A man of great perfection

– Anu Verghese

Our mutual association commenced from1986 when I started attending the meetings of The Madras Printers’ & Lithographers’ Association.

While attending a Governing Council Meeting of The All India Federation of Master Printers at Calcutta in the Salt Lake Stadium wherein Mr. Muthiah was the Vice-President then, we stepped out to catch some sunshine during the coffee break and I broached the subject of starting a fortnightly, titled Madras Musings in 1991. Back in Madras, couple of weeks later, we met up with the proposal from Mr. Muthiah and that birthed Madras Musings.

Over the years, our friendship grew and it was more than a business relationship, in fact I drove down to Karaikudi to attend Mr. Muthiah daughter’s wedding ceremony. Mrs. Valli Muthiah maintained the accounts for Madras Musings perfectly, and always jocularly reminded Mr. Muthiah that he became popular only after his association with Lokavani Press.

A tough taskmaster, he was a person of great grace. Always ending a mail with Warmest Regards, Muthu, there was never a missing punctuation. Such was his attention to the smallest detail.

We executed many coffee table books for Mr. Muthiah. Notable amongst them were the books on Chettiar Heritage, Madras – Old & New and various autobiographies. His idea of colour control and visualization was exemplary. I have personally learnt a lot. After every issue of Madras Musings was printed, we would have a discussion on the quality of the black and white photographs printed, the black text which had to be printed jet black without affecting the quality of the photographs. These discussions led us to get a dense black ink specially formulated for the printing of Madras Musings so that both were printed well.

Mr. Muthiah’s passing away has created a great void in many ways and for me personally he was a father figure.

May his soul rest in peace!

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