The other side

Well, you saw the view from the landward side several days ago; here is the Simpson clock from the beach - and Radhakrishnan Salai / Cathedral Road leading away from it.

The Eater's Digest - 7

Four Seasons restaurant it may not be, but with four restaurants inside this space, it is difficult to make a decision as to what cuisine you'd prefer for the evening. This space however, started off with just 'Kaaraikudi', bringing the cuisine of the Chettinad region to Chennai, sometime in the 1980s. At a time when most specialty restaurants in the city were looking towards north India (or beyond the borders), Kaaraikudi went south and became a hit almost rightaway.

With more space available in the complex, the choices grew. 'The Dhaba' offers you what you think it does - comfort food from the roadside eateries of north India - Punjab, mainly. 'Shogun' satisfies your craving for Chinese and 'Coastline' is fresh seafood - probably the first restaurant I saw where you could choose your food while it is still alive.

But for all the choice, there is no edging out the main deity here. It is Kaaraikudi and if you have any doubts about that, the faux Ayyannars at the entrance will drive them out of your mind!

Strong man

Originally begun as a shed making toy ballons, the Madras Rubber Factory has grown into one of the country's biggest producers of automobile tyres. Along the way, they found a new identity for themselves, created a logo and got into a clutch of other activities, many of them centered around cricket.

The 'MRF Man' was created sometime in the '70s, to counter the myth that south India (the 'Madrasi') cannot make the heavy duty tyres required by the trucks. Thus came a visual association with MRF and the strength of its tyres.It has been successul for sure - MRF's place among the leaders of industry in India is assured!

A sleepless night - and a new dawn

Gandhiji was in Madras on March 18, 1919, staying as a guest of Rajaji, who he had met for the first time earlier that day. He had come to the city to mobilize opposition to the report of the Rowlatt Commission, which had been submitted to the Imperial Legislative Council in 1918. Set up in response to a conspiracy by radical Indian nationalists and Germany to undermine British power in Asia, the Rowlatt Commission recommended that the Viceroy of India be given untramelled power to persecute anyone suspected of treason or sedition. Gandhiji, even then, believed the British government would play by the rules, that they would pay heed to public opinion against the provisions of the 'Black Bill'. His visit to Madras was part of his nationwide campaign against those provisions.

Gandhiji addressed a meeting of leaders at Tilak Bhavan, a guest house belonging to Kasturi Ranga Iyengar and the gathering continued their discussions on actions against the Rowlatt Bill late into the evening. As they were debating, they received news of the Bill becoming law; the infamous Rowlatt Act had been passed. Gandhiji's belief that the British government could be countered by normal democratic processes was completely shattered by this high-handed behaviour. No wonder that he spent a "..restless historic night..." as the inscription says. The morning brought clarity with it: Gandhiji had now become a convert to the idea that cooperating with British institutions would not bear fruit and he articulated his chosen form of attacking them through satyagraha, (desire for truth) the non-violent, non-cooperation movement that became his defining legacy much later.

That, as 'The Story of Gandhi' says, "...was the great awakening of India in her struggle towards independence". But Thilak Bhavan, where that restless sleep and the great awakening happened, is no more. The high-powered business executives, movie stars and political leaders going into Sheraton Chola do not have the time to even spare a glance at this monument to that historic day of 90 years ago!

Token celebration

Here's another version of the lion capital that we saw atop the pillar at Ashok Nagar a few days ago. Another version not merely because of the change in colour (I think the Ashok Nagar one is by far better than these gilded lions), but also because that one is actually the complete Lion Capital of Sarnath; this, on the other hand is representative of the state emblem of the Republic of India. The inverted lotus, on which the lions are placed, is missing from this one, because that is not part of the State Emblem.

This column was placed at the junction of Radhakrishnan Salai and Kamarajar Salai, right on the Marina, in August 1997. It is possibly the only remaining symbol of time when India celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its independence. I remember those celebrations as being very low-key, rather muted. Maybe a 5000-year legacy considers 50 years as just the blink of an eye.

The definition of the State Emblem (as seen here) shows only a two dimensional image; of the four lions standing with their backs to each other on the Lion Capital, only three can seen in the 2-D image. This one too has only three lions - or so I believe. I've never bothered to go around it to check if that's really the case!

