Chennapuri: Part 9

Chapter 9

1. 

10 Carnatic gardens  Our residece from 1971 to 1981

Madras 1966 to 1999.
The Dravidian party came to power and no one at that time realized that it was almost a break with the past. We had a few years of Annadurai’s statesmanship and after his death populism and corruption. We had years of political infighting, with no holds barred , which continues to this day. We had the charismatic M.G.R, a popular film actor as chief Minister. He had the knack of introducing socially relevant schemes which were very popular with the masses. The great Rama -Ravana war between Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi continues unabated. The government did do a lot things to hasten the development of the state but the development could have been much faster if there was vision and honesty.

The immediate change was pride in Tamil language and efforts made to promote it. It was made clear that you were in a Tamil city and the cosmopolitan nature of the city went to the background. The great contributions of the Andhras, Keralites, Kannadigas and British were down played. The original three Metropolises which were cosmopolitan cities became regional capitals. What the Siva Shena did to Bombay, was attempted in Madras also but fortunately with lesser effect. You have to thank the Chennaites for this. Madras changed its name to Chennai but it did not matter as this name for very familiar and used even during British days. New Indian firms and industries came up in the suburbs. The junior level expatriates in English companies disappeared to be replaced by  brown sahibs. I remember when I was confirmed in Binnys my boss informed by telling me to get my dinner jacket. DJ’s were replaced by national dress or suit. The clubs had only an odd expatriate. The venerable Madras club at last started taking Indian members -of course after  extensive vetting. Only senior expatriates remained to enjoy life till they collected their pension.

The news papers and magazines exploded especially in Tamil. Movie industry zoomed with new heroes and heroines. Alas the mythology movies disappeared to be replaced by our version of Hollywood films. Film stars became very popular and trend setters. A film star’s romance, marriage, views on every thing under the sun was written about even in the venerable Hindu. Make up artists and photographers mastered the art of making even ordinary looking glamorous. Hoarding artists could paint huge hoardings with lovely heroines six feet high. Film song writers were house hold names who made huge fortunes.

                                
                                            Cinema hoarding

But all was not lost. There was a resurgence of classical and music and dance. New names, new forms new ideas and new dance forms were tried .The music academy and other sabhas started organizing music and dance festivals in December. Corporate sponsors and philanthropists have taken over nurturing art from the old royalty. The Chennai December art fest had become very famous and the whole city was bustling and all talk was on the various performances. The city had become very eclectic and new art forms were tried out. North Indian music and western music became very popular.

Chennai was probably the first city to have an all painters and sculptors enclave. This is still a thriving colony where the artists are able to work in their own environment. You now have art galleries all over Chennai.

Dramatics had a revival and socially relevant themes became popular. Cho Ramaswamy gave up an office career to write witty social and political satires and formed his own drama group to perform them. They are a still a hit and have you holding your self in laughter. Of course in spite of all the barbs the politicians have not changed. The old Madras Players are still very active and still enact English plays on Indian themes. Then we have visiting performers from outside all through the year. The only missing link with old days is acting of Shakespearian plays by local enthusiasts. In the 40s and 50s Professor Sundaram had a troop of actors acting the plays. He knew most of the plays by heart. In true Elizabethan spirit he came fully primed .Once in a play when Brutus forgot to stab Caesar, Sundaram as dead Caesar extended his arm with knife to Brutus shouting “stab me“. We do get Shakespearian plays enacted by professional players from U.K arranged by the British Council once in a way but the old fun is gone.

The unbelievable has happened. You see south Indian girls with hair of all hues except blond instead of Black only! Hair style comes in different shapes. Jeans and tops are popular. Even the not so young have taken to it. Beauty parlors and gyms are in every nook and corner. Hot pants are worn by the teen age girls .You had to wait all these years to find how attractive south Indian girls can be.

The political parties found there was more money in selling liqour licenses than in money from getting cut backs from bootleggers. So they quietly forgot their moral crusade and scrapped prohibition. The result was bars and discos. The city which went dead after 10.P.M changed and went to the other extreme so much so that the police had step in and close the bars and discos  at midnight.

