A flash point was reached yet again, when lakhs of  Tamilians descended on Chennai city and congregated at the Island Grounds last evening, demanding that the ‘History of Chennai’ series should not be concluded without a chapter on the great politicians of the state. The program was originally scheduled to be held in the morning, but Manmohan Singh insisted that it should be held only after 12 noon, as he was PM. Anyway, he and Sonia Gandhi, tried to pacify the crowd by pointing out that a trilogy, by definition, could contain only three parts, but this had no effect on the irate mob.

Just then, the famous poet Vairamuthu was passing by and on hearing the problem, had a flash of inspiration . He burst into this song, in a mix of Tamil and Kannada.

“ Alli Nodi, Desiya Kodi

 Kunguma Poo,   pachai Chedi, , Vellai Dhaadi

Vulle Neela chakra irukku

 Solpa adjust maadi,  you kirukku” 

Some of you I know are poetically challenged, so I will try to translate the words for you.

“Behold the National Flag,

Though referred to as tricolour,

Does it not contain four colours?

For, amidst the saffron, the green and the white,

Forget not the navy blue

of the Chakra in the middle.”

What he meant to convey in that veiled manner and symbolisms typical of poets was that the tricolour flag actually had four colours, Similarly a trilogy could consist of four parts, each part representing ¾.

So, here’s the final ¾ part of the trilogy.

Tamilnadu can boast of a galaxy of politicians, past and present. There was C.Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, because he was born in Rajaji Nagar in Bangalore. He was born so long ago that some people claim that he was a contemporary of Valmiki, with whom he co-authored the Ramayana. Half-way through this venture, Valmiki ditched Rajaji and joined Walt Disney Foundation, where he is credited with the creation of Val-mickey Mouse. Rajaji then roped in Vyaasa as partner for his next epic, which turned out to be a pick of the lot.

E.V.Ramasamy Naicker who belonged to the same era used to be a professor of physics in Erode. While tinkering with some toys, he made the stunning derivation that the product of the efficiency (E) of such simple machines and the velocity ratio (vr) was equal to its mechanical advantage (MA), giving rise to the elegant equation

EVR= MA

It was then he realised that by substituting himself (EVR) and Maniammai (MA) into the equation, he could marry the latter and enhance the overall efficiency of the Universe. For this insight, he was given the title of Periyar.

What was remarkable about both C.Rajagopalachari and E.V.Ramasamy Naicker was that they rose from very modest backgrounds. In fact, in their childhood, they were so poor that they were known as “ Don’t see Rajagopalachari” and “ E.V.Rama did not see me Naicker” respectively.

After these two stalwarts faded from the scene, there came Kamaraj Nadar. He was the eldest among five brothers, the other four being Ralph Nader, the consumer activist, Shiv Nadar who promoted HCL, Sulph Nadar who promoted H2S04 and Raphael Nadel, the tennis star. Kamaraj’s sole mission in life was to rid the Congress of the corrupt people who were plundering the party like rats. When he got rid of a few of them, he was appreciated by Nehru with a personal, hand-written message, which simply said, “Cong-rats!”

Of course, we all know  Karunanidhi who completes 50 years as a legislator today. He started life on Lactogen, but after 80 years has become an Octogen. He wears dark goggles , while his son Stalin giggles and his grandson googles. As a disciple of EVR, his single-point mission is to rid the world of foolish superstitions and make the Tamil people more rational in their outlook. So committed is he to the cause that he even   puts on a yellow shawl all the time as his astrologer has warned him that he will fail in his mission otherwise.

So many illustrious leaders.  Such glorious traditions. What a history!  No wonder, in random surveys, Chennai comes out on top. In a recent survey, for instance, people of Chennai were asked which city they would like to live in, if given a choice. 87% of the people named a city other than Chennai. But, when the survey was repeated under controlled conditions, that is with a gun pointed at their heads, a noose around their necks and a sharp knife close to their belly buttons, 96% of the respondents were more sensible and gave a resounding vote for Chennai. 4% of the people said that they would rather move to the capital city, but their belly buttons have since been removed and transplanted with Delhi buttons. So, even though Delhi is not a coastal city, it has a navel force now.