Happy Birthday Madras! Today is Madras Day. Yes, my favourite city and my hometown Chennai celebrates its 373nd birthday today.
:-)
Today, Madras that is Chennai is known as the Medical capital of India - though the city was never blessed with Central funds or initiative in the form of super-speciality hospitals like AIIMS, New Delhi, or JIPMER in nearby Pondicherry. All the medical expertise has been due to the private initiative and no doubt because of the fact that the first Hospital in British India was established at Madras - on 16 Nov 1664.
Though the subsequent Madras Medical College was not the first - it was preceded by the Calcutta Medical College by 5 days - the MMC can proudly boast of training-
BTW we should never believe at face value on what is written by people, sometimes about themselves on the Internet. The Adyar Cancer Institute was established in 1954 and the radiation therapy machine was installed in 1956, making it the first Cancer treatment centre in the country. But to believe Indian Cancer Society, the first Cancer detection centre was established at St. George’s Hospital, Bombay, in 1961. I can’t understand how something founded 7 years later supersedes the earlier one to become the first!
To get back to point - Thus I love this City of Cure.
The fair, warm and friendly city of Madras also has another first - this is the City which first gave Women a voice in the Legislature of Modern India - in the person of (would you believe it?) Muthulakshmi Reddy.
(Bombardment of Madras by Emden - from Wikipedia and not The Hindu archive)
and
the boast by Indian Cancer Society.
Related posts:
:-)
Today, Madras that is Chennai is known as the Medical capital of India - though the city was never blessed with Central funds or initiative in the form of super-speciality hospitals like AIIMS, New Delhi, or JIPMER in nearby Pondicherry. All the medical expertise has been due to the private initiative and no doubt because of the fact that the first Hospital in British India was established at Madras - on 16 Nov 1664.
Though the subsequent Madras Medical College was not the first - it was preceded by the Calcutta Medical College by 5 days - the MMC can proudly boast of training-
- one of the first ever Women Doctors in the World - Mary Scharlieb, and
- the first Indian Woman to be awarded a Medical Degree in India - Muthulakshmi Reddy.
BTW we should never believe at face value on what is written by people, sometimes about themselves on the Internet. The Adyar Cancer Institute was established in 1954 and the radiation therapy machine was installed in 1956, making it the first Cancer treatment centre in the country. But to believe Indian Cancer Society, the first Cancer detection centre was established at St. George’s Hospital, Bombay, in 1961. I can’t understand how something founded 7 years later supersedes the earlier one to become the first!
To get back to point - Thus I love this City of Cure.
The fair, warm and friendly city of Madras also has another first - this is the City which first gave Women a voice in the Legislature of Modern India - in the person of (would you believe it?) Muthulakshmi Reddy.
- PS: I could never have imagined Tigers roaming around in the outskirts of the (then) city of Madras. But it seems a handsome premium of Rs. 100 per Tiger was declared in 1878 as vermin control measure [http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article3459089.ece]. OMG! It means that Tigers were roaming around where my home is today and probably one was sunning himself where my backyard is on 22 Aug 1875.
- PS: Though the inscription of the ‘Sahib and the Tiger’ (in above link) speaks of valour and friendship, I much prefer the humour and cheekiness of ‘Rangaswamy and the Tiger’ at Not Kipling, but Tickling. For sure if one (Tiger) had to appear in my backyard now, I would do like what Rangaswamy did - “Mighty Tiger rave and rant; Rangaswamy shit in pant!”
- :-D
- PS: Hitherto unpublished pictures of Madras after the bombardment by the German Light Cruiser SMS Emden during World War I - from the archives of The Hindu - a Madras Day special [http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article3804481.ece].
(Bombardment of Madras by Emden - from Wikipedia and not The Hindu archive)
and
the boast by Indian Cancer Society.
Related posts:
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