He won two national awards for the songs “Ananda Yazhai Meetukiral” in “Thanga Meengal” and “Azhage Azhagu” in “Saivam”.
Two-time national award-winning lyricist Na. Muthukumar succumbed to jaundice in Chennai on Sunday. He was 41 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
He first won the award for the song Aananda Yazhai Meetukiral in the filmThangameenkal and the second award was for the song Azhage Azhagu inSaivam.
“In my opinion he had the calibre to achieve great heights in Tamil literature. But film industry reduced the space for his creativity,” said director N. Alagamperumal. Na. Muthukumar wrote most of the songs for his film Dum Dum Dum and all of them were hits.
“He is a friend and we would have a chat over phone once a week. I love his lines Un Perai Sonnale Ul Naaku Thithikkume, Nee Yenkey Nee Yenkey and Desingu Raja Desingu Raja,” said Mr. Alagamperumal.
Later, he wrote for films of Selvaragahavan and the song Niniathu Ninaithu Parthen in 7G Rainbow Colony became one of the evergreen film songs. His Anil Aadum Mundril, a poetic narration published in Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan, proved his grip with the language and close observation of Tamil life.
“It was writer Sujatha who first introduced his poem Thoor in a meeting organised by Kanaiazhi magazine. He introduced images of modern poetry in films songs, which is achieved by very few writers. He excelled both as a lyricist and a poet and he achieved great heights in a short span of life in a highly competitive world,” said poet Manushyaputhiran.
He further explained that at a time when music directors dominated the film world, Muthukumar secured a space for poetry and meaningful lines and also an identify for himself.
Muthukumar entered the film world with a dream of becoming a director and worked as an associate for Balumahendra. “But his knowledge in Tamil language and literature led him to the area of song-writing and he first wrote for director Seeman’s film Veeranadai,” said writer Suka, who also worked with Balumahendra.
A native of Kancheepuram, Muthukumar is also a distant relative of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai, “He studied in Pachaiappa’s college and was shaped by his father Nagarajan who was a voracious reader and had a great collection of books,” said lyricist Palaini Bharathi.
DMK leader M. Karunanidhi condoled his death, saying he was shocked by the sudden demise of the lyricist.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – August 14th, 2016
It was a black day for Tamil cinema. The death of K N ‘Panchu’ Arunachalam on Tuesday of cardiac arrest has robbed the industry of one its most celebrated scriptwriters, producers and filmmakers. He was 76.
He wrote down almost 1,000 songs that his famous uncle, the inimitable Kannadasan created, before making a mark.
Known as the man who introduced Illayaraja in ‘Annakilli,’ Arunachalam was a voracious reader who thought differently and came up with scripts that were big commercial hits in 70s and 80s.
While director S P Muthuraman, a distant relative, said his unit grew on a pillar like ‘Panchu’, Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan became commercially successful through his movies. Tamil cinema, dominated till the late 1970s by Sivaji and MGR flicks, changed after his entry. Folk music and village themes became the rage. In ‘Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri’, he practically reinvented Rajinikanth, known until then for negative roles.
It was his scripts that made ‘Bhuvana Oru Kelvikuri,’ ‘Mullum Malarum’, ‘Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai’, ‘Engeyo Ketta Kural’, ‘Sri Raghavendra’ and others blockbusters. Kamal Haasan, till then considered an A-centre star, in 1982 became popular in B and C centres with Arunchalam-scripted ‘Sakalakala Vallavan,’ the first Tamil film to do a business of Rs 1 crore.
Director Bharathiraja said: “Today, Illayaraja, Gangai Amaran and I are having three square meals only because of Panchu. He was not just a good script-writer, but an amazing personality as well. A good human being, he could be approached for anything at anytime. In fact, for close to 40 movies, I used to run my screenplays through him.”
“He belonged to the golden era of the industry. He studied cinema, breathed cinema. The best gift he got in life is his peaceful death, and friends and well-wishers like us. Respecting artistes was his forte, he took suggestions from one and all… added the director.
Film critic Vamanan said Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth were lucky to have subjects scripted by him. “Take ‘Kalyanaraman’ or ‘Netrikan.’ Such roles could be pulled off with ease only because of his screen-play and scripts.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / August 10th, 2016
A man dressed as MGR standing near an exhibit at the Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair | Sunish P Surendran
Chennai :
THOUGH the Tamil Isai College was established 60 years ago, only about 150 students have enrolled. The college offers courses in ancient Tamil musical instruments. College authorities decided to spread awareness about the school at the Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair on Wednesday. N Padmini, a Bharatanatyam lecturer at the college, said, “This is the first time we are setting up a stall here. We feel that nobody knows that such a college exists.”