Chennai, which had become an important auto ancillary center, became an automobile and truck manufacturing center with the Hyundai and Ford setting shop. Chennai which had in the past imported cars became an exporter of quality cars. The concept of industrial zones first set in 60s finally took off. Export zones were set up by the government .Political parties realized that there was more money to be made by encouraging industry than by having a license raj. While the industries came up in the suburbs the city itself expanded to accommodate the exploding population. Gone were the old houses with big compounds. In their place came high rise apartments All over the city.

The roads cannot handle the exponential increase in auto mobile population and traffic jams and pollution has become the order of the day. We thought that this would not happen to Chennai. Flyovers were tried to ease the traffic but has not helped much. The problem is compounded by the complete albescence of traffic discipline with the police unable to exercise discipline. One misses the old Anglo Indian police inspectors who enforced traffic rules strictly. If you want a taste of old Madras drive at midnight.
With the explosion of high rise apartments the builder’s nexus started breaking all rules. The green Madras disappeared and parks became barren. Chennai started expanding south. The limits of the city of the city were Tondiarpet in the north and Gandhi Nagar, just past the Theosophical society, in the south toll in the fifties. Chennai expanded to Ennore and Manali in the north which became industrial areas. In the south the city expanded along the coast to Neelangarai. All tiny villages on the coast were taken over for residences. Like Mumbai and New York, Chennai likes to look trim and is fond of the sea. New York and Mumbai is limited by land but in Chennai it is not so. There is a bulge near Tambaram area but that is about it. Even the IT corridor coming up is north -south on the old Mahabalipuram road.

Before the war Madras had a small air strip used mainly by the flying club. Today we have two terminals with flights to all parts of India and the World .The Airport is jammed by traffic and resembles a railway station. Another airport is coming up to relieve the congestion.

This was the Madras we came back to. Soon there was no Madras and it became Chennai. After the sedate life in Bangalore it was hectic rush Chennai. Chaotic traffic, pollution and water shortage were made tolerable by the sea breeze and the cultural events. We wondered where Chennai will end up with all the uncontrolled growth and creaking infrastructure.

There were a lot of problems in the company and I found very little time for any for extended social activity. Our son and daughter were in senior years in school and we were fully involved with them. The expatriate crowd in Madras had thinned. The cosmopolitan nature of the city was also changing. Vasanta’s mother and grandparents settled down in Madras .I went on a business trip to U.K and Europe after a long gap. The world was changing fast and the effects of war were a distant memory. A few years later my father died and our connection with Monegar Choultry ended after thirty seven years. I have not had the heart to visit the place again but will do so soon. Vasanta’s grandfather died the next day after my father.

Padmavathy, my mother in law decided to build a house and Vasanta was in her elements and took charge with gusto. She was to build two lovely more houses in other parts of the city later on but we will come to that later on. Kamini’s music and dancing and Sekar’s maths and hindi kept Vasanta very busy wandering all over Madras.

In 1974 I got promoted as a director of the company and shifted to the Armenian street office. I was here till I retired in 1986.Whenever I was free I used to wander round the old haunts of my childhood. The school converted into offices, the old playgrounds in the High Court taken over my new court buildings and the Armenian Church were all there .Zubaida apparel shop in Y.M.C.A was still around. A bridge had replaced the level crossing leading to the beach. Next to the fort a massive Reserve Bank has come up. The seashore where we listened to music has become part of the harbour.

                              


Armenian street with Armenian church and Binny on left.(60s)
The harbour had expanded to the war memorial taking up the beach up to Cooum River. Fortunately the stretch from here to San Thome remains in tact and the government had take steps to spruce it up. What was once a stately drive has become a very busy thoroughfare? At the entrance to the San Thome road a new light house has been erected. Chennai is probably the only city with three light houses though two are not in use. The buildings in the marina went through a period of neglect but had been restored now. With the city expanding south new stretches of beach has been opened up.

