Sastri Hall and Ranade Library , Luz Chennai - hopefully will soon be functional

[rajeshnat]

The iconic temple of fine arts - Sastri Hall in Luz is hopefully bought back to its glory. How many CM concerts are held here and what a venue that iconically represents the carnatic music? Sadi to see the below writeup in The Hindu dated 20th May ,2022

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ ... 6.ece/amp/

[Nick H]

iconically represents the carnatic music?

... from bad, over-loud sound to stinking toilets!

But sure, it is not all bad, and I would hate to see the end of the historic place. I'm sure there are many more people who would hate to see the end of the library.

[arasi]

Though not a landmark, it's a historic spot. Not only that--a public service institution which has served the locals who have over the decades have had an access to news and information here at its reading room. Those who did not have provision in their budget to include a newspaper to read, came here to read not one, but several of them, in tamizh and english. Magazines too? I am not sure. It served (and still serves), like the old radio programs in the parks. To retirees in particular. I remember seeing many there as I ran up the stairs as a child to listen to music. I still see a few, as I climb up with difficulty. The wide staircase with no safe handrail but the same old wide cemented top is not safe.

Still, I have been there several times in the recent past. Once you are seated there, it's a nice ambience. Rajesh, several times have I seen TRS in the audience. How he came all the way from Anna Nagar to listen to even beginners!

A wonderful concert by Ravikiran comes to mind. One of Brinda Manickavachakam when she started out (a veteran singer was in the audience and how happy I was to hear her say that she enjoyed the concert as much as I did).

History and location apart, yes Nick. It's still stuck in the 'being left out category' when it comes to modernization

[rajeshnat]

The loss is say 150 concerts per year, that could translate to say 150 artists not performing CMM .All things like over loud sound, stinking toilet, staircase etc are all not that critical. Year or two back they air conditioned the hall, but so many great concerts have happened there. Particularly as the night sets in there has been wonderful music , the conveniance to reach mylapore and just hit back T Nagar area is all great for rasikas. I have sat once next to Palakkad Raghu when he came to hear Palakkad Ramprasad, once next to Dr Srivatsava who whispered in my ears that maharajapuram Ramachandran has correctly sung this nice dikshitar krithi. This is an institution loss for carnatic music.

[Nick H]

The loss is say 150 concerts per year, that could translate to say 150 artists not performing CMM

This is not true. It is not a sabha itself, but hires out the space. The sabhas and other organisations will go elsewhere.

Yes, they installed AC. Indeed a great (and expensive!) improvement.

Yes, the old toilet block is disused, and they built new, but even the new is pretty awful, especially for the ladies who have little or no separation from the gents.

But in saying that it is not a landmark, arasi goes on to explain how, in fact, it is a landmark, in the history of older, and not so much older rasikas.

The library, I am sure, is irreplaceable. Books can be packed and moved, but who will finance a new site? Doesn't the library even get a mention in Independence history?

I, too, hope they will find a solution.

[shankarank]

Echo that sentiment! I remember listening to a TVS concert with Sri MSG and Sri Raghu and the young Sri V Suresh during my college days at this venue. Later, for a Ra-ga sisters' concert, was flanked by Asthika Samajam Ramachandran and Sri Kalidas. I had shed my Asian humility and instead this proud NRI sitting in front row!

Well, if there is any element of constitutional government in any aspect of our life, know that it will turn miserable. That is my now American libertarian two cents! We don't understand that the function of the constitution, even in the West where it originated, is to limit the power of government and not to make it powerful to solve all the problems of people!

It will take a behemoth dada or a corporate to take on a simple clerk sitting in a dusty office! And that would be an affront to the very constitution, which adds fancy terms like "values" to itself! And know that the brahmins of all people were in love with the latter (the clerk in a dusty office) and even now continue to be so! They reflect their own poverty into this caricature! And they still imagine an honest, corruption free government!

At least when this thing shows up in Mylapore central, let me see how many even see it!

This is obviously a political backlash to things that are going on!

