The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : A club with a difference

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

A club with a difference

Special Correspondent

Sri Mulam Club has always been in the forefront of social activities in the capital city

GLORIOUS HERITAGE: Sri Mulam Club in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Clubs used to be places where the intelligentsia met regularly and held academic and scholarly discussions on topics of contemporary interest. But over the years many of them degenerated at least in the eyes of the very same intellectuals.

The reports that there are clubs which still derive inspiration from their glorious past and consider social good as one of their priorities come as a surprise.

The Sri Mulam Club in Thiruvananthapuram is one such club. There may be few clubs in the State that can claim such a glorious heritage and association with personalities who had shaped the destiny of the land.

The club was started by the then Dewan Rama Rao with the help of Dewan Bahadur Krishna Rao of the erstwhile Travancore State in June 1890. There was only one club in Thiruvananthapuram at that time and the entry to it was restricted to Europeans. It was with the intention of setting up a similar institution for Indians where they could involve in cultural, social and sports activities that the Dewan set up the club. He had named it as the Union Club.

The then Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Mulam Thirunal, who visited the club during its early years, agreed to be its patron and allowed it to be named after him. Accordingly it was re-christened as Rama Varma Union Club and later Sri Mulam Club. The Maharaja also gifted 2.97 acres of land and Rs.1,000 to the club.

Dewan C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, who is considered to be the architect of modern Travancore, became its first life member in 1940. Its shuttle court building was inaugurated by none other than the Nobel Laureate C.V.Raman.

Yet another cherished milestone in the history of the club is reception accorded to Swami Vivekananda by the people of Thiruvananthapuram after his historic Kanyakumari visit.

The club has always been in the forefront of social activities. It has once again proved its social commitment.

The club has constructed an air-conditioned `Kalyana Mandapam' with an area of 10,000 sq.ft. at a cost of Rs.1.75 crores. It can seat 1,200, has a separate lobby, which can accommodate 250 and a dining hall which can seat 500 at a time.

The club proposes to let out the hall free of cost for mass marriages and the marriages of orphans, according to its honorary secretary K.G. Nair.

The hall is to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on May 9.

Finance Minister, Vakkom Purushothaman and Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed are among those expected to attend the function.

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