My Musings

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...

Remembering the first Hindu woman, a widow, who 100 years ago this year received the BA degree at the Univ of Madras. A long blog for sure but worth the time -  Read on patiently.   In order to appreciate the extraordinary achievements of this extraordinary woman, first you have to visualise the background of conservative and orthodox customs of the Brahmins in Madras in those days. Widows, often child-widows, led the most pitiable lives in houses where they were treated as unpaid servants and outcasts. Their heads were shorn of hair and they wore always the white saris (9 yards)even though they were children. Forbidden to attend all festivals and forced to subsist on one plain meal a day. It was in this milieu that a girl was born in 1886 to RV Subramania Iyer, a professor in Teachers' College, Saidapettai, Chennai. The girl's mother, Visalakshi and her child-widowed Chitty Valambal were learned and instilled in the child all that was the best in Indian cultur...

எழும்பூர் (adapted from an article in today's Deccan Chronicle) Egmore Station came into being in 1908 as just an unimportant, wayside station. The station subsequently witnessed addition of more services. Southern Railways was formed in 1951 and then on the station grew in importance. During late fifties and through the 60s, one could witness cars and taxis going on to the platforms of Egmore Station, stop 3 or 4 feet away from the compartment - for the passengers to get into or alight from the train and get into the car !! Major renovation works were done in 1930s and then 1980s. First electrified line was in 1931. It was upto Tambaram only but later extended to Villupuram. One important train from Egmore was the Boat Mail to Dhanushkodi. The service was a link from Madras to Colombo those days. Passengers alighted at Dhanushkodi, took a ferry service to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. This popular train was discontinued when Dhanushkodi was destroyed in a cyclone in 1964. ...

It was on 16th Feb 2011 that I received a mail from Vasu, in response to mine the previous day - re a retired teacher contributing all her retirement funds and her house for bringing up a VEDA PATASHALA at her place. Mrs SARASWATHY AMMAL, the teacher, donated her house with its surrounding land for this noble endeavour. She was the head-mistress at Tirupappuliyur (Cuddalore) school, living in 13 / 6, Babu Rao Street in which street our appa-amma and us lived for nearly 40 years. This was a wonderful news and i wrote back the same evening, "why dont we contribute for this cause?" Accepting my proposal, many members sent in their contributions, and we collected Rs. 7501.00 in all. On 09 March 2011, i sent this cheque to Sri SWAMINATHAR CHARITABLE TRUST, 13/6 Babu Rao Street, Tirupappuliyur, Cuddalore - 607002. Tel No 04142 - 223 0662. It was the most satisfying moment of our lives. rajappa 13 March 2011 Note : You may send in your contribution to the above addres...

This post is prompted by a recent news that Indian Govt in considering limiting wedding guest list - to save food. My memories flew back to 1960s when the then PM (Morarji Desai ?) brought a Govt order called Guest Control Act to limit the number of guests to a marriage. Admiitedly those days were "famine-like" and we had to save food in whichever way we could think of. In fact, during 1965-70 the entire nation lived on PORT-to-MOUTH existence - when our total requirement of wheat was shipped from USA under PL480. Those were the days when all the eateries, big and small, used to close down their shutters from 2 PM on Mondays to next morning, under GOI's orders. No food will be available after 2. And, on Wednesdays, no rice will be served for the day - just wheat. 2011 is not 1960, we have come a long way. Food is not scarce but then over 100 million Indians go to sleep everyday hungry and malnourishment is rife. Cutting back on profligate banquets would save the na...

Our previous visit to Bangalore was during mid-Dec 2010. Now, Neeraja - Ashok decided to perform Satyanarayana poojai on 18 Feb 2011; they requested our presence. So we came to Bangalore on 17 Feb 2011, by Brindavan Express. In the morning at 0530 AM at Chennai, Arvind dropped us at Adyar depot where we boarded A1 bus to Central Station. Originally our tickets were wait-listed but "confirmed" later. Unfortunately, our seats were in different coaches - mine was in C2 whereas Vijaya's was in C3. However, we could get the seats exchanged with another, and Vijaya came to C2 coach. On reaching SBC, we decided to take a bus from Kempegowda Bus Station (KBS), previously known as Majestic. We walked the short distance and boarded a Vajra AC bus (route 365) for Meenakshi koil. Fare = Rs 35 per. Kempegowda Bus Station, Bangalore  This is the first time we are going to KBS and travelling by a bus.  KBS is a huge bus-station but decently organised. Next day, (18th Feb) was ...