Muthiah's book on the Madras Boat Club released

‘Down by the Adyar' — the story of Madras Boat Club, a book authored by the eminent writer and historian S. Muthiah was released by the British Deputy High Commissioner (Chennai), Mike Nithavrianakis at the Madras Boat Club (MBC) on Monday.

British Deputy High Commissioner Mike Nithavrianakis releasing S. Muthiah's book ‘Down by the Adyar'. Rabeendranath Rao (right), President of the club and M. Balaji, Secretary of the Club are also seen 

“The book was due to come out during the Madras Week celebrations. But the delay has made the timing more appropriate as it coincides with the glorious victory of the Indian rowers at the Asian Games in Guangzhou”, said author Muthiah.

The book tells the story in three parts; the first part introduces the general concepts of rowing. The second part details the history of rowing in Madras starting from the backwaters of Ennore moving on to the Cooum River and then the Adyar River and the third part introduces the reader to the Club itself – the Association of members and their rowing and non-rowing activities since its formation in 1867.

Muthiah said that India owes her success to rowing to the MBC and the Calcutta rowing club because of their infrastructure and coaches.

“No institution has better records than the MBC. They have the most comprehensive minutes available since 1867. Hope they take steps to preserve it and set up an archive”, said Muthiah.

He thanked his research team which consisted of Susan Philip, who checked the archives, Ranjitha Ashok, who took interviews and Lalitha Ramachander for helping him complete the book successfully.

Mike Nithavrianakis praised the club for their ability to emerge from disappointments referring to the floods of 2005 which took over the ground floor of the club. He quoted an anecdote from the book, “The best pace is a suicide pace and today is a good day to die.”

Vadivel Krishnamoorthy, Deputy High Commissioner for Sri Lanka recalled that the oldest rowing connection of MBC was with the Colombo rowing club which dates over a 100 years.

The MBC took the opportunity to felicitate Sruthi Kamath, an 18 year old who won the gold medal at the Asian Junior Rowing Championships held at Guangzhou and Seetha Muthiah, the wife of the first Indian president of MBC, late M.M. Muthiah.

The Madras boat club focused on rowing and sailing during its early years but later took up rowing alone after the formation of the Royal Madras Yacht club in 1911. The Rowing Federation of India, the sport’s governing body in the country, founded by the MBC and the Calcutta Rowing Club in August 30, 1976 has helped India take the sport to international levels.

medals on display

boats lined up

Hall of fame

CHENNAI REMEMBERS FRYDERYK CHOPIN

This year, the world celebrates the bicentenary birth anniversary of one of the greatest musical geniuses of al time – an exceptional Polish composer and pianist - Fryderyk Chopin.

 

Fryderyk Chopin

Yesterday, Chennai had the privilege of listening to his symphonies performed by Maestro Bogdan Drewnowski, thanks to the endeavours of the Embassy of Poland along with Brihaddwani, a city-based NGO researching on the teaching methodologies of world music and the MCTM Chidambaram Chettiar International School.

                                                                                                                        

The event which took place in the school auditorium was attended by the young and the old alike. Interestingly, there were quite a good number of school students at the concert who readily gave up their chairs for the elderly people who had come. The room which had a dim light setting set the mood for the show and its wooden walls enhanced the acoustics. 

Drewnowski, a reknowned pianist has had the privilege of playing the role of Chopin himself in a Polish movie.                                           

 

Maestro Bogdan Drewnowski 

Drewnowski enthralled the audience for an hour by hitting the magical notes of Chopin’s waltzes and nocturnes. Such a fine pianist is Dwenowski that even when the room was left in complete darkness for two minutes in the middle of the performance because of an electricity glitch, the maestro’s fingers never stopped playing or even flinched from the piano! This left the audience spell bound. He acknowledged the audience’s applause after each performance by bowing to them. 

He ended the concert with a mazurka for which he earned a standing ovation from the thrilled audience. Everyone left the hall with a sense of peace, joy and music in their hearts.

The Polish ambassador to India had flown in just to take part in the concert. As a kind gesture, he presented a copy of the National edition of the works of Chopin to the Head Master of the MCTM School. He said that “As far as we in Poland are concerned, we consider Chopin as a heritage. And we want the world to know how great he is.”