One of the many families who relocated to Madras from Rangoon before the Second World War is our family, says Prof T Ramalingam who shares information about his formative years in Rangoon and Madras. An octogenarian, Ramalingam belongs to a ‘Tamil valartha kudumbam’ whose knowledge of Thevaram and Thiruvachakam is astounding.
He hails from Thanjavur district, and spent his formative years in Rangoon (now Yangon) as his father S Thirunavukkarasu was working in the AG’s office there. There was no caste discrimination and they lived in a secular society in Burma (now Myanmar).
When Ramalingam’s elder sister Parvatham got married to an economics professor in Madras (now Chennai), his father Arasu took voluntary retirement from government service in Burma, bought the plot right next door to his daughter’s house in T Nagar and built a house there where he lived till his last days.
My father was a Theosophist and was in touch with Theosophists of his time from Annie Besant downwards, says Ramalingam.
After his schooling in the famous Ramakrishna Mission high school, Ramalingam obtained an honours degree in Chemistry from the renowned Pachaiyappa’s College in Madras and joined there as a faculty.
Ramalingam walks down memory lane and vividly captures Madras, especially T Nagar, of yesteryear. T Nagar those days was a deserted village with houses scattered here and there and only a very few celebrities had cars. He recalls that India’s first governor-general C Rajagopalachari, industrialist Nalli Chinnasami and many cinema stars like N T Rama Rao lived in T Nagar.
Tar roads were uncommon and there was one streetlight for one street in T Nagar that grew in leaps and bounds over the years.
I remember a man with a stick used to tap the streetlights in the evenings to make them burn, laughs Prof Ramalingam.
There was no drinking water supply but we used to drink only well water, says the Grand Old Man of Kodambakkam – as that is where he lives now. The wells had copious water and never used to dry up like the present-day. The bucolic ambience lured people from other places to settle in T Nagar.
Madras spawned and encouraged diverse religious and cultural practices and I felt comfortable living in T Nagar, admits the retired professor.
 The nascent middle-class population in T Nagar and Mylapore resided in huge bungalows surrounded by mango and coconut trees but now it is a concrete jungle, says Prof Ramalingam.
Constructing a lavatory at home for a mere Rs 100 was considered expensive, he chuckles.
Those days every house used to have a pyol - thinnai - and people used to sit there and relax. Are we not inhuman as we don’t build a pyol any more, questions the chemistry scholar. He then explains that it is probably due to lack of space.
He fondly recalls his association with the renowned Dr B Ramamurthy (famous neuro surgeon) and Dr Srinivaschari – another medical doctor who belonged to a family of doctors residing on Usman Road in T Nagar – who were volleyball playmates, their meeting point being the Somasundaram playground that still exists.
(To be contd)
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