An anniversary to remember

(By MMM)

And, so, Chief, the task was done. The Man from Madras Musings alludes to the celebrating of 25 years of ye olde magazine aka Madras Musings. People are still talking about the event. You were, of course, in your element as Cecil B DeMille, commandeering diverse teams of authors, editors, printers, page setters and a designer into bringing out the book compiling some of the best of our output. And in the process of celebrating 25 years, MMM believes that you got many of them to age by the same number. The designer had to go off to the hills to recuperate, she having been found walking in her sleep muttering about monotype Garamond or Helvetica, MMM forgets which.

The evening too was of the best, what with the bold, the beautiful and the powerful of Madras rolling up in droves. Two hundred people you predicted, Chief, and sure enough they were there, all two hundred of them. Captains of industry, prima donnas from the world of art and cuisine, fashionistas, readers, newspaper editors, writers, should-have-been-writers, never-should-have-been-writers, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, everyone was there. And, yes, they’d all come to meet you Chief, to paraphrase from the famed song. Even the silk baron was there. And MMM noticed that he tried to touch your feet, Chief, but being somewhat stiff had to hold on to one of your hands with one hand while with the other he stooped to conquer.

Recherché was the word that one of the speakers uttered and that in MMM’s opinion summed up much of the evening. People had come to participate mainly to express their happiness in the success of something rare and exotic – a non-commercial venture that has as its plank the sole motive of giving something worthwhile to read concerning our past and our culture. That this should have survived at all is something nobody would have betted on. But it has and this was enough for people to celebrate.

The attendance of the distaff side was in the majority and MMM was not surprised at that, knowing what a killer you are, Chief, with the opposite sex. There was one who called MMM repeatedly and cadged an invitation from him on the grounds that she had once learnt the rudiments of writing from you. MMM had to allow her in but drew the line firmly when she said she was baking a cake to be brought and cut at the venue. Knowing you, Chief, you would not have minded, but Captains of Industry who were also present would have looked askance. Talking about same cake-baking lady, Chief, MMM recalls that you gave no sign of recognition when you met her, Chief. But MMM understands, for he recalls that Don Juan and Casanova had the same problem.

What a relief it was, Chief, to have an audience that laughed at the right places and, more importantly, did not fall upon the food rather in the manner of natives of famine-stricken lands. The hotel staff in particular was delighted at this. This venue was one of the worst hit by the food predators of Madras Week fame. This time around we more than made amends. The food was top class. The menu, so MMM understands, was drawn up entirely by you, Chief. The names of the dishes were rather difficult on the tongue but the preparations were a delight. In keeping with our city, however, what those in attendance liked most was the curd rice! But MMM did notice that the quiches and the tempura too kept emptying as if by magic.

It was gratifying, Chief, that the A-musing lady who spoke mentioned MMM. What delighted MMM even more was The Man with the Midas Touch (MMT) spoke of MMM’s good lady, also known as She Who Must Be Obeyed. According to MMT, it was She who diffused the situation so many years ago when MMM, young and not so innocent then, wrote that infamous piece about women from Madras going around in public clad in their nightgowns. There was hell to pay, if you recall, Chief, with Lovely Lass from Lancashire (LLL) in particular being mightily offended. By the way, Chief, you must ask A-musing Lady to tell you someday about how LLL, who wrote the section on Books and Authors for the commemorative volume, lost most of her script after writing it. MMM was appealed to, but he pleaded helplessness (and, no, he was not harbouring a grudge about the nightie or negligee episode). In the end, A-musing Lady had to step in and help LLL out, which is how you have that particular section in the commemorative volume.

Speaking of the commemorative volume, Chief, it appears to be majorly in demand. MMM has had to handle several callers all wanting to know as to where they can get the book. So you better put out the details soon. We don’t want them all beating a tattoo to our office do we?

As they were leaving, some people had already begun speculating on how the Madras Musings golden jubilee would be, Chief. MMM suggests that you better get on with the planning. Let’s have a meeting with your usual team of authors, editors, and the designer, once she has recovered from the current experience that is.

Out of fun and chaos 25 years re-created

On September 26th, 2016, a book titled A Silver Jubilee Selection was released at the Crowne Plaza to celebrate 25 years of Madras Musings, the little newspaper with a very big heart, which cares for the city on a very personal, fiercely protective, level.

It all began with a slightly hazy, general feeling that the best way to commemorate this special occasion would be to put together a compilation of selected pieces drawn from Madras Musings, from its very first issue.

