The opening song by Nicola Mammen, with Elton O’Connor on the keyboard, set the tone for what turned out to be a fascinating discussion on August 20 at the Press Institute of India, focused on the Anglo-Indian contribution to Madras that is Chennai and on the Anglo-Indian culture. The song was about hoping that the world would be a better place to live in, with harmony and understanding.
Participating in the discussion (The Anglo-Indians: Curating a Fascinating Culture) were Merin Simi Raj, M. Natarajan, Richard O’Connor and Harry MacLure, with O’Connor moderating. Short clips of video interviews with film stars Andrea Jeremiah and M. Nasser were shown. The audience was made up mostly of Anglo-Indians in Chennai, with a few journalists, journalism students and others present. There were lively interactions towards the end.
Merin, associate professor (English) in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, is faculty coordinator of the Centre for Memory Studies and the co-founder and chairperson of the Indian Network for Memory Studies, the first national network in Asia under the aegis of the international Memory Studies Association. She has co-edited the volume Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora.
M. Natarajan, chief editor of Sandhya Publications, began his career as a preventive officer at Madras Custom House in 1985. Hailing from Mayiladuthurai, he spent his first five years working in the intelligence units at Chennai Airport and Chennai Customs. After retiring in 2016 as superintendent, he has translated the biographies of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and of Japanese master film-maker Akira Kurosawa, and also the book ‘Hostages to India’ about Anglo-Indians by Herbert Stark into Tamil.
Richard O’Connor began his career on the Indian Railways before serving as an officer of Customs for close to three decades. Assistant commissioner of Customs, he has always found time to research and record the heritage of the Anglo-Indian community and collaborate with Anglos In The Wind in bringing out special issues of the magazine relating to illustrious individuals or institutions or aspects of the community’s culture, Anglo-Indian settlements, Anglo-Indian contribution to hockey, etc. He is the architect of the YouTube documentary, The Anglo-Indians of Madras.
Harry MacLure edits Anglos In The Wind, a 26-year-old international magazine that has knit Anglo-Indians throughout the world. He is the founder-editor of Anglo-Ink Books. Starting off as comic book illustrator and cartoonist, he went on to become playwright, screenwriter and film-maker. His English-language feature film Calcutta, I’m Sorry is ready to be acquired by an OTT platform.
from Webdoux