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When the postman knocked
I'VE RECEIVED scores of enquiries about that little booklet on "Paatti Vaidyam"I had referred to on February 16 in these columns. I'm glad to inform all those who wrote in that, if they send written requests to M/s. Kalamkriya, 9, Cathedral Road, Chennai 600086, copies will be sent to them. But stocks are limited.
* There have been several calls and letters wanting to know why Sir R. K. Shanmukham Chetty (Miscellany, March 8) resigned as Finance Minister in 1948 and was never given another portfolio. I'm afraid I have no answers, but would be glad to hear from any reader who might have the inside story.
I have also been reminded of his interest in the arts. He was instrumental in getting Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar to found the Thamizh Isai Sangam in 1943. This association culminated in his being invited to be vice-chancellor of Annamalai University. He was a patron of Bharatanatyam and particularly of Balasaraswathi, who was to become a legend.
Randor Guy tells me that Sir Shanmukham was an active member of Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar's Suguna Vilas Sabha and acted in several of its plays. His interest in cinema too was considerable, so much so that he encouraged his brother R. K. Ramakrishnan Chetty and some family friends to get together and start a film studio. Central Studio in Coimbatore is what they founded in 1936/37. Central's first film was "Tukaram" made in Tamil and Telugu. To play the lead in the Tamil version, Sir Shanmukham suggested well known Carnatic musician Musiri Subramaniya Iyer and then got down to persuading him to accept the role. That was Musiri Subramania Iyer's first and last film role. Sir Shanmukham's interest in cinema was further manifest when he accepted the invitation to preside over the first Tamil cinema conference and deliver the keynote address.
* My reference to Mackay's Garden had reader T. M. Sundararaman, who was long associated with the Posts and Telegraphs, writing in to tell me that Mackay's Garden is an old garden house on Graeme's Road that was owned by the P&T Department and now by the Telecom Department. It is one of the several buildings, he writes, in a vast area that is the office and stores of the Chief Controller of Telecom Stores. Reader T. K.Visweswaran adds that towards the Pantheon Road end of Graeme's Road there was a huge slum called Makkeeth Thottam (no doubt a local variation of Mackay's Garden) and near it was the Cochin Palace. That palace is too new for Mme. Tussaud's exhibition to have been held in it and I still think Ameer Bagh is where it must have been held. As for the slum, it is much reduced, with Police Quarters and other Government buildings occupying most of its extent along Graeme's Road. Incidentally, to readers inquiring about my spelling of this road's name, "Graeme" is the correct spelling, though now almost everyone, including officialdom, spells it as Gream's or Greame's Road.
* Reader M. R. Ananthanarayan writes that he thinks the correct title of S. K. Chettur's second collection of short stories mentioned by me on March 1 was "The Cobras of Shermadevi" and NOT "of Dhermashevi" as mentioned. He says the reference is to a place in `Tinnevely' District called (S)Cheranmahadevi. I look forward to more light being shed on that one of these days.
S. MUTHIAH
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