The college was started in 1932 by Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiyar in Chidambaram and eventually found its place at the Raja Annamalai Mandram. Besides music and dance, the college has classes in Tamil history and literature. The college is on the top floor of the hall, but the teacher claimed that not many know of its existence. “People attend shows there, but don’t know what happens at the hall. We don’t have a proper board too because the Metro barricades and settlements outside hide the signs,” said Padmini.
Tamil musical instruments like veena, mirudhangam, nagaswaram and thavul are taught at the college. Moreover, the college has rare instruments from the 18th and 17th centuries like the kinnari yazh, mayura veena and pancha muga vadhyam. “We have instruments that only some museums might have; we restore them, but don’t have students willing to learn or even try their hand at them,” said another teacher at the stall.
The institution also has an evening college for students, who are interested, but cannot afford to attend the day college. The college offers three-year diploma courses and invites students of all ages. Padmini said that since the youth are hesitant to pursue music as an immediate career choice, many do other courses and then come back to music, while others wait their whole lives and choose to learn music or dance much later in life. “We have no age bar; anyone can choose to learn. No restrictions,” she added.
Apart from the music college stall,another stall at the fair displayed over 25 Tamil musical instruments collected from around the State, from a cow-horn to several types of mirudhangam. S Sivakumar, who runs the stall, said the display was an effort to get visitors to learn about the instruments and get a idea of how vibrant Tamil music was. “It is believed that there was less illness and there were fewer health issues in the past because there was music to listen to and music healed diseases. Nowadays no one listens to anything classical,” he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / August 04th, 2016
For the `gora sahib’ travelling to inspect the pride of the British Raj – the railway, the glass windows once framed the undulating arid landscape of the Marathwada region. Close to 100 years after it first trundled down the line connecting Nagpur to Jabalpur, the same coach has now been restored to its former glory and rests in the regional railway museum in the city .
For more than 50 years, the coach lay in a railway yard in Moti Bagh, Nagpur, before two officials from Chennai chanced upon it in the midst of mangled metal and splinters of glass and wood in 2010. “We went there to inspect another coach that the Railway Board sanctioned for the museum in Chennai, only to find that it was sent to a museum in Pune,” said Jagadeesan N, senior engineer, planning and furnishing at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.Jagadeesan and his colleague then came across a century-old coach, which served as a saloon for railway officers. “It was part of a narrow gauge train. The wood had rotted, leaving gaping holes, we could vaguely make out that the coach once had a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom,” said Jagadeesan.They identified three other coaches, which was part of the rich history of the narrow gauge lines: A postal coach, a first-class compartment and a guard-cum-luggage van. These coaches were part of the trains that ran between Nagpur, Chhindwara and Jabalpur.
While narrow-gauge lines are now restricted only to a few hilly routes, there were once more than 100 narrow-gauge lines in the country . Until 2015, narrow gauge lines covered 2,000km of the total 1.15 lakh km of the railway network.With a 622-km network, the Nagpur division of South-East Central Railway is one of the biggest narrow gauge routes in Indian Railways at present.
The coaches were brought by road on three trailer trucks.But it wasn’t until six years later that the railway museum officials here got funds to refurbish the coaches. “We first renovated the 1906 coach as it required extensive work,” said Arun Devraj, curator of the museum. The wooden walls were painted, the metal floor welded and colonial furniture introduced to recreate the era when narrow-gauge trains were a lifeline. The postal coach is now being renovated with the help of private players, following which work will begin on the other coaches, which were manufactured in 1968.
Arun said the 100-year-old renovated coach has been thrown open to visitors. “Visitors can sit inside a coupe and relive a bygone era,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / August 04th, 2016
A bicycle café, active clubs and more than 100 super randonneurs. The author explores Chennai’s vibrant cycling culture
As a culture that now celebrates all things quantifiable — a fitbit to track your steps, an app to count how far you’ve run — fitness is at the epicentre of our tech-focussed lives. From the calories you’ve consumed to the weights you’re lifting, there’s a number that makes it all worthwhile. If you didn’t Instagram a screenshot of your Runtastic app, have you even really worked out?
You’d assume then that this cycling fad that seems to be sweeping the city is just that — a fitness phase. Is cycling the new running? The new boot camp? Surprisingly enough, for all the avid bikers we spoke to, fitness came at the very end of their list of priorities. Whether it’s waking up at 5 a.m. to cycle, or spending the weekend on long rides, many of them may have started cycling to get fit, but they all agree it is way more than exercise that they are out to get now.
