Dehi’s Madrasis -Then and Now

 

 

Till about the early sixties, New Delhi was just a central government city.  The inhabitants were mostly government servants living within a radius of two miles from Central Secretariat. High ranking Government servants like Secretaries, Joint Secretaries etc. lived in aristocratic bungalows while the lower rung officials like Clerks and Stenographers lived in smaller quarters around the popular middle class Gole Market area

 

     In this great city lived the “Madrasis”- an appellation invented by the North Indians to describe all people belonging to the south of the Vindhyas. Almost all of them were government servants except some essential service providers like school and music teachers, vadhyars (religious pundits) and cooks. With many Subramanians and Ganesans, distinction was made either with reference to the Ministry where they worked or in the Square where they lived, like Finance Subramanian, Defence Ganesan or Wilson Square Ramasubban and Lawrence Square Sivaramakrishnan. If two Sethuramans were in the same Finance ministry, then the distinction was based on the division / department, such as Expenditure Sethuraman versus Capital Issue Sethuraman or their honorary positions in cultural and social organisations like Bhajana Samaj Krishnan or Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha Ramamurthy. There were also nick names given and recognised by the whole community like Bonda Srinivasan, Typhoid Krishnamurthy, and Driver Devarajan and so on.[AR1] 

 

    When it came to r career in government, the Madrasis earned the unenviable reputation as honest, sincere, hard- working, efficient and with absolute integrity. The price that was paid for such appreciation of work was their neglect of leisure time happiness on holidays with family and friends. Many of them would have spent decades living in Delhi but not had had the time to v see the dime a dozen historic monuments abounding New Delhi like the Kutb Minar, the Red Fort, Purana Kila etc.

 

     However, they were united by some social, cultural and religious institutions such as The South India Club, The Madrasi School, The Karnatak Sangeetha Sabha, The Vaishnava Siddhantha Sabbha, The Saturday Bhajana Sabhas, The Navaratri Golus and of course the Irwin Road Pilliar Koil and its adjacent Hanuman Mandir and the Baird Road Kali Koil. Other than congregations during marriages, temple festivals etc there was not many social family visits. Integration with other communities was next to nothing they collectively enjoyed the confidence of the Punjabi shopkeepers to get credit payment facility.

 

    Among the uniting institutions, the Madrasi School, which was also the Alma Mater of this author, occupied a predominant position. It was here that the children of all Madrasis irrespective of the status of the parents, whether a Joint Secretary or an Upper Division Clerk, or the child of a Sastrigal or a cook, came for studies. With no dress code or uniforms all children studied in an environment of equality and fraternity. The teachers, both male and female, were exceptionally devoted to their profession, took avuncular interest in each student and were kind hearted. Till the fifties there was only one school at Reading Road, now Mandir Marg. Even when there was no bar for students from other regions or linguistic groups for admission, the Madrasa School remained exclusively a Tamil school.

  

     The Madrasis were a powerful group in the Central Secretariat. Their network was strongly knit and mutually helpful. Any special treatment or facility in AIIMS, Safdarjung and other government hospitals were arranged by the Madrasi Jt. Secretary, in Health Ministry, while his counter- part in Civil Supplies Department took care of additional allotment of sugar and maida for weddings. Acquiring of land and construction of the many temples in the sixties and seventies in New Delhi was mainly because of the initiative and strength of this group which at one time had the Hon’ble President of India as Patron. Even the introduction of Leave Travel Concession for visiting home towns by Central Government Servants and their families was said to be the brainchild of some Madrasis in the Home and Finance Ministries as alleged by North Indian employee since its substantive requirement of home town should be not less than 400 kms away could not be complied with by them!

 

Most of these Madrasis have retired by now.  Many continue to live in Delhi in DDA and other housing colonies in the faraway Dwarka and Mayur Vihar and their post- retirement activities and interest are confined to within these areas mainly centring the local temple.  Many of their children as next generation Delhi’s Madrasis, hold high positions in government, corporates, defence services MNCs and eminent doctors, scientists and engineers, lawyers and accountants.

