Category: Articles

Baskar Seshadri

Oldies of Mylapore may well remember the old heritage place that once housed the famous book house Meenakshi Puthaga Nilayam. Their one of the hit publication was “Samaithu Paar” is still a forerunner for cookery recipe booklet even today.

That old building was locked and unused for long years. Someone told it was because of a court case and some quipped it was a family issue that literally stalled any project over there.

Originally the place was owned by Alliance Publication (The building on the right side of the new project) and now it seems it had changed hands in Due Process – It was an old house that remained like a heritage of mylapore and as a small boy I remember having seen the name board over there.

Well, all those now had become a story.

The old building was demolished months back and Its Ramraj cotton House which is going to have its first showroom in Mylapore.

Due for Inauguration today (28th Wednesday) By Minister Mr. P. Sekar Babu (HR&CE) this place had come a long way in the history of Mylapore.

That tiled short house was a landmark building of those days and now it’s going to be a cotton emporium.

More the modification and modernity Mylapore turns it still remain Youngish and Primitive today, tomorrow and ever.

Because the glory of Mylapore is not just a Land or any space but it’s in the hearts and minds of people who  had been travelling with this town all along.

My Heart is in Mylapore and Mylapore is in my Heart.

Baskar Seshadri

Young Murugadoss who found few hours of time during his lunch break in his office never thought of a short nap in his house or did not plan a matinee show in the nearby Kamadhenu Theatre or Kapali. But he wanted to do an active business and what he thought was supply of half pant shots mainly a sportswear of those days especially for badminton game to readymade garment stores of Mylapore and adjoining areas. And he was successful too when he was in his mid-twenties. The challenge was not over. Then he thought of a small place in Luz and asked his father who owns it to give it to him on Rental. He readily agreed and he started his first venture in 1986 with just twenty square feet area.

So what the business was? It was a re-stitching or alteration Point in the colloquial language.

Murugadas says “When I started this venture I used to ask the customer to stand out and i will personally take the measurement because the space inside the shop can accommodate only one person and a tailoring machine”.

Now he had grown much better where he owns two portions one for the workshop and for the tailoring unit. Sheer hard work pays is a proof in the case Of Murugadoss.

Now you could have guessed that Murugadoss is the son of Namdev Rao popularly known as GN Rao.

Restitch point was born in 1989 and it was the first venture in the city to have an exclusive shop of restitching.

His father passed away in 1997 and his brothers all four are in the same textile area in various places like Madipakkam Nanganallur and one in Luz near Rangaswamy Studio is the most famous point among others and this is a total tailoring unit for only new garments.

His wife Sasikala is also a tailor of fashions and she supports her husband a lot.

Initially Dass was handling men garments but later in 2001 he started venturing into women garments too. Alterations of any kind are accepted here for a nominal rate. If you want to alter a BIG Shirt to your lean size of body he is ready to do it or if you have a torn collar and need a replacement you can head on to him.

He had his units in various places but finally settled in Luz (oldies may remember the shanti VIhar Hotel). He has his regular customers who reach him even today for their requirements. Many Tamil magazines and The Hindu (Liffy thomas did a story) had carried reports about his ventures those days and Mylapore times (Janaki did this) had done a story too in mid of nineties. He is to complete his thirty first year this coming December of his unit and if you have a triple XL shirt take it to him to get it fixed to your size.

Murugadas can be reached at 98402 95552. Restitch point has five full time tailors though he had eight last year pre covid. Now amid the corona impact he is able to manage after the relaxation.

Novel ideas always pay and Murugadas of Restitch point is a classic example. Keep up.

Baskar Seshadri 

Shree Jain Medical Relief society is a known medical centre to those who reside in and around Mylapore. It was Initially a general clinic taking care of general ailments and it was fondly known to many old people as “Jain Aaspathiri” those days.

In fact as a young boy i have gone there several times for treatment in late sixties.

It’s a boon to poor people to get such treatment at an affordable cost even in those days and of course now too. They have opened eye clinic in the same Premises and Dr Suganya is handling the patients who comes for eye treatment. Whether its a eye Power check up, Pressure check or cataract you all have there in the same place in Arundale Street.

What more, you have a spec’s shop too to choose your glasses there.

The consultation fee is Rs 150/ for the eye check up and they are open every day between 10.30 am to 1. 00 pm.

Instead of spending huge money on corporate hospital i suggest this hospital to all my friends and contacts. if anybody is looking for a good ophthalmology please suggest this centre for a better medical assistance.

If you wish to reach them for any appointment kindly contact the phone number 044 – 2498 2497 and the address is No 48, Arundale street near Kutchery road Post office. They are closed on Sundays. Please share this in the interest of Public Good.