Creating culture
“Please don’t call it a themed restaurant,” Ashish Thadani clarifies at the very beginning of our conversation. Too many people have misunderstood what Ciclo (pronounced chee-klo), India’s first bicycle cafe, is attempting to do, and Ashish is eager to explain. As someone who cycles every day, Ashish admits that Ciclo was not conceived as a revenue spinner, but is more passion than business, as he’s excited to promote a lifestyle that he has grown to love. The cafe is a place where Ashish is hoping to build a common platform for the various cycling clubs in Chennai — there’s an entire wall where the jerseys of six reputed clubs are framed and proudly displayed.
The team jerseys displayed at Ciclo Cafe. / Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
The cafe’s other speciality is the cleaning and repair services it offers bikers, who can have a snack while getting their rides fixed. And it’s not just pro-bikers — the cafe offers all customers a chance to rent cycles at the nominal rate of Rs. 200 a day to try their hand at cycling. With other Ciclos set to open in Gurgaon and Hyderabad, this time with shower and locker facilities, Ashish is hoping the bicycle cafe culture catches on all over.
Suresh Kumar likes to believe he called the cycling craze way back in 2006. Having grown up watching his father run Balaji Cycles, a 100-sq-foot shop, which launched in 1975, Suresh and his brother expanded the business. In 2012, they opened Pro-Bikers, one of the first high-end stores to sell professional bikes in Chennai. From five bikes a month to about a 100 now, Suresh says sales have peaked in the last four years, which is also why he set up a tech workshop with mechanics trained in Taiwan to service these high-end bikes. Suresh is also one of the founders of the Tamil Nadu Cycling Club (TCC), which began in 2010. They organise about 40 events a year, like endurance races, timed trials and workshops, where all the cycling clubs in the city participate. According to Suresh’s estimate, the cycling community in Chennai is about 10,000 people strong, and growing.
“When I started Chennai’s first biking club in 2009,” says Suhail Ahmed, “there were just 10 of us riding on the ECR.” Called ReaXion Cycling back then, their most popular event used to be a ride from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and back. This casual club soon grew to become an information portal called choosemybike.com that helped people find information about bikes in the market. Suhail now works for TI Cycles, where, he admits, he doesn’t get enough time to ride.
Another big draw for cycling is that, like running, this too is a social experience. It is easier to stay motivated when you’re in a group, and while you may start off concerned about fitness, what you’ll get hooked to is the company. Just ask Divagaran Thiagarajan, who started WCCG (We are Chennai Cycling Group) in 2012, as a neighbourhood cycling group. Today, WCCG has different chapters in different areas in the city, where people in the same neighbourhood ride together. Unlike a racing group or randonneurs, WCCG focusses on getting people together and creating themed rides to keep the regulars excited.
For the love of the race
For Aarthi Srinath, the party starts at 5 a.m. All days, except Mondays, you’ll find her at Madhya Kailash at the crack of dawn, geared up and waiting for her team — the MadRascals — Tamil Nadu’s first amateur cycle racing team. They ride for an hour and a half every day and three hours on weekends. Being the only woman on the team doesn’t deter her. “When people ask me why I do it, I tell them cycling is more than an activity — it’s a lifestyle choice,” says Aarthi. It’s a tough choice, considering the commitment one needs to keep up with the team. While there is only one winner at the end of the race, cycle racing is a team effort. There are positions like sprinter (who keeps up the speed), the climber (who takes care of the elevated bits) and even domestic (teammates who get in formation to protect the finishers from wind resistance). “When you’re in a team, you need to trust each other because often, when you’re riding at high speeds, all you can see of each other are the wheels,” she adds. The rest is intuition.
There’s also a need to be entirely self-sufficient when riding long distances. “You need to learn to fix a flat tyre, a fallen chain — when you’re riding alone, you’ve got to help yourself,” explains Aarthi.
On the fitness front, cycling is a great idea, since you tend to burn close to 850-900 calories on a 50-60 km ride. Also, it’s low-impact with no stress on the knees. For Aarthi though, it’s much more than fitness. It’s the love of the race and the adrenalin rush that keeps her — and many like her — going.
