was awarded the Padma Bhushan. But in what must be a unique record, Dr. Sanjivi’s brothers, Prof. K. Swaminathan and Dr. K. Venkat Raman, were also awarded the same honour. Swaminathan, Professor of English at Presidency College, turned to journalism after he retired and then became the Chief Editor of the 90-volume Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Venkat Raman retired as the Director of the National Chemical Laboratory. As for Dr. RVR, as already mentioned, he went on to become the first Indian Dean of the Madras Medical College, but, points out Dr. Venkateswaran, it was a designation that came into being after the term ‘Superintendent’ had been done away with. Two Indians had served as Superintendents, Col. Pandalai and Dr. Sangam Lal. Dr. Rajam lived on G.N. Chetty Road in a house that has now given way to Ankur Plaza. As was the vogue those days, it was “a sort of semi-circular house (art deco?) with many doors. Dr. Rangachary’s house had 16 doors; Dr. Rajam had fewer.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / Chennai – May 04th, 2014
