A thought was born

That block of flats along the western border of the Kapaleeshwarar temple tank occupies the space where, in the late 19th century, Diwan Bahadur Raghunatha Rao's house, Krishna Vilasam, had stood. Sometime in Aug-Sep of 1884, seventeen prominent men of south India had met at this house and resolved that a "national movement for political ends" be formed. One of the members present was Alan Octavian Hume, a member of the Theosophical Society. Hume followed up on this resolution at the annual convention of the Theosophical Society in December 1884 and his suggestion of all-India organization to present the cause of Indians found acceptance with Annie Besant, Womesh Chandra Bannerjee and Surendranath Bannerjee. 

December 28-30 of the following year saw the first session of the Indian National Congress, in Bombay. With just 72 delegates, it didn't seem to be big deal. But Hume had covered extensive ground. He had travelled to England and had the proposal of forming the INC cleared by Lord Ripon, then Viceroy of India, and other influential persons. Without those efforts, the organization might have remained one more of the many which had petered out after the initial enthusiasm. 

The first resolution of the INC was moved by G Subrahmania Aiyar, who was then the editor of The Hindu, a delegate from Madras. In the years to follow, other delegates from Madras continued to play important roles in the Congress. In the 1960s, however, the Congress lost ground in Tamil Nadu and has been struggling to regain it here since. This year, the party has slipped across the country; its annual session this year a couple of days ago was a low-key affair.  An idea that was sparked at a Mylapore meeting charted the course of this country for over a century - and will hopefully regain its lustre in the years ahead!

Charity house

At the northwestern corner of Ekambareswarar Agraharam stands this building, smaller than any of its neighbours. Continuing the contrast, it also appears to be the only building on the street that remains in its original form. In a locality where space is at a premium, with all buildings along a line sharing common walls, it is quite surprising that a building remains stagnant across generations.

And this one has seen a few generations. Constructed in 1932, it was never meant to be a regular residence. Or commercial space. Called 'Govardhana Bhavan', it was built by the Gocooladoss Jumnadoss Charities as a kind of multi-purpose facility. The Charities was established by one of the early Gujarati settlers in Madras, Gocooladoss Jumnadoss (different spellings of his name exist, with fewer 'o's and a 'k' as well). 

Govardhana Bhavan opens up as you get inside. It has rooms for travellers to stay in, a large kitchen, multiple dining spaces and separate quarters for ladies. It must have functioned as a choultry or guest house earlier; I was told that it is used to conduct weddings and get togethers also, these days!

Music everywhere

It is the music season in Chennai. If you thought it meant only concerts in halls, think again. Performances can be seen outside the hall as well. Here is a group gathered outside the Kapaleeshwarar temple, singing paasurams. 

You may be able to see such a group at other times of the year, but that would be a lone swallow. It is during that month of Margazhi that several such groups go around the temple, singing devotional songs - and that's what makes the music season here!

Weekend book

Reading the review of the book a couple of weeks ago, I knew that I had to have "A Madras Misama" as soon as possible. Not having an India publisher, or distributor, the book had to come in from lands beyond the seas, but thanks to the wonders of Amazon, it got to me on Christmas Day, within a couple of weeks of the order having been placed.

Over the weekend, therefore, I got myself acquainted with Superintendent Chris Le Fanu. It has everything you look for in a mystery - murders, drugs, sex, movies, money - and the setting, of Madras in the 1920s, is incidental. However, that setting has been brought to life; the author, Brian Stoddart, has spent a lot of time in this city and therefore gets it right when it comes to the atmosphere of those times. 

I'm not going to tell you whodunit. But I can tell you it was racing good read on a murky Madras afternoon!

In the name of the son

In 1749, the British laid siege to the fort of Devakottai and succeeded in taking it over. That was a battle in which a young Shropshire lad, Robert Clive, caught the attention of Major Stringer Lawrence, who was heading the East India Company's troops in Madras. It could possibly have been a quirk of fate that had Clive playing a lead role there; it is tempting to think that, had a note of dissent against the campaign been accepted, there would have been no Tanjore campaign. Without it, that mad soldier Clive may have been hard-pressed to find another theatre for his success and history may well have been different. 

