Sons of the Soil
While Raj Thackeray tried to divide up Mumbai, where anyone with a dream and awillingness to work hard can make it big, it's time to consider whetherHindi-speaking persons can feel at home here in Chennai. After all, 40 yearsago, this was where the anti-Hindi agitation was launched to prevent what waspresented as subjugation of Tamilians from Hindiwallas. Even today, if you arehooked onto cable TV, chances are you will not get any of the Hindi channelswhich have fuelled their TRP ratings on the strength of their saas-bahu serials.Also, one can safely say that the odds favour the fact that an average guy onthe street will not speak Hindi. And some political parties still blacken Hindiboards just for some publicity.
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But, when you get down to the basics, it's very unlikely that a non-Tamilspeaking person will feel unwelcome or even a Raj Thackeray clone will get anymileage here. Whether it's Bengalis, Punjabis, Maharashtrians (Raj Thackeray,are you listening?), or those from the North East who have moved here and madeChennai their home, nobody feels insecure.
Telugus have long been here. Take Vijay Krishna, a real estate dealer fromKodambakkam, who says, "This is where I grew up. My father, who was themake-up man of top heroes like N T Rama Rao, came here because of his work inthe film industry and stayed." Vijay Krishna speaks Tamil as fluently asTelugu just as Ilaiah, who came here from Nalgonda does. Ilaiah goes every yearwith his three children for a month to Nalgonda where he has a small plot ofland. "But Chennai is home," he says although the money he earns as anautorickshaw driver is barely enough.
"My children are cosmopolitan. They are not parochial," says SushymalKundu, among the thousands of Bengalis here, listing it as one of the biggestrewards since he began staying here since 1968. Migrants feel the city and itspeople have been warm and welcoming mostly because of Chennai's cosmopolitanoutlook.
They say Malayalees are "clannish". But M Nanda Govind, President,Confederation of Tamil Nadu Malayalees Association, contradicts the assumption."We have blended in here so much that we wrote to Kerala Chief MinisterAchutanandan a year ago when Tamilians were attacked during the Mullaiperiyardam controversy."
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Moral of the story? Politicians divide, people blend and unite.
That Good Old Slogging
A picture carried by a local paper showed hundreds of earnest Plus Two students,hands joined in prayer, taking part in a special yagam performed at the MadhavaPerumal Koil in Mylapore to get good results in their board examination.
Schoolchildren are also known to make a beeline for the Hayagrivar Sannithanam,a 400-year-old temple in Singaperumal Kovil, about 50 kms from here.Hall-tickets, books, even pens and pencils are brought along to be blessed. Apopular offering at this temple, which has become a student "haunt" inthe last six years is a cardamom garland. Legend has it that the deity was thegoddess of learning Saraswati's guru.
Prakash Bhattacharya, who along with brother Balaji is the pujari here, says,"Exam days see parents and students crowding the temple. Students who areweak in studies come every month and sometimes even every week."
Interestingly even principals of schools come here along with children fromtheir respective schools. "We have a strong belief that the Lord looks outfor these students and pumps up their confidence," one principalrationalised.
So what happened to good old slogging and then leaving the rest up to God? Alas,when it comes to the competitive world of studies these days, there's no placefor the Dravidian rationalism.
The Dog Ate My Homework
Well, that is usually an excuse for not doing homework, but here in Chennai aman actually snatched his remand report, chewed it up and swallowed it.
He was being taken to Puzhal prison to be charged with shouting slogans againstcaste differences in society. One would think that the police had enough on itsplate considering it has to deal with murders, rioting, arson and attemptedmurder to bother about Saravanan, 30, who, some would think, should be commendedfor his noble expression.
But after giving vent to his feelings, Saravan climbed up a tree to avoidarrest. Here again, one would think the police would give up. Who will not agreethat the police always manage to look the other way when offered the rightincentive or pressured from the top. But they persisted in getting Saravanan toclimb down from the tree and, when it failed, roped in his friend to persuadehim to get down.
They then charged him and marched him to the magistrate who ordered he be takento Puzhal prison. And that's when the never-say-die Saravanan made a meal of theremand report. The police, who had gone to extraordinary lengths to getSaravanan, was not about to give up. So he was taken right back to themagistrate with a fresh report and he is now cooling his heels in Puzhal prison.
As for Saravanan, if we go by the police sources, he is not all innocent.He, apparently, was on bail for allegedly desecrating deities and burning asacred flag of Muslims.
Serpents in the Garden
One of the things that surprised me about Chennai when I returned here was howgreen the city was. I have a friend living at the IIT campus who often sees deerand a wide variety of flora and fauna. Nearby is the snake park made famous byRomulus Whitaker, an American wildlife expert who has made Chennai his home. But snakes apparently are not restricted to the park alone. Visitors at theChennai Trade Fair organized by the Tourism Department at Island grounds sawtourists of the reptilian variety slithering into the parking lot. There werefour saw-scaled vipers and one rat snake.
The 30,000 visitors who came to the exhibition that day-- entirely avoidablewith its collection of shops selling tacky plastic items and boring exhibits ofvarious government departments--fortunately did not spot any of the snakes ortheir might have been a stampede.
It was also fortuitous that the Irula Snake Catchers Co-operative Society had astall at the fair and members were summoned to catch the snakes. I am pleased toreport that they have since been not only caught but also released in a forestnearby.
Incidentally, 275 of the 345 members of the society have licences to catchsnakes. And they tell me that the fact that snakes were found on the islandgrounds means that the bio-diversity is just about right. Anyone going past theCouum--the stinking river that runs through Chennai-- might do a double take,but tourism department officials say that at least near the Island Grounds,there's a move to rescue the river and point to having planted several hundredsaplings along the river here to create a "nature walk".