The Tamil population in Delhi now is around 10 lakhs against  only some 60000 in 1980. This exponential increase is both on account of increase in the size of the city itself as well as the increase in Tamil immigrants. The Delhi described above  was defined by the areas under New Delhi Municipal Committee and Delhi Metropolitan Corporation and included what is now called as Lutyens Delhi and other Government colonies like Lodhi Colony, R.K. Puram, Moti Bagh , Sarojini Nagar and other non-government settlements like Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Jangpura , Munirkha, Naraina, , Pankha Road . Today, Delhi covers the entire National Capital Region and includes the far- off satellite townships of Haryana and UP where too the Tamil community has settled in huge campuses

In its composition too , the Delhi  Tamil community now includes only fewer  government employees and a large number employed in corporate sector and as self-employed persons . There is also a perceptible change in their lifestyle. To quote Narain Ganesh ( TOI dated 15th Sept 2002) “So what’s an average Delhi Tamilian or DTam like? It is a wide range from the vibhooti-kumkum sporting dhoti clad Karolbagh veterans to hanky topped disco damsel boogying till the wee hours, to suave corporate honchos. Most Tamils, however, fall somewhere in between, adding value to corporates, media groups and the art world”.

Most of the then Tamils were hard put to speak Hindi . I remember my uncle having difficulty to count beyond 20 in Hindi and would say” dho upper bees “for 22, while another relation was ingenious enough to ask for “gobar ka roti “for cow-dung cake! Today, however  the Tamil youngsters speak fluent Hindi, though in a Dravidian accent  like  “Kafer” Market “ Gafer” Market! Also more women now , particularly the younger ones and those working as domestic help , wear the  salwar and the  kameez and not  sarees. .  Their ability to speak English and Hindi has widened their job market.

Culturally, the Tamils still live in their cocoons. The plethora of temples in almost every area where they live, serves  the place of congregation on festival days with  Malai Mandir, the temple devoted to the Tamil Deivam Murugan,  still  the major attraction. On days like Thai Poosam etc., the crowd is huge with hundreds of “Kavadis”,like in some famous Murugan temples in Tamilnadu. A notable feature is the number of persons from other regions and communities like Panjabis, Bengalis, and Marwaris coming to Madrasi temples. A cross cultural and community  integration indeed. Bhajana Samajs, and Music Clubs are now limited to catering to fewer numbers while many  “Rasikar Mandrams “ (fan clubs) of famous cinema actors like Rajani Kant, Kamal Hassan , Vijay have sprung up .

Madrasi hotels and restaurants too  have mushroomed; many   Madrasi  Stores selling typically south Indian specialities like appalam, vetrili, pakku, seeakai powder and textile Stores selling sarees and veshtis, travel agencies to book train and air tickets are other ventures indicating the shift from employment to entrepreneurship.

Integration with other communities through marriage is more  common now than before , with  educated and salaried Tamil boys and girls marrying spouses from other regions. After all,  who will not like to marry the intelligent, hard working and  simple living Tamil groom/bride ?

 

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 [AR1]

My Attributed Balance Sheet

 My Attributed Balance Sheet

 As an accountant by training and qualification, I am prone to reckon everything in numbers.  But my personal Balance Sheet of Assets and Liabilities if drawn in conventional units of Rupee would look pathetic and dismal.  I therefore thought of drawing my Balance Sheet in attributable terms.   No other time than now when the year 2024 is coming to an end and I have completed my existential and uneventful life of 86 years appears apt for this exercise

 For those uninitiated in accountancy, the Balance Sheet is an enigma, showing, curiously, the same totals both of one’s Assets as well as Liabilities. After all, one is expected to have more assets than liabilities to reflect one’s financial position. In fact, there are reported cases of persons asking their investment advisors how their thousands of savings in investments have resulted in equal amounts of liabilities and no profit!

 To escape from this problem, I have drawn my personal balance sheet using some common   attributes. Under this approach there is no question of proving the positive and negative attributes arithmetically.