Baskar Seshadri

With regard to the Bodyguard Muneeswaran temple tender issue there were questions raised by few friends and I am to share the input that this portion of the temple was originally started in 1860.

The story goes to say that a Britisher went around from erstwhile madras on a mission and before his venture started out he was asked by some locals to pray and he did not heeded to their request. The next day after he met with an accident and villagers went again and told that it was the wrath of the God. Then after the villagers narrated the sequences he agreed with half minded state and permitted a small settlement of temple.

This property was later shifted to pallavan estate and the original name of the temple was called Kottaisaamy Koil. This was controlled by the treasury dept. of the erstwhile Madras Rajdhaani and later it was named as Body Guard Muneeswaran. The officials trustee of Tamilnadu which is functioning under the monitoring  Powers of the Madras High Court Controls the temple even today. This has no connection with the state government in any manner and HRCE Has no say over this.

The temple was managed by a private person and when the popularity grew many outsiders joined the tender process leaving the first family to be away from the contest. However the Madras High court was kind enough to permit the first family to join the process but the tender was unsuccessful as nobody came forward to bid a whooping sum of Rs. 1 Crore and forty lakhs. Now the same old family is maintaining the temple and this is the second time the tender had failed.

The OTTN has to revise tender guidelines to make it reasonable and participant- friendly. Till such time the issue will never see the light.

Seshadri Baskar

If you feel you are bit down don’t look for any physician or a bulky capsule. Get start to one meeting of Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, Historian and Writer and in next one hour you will go out with Bubbling Energy. VR is not new to these  speeches  and he has been doing this for long years on varied subjects and the last one he did was on M K Thiagaraja Bhagavathar was way back in  2018 at  Arkay Convention centre.

VR is precise, fast, and perfect in communication and had understood the knack of holding the audience with a tight grip .In such a recent talk on Last Saturday evening he literally took the audience with him for a near two Hours. The subject was Tamil cinema in 1940s.

VR Stole the show with his quick delivery of tidbits, news of those days of film stars, technicians and all those who were related to the Cinema industry. You name a building here in Madras and he will give the inputs of the story behind that with vital information that runs like a Motion film. His speech is not by- hearted or a mugged one but comes out with a fresh style of flow with High energy.

Do you know how Ganesan (Later it was Sivaji) reacted to Auditor Raman about the coconut trees of AVM? Do you know the last days minute details of Rajakumari who burnt her fingers with Koondukili a film featured both Sivaji Ganesan and MGR?

Venkatesh Ramakrishnan has this and more – He has been doing a home work on these minute matters and grasps it to share with us. Once he takes the stage with the Mike its for sure a shower for a minimum of Two Hours. And i was one among them who was stunned at his fast tempo of truck load of Information on the past history of Madras aka Namma Chennai. His speech is like crazy mohan’s Dialogue. You can’t to afford to miss a piece of Mohans and here that of Venkatesh too.

Arkay Ramakrishnan in his style gave an introductory speech and later it was V R All the way. His speeches are available on you tube and you can log on and watch his old Programmes. Venkatesh Has Plans to talk on-more personalities in the days to come and I will update the events on this wall. Arkay Convention centre is on Royappettah High Road opposite to Nalli Chinnasamy Shop. So Get for the event next and await the calendar from me soon. By the way i had a chance to see my old friends over there for a short chat and that was another interesting piece of information.

Venkatesh Ramakrishnan is also behind the Facebook Group of Madras Local History Group. The last in the image is Mr Ramakrishnan of Arkay Convention centre who carries the fine arts in Mylapore on his shoulders with a strong grit.

Venkatesh Ramakrishan is a resident of Mylapore. When Venkatesh Ramakrishnan speaks on old stories kindling the memories i affectionately wish to call him a Past Perfect Man. Congrats VR

Baskar Seshadri

The foot over bridge work which had commenced three years ago had come a grinding halt when covid struck us and it was almost sent to back burner. But now for the past few months the work had picked up a good speed and gained momentum in all spheres. The project which was planned at a cost of Rs Fifty crores but now it had now made a over run .The FOB Is planned to connect the Mambalam Railway Station to T Nagar Bus stand on Madley Road . The over crowding Natesan and Ranganathan street may have a relief once this becomes operational in this messy part of Chennai. One way it is the Flyover on South Usman Road and the thick and dense traffic all through the day had made the road unusable and many fear to travel on this stretch. The work is nearing completion and the top portion to cover the stretch had commenced. It is expected to be completed in few Months and By August this is likely to be operational. We have to wait and watch the impact of this and the State govt has to make certain amendments once this open for public usage.

The Points to be made are –

1 No vehicles should be allowed to ply including a bicycle.

2 Vendors of any kind should not be allowed to have their activity.

3 Traffic police should be posted in this six hundred meters stretch (0.6 km) to ensure smooth walk over by the pedestrians.