It’s the journey that matters
To win the title of Super Randonneur, as defined by the Audax Club Parisien, Partha Datta had to complete a series of brevets (rides that were 200, 300, 400, and 600 km long, in a fixed time limit) in one single year. He has won that title a number of times — and so have more than 100 others from Chennai as of last year, according to Partha. If cycle racing is a test of speed, then randonneuring is the ultimate test of endurance.
A fixed route, control points at regular intervals and a time limit is all you get when you attempt this sport; you need to have the discipline, stamina and time management to make it to the end point in time. With a minimum of 200 km, and a maximum of 1,000 km (in Chennai) brevets, this is no joyride, and yet more than 153 people completed the ECR Classic brevet held by the Madras Randonneurs on June 28.
What kept Partha going when he started off in 2011, is the fact that every ride he organised and took part in, was making history for randonneuring in India. Then, of course, there was that amazing feeling of completing each brevet. He recalls one brevet where it rained for eight hours straight and he even had to deal with a puncture, but managed to make it in time. Of course, there’s also the fact that he enjoys riding. “I enjoy explaining the concept of randonneuring to the strangers I meet on the road, and they never fail to ask me why I don’t just buy a motorbike,” he laughs.
At 65, Sundar Rajan holds the title of Grand Super Randonneur with great pride — but congratulate him on it, and he’s quick to tell you that it isn’t amazing, and anyone can do it. After a childhood of cycling every day to school and college, Sundar says he got back to it only in 2008, when he moved back to Chennai and decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Regular cycling soon became a habit, and he was looking for a challenge when randonneuring came into the picture in 2011. “I am not a speed guy. I can’t race, but I can manage long distances thanks to my stamina.”
“The best part is that randonneuring demands nothing extraordinary of you — if you put your mind to it, and focus, it’s easily done,” explains Sundar, whose daily routine is now cycling to Mahabalipuram and back in five hours every evening.
The book cover of Cycling in Madras. / Illustration By Akshayaa Selvaraj
A century of cycling
Probably the only city to have documented its connection with cycling over a period of 100 years, Chennai seems to have started its affair with the two-wheel ride right after it was invented.
The effort of a cycling club that calls themselves Cycling Yogis, led by Ramanujar Moulana, Cycling in Madras — from 1877 to 1977 documents every possible connection between cycles and the city. “I was always inquisitive about how the cycle, invented in far off Western countries, came to Chennai, and how it ended up in this form,” says Ramanujar. For him, the booklet symbolises the culmination of his two loves — history and cycling. In fact, the Cycling Yogis came together mainly out of Ramanujar’s love for sharing Chennai’s history as he rode along with friends.
Filled with little gems like the fact that the first bicycle in India was assembled in Madras, the booklet is the Yogis’ way of documenting how the city embraced the humble bicycle.
From indispensible when invented, to relegated to secondary status around the time motorbikes were invented, and now, back in vogue again, the bicycle seems to have come a full circle (pun intended) in Chennai.
Popular cycling clubs in Chennai
ReaXion Cycling – Chennai’s first cycle club, started in 2009
Madras Randonneurs – Pioneers of randonneuring in Chennai
MadRascals – Chennai’s only amateur cycle racing team
WCCG – Chennai’s neighbourhood-based cycling group with five chapters
Cycling Yogis – They enjoy cycling to heritage sites and historic locations
G3 – Chennai’s first all-woman cycling club
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Metroplus / by Elizabeth Mathew / Chennai – August 05th, 2016
One of the British-built revetment which had got weakened at the Sozhagan head sluice near Kuthalam in Nagapattinam district. / Photo: A. Muralidharan
Under IAMWARM scheme on an outlay of Rs. 90 crore
A British-built irrigation infrastructure on three major rivers passing through Nagapattinam and Thanjavur districts will be renovated at an estimate of Rs. 90 crore.
The Public Works Department will execute the work under the Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water bodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) scheme. The British-built revetments, damaged sluices, regulators and weak banks will be renovated and strengthened so ensure effective management of irrigation supply.
The infrastructure on rivers such as Manjalaru, Veerasozhanaru and Manniyaru will be given a facelift with total strengthening of the revetment. The brick work will all be replaced by concrete structures and the damaged head sluices, regulators and bed dams would be renovated, an official source told The Hindu here on Thursday.
The Manjalaru flowing from Sathanur near Kuttalam accounted for a course of 40 km, with 25 sluices, eight regulators and one bed dam. It had an ayacut of about 50,000 acres. The Manniyaru, with a total course of 60 km from Thanjavur to Nagapattinam, had about 60,000 acres irrigating the fields through 30 sluices, two regulators and one bed dam. The Veerasozhanaru had 50 head sluices, six regulators and eight bed dams. It ran its course for about 50 km.