As old as the hills

This is one business that began as a sort of 'mail-order' trading and then went on to become one of the best known department stores of the Bangalore-Madras circuit. The mail-order part of it was incidental. In the early days of the postal system in India, the postmen were called "runners" - some of them traversed a route so long that the postmen must have had to run nonstop to do it all in one day. One such route was the Mettupalayam-Coonoor-Ooty trip. Sometime at the turn of the 19th century, the 'runner' on this route was Muthusamy Mudaliar. Earlier runners had no dobut fulfilled the requests from the houses on the hillsides to bring butter and other dairy products up from Mettupalayam, but Muthusamy Mudaliar went a step further and opened shop at Charles Villa, Coonoor, in 1905.

With the demand for products like butter being greater from British households (the Indians presumably churned their own), the first plains location for Nilgiri's Dairy Farm was Bangalore, in 1939. By 1945, the store had expanded under Muthusamy's son Chenniappan and was offering a range of products, including ice-creams and confectionery, apart from the flagship dairy and bakery products. With a pasteurising plant in Erode, it was not too difficult to service both Bangalore and Madras, so in the 1960s, Nilgiri's products began to be sold by the Madras Farm Agencies. It would be another two decades before the first full fledged Nilgiri's store was opened in Madras, in 1981.

That store on Radhakrishnan Salai still remains the only Niligiri's run operation in Chennai, along with the Nilgiri's Nest hotel; the other stores in the city are all franchises. Actis, a PE firm took a 51% stake in Niligiri's two years ago to help the chain expand from its current 30-odd stores (in 2006) to about 500 stores by 2011. Not bad for a runner's business-on-the-side!

The patriarch

Founded in 1928, The Music Academy was conceptualized as an institution to promote the study, practice and performance of Carnatic music around the area of its birth. The idea arose at the All India Music Conference of 1927. Now the All India Music Conference itself began as a sideshow of the Indian National Congress' annual sessions, so when it was Chennai's turn to host the Congress session, S.Sathyamurthy wanted the Music Conference also to be conducted with it. At the end of the Conference, one of the resolutions that were passed was a request to "organise a Music Academy in Madras for the purpose of improving and encouraging Indian Music and to consider the various problems concerning the theory and practice of Indian Music". Probably this was the influence of a paper presented by Mr. Ramachandran, titled "The Need for an Academy of Music".

Formally, The Music Academy came into being on August 18, 1928, when it was inaugurated by CP Ramaswamy Aiyer. Dr. U.Rama Rau was its Founder-President and so, the office of the Academy began functioning out of his dispensary at 323, Thambu Chetty Street. Mandated to hold annual music conferences and other music conferences whenever convenient, the newly formed academy always struggled to find suitable venues. The first few conferences (annual or otherwise) were held at various parts of Chennai: behind the Ripon Building; at 'Funnels', on General Patters Road, at Woodlands, Royapettah, at the University's Senate House and even at Dr. Rama Rau's dispensary. Tired of such itinerant conferences, TT Krishnamachari and Kasturi Srinivasan worked hard to come up with this permanent complex for the Academy, and are remembered through the names of the auditoria in the complex.

Somewhat surprisingly, it took seven years fom the time the foundation stone was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru to the day when Sri Jayachamaraja Wodeyar declared it open. Thankfully, the time taken seems to have been worth it!

Do you know?

Do you know what is special about today? I am sure there cannot be anyone reading this who does not know that today is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's 139th birth anniversary. Thanks to a slightly wacky film a couple of years ago, the Mahatma made a rather unforeseen return to the public - especially the younger public - eye. For those born a couple of generations after the Mahatma's passing away, Gandhi Jayanthi meant a national holiday, one on which the liquor stores remained closed and even the five star hotels wouldn't serve you alcohol unless you were a non-Indian with an all-India liquor permit or something of the sort.

Today is also the day on which a national ban on smoking in public places comes into effect. As is usual with so many pieces of legislation, implementation can be tricky - and some state governments have already let the Union Health Ministry know that they will not be able to implement this ban. While it is a good thing overall, the ban notification has some slightly wonky ideas (like empowering a boss to fine a subordinate violating the ban!); one hopes that the zeal to implement it in Chennai lasts for a really long, long while.

Alright, so you knew what was special about the day. Now, do you know what is special about this picture? Okay, I'm away from Chennai and 'making do' with the few photos that I have.... yet, this road has a very close connect with Mahatma Gandhi.... can you guess what that is?

