My Musings

There was Aditi Drama at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, East Mada Street, Mylapore on 8th May 2018.(Tuesday). We two left house by 4-45 PM and went to Sri Adi Kesava Perumal Koil and Sri Srinivasa Perumal Koil first. We are going to these temples after 5 or 6 years. The water tank of the temple is dry, very dry. Once, it was brimming with water. Adi Kesava Perumal Koil Temple Tank - DRY Next we walked to East Mada Street. Since it was very earlt, we went to Mami's Mess nearby, and had bondas. We took a parcel for Aditi or someone else. (We gave it to Lalita-Kumar) Then we entered Bhartia Vidya Bhavan, took our seats. Later Lalita-Kumar also came and they sat next to us. The drama started by 7PM; actually there were 4 bits of drama skits each for 25-30 minutes. Aditi's was the second. It was uproarious, with Aditi shining all the way. God Bless the child. ADITI's Drama Once the drama (4 parts) was over, L-K took an UBER home. We walked to Mami's ...

# 1. SIVASAMI IYER SCHOOL . Thirukattupalli is a small village in Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu. It boasts of an ancient history, mentoned in Ponniyin Selvan book by Kalki. About 2.5 km from this village is PAZHAMANERI another small village. In this village there lived one family of Sundaram Iyer and his wife Subbalakshmi Ammal. On 7th February 1864, a son was born to them and was named Sivaswami. He had his early schooling in nearby schools and studied in different colleges and obtained his Law degree.  He was a shining lawyer throughout and finally he became the Advocate General of Madras Presidency .He was elected to the Senate of Madras University and the vice chancellor of the Madras University, then the VC of Banaras Hindu University.He was a Member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Madras. He was a keen educationist, in particular of Girls' education. He wanted to uplift girls education.He instituted and maintained a school for boys at Tirukkattupalli, and ...

GEMS of Mylapore. RR Sabha. Mylapore, Chennai is well-known for its cultural, bhakti, historical background. Even today the one place everyone wishes to visit Mylapore for its cultural brilliance. There is that world-famous temple of Sri Karpagambal sametha Sri Kapaleeswara. Around this temple are its four Maada Veethis (streets) - East, West, South, and North Maada Veethis. The East Maada veethi is the location for many cultural centres like Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Rasika Ranjani Sabha (RR Sabha). The RR Sabha is the oldest Sabha in the whole of Chennai, it was founded in 1929. It is located in Sundareshwarar Street at the southern end of the East Maada street near Lady Sivaswami Iyer School (more about this famous school later). Carnatic music concerts were held monthly twice then, dramas were staged, and music classes were also conducted there. It was renovated in 1958 and Smt MS amma was the first to perform in the new auditorium. Yearly membership was just 20.00 then, and...

A Foodie, an Epicurean, a Gastronome -- all these words describe a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food). There are many groups in Chennai (Foodies groups) who periodically - often - take Group-walks in a particular locality of Chennai famous for its street-food. MYLAPORE is the often-preferred locality for these food walks. For, Mylapore boasts of many eateries. # Though I have not "walked" with any of these groups, I will tell you about a few eateries of Mylapore. In the East Mada street, there is Kalathi Kadai which offers delicious rose-milk (12.00). This shop is 85 years' old but the taste of its rose-milk draws the crowd even today. (Rs. 12.00 a glass). It also serves panneer soda and goli soda.  # Nearby in the same East Mada Street is the legendary Karpagambal Mess. A hotel really, very old, very traditional, and very delicious food. Their idly, vadai, sambar, Adai, Aviyal, Wheat Halwa are popular. # Not connected with the abo...