But that note by Foss Westcott was not accepted; despite that, he was still considered a reliable enough civil servant for him to be appointed as one of the two - or was it three - Commissaries to speak for the Company in the treaty for the evacuation of Fort St George (effectively the city of Madras) by the French. He negotiated terms with Dupleix and took over the fort from the French. Foss Westcott remained in the service for only a short while thereafter, going back to England in 1756. 

Foss left behind him his first wife, Ann Pye, who he had married in 1743, and a teenage son, George Westcott. George followed his father into the civil service, joining as a writer. He, however, stayed on in the service for long, going on to become a senior member of the Board of Revenue in Madras. During his tenure in the service, he acquired property at Royapettah and in the manner of the times, the road leading up to his house came to be known as Westcott's Road. The house is long gone, but the road continues to retain the name, even if some liberty has been taken with its spelling!

Leading lady

So there is at least one place where the lady still reigns supreme. Any guesses as to where this statue of Queen Victoria can be seen?

Merry Christmas

That's the spire of the Egmore Wesley Church - in 2015, it will celebrate its 110th anniversary. The stylized six-pointed star on its steeple could refer to any of several symbols associated with such stars. For today, however, we shall think of it as the Star of Bethlehem, shall we?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

No more shows

There was a news report about Pilot theatre in Royapettah planning to shut down. It certainly had a lot of people groan about how standalone, single screen cinemas have become scarce and unviable, and about the romance of going for a movie in the old days. 

Pilot was certainly one of those old-world theatres. It was opened sometime in the 1950s and was going strong through the next few decades, screening English films for most of its life. Sometime in the early 2000s, though, the theatre lost its charm as a go-to place for watching movies and it was reduced to screening dubbed versions of slash-and-gore Hollywood movies which even Hollywood had forgotten about. 

Despite its recent setbacks, Pilot claims a couple of firsts to its credit. It was apparently the first widescreen in the city, and a novelty when it was inaugurated. The other was something called a 'thread-screen'; what that is, I have no idea. But those innovations were a long time ago and while there was some nostalgia, there was really little surprise about Pilot having had to shut down. But surprisingly, it seems to have got itself a new coat of paint on its facade - is there some kind of a revival in the works?

Merchant prince

As you walk down Bunder street, you get to see this building, with the fresh coat of paint on its ground floor contrasting with the grey of the first floor. Maybe they have completed painting the entire building in the couple of months since this picture was taken. That would be a pity; the fluting of the straight columns and the arches would be lost, methinks, in the bright colour. The painter has also highlighted the name of the building's first occupant. Adam Hajee Mohomed Sait came to Madras in the first decade of the 20th century, moving here from Cochin on the west coast. Cochin of course was not his 'native place'; he was at best he was second generation there, for he was part of a clan that continues to be known as the Cutchi (or Kutchi) Memons, originally from the Kutch region of Gujarat. 

Mohomed Sait surely moved to Madras to strike out for himself; he started off dealing in tobacco and other commodities and over time his company, Adam Hajee Mohomed Sait & Sons became agents for Kerala Soap Institute, Lipton, Nestle, Parry's confectionery and Britannia biscuits. With business doing well, he bought himself some property in the heart of the city's business district - George Town - and went from strength to strength. Though Cutchi Memons had been in Madras for close to a century by the time of Mohomed Sait's arrival (by some accounts, the first Cutchi Memons had arrived in 1815 and by 1880, the Corporation of Madras had even allocated a separate area for Cutchi Memon cemetery), he was the first of his clan to be accorded the title of "Khan Bahadur" by the British. He also went on to serve as President of the South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sheriff of Madras and also as the Reserve Bank's Director for the Madras Province. 

Although none of his successors seem to have carried on his tradition of public service, the business continues to be run by his family; they have probably moved their residences out of George Town, but the business is headquartered in Bunder Street, in Mohomed Buildings, which was first opened in 1924!

