Mercantile Madras

Two “Madrassis” of Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) Provenance

Both SM and I were of Ceylonese origins; we were Indian through and through but cast in a sort of Sri Lankan mould. SM received a “Royalist” School education while I studied at St. Thomas. Though they are traditionally thought to be rivals, both institutions favored sport and the study of the English language. Eventually, SM left for the US to complete his Graduate studies in Engineering, while I went to England to study Humanities a few years later.

Both of us landed in India, Madras to be specific. At that time, the city was a unique cultural construct which present-day Chennai does not quite mirror. And so, both of us were lit by an all-consuming desire to research Madras in all its many forms. I was interested in shining a light on her commercial avatars while SM set out to painstakingly document her colourful facets, including urban planning. He wrote numerous books and articles, gave multiple speeches and arranged many social interactions towards his cause.

Both of us had extraordinarily supportive life partners. Valli Muthiah was a qualified Corporate Secretary (ACS) while my JM was an understanding home maker who stooped to conquer. Both women departed this earth before either of us.

– K.R.N. Menon

Regrettably, the Company I joined, which had been in existence and a pillar of commerce in Madras for more than 70 years then, Best & Company Private Limited, does not exist in its original form. Even the three-storey building it owned and occupied, has since been sold and demolished. The building was opposite the Beach suburban electric train station; the site is now occupied by its present owners, The Unit Trust of India, which acquired it for a throwaway price of some Rs. 85,00,000 in the ‘eighties, from a management more anxious to dress up a moth-eaten balance sheet than to preserve an ancient heritage. The original building occupied all the land to Second Line Beach, and was one acre in built-up area, with an entry from Second Line Beach, which was the entrance of Best & Co’s subsidiary, The Crompton Engineering Co. Ltd. Crompton’s was the best known Electrical Contractors of the next thirty years, before it also sank due to poor management. They were the first exporters of electrical construction projects, having done electrical transmission line work in Burma and Libya, as early as the late ‘fifties and early sixties. Both firms, of course, still survive in truncated form, in an entity that was merged into Best & Crompton, in which I played a part, in the year 1975. More on that later.

Since Best & Co’s building was a commercial landmark for many years, some received knowledge on it needs to be passed on to posterity. The building, originally of two floors, was purchased by Bests from the National Bank, the predecessor institution of the National & Grindlays Bank, in 1901, for the sum of Rs. 100,000, as entered in the cash book. I had reason to constantly inspect the strong room in the basement, obviously a legacy from its bank origins, where all Best & Co. records were carefully catalogued and stored. Heaven knows what happened to those priceless records, every single cash book for instance, through a century, when the building was sold in the 1980s. A third floor to the building was added with a light asbestos truss roof in 1956 or thereabouts to accommodate the expanding trading and agency business. The old foundation would not have borne any further load.

The building, as I have reported, was opposite the Beach electric train station, and it is said that the sea came right up to where the railway lines were later laid. The ground floor shipping department was referred to, even in my time, as the Beach department, obviously recalling its proximity, at one time, to the sea.

Next door to the south, which later became TIAM house, the headquarters of the Tube Investments / Murugappa Group was the property of the Isphani-Khaleeli family from where they ran their skins and hide business between the world wars. They offered their godown at the site to Best in about 1960 which the company turned down. T.I. then took up the ownership of the site, and built a very modern structure thereon. Recently, it was sold to a Christian evangelical mission.

In 1964, I occupied one of the cabins on the top floor of the Best building, which, before air-conditioning saved us, was open to dust and heat. The dust was from the coal from ships docking nearby, and the heat of the city was enhanced by the asbestos roof. We wore white shirts and trousers in those days, which were covered in soot by day’s end. The air we inhaled was thankfully lost to sight and so was beyond grief. Anyway, we survived, and I do not think we have been happier with any other modern convenience, as much we enjoyed the advent of air-conditioning.

…Till about 1963 we had no set retirement age for staff, and they went on at the Directors’ pleasure. In 1964 or thereabouts, the Board of Best & Co. decided to implement a retirement age for clerical staff and assistants at 55 years. Naturally, there were staff members who had already passed this age, and one of them was a Mudaliar gentleman in the Passages Department. The Passages Department was a legacy from the days when Best used to be Liner agents for the Anchor Line and booked passengers on its various sailings from Madras.

Mr. Mudaliar, on the demise of the Liner agency, was put in charge of purchasing tickets for officers on the move, mostly by rail or in rare cases then, by air. He always wore a China silk suit, sported a lovely pair of whiskers, and saw one off in great style at the railway station, having seen to the travelling officer’s comforts in the way of on-board refreshments etc.

So the day came when S.S.T. Chari, in whose department he worked, summoned Mr. Mudaliar and after much coaxing got him to agree to retire, as he was at least 70 years old…

Extracts from the book: A Madras Merchant’s Life and Times.

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