How Best to pay Tributes to people like Randor Guy?

 

'Other famed dramatists who staged plays at Rasika Ranjani Sabha ( in Mylapore) were Dr. V. Ramamurthi and V. Seshadri.

‘Dr. Ramamurthi, with his impressive physique, singing skills and acting talents was a popular resident of Mylapore and son-in-law of V. C. Gopalratnam. He excelled in roles in historical plays and built up great fame in plays like ‘Sivakamiyin Sabatham’ and ‘Parthiban Kanavu’. Ramamurthi also led bhajan groups around the Mada Streets during margazhi.

V. Seshadri, fair and handsome, was a lawyer and son-in-law of one of the greatest lawyers of Madras, K. Raja Iyer. Seshadri donned female roles and for this reason, V. C. Gopalratnam called him an actress!

These are the concluding paras of one of the early parts of a column titled ‘Mylapore Musings’ published in Mylapore Times in the 1995/’97 period. There were some 180-plus parts.

The column was written by Randor Guy. 

Madras’ well-known story teller and historian passed way last Sunday. He slipped away peacefully in the arms of caring nuns off the East Coast Road.

Randor was prodigious in his writings, be it on cinema, the legal world and on crime in the Madras Presidency and later. Mylapore was his favourite chomping ground. So when Mylapore Times came of age, he was keen to write a column for us. And my former colleague at the desk, Raji Muthukrishnan, co-ordinated Randor’s contribution.

He wanted to be published all over. And he valued the income; freelance writers are still paid small. But he respected even junior journalists and he was great company too.

And all that he wrote and collected was valuable.

His daughter Priya, a Mylaporean, told me that the Film Institute in Pune had recently collected all the books, cassettes, CDs, papers, clippings and stuff at his Ayanavaram residence and it had dedicated this collection to Randor in its archives. Even the Carnatic music tapes of vintage artistes got in there. 

This showcase is one way of celebrating a wonderful person. For all men and women of our city who have made signal contributions, what else can we do?  A bit more?

Can we not have an informal group of citizens who host a Tribute meeting, open to all, for all these men and women when they say good-bye? Perhaps have this meeting at a venue that offers itself for this unique purpose?

Can we have a two-member team that can post the life and work of all these people online so the record survives long, long after the cremation and decades roll by; because while we may have on Wiki and elsewhere, the records of the rich and famous and decorated, where would you find a Tribute to Madras’ first set of restaurateurs or city league cricket stars or feted school Heads? 

I would love to get your suggestions here!

Did you say 'Good Morning' to Thatha on his Walk?

 

Father L. Balaswamy rests in the graveyard now. 

This is a quiet place in the campus of the church in Luz. 

When I spoke to him many weeks ago, he was exhausted from the long hours at a hospital’s dialysis unit. A donor kidney didn’t come his way.

I couldn’t suggest a meeting. Not in the physical and mental condition he was in.

This Catholic priest of the Madras-Mylapore diocese had retired after some five decades of service. Retired to the quiet Vianney Home in San Thome.

I should have met him then. The conversations on the phone were not enough.

Personal meets would have also relaxed him.

I am not the kind of person who visits graveyards, places some flowers on graves of people I know and sit and talk to them.

Though I may visit Balaswamy’s grave when I am in Luz the next time. Graveyards are really quiet spaces.

Balaswamy was the parish priest of our church zone where we used to reside, off Mount Road. Those are faint memories. We re-connected after he retired; and spoke long. I was keen to understand local church history and he had loads and loads of stories and less-known facts to share.

Oftentimes, retired people enjoy story-telling - when they have people to listen to them.  Perhaps, they also enjoy the company. And time is spent usefully.

My co-traveller who is no more, D. Hemchandra Rao would light up at the suggestion of a road trip. He would do his home-work for the trip and bounce it on me and off we went. To all corners of India’s coast - as he documented light houses.

It took some time for the vibes to set right.

Understanding seniors is key to a fruitful relationship. 

Rao was old school; he marked time for refreshments, washroom calls and checking into hotels to call it a day.

Once the vibes got strong, Rao was ready for any road trip - to the Natyanjali dance circuits in Tamil Nadu to a cultural festival in coastal Karnataka’s Honnavar.

There are lots of seniors living amidst us. And they need some warmth and conversation. 

Even a ‘Hello, good morning!’ as they take baby steps on a morning walk, can light them up, make them smile.

<< Photo used here is of Fr. Balaswamy.

This Summer, send your Kids to Work at a Mylapore store. Or train with scientists off Adyar estuary.

 

We know this. Our children need all those lessons and lectures in the classroom.

But the hands-on training is priceless.

Summer time holidays can be learning and earning time.

In school, Dad invited me to a fortnight’s work at his company’s godown of medicines. Pasting stickers on bottles. It got me some pocket money. I also learnt how to interact with contract labour. Lessons that held well when I ran my business.

In college, training at a rag of a weekly newspaper, my Ed sent me down to the print shop floor. Two lessons learnt - the mental outlook of press staff and the ideas that the pre-press team had about layouts suggested by the Ed.

And just after college, at The Indian Express, assigned to produce the weekly Cinema page, many lessons learnt on the pre-press floor. You allowed the staff to feast on the film stills and then worked hand-in-hand in designing the page. And here, I learnt the importance of ‘white space’ in design - from those veterans.

There are many ways in which our teens can spend some days this May, on hands-on education. For example, turn to some institutions whom we must request to ‘open’.

Can our Mylapore zone colleges let their laboratories be learning zones for seven our ten days for schoolers?

Check in with The Zoological Survey of India, the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, and The Sanskrit College. Would they admit schoolers to short-term training on campus?

Sign up for some real shop-experience. For all those whose interest is management, finance, accountancy and retail.

Send your sons and daughters to say, Vivek or Giri Trading. Send them to the neighbourhood restaurant or pharmacy. Offer your young one’s services to the local bakery like Winners or a supermarket like White Rose.

Imagine the amazing experience the young ones will have across seven days. The education and the challenges. And perhaps they will also be paid some pocket money! And be give a certificate of experience.

Any sensible educator and employer will appreciate this record of a young one.

This takes me to an anecdote my colleague Parameshwaran shared sometime ago. Walking down a Mylapore inner street, he heeded a ‘Saar!” call; he turned and recognised a youth sitting behind the cash register of a pharmacy. 

This boy had attended a course on the basics in computers at a school that Mylapore Times Charitable Trust runs in a local school. He had discontinued studies and his basic skills got him this job.

What do you think of the ideas I have bounced here? Share your thoughts here!

<< Photo: Stella Maris College art/design students at Nageswara Rao Park, curating an event