The technology motif

On a recent holiday, I had a chance to go up to the 5th floor of the Sanmar Group's Corporate Office. It was a nice view of the Radhakrishnan Salai flyover from up there; dominating the scene was one of Chennai's new office buildings. It is difficult to believe that it has been almost four years since the stately old house at that spot was demolished. As I go down the flyover, there is split-second lag before reality replaces memory and then I look up at this 13-storied building rather than look down for the imposing house that used to be there.

Though it was named 'India House', it was better known as 'Vasan's House', after SS Vasan, a one-time owner. Vasan having been a film director, it seemed a natural progression for the house to be used, after his lifetime, as a set for movies and TV serials. It was over 70 years old and with every shooting schedule, it probably took longer to recover, until it was no longer a viable proposition to be hired out. Its gates were shut after the last unit left sometime at the end of 2004; sale - agreement - construction followed and in 2007, Acropolis opened its doors to host quite a few IT companies.

Its first owner, the entrepreneur C.Rajam used the money from the sale of 'India House' to set up the Madras Institute of Technology; with the latest sale, 'India House' has made way to a Technology Park!

Power holiday

It is always good to be in Chennai, but once in a while, one is slightly embarassed about the 'privileges' the city enjoys. Embarassed not because those privileges are undeserved, but because the context of those privileges needs to be explained to non-Chennaiites who bristle at the 'unfair' treatment they receive. Right now, it is the issue of power-cuts; normally a power-neutral state, Tamil Nadu has been hit by a combination of factors leading to power availability falling by almost 20%. Power thefts and transmission losses are constants; the official line is that erratic rainfall and lower availability of uranium for the nuclear plant at Kalpakkam are the main causes for the current shortfall.

This shortfall has led to a power cut being imposed all across the state. Factories have been asked to declare an additional off-day each week, as a 'power holiday'. Rolling blackouts have been imposed in all areas. The first such power cut regime came into effect in mid-July; within a week, it was withdrawn for most consumers. Since yesterday, the cuts are back with a vengeance - Chennai will have blackouts for 1.5 hours each day; the suburbs of Chennai will be powerless for 3 hours a day. The rest of the state, though has to suffer through 5 hours without electricity. That creates strong resentment against the city dwellers and there are several demands for more 'equitable power cuts'. But with Chennai generating roughly 4.5% of India's GDP (and about 40% of Tamil Nadu's), longer power cuts in the city will have a huge knock-on effect - and a longer recovery time post the crisis.

The picture is of a substation in the city, just after a new transformer was installed a few weeks ago. Maybe this one too needs a good spell of rain for it to start working!

And the road widens

"Alright, gentlemen, we need some space. So we're just gonna smash in your walls, level the ground, roll it over with some tar and let the public have a less congested passage through this junction." I am sure that's not how it was phrased, but on three sides of the Radhakrishnan Salai - TTK Road junction, businesses (and the Music Academy) have had their limits redefined, rather arbitrarily. The fourth side, with the Good Shepherd Church had a slightly wider stretch of road beside it anyway and so was spared the agony - for now.

Some of the businesses have been slow to re-build their boundary walls; or maybe they were waiting for the road laying to get done. It was a strange sight at peak hours, to see a bank of parked vehicles right next to a stream of them trying everything they can to get ahead - thankfully, it did not flood the banks!

A meeting

A 'General Council Meeting' of any political party is an excuse for the party's functionaries (and their assorted wannabies and hangers-on) from all over to descend on to the host city. While the functionaries themselves may be actually doing some party work, the entourage is let loose to enjoy themselves around the city. And some of them believe that the success of their visit is directly proportional to the inconvenience that the city is put to - at such times, sanity rarely raises its voice.

Preparations for the meeting include putting up party flags, buntings, vinyl cutouts, posters, coloured lights and anything else that the local unit can think up. Thankfully, I did not get stuck due to such a meeting of the DMK (the party ruling the state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital) that happened on Monday. Managed to take this photo of the preparations a day ahead - the Music Academy flyover on Radhakrishnan Salai being lined with party flags!

Am away from Chennai for a few days - will back on Sunday, after a short visit to Dubai. But will keep this going, hopefully without having to resort to 'Schedule Post' option