TIRUCHY : Tepping into the visibly ill-maintained Indian Institute Hall at Golden Rock, Eugene D’Vaz turns teary eyed. “It once had a wooden floor,” he says with a lump of nostalgia in his throat, recalling the days when the hall saw gyrating couples, dressed in their best clothes and shaking their legs all through the night every weekend and on every special occasion.
Once an exclusive rendezvous point of the thriving Anglo- Indian community that dominated the cultural scene of Tiruchy, particularly Golden Rock (now referred more as Ponmalai), it is not just the floor of the hall that has been replaced with red oxide.
Even the events that it hosts these days are different. About 50 years ago, Ponmalai was home to around 20,000 Anglo- Indians with another 15,000 living elsewhere in Tiruchy. Today, there are hardly 500 of them in Ponmalai and another 1,000 in Tiruchy. The plummeting population, mainly due to migration, has also led to the fading away of a quintessential culture which once gave a touch of modernity to the city of Tiruchy and influenced its overall zeitgeist.
When weekends meant fun
D’Vaz (74), who retired as an English professor in St Joseph’s College, recalls his life at the Railway Colony, which was then an Anglo-Indian domain with most from the community employed as engine drivers or technical staff at the Ponmalai workshop. D’Vaz is distressed while seeing the dilapidated houses there, including the one in which his family lived. Recalling those halcyon days, he says, “Music and song would flow into the streets.
Every family would have at least six children and we would play all over the colony. During festival times, the entire colony would turn into a carnival. “Basically, we are a fun-loving community. So weekends meant jolly get-togethers, dancing, fancy dress competitions, singing and playing bingo,” he says. The Franklin Club, which bustled with bingo players every day, now sees handful of elderly Anglo-Indians dropping in once in a while.
Harry Maclure, who now edits Anglos in the Wind, a magazine for the community that is now spread out across the globe, says: “The Anglo-Indians were so punctual that train passengers would be relieved if they see an Anglo-Indian driver in the drivers’ cabin for they knew the train will reach the destination on time.” Maclure’s father was working in the Railways and he grew up in the Railway Colony here before shifting to Chennai.
“Since we spoke good English and were able to read the manuals and instructions in English, our people got jobs easily in the Railways,” says Shannon Vassou, president of the All India Anglo- Indian Association’s Tiruchy branch. “In those days the festivities during Christmas and New Year would go on for days, with one celebration after another. Our relatives and friends from elsewhere too would come over to Golden Rock, for the celebrations would go on round-theclock, keeping people on their toes,” recalls Raymond Vassou (75), a retired BSNL employee.
It all began with a dance
The Indian Institute Hall and the Franklin Club, which were invariably the venues for marriages and other celebrations, hardly sees any Anglo-Indian events now. “Mostly, marriages were scheduled for the weekends. And a marriage could be an opportunity for another couple to meet. If a young man likes a girl, he would ask her for a dance and that could mark the beginning of a relationship, leading to matrimony,” recalls Donald Nigili. “Migration to western countries like UK and Australia resulted in the local Anglo-Indian population dwindling.
Many left due to economic reasons as job opportunities dried up,” says Shannon Vassou. Once upon a time, city schools and hospitals had many Anglo-Indian women working as teachers and nurses. “After schooling, many of our girls would join the Church Park Anglo-Indian Teacher Training School in Chennai and come to work as teachers here. But now, even private schools are asking for BEd or MEd degrees. Our girls who opt for nursing courses have a great demand abroad and they also go away because of the better salaries and the respect they command there,” says Milton Fernandez, whose son has migrated to Australia.
KC Neelamegam (54), whose family has lived at Ponmalai Railway Colony for three generations, recalled: "I lived in a street where the majority were Anglo-Indians. As children, even if we did small good things, they would appreciate and encourage us. During Christmas and New Year, the colony was full of celebrations, which we heavily miss now. I still remember them dancing in the Indian Institute Hall on the wooden floor throughout the night, the rhythmic sound produced by their footsteps audible even from our houses."
‘THEY TAUGHT US GOOD ENGLISH’
KC Neelamegam (54), whose family has lived at Ponmalai Railway Colony for three generations, recalled: “There were many Anglo-Indian teachers in the Railways Mixed High School at Ponmalai because which many children learnt English very well and came up in life. For instance, my youngest brother studied in that school. After finishing catering course, he got a job in the USA and settled there mainly because of the English he learnt from those teachers.”