Subramania Iyer was born in Pennathur, Chitoor in 1860. His father P Veeraghava Iyer was the Dy Collector in Tirunelveli when he suddenly passed away. Unable to continue his B.A studies, Subramania Iyer joined Govt service to look after the family. But he met another Subramanya Iyer who was a legal luminary those days in Mylapore. This lawyer took care of the young Subramaniam and asked him to study law. He became a Solicitor and in due course of time became very rich. He owned a palatial bungalow in Eldams Road which was occupied by Sir Norton, Saheb Usman, Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer among others. He owned some landed properties also.  On his death, he bequeathed his entire properties to found PS Charities, Mylapore. PS Higher Secondary School was also founded at RK Math road, Mylapore, just opposite Ramakrishna Math. PS Charities has four other schools also in Mylapore. rajappa 11:10 AM 12-04-2011

Last time I wrote about Sister Subbalakshmi Ammal and her great achievements in girls' education. Today i will write about another noble soul who contributed a lot to girls' education. There was an elementary school for girls in a rented building in Mylapore, Chennai, started in 1869. Called Vizianagaram Maharaja Hindu Girls School. Later it was taken over by a committee in 1904, moved to a new premises in 1910, and still later taken over by Annie Besant in 1918. Annie Besant re-named the school as National Girls School. In 1924 it became a high school. After Besant left the school, it started decaying. That time there lived one Mr PS Sivasami Iyer - Pazhamaneri Sundaram Sivasami Iyer (07 Feb 1864 - 05 Nov 1946). Born in 1864 to Mr Sundaram Iyer in the village Pazhamaneri, Sri Sivasami Iyer had education in Presidency College and then Law College, Chennai. Later he became the Advocate General of Madras Presidency. He was also the vice-chancellor of Madras Univ (1916-18) and...

We came to Karpagam Avenue, 3rd Street, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai 600028 on 31 August 2005 from 77/85, Aspiran Gardens, 2nd Street, Kilpauk, Chennai – 10 where we lived for 3 1/2 years from Feb 2002. The house owner at Aspiran gardens was Mr Ratnakar Shenoy and at Karpagam Avenue Mr Ravikumar. The landline at Aspiran garden was 2644 4995 and at KA 2461 6845. This house at KA is a 3-BHK and very convenient. Being near to Mylapore, Mandaveli, MRC Nagar, RA Puram was a boon to us. Particularly Mylapore, which is just 25 minutes’ walk from KA. Vijaya and I used to frequent the South Mada Veedhi and Giri Traders almost daily. We visited many temples in Mylapore, RA Puram like Sri Kapaliswarar, Sri Velliswarar, Adi Kesava Perumal, Madhava Perumal, Veera Anjaneyar, Vinayakar, Iyappa, Saibaba koils. We used to visit many Sabhas, like Chettinad, PS High School, Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Asthika Samajam, Sri Parthasarathy Sabha (Bheema Sena Garden) etc etc. There is no place in Che...

Dear Vasu, I wouldn't say "thanks" to your wonderful comment on my recent blogpost. I know that you, Suresh, Jayaraman, (and many others like Sudhakar, Magesh, et al) of our family have wonderful writing / expressing ability and skill. It is ingrained you see. Only people don't find time to sit and write / express their thoughts. I am sure you and all others would spare a few minutes daily / weekly and continue posting. I consider it my greatest fortune and Sri Rama & Sri Krishna_blessed opportunity that we shifted from Kilpauk to this present house three years ago. It is so near to Mylapore, the Cultural Capital of Chennai and Tamilnadu. Do you know that, if you draw a circle of just 1 1/2 or 2 km radius with the Sri Kapaleeswarar Koil Kulam as its centre, you have - (a) more than 8 Easwaran (Shiva) koils, all ancient and grand. (b) three Perumal koils, again very ancient, and grand (c) a great Saibaba temple (d) two Aiyappa temples, (e) four large Sri Anchaneya...

This (10 Dec 2008) morning, when I was travelling from our house to Arun's, when I saw the river Adyar in full flow after the recent inletting of the rain water, my thoughts started wandering - I thought, "if only this was a sweet-water river ! if only it was a clean river !!", "if only .. ... ..." And when I reached Arun's house, I read in the TOI that dredging and cleaning work of the waterway has been sanctioned by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and the waterway would be made navigable. A good news that should hearten every Chennaiwasi. But, Buckingham Canal of which Adyar river is but a part, was not always like this "stinking stretch of stagnant water". The canal opened in 1806 as Cochrane canal excavated by Basil Cochrane. It was over 400 km long, from Kakinada in AP. In 1875, the canal was renamed as the Buckingham Canal after the then Governor of Madras 0 the Duke of Buckingham. A worst famine struck South India and Madras t...