4 Since the width of the bridge is around twelve feet i think there may be a bifurcation on this stretch to discipline the users.

5 CCTV cameras should be fixed on all the sides.

6 Since the Police station is nearby a watch tower can be considered on both sides.

7 Manning of the stretch is essential since over crowding may lead to chaos and if necessary the public can be halted to move till the crowd on one end becomes free.

8 A rescue team may be positioned during festival times

9 Selfie activity should be banned here on this point.

10 The exit and entry points on both sides should be made free always free in case of any emergency. Let’s hope this decongest T Nagar a bit.

Baskar Seshadri

My Friend Sivakumar is a big hearted person. He with his wife spends a great deal of time every day to feed the pets in and around Mandaveli. They are too kind enough to spend good money and involve their maximum time in all the activities of social interest. Every day they feed hundreds of birds on their terrace in Mandaveli almost like Camera Sekar of Royappettah. They soak the rice the previous night and provide the breakfast to the waiting birds every day in the Morning and evening. Have you ever seen Hundreds of parrots sitting on a perfect line to take their food every day? It happens at his terrace. Both of them are jointly involved in the activities and are showing the best of Humanity.

Not only this. They are in a touch with a NGO and are providing the water-bowls to the street animals and Birds wherever they could.  Only yesterday i was just planning a water bowl near my house. Last year a young Tejaswi did the same and had erected a water bowl at the beginning of Thiruvengadam Street, Mandaveli .

This evening Siva fondly as he is being called by one and all rang me to say that he was ready with a bowl for me. In next five minutes he landed in front of My House and placed the bowl. What more? He even went in to fetch water and made the first filling. I was so moved at the act of this couple. Thanks Siva and Mrs Viji for all the great qualities of yours. May your tribe increase.

My Respects and Kudos.

Please support Sivakumar and His family in his mission and he will be too glad to take the support. Siva a down to earth person is my friend for the past Forty Five Years and even before.

Baskar Seshadri

If it is summer season you can be sure of some action by Blue cross of India. Last year they donated good number of water bowls to the residents so that they can fill it every day to enable to animals mainly dogs and goats.

A young boy in Thiruvengadam Street even spent his little money to erect a cement water booth that can hold few litres of water. This year they are on the job of providing such water bowls and had completed certain areas. Last week they had provided one such water bowl near Mandaveli railway station on an arrangement with the local auto drivers to fill up the water every day on a roto. This works successfully where the purpose gets solved and a awareness is created among the residents who live nearby.

The photo shown here (cover photo) is one such water bowl installed by the BC near the Railway station. Kudos.

Baskar Seshadri

The Court had given time to Sastra college, Thanjavur till 24th March and on the last leg the institution had approached the High court asking the Govt to sell the land to them.

State government had clearly told that the said Place is already earmarked for various projects and it cannot give it to the concerned institution.

First of all it is daring that the said institution which had committed this fraud has the guts to ask the govt and court to give the land to them. Secondly there was no regret in any form by them for all the poaching all these years and in fact they have to pay the Govt for having enjoyed the benefits all these years. Instead now they are asking the stakeholders to give the land.

How a educational institution can be behave like is a million dollar question and please be aware that they are running a Law College. I wish the court Pounce on this corrupt act of the college and admonish them for what they have done all these days as Highly Illegal. if the court still finds its own ways and plug the leak in favour of the college and against the Govt there is no point further in talking about the justice and the so called phrase ever winning truth etal .

Baskar Seshadri

When Ayodhya Mandapam was inaugurated it was called initial as Ram samajam and many in west mambalam and T Nagar found the place as more convenient to commute as a place of worship and it had many big signatories on the board. In the beginning only Iyers were permitted inside the same and later some objections were raised that facilitated all were permitted inside years later.

It was only registered as a trust. The face of the mandapam changed as many new comers who became the office bearers had interesting ideas to develop the institution and they also wanted to make the samajam commercially viable.

In the course of the time a kalyana mandapam was raised and a school had started functioning on the lines of a perfect social service link to a specific community. In fact even a Gnanavaapi was raised by them amid some objections those days.

It was once considered to be the best religious hall cum Kalyana Mandapam in chennai at an affordable rate since it also had the facility of a sath Sangh team with more members getting added every year.

The society had some issues with the state Government and after jaya Govt sworn in in 2011, many thought the snow balling issue would come to an end but it went other wise Yes. HRCE Made its first attempt and wanted to bring the samajam into the fold of HRCE and after a legal battle for few years the samaj and the society got a stay order from the court. But it was a short lived one since the court had given the judgement in favour of the HRCE and now the whole of the samajam is in the control of HRCE. Exactly on its golden Jubilee year the society lost its clout and Hold on this Religious centre.