The source said that the work would facilitate efficient management of water for irrigation. The work would be taken up after the forthcoming monsoon. “As it involves a good part of masonry and civil works, it can be executed only during the non-monsoon season,” the source said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / M. Balaganesin / Nagapattinam – August 02nd, 2016
The road in question is in Adyar, shortly after the bridge / Photo: Special Arrangement
That is an intriguing name. The road in question is in Adyar, shortly after the bridge. It had me scurrying home to consult Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy’s book A Tale of Two Schools, which documents the history of the Sankara Schools run by the Indian Education Trust. Much of the details in this article are from that work.
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society (TS) in 1875 in New York. They acquired the 27-acre estate of the thickly wooded Huddlestone Gardens on the banks of the Adyar River in 1882 and established the world headquarters of the Society there in 1883. Annie Besant, who became its President in 1907, was instrumental in the Society becoming a huge 266-acre estate by 1910.
The TS needed a press for printing its tracts, and in 1907, Annie Besant purchased the necessary machinery and established it just outside the estate, on a narrow road adjoining the Society’s world headquarters entrance. By then, the Theosophists had ‘sanskritised’ Besant into Vasantha, and the printing facility became the Vasantha Press, the road taking its name from it. An interesting aside is that the Besant School begun by the TS had its prayer dedicated to Annie Besant. The song composed by the legendary Papanasam Sivan is in raga Vasantha and begins with the words Devi Vasanthe!
The foundation stone for the Vasantha Press was laid in 1908, and it became functional a short while later. In 1914, Mrs Besant acquired the Madras Standard, a daily, and renamed it New India. The paper, which electrified the freedom movement with its demand for Home Rule, was initially brought out from the Vasantha Press.
Running into frequent trouble with the authorities, it moved its offices in 1916 to the New India Building on Second Line Beach, from where it was published till its demise, which was probably in 1926. New India Building is now home to another of Besant’s creations, the Young Men’s Indian Association (YMIA). It is temporarily housed there, even as it takes ages to make up its venerable mind over what is to be done with its original home — Gokhale Hall, on Armenian Street.
After Annie Besant’s death in 1933, the TS acquired and ran Vasantha Press for long. An expanded facility was built in Besant Gardens in the TS premises in 1971 and the Press moved there. The Sankara School, set up in R.K. Nagar, Raja Annamalaipuram, at the instance of the Kanchi Paramacharya and spearheaded by P.R. Pattabhiraman, was then looking for property that it could acquire and expand in. The Indian Education Society (now Trust) that manages the school purchased the erstwhile Vasantha Press property in 1973. The school moved in the same year and continues to function from there. The old press building has made way for state-of-the-art classrooms, but the spirit of Besant, who believed in preparing the younger generation for meeting the challenges of the future, lives on.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Sriram V / Chennai – July 29th, 2016
She is a singer, Bharatanatyam dancer and video editor. Multi-talented.
But it is her unique talent of whistling that has been fetching this Chennai girl laurels. Swetha Suresh is a professional whistler.
She has won the first prize in two competitions at the World Whistling Convention held in Japan between July 15-17, and is already a record-holder for whistling 18 hours straight in 2014. Her name has entered the Tamil Nadu Book Of Records, Asia Book of records and also the Limca Book Of Records. She has next set her sights on the Guinness world records, which she plans to conquer soon.
Asked how she got interested in whistling, Swetha says “I started taking Carnatic music lessons at a very young age and joined a children’s orchestra as a vocalist in my fifth standard. I was fascinated by the sound of the flute and wanted to learn to play it. But at that time, I was unable to. So I tried to whistle the sounds and that’s how I got interested in whistling. As whistlers, we call ourselves ‘flute without bamboo’.”
Swetha’s parents encouraged her unique talent and helped her join the Indian Whistler’s Association (IWA) to develop it.
There are different forms of whistling — blowing in, blowing out, teeth whistling and wolf whistling. Swetha is a blowing-out whistler and she groomed herself as an artist through different innovative training exercises at the IWA.
The World Whistling Convention, which she won, is a biennial affair, and this year it took place in Kawasaki, Japan. There was online audition which she cleared with a top rank, bolstered by which she set about planning her trip. Giving her a leg up, her college, Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College, where she had completed her undergraduate studies, sponsored her trip. A few friends also pitched in to help Swetha realise her dream.