Vasanta fell in love with a house in Besantnagar and when the deal did not go through we decided to build a house before I retired. Finding a plot and the architect took some effort. Getting a nice plot in a good area within out budget was a tough job. We finally located a small plot off greenways road which had turned out to be an ideal location .The search for the famous architect took us to an Iyengar bakery in Bangalore on top of which he was located.  In November 1981we moved from our palatial company house to a lovely small house in a nice locality. It was a labour of love and we were involved at every stage. We had to delve deep into our physical and monetary resources but it was worth it. We saw a lot of south Chennai at that time searching for plots. Like Caesar we had crossed our Rubicon by moving over to the south of Cooum. An association with North Madras of over three decades came to end. In present day Chennai the north has been  neglected and gone to seed.
    
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          Darpana

Kamini and Vijay got married in the house and when the grandchildren came this became the family house. My mother and mother in law stayed with us till they passed away. The house was also home to Pug and Lucky who made us feel we were in their house. During Kamini’s marriage to keep me away from poking my nose I was delegated to get fire wood and milk for the cooks. I was furious but I saw parts of Madras I had never imagined existed. We had the great joy of having our first grandchild ,Aditi, soon afterwards.

I retired from Binnys in 1986 and a long association of over three decades came to end. It was an interesting transition from a gin and tonic era at lunch to buttermilk, from roast beef to chicken tikka, fried eggs and bacon to idly sambar and finally the black dinner jacket to closed Nehru coats. I remember in the sixties Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Madras. Crowds greeted her motorcade and the English ladies were out in their fancy hats and corseted dresses. In eighties when the queen came there few to greet her and it was the Indian ladies in saris and salwar kameez who received her. The Madrasis took two things which the British introduced to Madras to new heights. One is the Club culture which the Madrasis have taken to new heights. The other is the Scotch whisky and the bada pegs made with it. It is a regular sun downer. If you are traditional you purified the Scoth bada peg with a leaf of fresh tulsi(basil)! Free imports have helped and the Scottish economy which languished when the world wide scotch consumption went down is thriving now. The Madrase carries on his love affair with scotch even in places like New York and Los Angeles where the wine drinking has taken over.

I wanted to break out in a new direction after retirement and decided to do a post graduate degree in history. I went back to Madras University, my old alma mater. The University’s admission procedure had not changed since I graduated. They wanted a proof of age which was mentioned in your birth certificate or migration certificate neither of which I had. They wanted to make sure that I was not underage! This was a major hurdle till Vasanta was able to locate a person who was the personnel assistant to the Vice chancellor. This gentleman made the authorities accept my passport as proof of age. At the examination hall we were searched thoroughly to make sure we did not carry any material or books! 

We were alone in Darpana except for the odd visit to see Kamini, Vijay and Aditi. When Rohan was born in Greenville I started on my training as a Chef. Sekar arrived back and Vasanta and I waited with baited breath for him to get married. We were on tender hooks till Ambika joined the family. This time no firewood but only fixing up the musician. A glimpse of the music world and musicians -an alien world as far as I was concerned. Soon Viswanath was added to the tally of our grandchildren.

The house building itch was again active with Vasanta. We sold her mother’s house in Nugumbakkam. This time it was a seaside plot we were looking for and it took us all over the new Mahabalipuram road. Chennai has developed so much and so fast that most of the empty plots we saw has been built up. The east coast road had not come up then and the road was full of pot holes due water lorries plying over it. The Covelong beach, where we had spent a night in 50s, had now a fancy hotel, The Fisherman’s Cove. We got a plot bang on the sea shore. The Iyengar bakery architect was called again to design a dream house round an Atrium. The house was real dream house but far too big for us we had to rent it out. The whole exercise gave us a lot satisfaction but also took a lot out of us. After six years we had to sell the house as we found it difficult to look after it. We were a part of the expansion of the city south along the coast.

                                                 
                                                      Narayana

This should have ended the itch but ominous signs again showed up and we compromised by adding an atrium in Darpana. The famous Iyengar bakery architect helped us. Hopefully this is the last of the building itch. Darpana is situated on a quiet area behind the minister’s houses and is walking distance of Madras Club. We are a few minutes drive away from the music and dance academies, shopping centers, hospitals and hotels and restaurants.

