Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXXIV No. 9, August 16-31, 2024
Our Readers Write
Jammi building
I read with interest your HERITAGE WATCH about Jammi building.
I am nearing 80 and was diagnosed with liver diseasewhen I was a toddler. I used to have an unusually big tummy.
We were living in Sirkali then. My parents, as often told to me by my mother who celebrated her 100th birthday recently, used to take me to Kumbakonam where I was treated by a specialist doctor who identified my condition as a liver disease. He treated me with JAMMI Liver Cure medicines for a long time.
Thanks to JAMMI I am still alive and “kicking” as they say! Feeling sad too for that Heritage building that has vanished.
R. Santhanam
santhanam45@yahoo.com
Vanishing Greencover
It is not surprising that MMDA area has suffered precious 13% loss of vegetation amounting to a whopping 16 sq km, during the period 2013 to 2022, (MM July 16-31, 2024).
What is NOT SURPRISING is that sufferance is only 13% and not more. Ah, the reason behind was 3 year COVID gap, so the loss was restricted to that level only. If there was no COVID, the loss would have been much more. Blessing in disguise ! And again it was up to year 2022 only. If we take 2023 and first half of 2024, we can safely assume, that the loss would have been much higher than 13%.
We do not seem to remember that natural calamities taking place often such as the recent Madras flooding in 2023, resulting in doling out Rs. 8,000 to each affected family was due to lack of provisioning for adequate flow of rain water and also lack of proper drainage systems. The dole amount could have well been avoided, if that amount was gainfully spent on strengthening the infrastructure
Just now great landslides at Wynad have wiped out the whole area. Not to speak of heavy downpour at Poona and Bombay. Also the flooding of basement coaching centres at New Delhi due to torrential rains. All are man made disasters.
We seem to be bent upon further concretising the metropolitan areas as proposals are there to demolish Kuralagam and Jammi buildings to name a few. At this rate of concretising, we are paving way for more man made calamities.
At this juncture its worth remembering: During the ‘50s. there were grand plans for putting up enormous structures at the Madras Island Grounds. Rajaji, the sage and wizard, then opposed the proposal tooth and nail, saying that is the only lung space available in the city of Madras and we will not tarnish the area with any structures. Because of Rajaji’s vehement opposition, the ill advised move was dropped altogether. The result is there for all of us to see – the grandeur of the Island Grounds even now. Hopefully the powers that be will not lay race track over there !
Let us not further butcher the metropolitan area. Leave whatever remaining place there is, intact, for the future generations
N P Andavan
audconp@gmail.com
Reader Andavan will be interested to know that a part of Island Grounds is going to be the new bus terminus, so that the proposed multi-storey multi-modal hub can be built at Broadway.
– The Editor