The convention in Japan saw 50 contestants from six countries participating in different categories. Swetha participated in the Recorded Accompaniment (Adult female) and the Allied Arts categories. The whistle artist says it was a really tough competition and she felt added pressure because she was performing in front of her idol, Geert Chatrou, a world champion whistler from the Netherlands.
WATCH SWETHA’S PERFORMANCE AT THE WORLD WHISTLING CONVENTION
But this youngster was able to top both her competitions and got the first prize in both. She even got a special souvenir from her idol.
Whistling is usually seen as a roadside Romeo’s toll of choice, and it is never taken seriously. But this Chennai girl has conquered the world stage with her whistling prowess and hopes that people see it for the art it is.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Stanley John / Online Desk / July 29th, 2016
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday said 35,104 bio-toilets have been provided on trains and 30,000 more such toilets will installed in the current financial year.
The minister was speaking after inaugurating country’s first green corridor – the stretch between Rameswaram and Manamadurai — through video conferencing from Chennai Central railway station.
All the trains running on the section have bio-toilets. This has eliminated human defecation on the tracks.
The minister also inaugurated an upgraded free Wi-Fi at Chennai Central which uses 99 antennae provided by Google. The Wi-Fi was part of a larger plan to digitally connect Indians, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prabhu said.
He made a fervent appeal to the Tamil Nadu government to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the railways and to participate in railway infrastructure projects.
“All your neighbouring states have signed memoranda with railways. I’ve written a letter to honourable chief minister J Jayalalithaa for her support. I’m awaiting a positive response,” he said.
Tamil Nadu has not yet signed the MoU with railways as it has demanded changes in the existing framework of rules under which a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would work.
Prabhu said Royapuram station could be developed as a third terminal in the city under a joint-venture with the state government. “We want to make terminals which would have better passenger amenities than airports,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Siddharth Prabhakar / TNN / July 24th, 2016
The street commemorates members of the Lodd family / Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Chennai has never had it so good as far as interest in its history goes. Numerous heritage walks, talks, discussion forums, photography and art groups are flooding us with information on our rich past. Most of it is wonderful, throwing up long-forgotten nuggets. Sadly, we also have some mischievous elements contributing what can be classified as plain tales.
Take for instance the story of Lord Labak Das. That phrase, for it cannot be qualified as a name, though an old one, became famous following a sequence involving comedian Vivek in a movie that I have long forgotten. But of late, there is a persistent WhatsApp forward, which claims that Lord Labak Das was in fact Lord Labough Dash, a kind-hearted Governor of Madras in the pre-Independence era. The message also has an image of the supposed person, which on closer inspection turns out to be Lord Curzon! And so, Lord Labough Dash is a figment of someone’s imagination. There was never any pre-Independence governor of that name and none of the incumbents could be termed kind-hearted, with the sole exception of Sir Thomas Munro.
As always in such cases, the tale of Lord Labak Das has a grain of truth. It draws inspiration from the Lodd family. These were wealthy and highly philanthropic Gujarati merchants of the late 19th and early 20th Century Madras, the patriarch being Lodd Krishnadoss Balamukundoss, who was a partner in the firm of Govindoss Giridhardoss & Co. His son Lodd Govindoss has been frequently written about in The Hindu. The family’s community prefix of Lodd gave rise to an interesting story even in the early 20th century — it was said that they got the name because they distributed laddus free to everyone in George Town! It also inspired humorists and the early Tamil magazine Ananda Bodhini carried stories of two warring businessmen, Gulab Jan Das and Kunja Ladu Das, both named after sweetmeats!
The Lodd family owned a vast area bounded by General Patters Road. This was known as Patters Gardens and in its heyday played host to the likes of Raja Ravi Varma, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and the Music Academy’s 1937 annual conference. The estate has long been divided among family members, some of whom still live within it. Lodd Govindoss has a memorial in a corner. One part of the erstwhile estate is now known as Border Thottam, most likely a corruption of Patter Thottam (Gardens). This was privately developed and sold by the Lodds even in the 1930s and L(odd) G(ovindoss) N(agar) Road, V(ijaya) N(arayana) Doss Road and Gopal Doss Road commemorate members of the family. Satyamurti Bhavan, the Chennai home of the Congress Party, fronts Patters Gardens and stands on land gifted by Lodd Govindoss.
It is time we stopped looking for anglicised props to support history in our backyard. If we at all want to search for the inspiration behind Lord Labak Das, let us give a kind-hearted Gujarati the credit.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Sriram V / Chennai – July 15th, 2016