This whole area is illustrative of transformation of Madras from a city of large mansions to a city of flats and high rises. In the process some lovely old houses have been pulled down. The whole of our area which now has a few houses and innumerable apartments was occupied by just a dozen mansions belonging to the Standard Vacuum oil company. The only building which still proudly stands in all its pristine glory is Madras Club. The original Mowbray’s  Cupola and house is maintained lovingly and at great cost by the members.

When the new Mahabalipuram was opened in late fifties it was a lonely road beyond the present Adyar Circle the last landmark being the Tiruvamiyur temple. Beyond that right up to Mahabalipuram you had sand and sea on the left and Buckingham canal on the right. You could not see a single soul for miles on end. Now it is the bustling east coast road with traffic speeding away and the whole area built up. You can only see patches of sea once in way.

The old Mahabalipuram road was a winding narrow tree lines one  with sleepy villages. The I.T corridor has come up here and the roads is made a six lane one. A number of bid names have set up shop here and the road is lines with glass fronted buildings where people work round the clock.

There is a sleepy ancient village called Sripermbadur near Madras on the Bagalore highway. The village claim to fame rested on the being the birth place of Raman jam ,a philosopher who taught social equality. A few years ago in important politician was assassinated here on the outskirts. The place has suddenly become a great industrial center thanks to the political parties. Hyundai motors, Saint Gobain and Nokia have set up shop.

Modern highways and toll roads lead out of Chennai to the north. west and south. The explosion of human population and autos, cars lorries have added tremendous strain to the infrastructure. Air pollution, noise pollution, dust pollution is on the increase. Water shortage was an annual feature. Where was Chennai going? Is there a city in the world which can boast of three water ways so highly polluted? What have we done to poor Chennai-Madras in name of development? This was what the citizens were asking themselves at the turn of last century.                              

                                                                           
                           
                             New  Chennai                                                               

Chapter 10
Chennai in the twenty first Century .

Rudyard Kipling wrote nearly a century ago after visiting Madras:
‘Clive kissed me on the mouth and eyes
Wonderful kisses so that I
Became
Crowned above the queens;
A withered beldame now,
Brooding on ancient fame.’

Kipling underestimated the Madrasi pride and the Chennai quality of reinventing itself which can overcome even political systems by voting out non performing parties. When Calcutta and Bombay overtook it, Chennai became a cultural center and took pride in its beach and its sedate intellectual life. When Bangalore and Hyderabad threatened it on the IT front it dug into its inner resources and caught up.   

The party in power bend backwards to set up the infrastructure and incentives to attract investors. Heritage groups and citizens forum are very active to preserve the heritage and environment. Though it takes time to bring the government round they have succeeded in preventing the demolition of Queen Mary’s college, preserving the beautiful senate house and preventing the demolition of the Police head quarters on the Marina. The government has on its own renovated the Connemara library and the Museum theatre. A mass transport system is in place .With public help the parks are spruced up and well maintained and new one has come up in waste land. Suddenly the city is looking greener. The water supply has improved. Health services are good. The citizens take a lot of pride in the city.
                     

                             The Old and the New

The Adyar and the Cooum rivers and Buckingham canal are sewage water ways. All attempts by the government have been half hearted-the money spent swallowed up by shoddy workmanship. One hopes the powers that be do not repeat the debacle of the first Veeranam project which financed a political party. When these water ways are cleaned the city will regain its pristine glory. With an enlightened electorate to keep the government on its toes this might still come about.

Chennai -Madras has always been cosmopolitan city. In the last few years there had been an over emphasis that it is a Tamil city for the Tamils. Unfortunately for Chennai it is also the state capital and is difficult to separate the commercial and political interests. If the city is to develop into a truly international hub for IT,  it has to forget its parochialism.



                The Eternal Chennapuri

Raja Ramakrishnan
Decenber 2006                                                                              
For  my  grandchildren  Aditi,  Rohan and Viswanath.

Comments

[Raji]

A very interesting piece.
The changes from the 1950s to the present day is remarkable - there are both pluses and minuses.
For a long time Madras meant Monegar Chowltry to me, till Madras became my own home. I can still close my eyes and remember that cool house, with its malli and december flower plants, the little pomegranate tree, the bakshanam all lined up on the kitchen shelves, and a siren in the afternoon blowing from I don't know where......