Madras miscellany

Quest for a better Madras

IT WAS early on a Saturday morning, about ten days ago, that a few of us, who optimistically keep hoping that something can be done to improve Madras, met to discuss yet another issue affecting life in the city. As I left home, I noticed the main road off my lane and another lane off it where yet another optimist lived being swept by more street-cleaners than turn up in a whole year. All the garbage was neatly tucked away - in Onyx bins or out of sight - the sand and muck on the sides of what is a public latrine for a neighbouring slum (which doesn't use the Sulabh toilet) had been swept clean, and on my friend's lane shamiana cloths had come out to hide the rubble, debris and junk left by the couple of open-air garages that operate here and sundry construction workers.

The dozen women in their multi-hued sarees made a vibrant splash of colour as they bustled about, hustled to sweep faster than ever by what seemed like a dozen maistries. Whether they were a Corporation crew or an Onyx team, whether we could expect such activity as routine in the future or whether they were getting these T.Nagar roads ready for some VIP's visit, that was to be both inspection of Onyx's operation as well as inspiration for the citizens of this city to keep it clean, I never did find out. But when I returned five hours later, the roads had returned to their usual sad state. And it was big business as usual on the roadsides for the children from the slum. That's Madras' sustainability for you.

Meanwhile, my friend and I had joined a few others to discuss the eradication of corruption that was affecting the lives of every citizen. Some dramatic suggestions, even a melodramatic one or two, were made, but why not one simple step first, it was asked. And this query was followed by an embarrassing supplementary that evoked only some hemming and hawing.

A first step, and then the next

THAT FIRST step had to do with the Government's new commitment to transparency. Every Government department has been asked to produce a charter and make it available to citizens. Many have still to do so, but when they eventually get around to having them available, will these charters do what an NGO has done, spell out in Plain Tamil the steps a citizen has to take for common-or-garden transactions in the departments? If they do, as they should, shouldn't both the charters and the simple statements of the steps for every workaday transaction with the Government be made freely available to a public with the right to information? To do this - and make its concept of transparency effective, as well as to prevent the citizen being pushed around by government servants - shouldn't the Government publicise those steps for routine transactions and the charters in the entire media? After all, the first step towards transparency is making the public aware of the mechanisms and the steps that make it work.

The embarrassing question was about the work the machinery had to do. If at the end of the day there was information, transparency and no corruption, how would this Utopian state of affairs ensure the smooth working of the machinery when indiscipline, lack of respect for the law, impoliteness, malingering and inefficiency are endemic in the system? Silence reigned - and let's move on to more dramatic things, appeared to be the consensus.

Watch out for Corruption-busters of Chennai, in the mould of the Crimebusters of London!

New life for English Theatre

A FEW weeks ago I received an invitation that I was very pleased to get. It was NOT to the play being staged on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but to its preview on Thursday. I was pleased because someone was thinking on what I thought were the right lines.

Such a preview would in local conditions not have enabled a review to be written for Friday's papers, but it certainly would have for Saturday's. And a good Saturday review could have contributed substantially to filling the house in the evenings on Saturday and Sunday. Reviews AFTER a play might massage egos or hurt feelings or fill newspaper space, but they don't do what I think should be their main purpose: Create audience interest and get the halls full - or empty.

The lead that 'Magic Lantern' set is worth emulating by other theatre groups. Only, the previews should be at least two nights before opening night, if there is to be time for reviews to be written and published before the first show. As for the 'published' part of it, that calls for the co-operation of the publications; they'd have to make room for them somewhere, and not necessarily on the 'Arts' page.

Publications being cooperative in this fashion would help greatly, I'm sure, in nurturing the welcome new life in English Theatre in Madras these days. 'Magic Lantern', which scored with its "Ponniyin Selvan", made its debut in English Theatre with "Accidental Death of an Anarchist". And it was a very interesting debut too, introducing koothu as it did on the English stage. The oldest English theatre group in Madras, "The Madras Players', is still going strong and a spin-off, 'The Theatre Club', has a performance a month. Then there's 'Boardwalkers' that's committed to regular plays and readings, while 'Masquerade' and 'The Little Theatre' (till now associated with the annual pantomine) are making waves. There's also a Cultural Cafe at the British Council that's begun to contribute to this lively scene. Not to mention the annual plays of some of the leading colleges in the city.

While the English Theatre scene is beginning to breathe new life with all this activity, what's happened to Tamil Theatre that was so active 25 years ago? Sad, sad, sad...

When the postman knocked

IT'S TIME to catch up again with all the postman brought. May 29th reference to Higginbothams' Tamil book sales has had S. Chandrasekhar, Director of Higginbothams, promising still more space for Tamil books "as we are doing extremely well in this segment". The space, he tells me, will be found in the extra 3,000 square feet the showrooms will shortly be gaining in a planned renovation. Another reader points out that on July 3 the National Art Gallery had been captioned as the Museum and he hoped that he could see a picture of the Museum when I recalled the Art Gallery's origins. As for the July 10 story of the Presidency College cricket ground, a little bird whispers that the College and Simpson & Co. are discussing the possibility of the latter developing the ground in the same fashion other corporates have done with other college grounds in the city.

But I hope that when that materialises, the ground will be called the Subbu Memorial Ground and not the Simpson Memorial Ground.

S. MUTHIAH

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