  Let me here answer another question which many people including several students in   accountancy classes ask as to why the Liabilities are shown on the left-hand side and the Assets on the right-hand side in a Balance Sheet much to the embarrassment of the Professors...  However, a clever Professor took recourse to linking the ancient custom in Hindu rituals like marriages where the wife stood on the right-hand side of the husband, which to any one facing them, is the husband’s left-hand side and concluding nothing else can be a better example of a liability for a male than his wife!!

 Here is how my Attributed Balance Sheet would look.                

                           My Balance Sheet on Completion of 86 years

                                    

      Capital & Liabilities

    A. Capital

    Family upbringing and Values

    Education

    Organizational ethos & work experience    

    B. Liabilities

    Long term:  Unmet life/career ambitions

    Short term: Prejudices /biases

       Assets          

         A.  Fixed Assets     

             Blessings of parents, gurus and the Almighty God

            Family Harmony

           Goodwill of relations and friends

        B. Current Assets    

             Professional recognition    

            Social & Community Relations

Teens walking to schools in the morning

 

Teens walking to schools in the morning

In the morning glow, as the sun ascends,
  The path to school where the journey bends,
Girls in clusters, their whispers alight,
   Giggling softly, sharing secrets tight.

Their laughter dances on the crisp, cool air,
   Braids and ribbons catching sunlight's glare,
Books clutched loosely, stories to unfold,
    In voices where youth's excitement is told.

The boys, a storm, unbridled, unbound,
    Feet pounding earth with a thundering sound,
Running, wrestling, their energy bright,
     Mock boxing matches, a playful fight.

Together they weave a morning parade,
    A tapestry of youth, in sunlight displayed,
On this lively path, dreams intertwine,
    Bound for a future where stars will shine.

 My wife and I are on a month's visit to  our daughter's home in Bengaluru.  She lives in a well planned and quiet condominium full of greenery  further enhanced by rose and many other flower  plants and a kitchen garden around the house thanks to my son-in- law's green finger and 

 interest in gardening. 

 My daughter is a great cook and laid out special and tasty items in the meals. The already agreeable Bengaluru weather too suddenly became cooler  adding  to our  comfort. 

During our previous visits to Bengaluru we were quite mobile visiting our other friends and relations , fine dining and shopping. This time however we did not stir out at all with my wife's worsening arthritis and  unstable walking due to ageing. However the monotony was not long  thanks to the  celebration of a family event during our stay  with many friends and relations attending.

However deep down our hearts there was the signal that Bengaluru is not our HOME. This thought is like what my wife told me wife told me once.  She said that while she would go eagerly to her parents' home for a longer stay,   she would soon cut short her stay and  decide to return to HER HOME  !  

So, we are leaving here in  two days  for "amcha ghar" in Mumbai.!

A Single Sweet Red Rose

I saw you first ten days ago

   All in gusto and bloom 

You smiled and gently

   Swayed in welcome 

Since then we have had a date 

   Old me with faltering limbs 

And you young and teasing 

   "Come, feel and kiss me" 

 I will be gone soon but will come again 

   Will you await me with the same smile?

