Category: Classic Kovai

Annai Nursing Home on Raja Street is a landmark. The Chief, Dr.K.S.Maheswari is a well known gynaecologist and obstetrician in this area. She was awarded the Best Doctor Award by the Coimbatore Corporation in 2009 and was also honoured with the IMA (Indian Medical Association) Community Service Award in 2019. The popular doctor is also keenly interested in local history. She has collected a lot of information from her elders, friends and is very keen to share snippets about the Coimbatore of the yonder days. The communicative Dr.Maheswari and her…

History is full of stories. These stories talk about the big leaders all the time and important contributors are missed out in the process. However, the picture of the society is incomplete without the stories of the not so visible contributors. The part played by the good Samaritans who fulfil the dreams of the leaders need to be remembered. The great leaders would not have been able to execute their plans if not for the many self less souls who worked along with them. Vellalore Annaswamy Sundaram alias V A…

Sowrirajulu Naidu (1875 – 1928) served the judiciary in Coimbatore for some time. “My grandmother Padmavathi Ammal (1900 – 1991) was 9 years old when my great grandfather was serving in Coimbatore. She used to tell me about the old Coimbatore. They lived in the Judges quarters in Ramanathapuram. It was convenient to travel to Podanur everyday in his carriage. Great grandfather was an important personality in Coimbatore. He knew Rao Bahadur A.T.Thiruvengadaswamy Mudaliar, Diwan Bahadur C.V.Venkataramana Iyengar, T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar, T.S.Balakrishna Iyer, V.C.Vellingiri Gounder, Sivakavimani C.K.Subramania Mudaliar, Diwan Bahadur Sulur…

Local Newspapers Turn Residents Favourite Kovai Metro is a little over five years of age. I remember my friend senior journalist M.Rafi Ahmed talking about it and thereafter the paper used to come home every Sunday. Week after week, it came out with interesting info with happenings around the city. Despite a local newspaper, it had a global reach for its info-packed edition. Most of us were fed up with crime and scandal reporting of the opinionated kind. And neighbourhood newspaper came as a blessing in disguise giving much relief…

G.R.G Matriculation Higher Secondary School offered us an interesting group – MPCC: Maths, Physics, Chemistry & Commerce. We should definitely thank the management under Chandrakanthi Govindarajulu and the accommodative Principal Mabel Charles for giving us this option. Fifteen of us chose this group and several among us became engineers or management graduates. One of my classmates Dr. Ganesh Devaraj (Founder – Soliton Automation) went on his Ph.D in the USA. Well, this option gave us the chance to do either a commerce or an engineering programme. P.S.G College of Arts…

The word ‘Secretary’, PA (Personal Assistant), Executive Assistant were used intermittently those days. Knowledge of English was compulsory. Most of the convent educated girls ended up as Secretaries. The Secretary was an important character in a number of movies. Quite a few legendary Secretaries ruled the roost. Industrialist G.K.Devarajulu had hired an Assistant in order to prepare a summary on the board of a ship while returning to India after a world industrial tour along with Sir M. Visweswariah. Several eminent Secretaries had worked in a number of enterprises. A…

Indian education imbibed excellent qualities in the students. Skill was developed without compromising on the right attitude. Teachers taught students from their houses. Some of these students stayed with the teachers. The teacher’s house was the school and the teacher along with his wife were the house teachers those days. Students used to work in the household and also learn. Palm leaf manuscripts were used for teaching and students wrote on sand first. There used to be manuscript copiers too. Teachers used to seek their role. Reading, writing, memorising, interpreting…

Coimbatore was home to a number of periodicals and newspapers. The higher level of literacy and industrialisation created the best atmosphere. It was a leader in this field. Let us celebrate Coimbatore Day by looking back at some of the old publications that added flavour to the city. Kalaikathir was the scientific and cultural monthly of the era. It was founded by Prof G.R.Damodaran in 1948. He was the editor of this famous magazine for many years. It was priced at 8 Annas. Uzhapialar Ulagam came out of Trichy Road.…

People relied on home care and ‘naattu vaidyans’ (local practioners of medicine) for medical relief. The grannies were known for their paatti vaidyams. Sulukku padam (for relief from sprain), Thel kadi padam (for relief from the sting of a scorpion) etc., were quite popular. Eventually modern medicine took over. Of course traditional fields have always continued side by side. Ayurveda, Siddha etc., continued to offer solutions. Ramaswamy of Ikkarai Boluvampatti used to hold a number of manuscripts connected with medicine in his residence. Modern Coimbatore turned towards allopathic medicine in…

Reading Room At Clock Tower Was Once Kovaiites Favourite Spot Indians have been literate for thousands of years. Languages like Sanskrit and Tamil are very old. Politicians and scholars alike diddle with the antiquity of the old languages. The Indus Script is often found in a debate. Unfortunately we do not have a Rosetta Stone kind of a find for sorting out this problem. We are however aware of the various palm leaf manuscripts, copper plates, inscriptions found on caves and temples. This amply proves that Indians have been reading…