[Nick H]

@shankarank, there well may well be a clerk sitting in a dusty old office, but, if it is the landlord's office, then the landlord, as I understand the reports is Kapaleeswara Temple.

[shankarank]

Yes, however they work for the government not for the temple!

[RSR]

How many people born after 1966, know about and remember the great souls like Mahadeva Govinda Ranade and Srinivasa Sastry ? How many know that it was the eminent leader of the moderates Sri.Krishnaswamy Iyer, who built the library?. It was Krishnaswamy Iyer who got the 'swadesi geethams' of Barathy, printed first at his own expense, and distributed them free though Barathy belonged to Lokamaanya's radical wing and Iyer was a staunch follower of Gokhale- the moderate. Iyer was not ortodox atall. He was against caste discrimination . His gret-grand daughter is equally eminent judge with progressive views.
And Mylapore , especially, the LUZ area , of pre-independence decades , was not a 'dusty slum' of pen-pushing 'clerks' as some people imagine. It was home to fabulously great legal luminaries , social workers, intellectuals, freedom fighters, patrons of fine artists and traditions. .and mathematicians, scientists, scholars in Sanskrit and English and Thamizh.. pioneers in journalism and home for great musicians too, even as late as 1966, ...envy of less-endowed lower middle.
-
To really understand the glory of Luz area, readers are requested to read the great series of articles by V.Sriram cited below. ( Even these are not complete).
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2012/01/2 ... wami-iyer/

https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2012/02/0 ... cial-side/

------------
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2008/07/1 ... -environs/
----------------
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2013/02/0 ... ylapore-2/
--------------------
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2013/02/0 ... ylapore-1/
==============
..It may be a good idea for the Govt to acquire the land and building and convert it into a cultural monument. for Ranade and Sastry. All the precious books there should be digitized and placed in archives. As conceived originally, it was not meant to be a concert hall but a debating society. like Saturday Evening Club\
-----
No need for library in this internet era .nor for any music concert hall. There are plenty such places.. elsewhere. HRCE is doing its job. What is there to complain about it ?

[Nick H]

Thank you @RSR. Knowing only one meaning of the word, I once asked @sureshvv why Kutchery Road was so called, when, so far as I knew, it had never been home to any concert venues. He told me that the word can also mean court

Of course all valued books should be digitised, as insurance at the very least --- but I don't think that the world is quite finished with either book shops or libraries yet. I hope not!

[RSR]

@Nick H at p--10
The explanation for kutchery road is news to me , very plausible. But, the road from Luz corner to Santhome church , only, goes by that name. As far as I can remember, there were neither lawyers' houses nor music sabhas in that road. The lawyers' road begins from Luz corner and goes westword upto Alwarpet. Truly great place. Many musicians lived near kutchery road , rather crowded, . Flute Mali among them. and a few near Madhava PerumaaL kovil..I think you are more Chennai-lover than many . Even more orthodox in your taste. Great.
As far, libraries, there is the British Council library and University library. Have you tried Natesan street , parallel to Ranganathan street, in TNagar? It is entirely for book shops- used to be perhaps.
I too wonder, how despite so much being offered free in the web, the book-publishing industry still survives. We can go to Higginbothams and do 'window-reading' of very costly and rare books. All this some sixty years back May not be the scene today.
One crore dues is not much if the diaspora steps in. ..they can clear the dues in no time.

[arasi]

kachEri for court, as sureshvv mentioned does indicate that there could have been a court of some sort there in the bygone days. In Bengaluru, we have the aTAra kachEri, the old court. I suppose it was a word the British adopted from hindusthani?? Assembly, seems to be the meaning, and it later came to be used for an assembly for listening to music too?A wild guess...

[Sundara Rajan]

In colloquial Tamil and Kannada 'kacEri' also means a place of work/an office. The street in question could have had a few Government offices, when it was so named. While working in Bangalore, my Kannadiga neighbor would ask me," Why didn't you go to katchEri today? ", if I took the day off.

