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Trafficless & clean
What we senior citizens group of Besant Nagar (SCGOBN) had been agitating for, for over the past one year, was achieved on Sunday, October 11th, albeit in a much smaller manner.
Cars and motorised vehicles were not allowed in one stretch of the Beach Road from 6 am to 9 am. We had been asking for a complete ban of all motorised transport from 6 am to 9 pm. Anyway we are happy that a good beginning has been made.
But what is more pleasing are the ‘fringe benefits’ which we residents of Besant Nagar have got.
The side road leading to the beach (3rd Main) has been cleaned. The sand and dust have been removed. Cementing has been done in patches. The pavement has been reclaimed.
Garbage has been removed from 3rd Main and new garbage bins brought in. We had been asking for this for more than a year. Above all, a new road signboard has been installed. We are all very happy. At last we senior citizens have pavements to walk on.
We wonder where the Corporation got the will and the money to do all this? We were told all along that the Corporation did not have the budget. Thanks to the VIPs who visited Besant Nagar on Sunday morning, the Chennai Corporation beautified 3rd Main Road. Whatever the reason, we senior citizens of Besant Nagar are happy.
We hope the Chennai Corporation shows similar enthusiasm in cleaning and reclaiming pavements in other parts of Besant Nagar and other parts of Chennai.

Prof V. Chandrasekhar
President, SCGOBN
B 12/12, 25th Cross
Besant Nagar, Chennai 600090

A forgotten leader
Sriram’s report (MM, September 16th) on the Madras Week Walk connected with the Justice Party reminds me of a long forgotten associate of the Justice Party. He was Rao Bahadur H.B. Ari Gowder (1893-1971) of the Nilgiris. I have detailed his career elsewhere (2012).
He has a road named after him (though as usual in a twisted form — Arya Gowda Street) in West Mambalam.
A distinguished spokesperson for the Nilgiris during the British period, he had the privilege of representing the district before the Simon Commission in 1927. As a young pro-active representative of the then District Board, he was also responsible for successfully implementing Prohibition in the district in the 1920s, much earlier than anywhere in the country. He was chosen to lead India at the World Scouts Jamboree in Hungary in 1933.
A greatly respected legislator of the Madras Province (1923-46), he also headed the Backward Classes League of the Province for nearly three decades from 1935.
Ari Gowder inherited his dynamism from his father H.J. Bellie Gowder (also a Rao Bahadur), known for his vibrant role in the subaltern social history of the Nilgris. Prior to the 1930s, he held the contract for the Permanent Way Maintenance of the prestigious Nilgiri Mountain Railway and is recognised to have established exceptional standards of efficiency in this activity.
The only bridge linking the two States of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka across the Mudumalai- Bandipur Tiger corridors bears the name of Ari Gowder.

Rev. Philip K Mulley
Anaihatti Road,
Kotagiri 643 217
The Nilgiris.

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