Chennai Newsreel

by Vincent D’Souza

Of student research… and a collection

Butt Road. Saint Thomas Mount.
The road to the hill.
From the Kathipara roundabout in Guindy, leading to the highway that leads to Bangalore.
Butt Road.
How did it get its name?
Three school students told us a part of the story.
They were students of Army Public School in this neigh-bour-hood. They were among the 13 school teams which took part in the annual Power Point Contest on the city’s history and heritage that Mylapore Times host for Madras Week.

Last year, the theme was ‘Streetscapes’.

With SINA supporting us with the premises – that still-cosy Srinivasa Sastri Hall (could be great if it was given better attention!) – this contest has been held for over 12 years now.

The idea behind this event is to encourage senior school students to explore their neigh-bour-hoods, study and research and then make a presentation in public, tapping into their communication and public speaking skills.

The team from Army Public School registered in a tad late. Midway, it had doubts about the road they chose – Butt Road – and decided to study NSC Bose Road in north Chennai. Finally, they settled for Butt Road.

And they did a good job; good enough to win the first prize that afternoon.
Butt Road.

There must have been a range here for shooting. The area at the foot of this hill was one of the busiest training and cantonment zones of the British in Madras. And so you can imagine how the road that skirted the range got its name.

The students tell us that a part of the road is called Binny Road and the part that skirts the entrance to the steps that take you to the summit of the Mount is Butt Road.

Another school had researched St. Patrick’s Road – this one goes off Butt Road into the colony.
And so from two teams, we gained, a fair amount of information on two roads in St. Thomas’ Mount.
Every street, even the ones which came up two decades ago have histories and lives. And they tell us a lot of the place, the past and the present. If only we care to explore them. And record them.
The simple work done by these student teams encourages us – can we build further on the basic work presented at this contest and build an archive of the key streets in each Chennai neighbourhood?
Can we also get senior school and college students to enable this project and do so better, using new technology tools?

I would like to hear from people – architects, tech-savvy youths, journalists, teachers – who could be interested in this project.

* * *

Pottering around in the dens and cupboards of collectors calls for time.
Many of us in the old days would do this at Moore Market.

Recently I pottered around in the houses of two friends – Winston of Anna Nagar and Moses of Kilpauk.

The duo were keen to have me over for some time and on that lazy Monday, I made the trip, discovering in the process the changing face of East and West Anna Nagar.

Winston is choosy about his collection. He also trades them smartly – he had to click on his WhatsApp button at least once every hour to check if he had any takers for the stuff he has offered. He did get a buser that Monday: for the front page of The Hindu which featured the first anniversary of India’s -independence.

Winston has a knack of finding gold nuggets in the tin sheds and gunny bags of neigh-bour-hood waste dealers. First edition books, War-time certificates, school and club souvenirs.
As I squeezed myself bet-ween rows of overweight shel-ves packed with books, files and paper clippings, I chanced on a ‘Bargain Newsheet’ put out to highlight a sale of Chella-ram’s.
It was torn and falling part. It was yellow-brown. And it was sloppily designed. But it certainly told us a lot of a popular retail store’s business of this city.

In Kilpauk, it was Moses’ house which got my attention first. Among the last few still standing since the 1960s, it was built in the era of City Improvement Trust (CIT), remnants of which survive in Nandanam, Mylapore and T’Nagar. Moses’ house made a perfect space to showcase his antique collections – clocks, pens, lamps and locks.

Moses told me that it was hard to get a buyer for his unique collection but that did not stop him from snapping a great piece if the price was right.

He also seemed keen to exhibit his collection at campuses and community events.
“I have seen children get very excited when they see ink pens with special nibs,” he told me. “I want young people to know the past.”

That Monday afternoon, well past lunchtime Moses and Winston spoke about how stuff collected at homes which can be value archival material is -destroyed when it is dumped in the garbage bins on our streets.

Photographs and photo -albums, letters and post cards, paper clippings and certificates, souvenirs and wedding invitations… All these tell stories. Of not only our lives but also those of our neighbourhood. Our City.

How then do we create a system where we can invite families to share these records that would anyway be given to the waste-paper agency or dumped in the Ramky bin?
Winston and Moses have some ideas. If you too have some, let me know.

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