[arasi]

Sundara Rajan,
Something I wasn't familiar with! araTai kachEri (gabbing sessions) is another one we are all familiar with here:)

[rajeshnat]

Some good news came in The Hindu dated 27th May 2022. Hopefully in the 1st floor we have a carnatic concert as soon as possible.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/ch ... 464527.ece

[Nick H]

Good news! Thanks

[shankarank]

==============
..It may be a good idea for the Govt to acquire the land and building and convert it into a cultural monument. for Ranade and Sastry. All the precious books there should be digitized and placed in archives. As conceived originally, it was not meant to be a concert hall but a debating society. like Saturday Evening Club\
-----
No need for library in this internet era .nor for any music concert hall. There are plenty such places.. elsewhere. HRCE is doing its job. What is there to complain about it ?

Yeah, yeah , yeah - criticize during supper. You want somebody to drive the philosophy and reduce every body else to philately. That is the known play book!

We have seen the evolution of your debating society, what a progress!

And the building stands on temple land!

[RSR]

ref p-17 by ShankaranK
------- Even in my college days, 1960- one of my seniors by one year, used to win the trophy, week after week. in the famous Saturday Evening Club inspired by a predecessor of hoary fame. It seems Judge MaNi Iyer was the one who founded it. It was not a dinner party..No canteen stuff.
https://sridharscorner.wordpress.com/20 ... ania-iyer/
-
..Standing on the shoulders of giants...'garudaa sowkyamaa'.
-
..As for Ranade library, established nearly a century back, we do not know if it really was temple property / or was purchased by the founders from the temple. Not likely to have been illegally occupied by such eminent legal professionals, who regained so much land and property for Madurai Meenaakshi temple. from illegal occupation. And the founder was the author of a famous and authoritative book on Hindu Law.

[ram1999]

Here is a Brilliant concert of KVN with stellar accomanists - MC and PR.
A great venue / A great concert / A great team.

A thanks is not enough for the person who recorded this concert and to the person who put it in YT for everyone of us to enjoy the souldful KVN music.

[RSR]

@ram1999 at p-19....where ?
link not given.

[ram1999]

Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHemdDQULmo&t=929s

[RSR]

p-21
posted in KVN thread with song list. It will get lost in general discussions.

[shankarank]

It was not a dinner party..No canteen stuff.

Unable to forget the canteen in a music forum? . When I said "Criticize at supper", thought that would strike a familiar chord with you . You turned into a literal what was intended as a figurative. Same you did with "Clerk in the dusty office".

"Criticize at supper" is a Marxist imagery , I read somewhere (most likely the Mount Maha paper!), of his version of the ideal society.

You are losing the debate

[RSR]

p-23...@shankarank . So, it hit the target! Right?Glad.
----

to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.

[Nick H]

Maybe The Hindu, this Friday, will report:

Future of Ranade Library and Sastri Hall Now Down To Internet "Debate" Between RSR and Shankarank

[shankarank]

@RSR trying to make a spot for the Heritage walker, to blather away his history. A new shiny monument, replacing something you didn't like. If Heritage walker gets his due.. why should we not?

Let the Mount Maha pamphlet put a splash on us.

[RSR]

'Heritage Walker' writes lovely English. ,,not the 'whoa' language. but real literary English. ..Widely read. His blog posts are brilliant. ..though we may differ from his perceptions. now and then. Voluminous output . Invariably interesting and educative. . And God forbid! spare us the splash!

[RSR]

A moving article by Prabha Sridevan, great-grand daughter of Sri.V.Krishnaswamy Iyer, founder of Ranade library .
It is in Thamizh
https://s-pasupathy.blogspot.com/2016/0 ... st_15.html
thanks to @Pasupathy

[RSR]

A fine writeup on Mylapore. and some explanation for 'kutchery' road.
by Sriram.V
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2022/08/0 ... -madrasday

[Nick H]

... some explanation for 'kutchery' road...

Only yesterday, I was wondering whence came "CIT." Now I know. Thanks!