KOMALA'S This is a restaurant that has opened its branch (second in Chennai) in Mylapore recently. Located in Ramakrishna Mutt Road, very near Luz signal (P Orr & Sons complex), this opened a couple of weeks ago. Pleasing and very quiet peaceful ambiance, air-conditioned comfort, very neat interior. Serves pure South and North Indian (and some Chinese also) Vegetarian food. Dosais are the popular items and there are a dozen or more varieties of dosais served here. Tasty also. Cost-wise, could I say "reasonable"? If you would consider a plain dosai for Rs 21.00, a masala dosai at Rs 35.00, a Onion Rava Masala at Rs 35.00, Sambhar / Rasam Vadai at Rs. 28.00, it is "reasonable". Would you? As ardent explorers of Mylapore and its ambiance, I and Vijaya have already visited this eatery twice. Yesterday I had an urge to eat Dahi Vada but unfortunately they hadn't prepared it. I wasn't ready to settle for Sambhar / rasam Vadai, which they offered instead. T...

Giri Traders Mylapore Last week, during our “walk-and-shop-around-Mada-Veedhis” routine, we saw a North Indian couple frenetically searching for a Pooja-mani (bell). They were obviously searching at a wrong place. Overhearing their talk, I wanted to be a Good Samaritan and directed them in Hindi to visit the Giri Trading Agency at the Sannadhi Street nearby. Shortly afterwards, we too ambled across to this GITAA and could see the couple there with a satisfied and happy look.This mail is about Giri Trading Agency, GITAA for short. There was this TVS Giri Iyer living in Matunga, Bombay. Year around 1951. He wished to gift a Sandhya Vandanam book to a upanayanam-boy but couldn’t get one in Matunga of those days. He got a brain wave then – why don’t I start a bookshop in Matunga that would have Tamil religious books? Thus started the tradition of Giri Trading Agency, in 1951. They used to purchase books in Madras and get them by parcel in Bombay.The shop started growing and they felt the n...

LONG WALKS. Three days ago that is on Sunday the 21 Jan 2007, my wife Vijaya and I started on a long walk - even though I must admit that we didn't plan like that while starting. From our house at Karpagam Avenue, we walked to Vijaya Shoppe, our grocers, and purchased a few things. From there to Coffee Day at South Mada Veedhi - this shop selling freshly ground pure coffee powder ("chickory" will not be found in this shop) is becoming more popular day by day. There will be six to seven customers at any given time waiting for the coffee powder to be ground and given to them. Then we went to Chitrakulam to "see" the float (theppam in Tamil). It was not ready. So we went to Karpagambal Mess, a famous eatery on the East Mada Veedhi. Vijaya had adai-aviyal, and I had masala dosai. This eatery is there for over 60 years. We trekked back to Chitrakulam where Sri Adhi Kesava Perumal's Thepporchavam (Float festival) is being celebrated for 5 days from 18th to 22nd Ja...

Maathangalil Marghazhi The month of Marghazhi (Dec 14 - Jan 13) is considered to be very auspicious by Tamils. One gets up very early, takes bath, and then goes to a temple to pray. Sri Andal, even in her childhood, was contemplating to marry Lord Vishnu (Sri Ranganathar) and as she grew up, she took a Vrath. She composed 30 paasurams (poems) in praise of the Lord, and this collection of songs is called "Thiruppavai". If we sing this thiruppavai songs in the month of Marghazhi early mornings, it is very auspicious. If not all the 30 songs, at least one song per day. Sage Manickka Vachakar, one of the 64 Nayanmars (Shiva's devotees), has composed 20 songs called "Thiruvempaavai" and 10 songs called "Thiru PalliEzuchchi". One has to sing these songs also in Marghazhi. A few TV channels telecast one song each from Thiruppaavai and Thiruvempaavai and arrange a scholar to give the spiritual meaning of these songs. For the first time in my 65 years, this yea...