The idea of a book, which would later be named A Silver Jubilee Selection began to take shape.

At our very first meeting for this project, Sriram V and I tried to come up with a list of topics Musings was best known for, which had to be included in the proposed book, with Sriram noting them all down on a paper napkin, (serious professionalism!) while we were having coffee….that’s how informal the beginnings were.

Initially, Sriram and I, rather ambitiously, made a couple of attempts to begin the compilation.

We proved hopelessly inept, as we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave anything out, and came dangerously close to making the compilation a massive tome, containing one of every issue of Madras Musings.

It dawned on us then that this project needed a team – and we decided to find them among Musings contributors and readers. And that’s how this interestingly motley group, comprising of Karthik Bhatt, Ambika Chandrasekar, R. Chandrasekar, Radha Gopalakrishnan, S.R. Madhu, Shobha Menon, Sushila Natraj, Vinodha Ram Mohan, S. Muthiah, Sriram V. and Ranjitha Ashok, was formed.

Everyone (except, of course, the Chief) gamely went through 600 issues of Musings – and right there, the team fell into two distinct groups – those who breezed through with online archives, and those who collapsed at the very idea, insisting on hard copy. However, everyone stayed the course, showing a lot of courage, and culled what appealed to them after cribbing that it was an impossible task, because everything was so interesting…. and we took it from there. I think there were other moments of outright panic – like when some of them found out they had to write a Main Article of at least 2500 words…non-negotiable. Having come a long way from their essay-type answer days, I think there was some amount of teeth clenching and mild cursing. But they hung in there with grim determination.

The process of actually putting all of this together had its moments. I’m just amazed poor G. Shankar of Mot Juste did not come spectacularly apart and have the mother of all nervous breakdowns, given the number of emailed articles that went back and forth from all of us. Especially when some of them kept disappearing into a virtual Bermuda Triangle none of us could explain.

Through it all, The Chief was in fine form. At times, we’d receive a rap on the knuckles from him as, through the entire process, he thought we were nuts and going about the whole project in a completely haphazard way.

And then there were those times when he’d take things up a notch, and, like a slightly disgruntled resident on Mt Olympus, start saying it with thunderbolts. And as anyone who has worked with the Chief knows, that can get just a tad uncomfortable….really not something you want to encounter. (In all fairness though, I have to say, the Chief usually gives us a very long rope, although he does frown a little bit on outright rebellion in the ranks….which always leads to some interesting little debates.)

All writing in its journey ultimately will arrive at the stage of proof reading …and that’s a truly strange space, where the placing of a capital letter can have cataclysmic results. A comma can ruin relationships. I remember one phase in which our collective world shrank to one universe-shaking question – italics – to use or not to use. Malvika Mehra was deeply missed on the evening of the launch. Her role, as the designer, was not easy. Every now and then, my phone would ring, and I’d hear Malvika’s plaintive voice asking: “Yes, but if this has to go in italics, Ranjitha, why should that not go in italics as well?” One of those deep questions to which there is no real, right answer. The impact within a slanted letter is really in the eyes of the beholder.

In all, ‘Project Musings’, as it was referred to in all the months it took to complete, proved a truly fun process.
We made it to September 26th, 2016 – and I think the team did great.

As a final word, there is something I’d like to acknowledge:

In the years of working with Musings, we found a mentor who gave us a teacher’s quintessential gift: a reintroduction, a sort of reconnection, if you like, to ourselves, to that which is unique to each of us. It’s a quality, a certain essence, each one of us has within, but in the daily business of living, amidst all the roles we have to play, we sometimes lose sight of, or we forget to nurture, that particular inner landscape. When that happens, it takes a teacher to re-direct us back on to the path to ourselves.

And that is what Musings, and the Chief, has done for us.

Thank you for that.
And thank you, Madras Musings – the little paper with a very big heart – most of all.
Ranjitha Ashok

A limited number of copies of the Madras Musings Silver Jubilee Commemorative Volume are available at Rs. 500 a copy from:
(1) Odyssey, Adyar and Tiruvanmiyur
(2) By mail order to Madras Editorial Services
(Vijay Gardens, Vijayaraghava Lane, Vijayaraghavachari Road, T. Nagar, Chennai 600 017) with a cheque of Rs. 500/- made out to Chennai Heritage per copy inclusive of delivery charges. (Email: smuthiah.mes@gmail.com)

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