Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXVII No. 4, June 1-15, 2017
Archives: Vol. XXVII No. 4, June 1-15, 2017
Praying for rain
At Sri Kapali Temple, Mylapore a varuna japa parayanam, sponsored by the AMN Global Group, was held recently. Sixteen priests spent more than four hours every day, in rituals that are said to help bring rain. Some of them sat in huge vessels of water, with their eyes closed and hands folded.
D. Kaveri, the executive officer of the temple is concerned that the temple tank is dry, but she is hopeful. “The group performing the jappam poured more than five tankers of water into the tank but everything is getting sucked into the ground. Rain is our only hope,” she says.
Civic activists though are amused; they certainly do not subscribe to these acts in reviving a temple tank. Instead, get the storm water drains linked to the tank and the Chitrakulam cleaned so that when it rains water freely flows in, they suggest.
While all the attention is on this tank, the bed of the Chitrakulam is dry and cracked.
– (Courtesy: Mylapore Times.)
A thought for Senate House, please, dear VC
To
Professor P. Duraisamy
Vice Chancellor,
University of Madras
Dear Professor,
On behalf of Madras Musings, the fortnightly that is brought out thanks to the support of several corporate houses of the city and numerous readers and subscribers, I congratulate you on your appointment as Vice Chancellor of this 160-year old University and wish you the very best in your three-year tenure.
How unsanitary can we get?!
– by A Special Correspondent
Madras is a dismal 235th out of 434 Indian cities surveyed in Swachh Suvekshan – 2017, an assessment based on sanitation management. Tiruchirappalli is the only Tamil Nadu city ranked in the first ten; it is 8th.
The survey is conducted annually by the Quality Council of India on behalf of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, and the data is provided by municipal bodies, obtained from independent assessors and, most importantly, citizens’ feedback, all evaluated to a maximum of 2000 marks. Chennai scored 916!
The last word on our museums
– by N.S. Parthasarathy
Vinod Daniel, internationally known senior conservator in a recent interview highlighted the community’s responsibility in preserving the irreplaceable historical and cultural links with the past. He spoke of the role of museums in nation-building and of issues of conservation, maintenance and collection care. These observations and the series of articles on Chennai Museums that appeared in the last few issues of this paper provide occasion for a few observations on the state of our museums.
Charivari – 1
A greater contribution in death
Lord Hobart
Charivari is a word that would today be considered archaic. Wikipedia informs us that it is of German origin and stood for a folk custom in which the community stages a mock serenade using pots and pans. Le Charivari, established in 1832, was a French satirical magazine and when the English felt the need for one in 1841, they called theirs Punch, or The London Charivari. The latter had a long and glorious career, folding up eventually in 2002.
