A MALTAN's tribute to Madras.

As the Madras day celebration is now an extended affair from a day event to a monthly one I thought I should contribute to its history through my history in this wonderful city. I lived in Madras from 1972 to 1996 and all along during this period I never knew Madras Day was on the 22nd of August. I was pretty surprised that the city suddenly thought about celebrating its birthday since 2004 and that’s a clear 360 odd years after its birth. It was so, due to the efforts of a few people which included the likes of the historian Mr. Muthiah is what Wikipedia says and I'm happy for that, since no one better than the respected Mr Muthiah. The doyen who has chronicled Madras history more than anyone else deserves to be credited with the evolution of this event.

I write this because I owe a lot to this city; Madras is what made me what I’m today. Let me first introduce myself, I’m neither a hard core Dravidian nor a part of the much accomplished and more re-known member of the Tambram community that shaped the intellectual and artistic landscape of this city.

I am a MALTAN. There is no chance that you might have heard of this tribe or usage before, since I just coined it as I was writing this piece. No, I don’t come from Malta, I’m someone who was just born in Gods own country, Kerala, but over the years have made Madras my home. MALTAN is a word I coined which could sound more like the anglicised version of MALAYALATHAN which I was referred to, during my growing up days in Madras or an amalgamation of a MALyalee, living, adapting and imbibed in the TAmiliaN culture, just like the way the word TAMBRAM was born. In fact we had a lot of stuff common with the Tambrams except the Non veg part. We were a community that challenged them intellectually and earned our place in the multifaceted society of Madras. We (as in TAMBRAM and us) both belonged to the erstwhile Forward Community as per records irrespective of our economic or social standing, which means we were the only ones to compete with each other when it came to admissions to professional colleges and I still wonder how a SYRIAN Christian could NOT find his way to the list of minority communities in Madras.

The Maltan’s contribution to Madras has been awesome. We played a pioneering role in the economy of the city ranging from tyres, carpets and all the way to jewellery. We also did take part in creating some of the great educational institutions in Madras. More importantly my mother’s contribution was that she managed to teach each of our domestic helps Malayalam but managed to learn bits of pieces of Tamil, while my dad has learnt to read Tamil from all the wall posts of Thina Thanthi and Thina Malar and I can narrate a piece out of Silapadigaram or a few couplets from Thirukural. This is how we have managed to merge with the society. This is what gives me hope of surviving in the Middle East without knowing Arabic.

I deliberately left out a profession practised by the Malayalees in Madras which I felt needs a higher stage than the ones listed above. The term Malayalathan came into existence only due to the efforts of malayalees who set up Tea stalls across the length and breadth of Madras which was further propagated by movies churned out of Kollywood. Any TEASTALL in Madras in those days was referred to as Nair kadai irrespective of whether it was owned by a NAIR or not, just as any provision store was referred to as Nadar Kadai.

Coming to me, I was fortunate to have been brought up by liberal parents who taught us secularism in all its true sense unlike the ones propagated by the vote bank biased politicians of today. We, a family of Syrian Christians lived in a building owned by one of the richest and most influential Muslim family in the erstwhile Border Thottam in Madras with a hard core TAMBRAM family having their roots in the erstwhile agraharams of Kumbakonam as our immediate neighbours who taught me the virtues of Brahmanism and vegetarianism. I fell for their doctrines and displayed the principles during family reunions in Kerala so much so that I earned myself the name BRAHMANAN within my circle of relatives which has stayed on even as of today, though a good Kerala Beef Fry accompanied by Old Monk will top my to-do list any day.

I was even more fortunate to have studied in a school called Christ Church on Mount Road which was located sandwiched between 2 of the most famous cine complexes, the Devi group of theaters and the Plaza, was actually half as old as the city and was founded in 1842, a clear 100 odd years before India attained Independence. It was here the fundamentals of real secularism was taught thanks to the wonderful friends circle that I had from different spectrum of the Religious, economic and intellectual spectrum of the society in and around the school and the teachers. Even after I moved to the so called more affluent part of the city, Besant Nagar I was at ease with the diverse and more affluent version of the Tambrams of Adyar, Gandhi Nagar and Besant Nagar whom I encountered in another great school called St Michaels Academy in Gandhi Nagar.

I could not have earned this experience anywhere else in India except Madras. People might say Bombay or Delhi offers the same, sorry folks; Madras knew and still knows what it takes to play host to a secular community. No particular political party need to take credit for this. It’s just the people of Madras now Chennai that need to be given the full recognition for creating this secular atmosphere.

Thank you MADRAS for making me what I’m today and thank you Chennai for letting me enjoy the same freedom in the city that welcomes me with open arms each time I visit it.