Intersect guardian

A statue of C.N. Annadurai, the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, stands at the intersection of Avvai Shanmugham Salai (Lloyds Road) and Royapettah High Road. I am not sure if there is any particular significance of having his statue here, apart from the fact that the political party named after him (of which he was never a member) is headquartered nearby!

Hidden hotel

A guidebook published in 1987 contains a "Where to Stay" list for Madras, in which 'Hotel Admiralty' is listed in the 3rd place. One could assume that Hotel Admiralty was therefore functioning in 1987, but somehow the previous entry ("Hotel Holiday Inn Aya Gate") does not inspire much confidence in the veracity of this listing. It is however true that Madras had an "Admiralty Hotel" at one point in time. It was not always a hotel, though. In 1892, a naval officer acquired a garden house along Santhome High Road and named it Admiralty House, presumably after his line of work. Most likely his family did not want to stay on in Madras after his time, and the property was sold in 1914 to the Maharaja of Vizianagaram. During the Maharaja's time, it was known as the Vizianagaram Palace. It was in this palace that the Maharaja fell off a balcony and was fatally injured. After his death, the Palace acquired a reputation of being haunted and a place of ill-fortune.

With nobody from the family interested in living in the buildings, they were let out to AV Meiyappa Chettiar who took it on an interminably long lease at a rent of Rs.250/- per month. AVM - yes, it was he of the studio fame - had no intention of living there, either. The palace became the setting for a few of AVM's big hits: Sabapathy, Bhoo Kailas and Sri Valli. But somehow, AVM did not use the palace for any other movies. His successor as tenant to the property was a gentleman named Palliagraharam Kandaswami Pillai who announced that he would make a movie at the palace. Titled "A1" (not to be confused with "Ai", it was to be directed by Ellis R. Dungan, but it never saw the light of day. 

With that, film shoots at the Vizianagaram Palace came to a stop. It was then that the owners decided to convert it into a hotel. Recalling the property's earlier name, the Admiraly Hotel was opened here, The sign on its wall along Norton Road was originally unhindered by all those electrical equipment; and, it has remained unaltered over the years and looking quite new, even if it is hidden these days. But don't go looking for the hotel - it has long ceased to function and the buildings on the property are now used as office space!

Screen festival

In 2003, a bunch of cinema lovers in Chennai formed the Indo Cine Appreciation Forum (ICAF) and staged the first Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF). After the first few years, the state government also lent its support to this festival and since 2008, the CIFF has been hosted with 'official' approval. The 12th CIFF started off on December 18 and will close on Christmas Day. 

This year, the CIFF is being played across four screens in the city: at Casino, at the two screens at Woodlands and at one of the INOX's screens and also at the Russian Cultural Centre. A quick look at the screening schedule tells us there are about 30 countries from where films are being screened - they include familiar names like the USA, UK, Russia and also a couple of surprising ones like Ethiopia, Finland and Kazakhstan. All told, over 80 films are packed into the week. 

The photo shows the Woodlands / Symphony cinema. Decked up with flags and buntings, it is evident that it is hosting a festival. Unlike the typical blockbuster release festivals, there are no 80-ft cutouts of stars or big banners announcing a film. The posters are small and you will need to look closely to identify the movies themselves. Woodlands is also hosting an exhibition - a series of photographs of stand-alone cinema halls by a couple of German photographers. Those photos were lovely, reminding us of a time when not only the movies, but the venues screening them were also works of art!

Old news

What look like logs of wood are actually rolled up newspapers. Thousands of them, we are told. The artist is Manish Nai and this is his way of reminding us that there can be beauty in discards, and there are many ways of re-cycling stuff.

Take a look at it, next time you are at the Phoenix Market City. And you might also like to suggest some name for it - the artist has not given it a title!

Headquarters of the force

The straight columns running along the northern and eastern sides of this building symbolize the discipline of its occupants - the Tamil Nadu Police. Like many other buildings along this stretch, this one does not have a specific name; it is referred to as the "DGP's Office" (and very often, also wrongly as the "Commissioner's Office"). 