* Thannithurai Market Buckingham Canal is a salt water navigation canal, running parallel to the Eastern coast, for over 420 km. It starts at Peddakanjam town on Krishna river (Krishna dist in AP) and after running in Chennai city, runs south and ends at Marakkanam of Villupuram dist. It was constructed in 1806, by the British for ferrying goods and sometimes people also. The canal runs for nearly 31 km in Chennai city, and in pre-1950s its waters were clean and there was boat-transport. Where this canal flows near Luz Corner, in Mylapore, there is a vegetable market, called THANNI THURAI MARKET. ("Thurai" means where boats come and anchor). Mr Bhashyam Iyengar, a Judge in Madras High Court owned this land, and he constructed this vegetable market, perhaps in 1901. Boats carrying freshest vegetables from south Andhra would anchor at the Thurai and vegetables sold in the market. Since the boats arrived only in the mornings, the Thanni thurai market will be the busiest in the m...

Koils in Madras. This (16th July 2006) evening 5 PM, we (myself and Vijaya) embarked on a minor tour of "Koils-in-Mylapore." We went to (1) Shri Veera Anjaneyar Koil, (2) Shri Adi Kesava Perumal Koil, (3) Shri Vedhantha Desikar Koil (both near the Chitrakulam, Mylapore. The (2) and (3) are very ancient koils. On our walk back home, we went to Shri Karpaka Vinayakar Koil, near our house. We walked non-stop for over 2 hours but the experience was most satisfying. An evening well spent, in stead of couch-potatoing in front of the dumb TV. The place, streets and lanes, the houses around these Koils must be over 200 years' ancient and is a sight to behold. Remember my earlier mail two years ago on an ancient house in Mylapore, transporting us back in the Time machine? Today, we re-visited that place, but not that house. I like to visit such places of heritage, which mirror our culture. Day before yesterday (14th) we went to Shri Ramakrishna Mutt, and Shri Saibaba Koil ...

Who Needs a Menu Card?! Some weeks back I read that the latest trend in the hotel industry is to "throw away that Menu card." If you have a menu card, the thinking goes, you should have all the items printed in the card ready, for one wouldn't know what customers would order for! The inventory increases, workload increases, profits nose-dive. On the other hand, the thinking continues, if you prepare just a few selected items, the chances of success gets increased! I saw this "latest" (!!) thinking in operation yesterday, when Vijaya and I were strolling down the Mada Streets of Mylapore. Next to the Kapaaleeswarar Temple, we saw there was a crowd jostling around a window. Curiosity taking over me, I approached the window and I saw to my amazement that there was a house on the other side of the window; and they were selling bajjis. Just urulaikkizhangu bajjis and vazhaikkai bajjis. Only these two items. Persons, most likely Brahmin women, were making hot-hot bajj...

Aruvathimoovar Festival Every year, during the Tamil month of Panguni, on Uththiram Star, the "Aruvathimoovar" festival is celebrated in Sri Kapaleeswarar Koil, Mylapore. To honour the 63 naayanmaars; some of the more famous naayanmaars are Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar, (thirugnana) Sambandar, Kannappar. The decorated 63 idols are taken in procession around the four mada veedhis, followed by Sri Kapaleeswarar Himself. This is the most important festival in the ongoing Panguni Utsavam of the Koil. Today (April 11th, 2006) was the festival. Myself and Vijaya went to RK Mutt road on some other errand, and when we hit the road we couldn't believe our eyes - was it the same old RK Mutt road on which we walk daily? No, it can't be ! The road had transformed totally into a mega Mela, with thousands of men, women, and children ambling about. Mostly women and children, in their festival best ! For those who don't know RK Mutt road, this is the road that runs North - Sou...