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Vol. XXXIV No. 17, December 16-31, 2024
Archives: Vol. XXXIV No. 17, December 16-31, 2024
Fort St George to lose more heritage – The ASI is up to its usual denotification tactic
-- by Sriram V.
Reliable sources have it that Fort St George is to soon be freed up of valuable space, occupied hitherto by unwanted heritage buildings. That these structures were anyway in various stages of decay is another matter altogether. By the simple expedient of denying them even basic maintenance, they have been brought to a state where it is easy to declare them structurally unsound and therefore demolition-worthy. That the Archaeological Survey of India has managed to take shelter under this expedient time and again, and get away with it, is shocking to say the least.
As many as three heritage structures within Fort St George are to be cleared away. The biggest is Wellesley’s House, which remains partially standing, a section of it having collapsed in the early 1990s and allowed to remain as debris for over 25 years! The second is the so-called Clive’s Library, in the control of the Navy, which was held in place by a huge tree that grew out of it and which finally collapsed earlier this year. The third is an un-named barrack, which will apparently be demolished to make way for a car park. The status of the barrack is unclear but Wellesley’s House and the Clive Library were ‘protected monuments’ as per the ASI. It should be noted here that yet another ‘protected monument’, namely Last House on Snob’s Alley, collapsed last year.
There is now a pattern in the way Fort St George is being denuded of its heritage. The first is to clamp down on maintenance, barring the showpieces namely the Assemby and Secretariat, the Church of St Mary’s, the ASI headquarters, Fort Museum, and a couple of buildings belonging to the army and navy.
The Marina Ropeway – Can we prioritise the basics instead?
-- by Varsha V.
Plans are afoot to establish a solar-powered ropeway along the Marina beach. The proposed project will stretch from Anna Square to the Lighthouse, with stations at Anna Square, Kannagi Statue, Vivekananda House and the Lighthouse. With the number of weekend visitors to the beach reportedly touching one lakh, the project is expected to help manage crowds and also boost foreign tourism as the ropeway will offer passengers ‘panoramic views of the coastline.’ There are hopes too that it will
Mysore Vasudevachar at Kalakshetra
-- by V.R. Devika
Three generations of ardent connoisseurs of the Kalakshetra Ramayana productions say they feel a thrill when the first lines of the Balakanda of the Ramayana are sung at Kalakshetra’s Sita Swayamvaram in the Ramayana series.
‘When Veena Sambasiva Iyer heard this song, he said to Vasudevacharya, “If only I were a Maharaja, I would present you one crore of rupees for just that composition alone.” So Ramayana began under such tremendous auspices,” Rukmini Devi Arundale wrote in her tribute to Mysore Vasudevachar during his centenary celebrations.
Portrait of a Chief Justice
(Continued from last fortnight)
The Memoirs of Justice Natarajan, Part III
The fourth Judge, but by no means the least among the eminent personages with whom I had sat, is Chief Justice K. Veeraswamy. He succeeded Chief Justice M. Ananthanarayanan in the middle of 1969. While practising as a lawyer, he had served as Government Pleader and was then elevated to the Bench. In the course of time, he attained seniority and became
When W.V. Raman broke a 44-year old record
-- by Partab Ramchand
In 1944-45 Rusi Modi amassed 1,008 runs during the Ranji Trophy season while playing for Bombay. It was a stupendous feat for he played only five matches. This not only set a new record for the premier national competition but also turned out to be `Mission Impossible’ for the batsmen who followed. Over the next 43 years even with the proliferation of matches no other batsmen came close to it though several breached the 800-run mark. Finally in 1988-89 Madras-born W.V. Raman did the impossible – he surpassed Modi’s long standing record.