The foundation stone of this building was laid by Lord Elphinstone, then Governor of Madras, in 1839. It was not intended for the police, or any government organization at the time of its construction. The Freemasons of Madras had had this built as their Masonic Lodge, and it was named the Lodge of Perfect Unanimity. Lord Elphinstone was himself a Freemason, becoming the District Grand Master in 1840 and the Provincial Grand Master in 1841. The Freemasons seem to have used this building until 1856, after which it was closed up for a while. The first Inspector General of the Madras Police, Sir William Rose Robinson used this building as his office in 1865.

Over the past 150 years, this has been the nerve centre of the police operations of the region: the Madras Presidency, the Madras state and now of Tamil Nadu. It was acquired by the government in 1874 - reportedly at a price of Rs.20,000/-, which was far lower than the Rs.25,000/- that it cost the Freemasons to build it!

Groves

I have known of Palmgrove the hotel, and also of Palm Grove, the army officers' quarters in Fort St George. But I did not know that the army's golf course is also referred to as the Palm Grove Golf Course.

Nor did I know that the army was maintaining an ecological park with the same name nearby!

Four-in-one

In the annexe to the Art Gallery at Chennai, there are a few paintings of the British Governors of Madras. They are not arranged in any particular order and there are four of them put together in one corner of the first floor. 

Here they are, from left to right: Field Marshal George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale (1842-48), Lord Harris (1854-59), Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick (1866-72) and Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara (1886-90). 

What happened to those who held office in between these gentlemen's regimes? Some of them have their paintings hung at the Fort Museum - and there are probably others whose tenures were eminently forgettable - maybe their paintings have been turned away to face the wall somewhere! 

Old sign

There was a time when people had to be reminded about where they were. This sign must have come up during one of those times. And it still remains there even today, unchanged over all those years - except for a bit of rust around all the edges. 

Just in case they plan to take the sign down, I would like to have part of it. Please?

Old buildings

The tiled roofs and the quiet yard seems to indicate some stately house. But the arrow signs seem out of place in a house. They direct 2-wheelers and cars to their parking spots. And they also tell us this is not a residence, but a place where a lot of visitors come in. Not all of them would be willing visitors - this is the front yard of the CSI Kalyani Hospital on Radhakrishnan Salai. 

The Kalyani Hospital was built on land donated by Dewan Bahadur Narayanaiyar Subramaniyam, an advocated who converted to Christianity after his retirement. He bequeathed his lands on Radhakrishnan Salai to the Church of South India (CSI). He had but one request, that a hospital be built there, and named after his mother, Kalyani. And so on March 1, 1909, the Kalyani Hospital was opened by Lady White, with 24 beds.

Over the last 105 years, the hospital has grown to over 200 beds, but it continues to stay true to its mission of providing quality healthcare to the less affluent members of society. And in the process it has become one of the enduring landmarks on Radhakrishnan Salai!

Home, sweet home

In 1910, P.M.A. Muthiah Chettiar, a Nattukottai Chettiar became the first of his clan to decide to settle down in Madras. His choice of location was Purasaiwalkam and he picked up a bungalow called "Natana Vilas". PMA Muthiah Chettiar went on to become one of the Directors of Indian Bank, and on to other great things. 

Muthiah Chettiar sold the house to Annamalai Chettiar and it was then bought by S.S. Rajan, whose descendants own the property now. A few years ago, the owners agreed to have the house re-purposed to accommodate a restaurant. The first one which came up there was called Rasam. While the idea was interesting, it didn't catch the fancy of too many people and was closed within a couple of years. 

Rasam was replaced by "Gokulam Veg Restaurant". That is Sri Krishna Sweets' restaurant brand and for a while, it was doing well. But slowly, the mother brand took over; today 'Natana Vilas' is more a heritage outlet for Sri Krishna Sweets, with the restaurant, by all accounts, being little more than a sign outside. No wonder it is sweet home!

Lingaa

Contrived, yes. 

But I don't have any other picture to mark the birthday of Chennai's Superstar. His latest movie releases in India today and my Facebook timeline is flooded with pictures of the man, and several friends, young and old, either gushing about how they managed to get "FDFS" (First Day First Show) tickets or growling about those who did.

Happy birthday, Rajinikanth! Or maybe the other way around?