Our Readers Write

Time for a push

The piece W(h)ither Tamil Nadu? (MM, January 16th) poignantly describes the quality of leadership. The contrast is provided by neigh-bouring Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. These states have been aggressive in focusing on development in contrast to the focus on emotive issues and freebies by Tamil Nadu.

Remember the predilection of Tamilians for emotive issues like anti-Hindi, Tamil Eelam and now Jallikattu. In contrast, you see opposition to any aspect of development from laying gas pipeline, coal-bed methane and shale gas, the nutrino project, to an elevated corridor connecting Chennai and Ennore ports.

The leadership keeps away from business leaders and shuns travel to keep updated on global practices. From the days of C N Annadurai as Chief Minister, it had not bothered to travel to other countries or even across the country to attract investments. In my visits to Delhi and Mumbai I notice a poor presence of Tamil Nadu in national and international meets. I am glad you have focused on this serious lacuna and hope it will be a call to wake up.

S. Viswanathan
Editor
Industrial Economist
Chennai

Unrivalled

Cho Ramaswamy’s rivals once made concerted efforts to debunk his publication Thuglak and brought out Kicklak, a fortnightly. But the rivals could not sustain with their publication, and had to close down no sooner it was launched. Even today, Thuglak remains in top position. It is hoped that the team under the new Editor, S Gurumurthy, will maintain that record.

V.S. Jayaraman
31, Motilal Street
T Nagar, Chennai 600 017

Adyar at Kotturpuram

I have been a resident of Kotturpuram for the last 41yrs. As a student of Madras Christian College High School, I used to cross the river Adyar by means of a wooden ferry, at Suryanagar, Kotturpuram. The ferry fare was 10 paise per person. The ferry boatman, Perumal, used to pole the boat in a leisurely, laid-back manner.

On a recent visit to this spot, I saw a variety of colourful water-birds: Little and Cattle Egrets, Little terns, Small Blue Kingfishers (Alcedo athis), Pond Herons (Ardeola grayii): and, to top it all, a magnificent Spotted-bill Pelican gliding in to land on the surface of the river where rose-ringed parakeets screeched overhead: This brought back to me, memories of my schooldays: when the ferry crossing was serene and blue. This ferry was smashed by floods in 2001, by the river’s force: The ancient oarsman died in his nearby hut of sheer old age.

There is a 50ft bund adjacent to the Adyar now. The spot could have been, with some foresight, be declared a Ramsor site: but now too many concrete constructions, vehicular traffic and people have moved in. Water buffaloes wallow in the water – where the ferry boat was tethered.

I wish the Adyar River, in it’s oxbow curve around Kotturpuram, is given the care and attention it deserves by the authorities.

K.Karunanidhi
kknidhi1964@gmail.com

That proofing devil

A proof-reading devil has been at work with the typesetters of Madras Musings. In the issue dated January 1st, he had Montfort as Montford and on page 4 in the issue dated January 16th, he had, on page 4 again, Thomas Pycroft as Thomas Bycrafts. We hope he stops nodding in future.

– The Editor

Donate So you may live forever

(By A Special Correspondent)

A recent newsreport stated that 3000 persons in Tamil Nadu are waiting for kidney transplant at the transplant registry. It is estimated that, each year, hundreds of people die for want of an organ for transplant. A study by Mohan (Multi Organ Harvesting Network) reveals that the organ donation rate in India -compares poorly with that of other countries – 0.26 per million in India, compared to America’s 26, Spain’s 35.3, and Croatia’s 36.5.

Tamil Nadu is the first State in the country that started a living kidney transplant programme. It is also the first State to introduce the cadaver programme after the passing of the Transplantation of Human Organ Act of 1994. In the last few years, a network -between hospitals for organ sharing has been formed
Advancement in medical science has blessed us with the ability to save lives by donating organs for transplant. Awareness of this life-saving power is not widely realised.

A more moving a plea for organ donation could not have been made than in the form of a beautiful poem that Nani Palkhivala, the country’s eminent jurist and humanist, chose as embodying his own dying wish, sometime before his passing. The poem is by -Robert N. Test, an American Poet and written in 1976.

To Remember Me…

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face, or love in the eyes of a woman
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grand children play.
Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that some day, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat, and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.
Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses, and all prejudice against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil, give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.
If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

– N.S. Parthasarathy
Chennai 600 041

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