Chennai Air Show

Last week in Chennai a massive crowd of lakhs and lakhs of people gathered in Marina Beach to watch the IAF air show. Unfortunately, the surge of the crowd to leave after the show has resulted in serious traffic dislocation in all modes like cars, busses? Suburban Railway and the Metro. Owing to severe heat and the health condition of many spectators 5 deaths and many hospital cases of injuries etc have been reported As a student of economics, I am convinced that the approach in crowd management should no longer be supply side strategy but based on Demand side strategy which is what I wrote in my following blog rambler raman Friday 12 July 2024 Crowd Management: An Alternative Perspective Huge crowd gatherings are not new to India. Any occasion is good enough; fairs and festivals, religious discourses pravachans, sporting events etc. Massive crowds from all over the country gather like at Kumbh Melas. Political parties too gather huge crowds providing free transport and other incentives. In recent times, the national passion for cricket has also become a big crowd puller. Organisers of these events obtain permission form Local Administrations and the latter provide facilities like drinking water, toilet, temporary accommodation in tents, special buses and trains to and from the site, first-aid, general medical and sanitary services to control spread of diseases like cholera, etc. Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering, a 2014 publication of National Disaster Management Authority is replete with details of precautions and provisions for managing crowds. These only represent the strategy in crowd management from the ""Supply" side. With a growing population, increased per capita income and improved transport services, crowds swell in large numbers every year posing enormous problems for Local authorities to provide these facilities adequately. Further, there is the unpredictable risk of the crowd getting into a frenzy to rush to the temple, river or the spiritual guru to have darshan, the holy bath or blessings of the Guru. If there is lack of any of the arrangements, heaven forbid, the catastrophe of human misery of death and injury of hundreds of people. Added to these is the problem of law and order when anti-social elements get into the fray. No matter how adequately or efficiently they are provided, there would always be a gap between what is required and what is provided. Therefore, it is time to address the crowd management problem from "Demand" side. . In a nutshell, this would comprise policy initiatives to curb the crowd attendance in fairs and festivals. At best, encouragement by providing incentives for travel to the sites should be stopped forthwith.as some State governments announced free trains and buses to Ayodhya after the Ram Mandir consecration. Instead, some additional fare could have been levied to transport the devotees in safety and comfort. . Another option could be to stagger the fairs in two or three segments spread over a month. For instance, the Shahi Snan (Bath) in Kumbh Mela could be on two days of the same Shukla/Krishna Paksha "Thithis" occurring at monthly interval... These ideas may not be brushed aside even if they ruffle the feathers.in some sections of the people A dispassionate understanding and cooperation of Heads of religious and social groups should dispel any objection if they realise the implication of an unrestricted crowd the limited resources for provision of safety and comfort and the grave risk of damage to life and property if crowds are not restricted in number.

 

The Agitated Old Man

Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian “and Sanjay Baru’s “The Accidental Prime Minister” inspired me to title this piece about my old age antics as “The Agitated Old Man” to share with my readers, if you see one that is, my reactions these days to men and matters.

In my younger days I would follow the laissez faire policy, which in one of my books on political science, was explained as “let the sleeping dogs lie” policy. But not anymore, I now have to willy -nilly express my opinion on everything happening around me. They may pertain to domestic, national, international issues on topics ranging from local vegetable prices in APMC market in Mumbai, MeToo campaigns Mollywood and elsewhere, destruction and construction of places of worship, global warming, water leakage seen on the Taj Mahal and other miscellaneous matters like Chandrayan, the present era is of peace and not war, Vietnam boat people and so on.  

Why this urge in me in my sunset years? My reckoning is because I am tired of doing all the things expected of from persons like me.  Let me list down these. As a retiree, my daily routine should follow a regulated regime of reading our ancient spiritual and religious books, performing daily poojas and reciting hymns in praise of gods and goddesses, get up early, bathe, do pranayama, observe fasts, counsel on family issues quoting from Vedas and Gita and overall lead a life of ennui and disinterest. None of these functions were in my daily time table during my working life till my seventieth year. No doubt I earned respect and recognition too.   

My problem now is what do I do with my time and accumulated experience and expertise in sifting through issues and separating the grain from the chaff. Should all this go to waste? Thank  God, my intellect has not retired from working and my analytical instincts are in good condition.  Of course, there may here and there be some tinge of cynicism or even exasperation but you cannot fault the objectivity in the arguments.   

So, I spend my considerable waking time on reflecting on everything as mundane as road accidents or as routine as sexual abuse of children and women or serious matters such as One Nation No Freebee or Arctic Melt down.  The beauty is that my fertile mind is able to dissect the problem and throw up solutions acceptable to all and implementable. I err only when I offer these outputs to others who appear to agree in my presence but I don’t know what they say behind my back.

 Who cares as long as the Constitution gives me the freedom of thought and speech?