A Lifelong
journalist and editor who has made the introduction of speakers into an art-
S.R.Madhu has atlast come out with his first book. Titled `Windows to the
World`, it has a selection of his famous circulars about the speakers at the
weekly meetings of Rotary Club of Madras South (RCMS) . He has been organising these
meetings for the last 18years as the Club`s Programme committee chairman and
enticing members and their guests with the circular.
While Madhu
is famous for his introduction of speakers, I had the privilege of introducing
Madhu to RCMS twenty years ago. I have had a ringside view of the tremendous
time & efforts he puts in to identify a good speaker, gets their biodata
and talks to them about the topic to be covered, does his own reasearch on the
topic before he shoots of a circular to the members each of which is a master piece in effective
communication. Since a copy of these circulars also go to the speakers, it is
not uncommon for many speakers to start their talk with a note of thanks to Madhu for the introduction but also complain in jest that Madhu has stolen the thunder out of
their talk by covering several points from their presentation in the circulars.
While many
Clubs complain about their inability to get good speakers, Madhu believes that
“there is no dearth of good speakers in Chennai. This is a happening metro,
it`s an intellectual capital, a film capital, a music capital. It has
businessmen, economists, entrepreneurs,
scientists lawyers, sportsmen, writers, singers, & dancers. It is a vibrant city
politically, economically , socially. It has scores of achievers young &
old. It has a little army of former IAS officers, plus thousands of youth with stars in their
eyes and fire in the belly. Besides most of Chennai-ites are loquacious and
they love to talk”
No wonder
Madhu has been able to get excellent speakers week after week to address the
Club.
Madhu`s book
was first unveiled at an Installation meeting of Rotary Club of Madras South at
which Natarajan Nagoji, a member of the RCMS was installed as the District
Governor. Madhu credits Nagoji for motivating him to come out with the book.
The book is an excellent reference book not only for Rotary and other Clubs who
are looking for good speakers but is
also in a way a mini directory of `whose who` in Chennai.
To give you
an idea about the contents of the circulars let me give you a couple of excerpts from the book.
About
Sandeep Narayan:
“ Sandeep is
as fluent and mellifluous a speaker as he is a singer. The American upbringing
is obvious but the emotional content is Indian- nay Tamil!. The Indian
influence on Sandeep was enriched last year when he married Radhe, a beautiful
Bharata Natyam dancer and daughter of Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev. Story-telling,
public speaking, music. Sandeep excels in all three. Good reason for you to
dump other priorities on Tuesday and listen to Sandeep Narayan”
About
Dr.Anurdha Uberoi who gave a talk on Punjabis in Chennai;
`And
Punjabis? Vibrant, Boisterous. Loud. They work hard, play hard, sing with zest
and dance with energy. They live life king-size. The women? svelte, smart,
slim ( till they get married), milk and roses complexion, articulate. They
exude confidence & charm. Kushwant Singh put it better,” Punjab is known
for lusty men and busty women`
Anuradha
thinks that Chennai-ites are bit distant and reserved compared to the folks
back at home. Make sure to give her a warm welcome.”
About
Srikala Varma who spoke on `Know Your eyes`;
“You would not
associate royalty with Opthalmology. And not Bharata Natyam training either.
But Srikala is no common princes. You will agree when you meet and listen to
her.”
As N.Ram
says in his Foreword, `the book is a continuing essay in the science and art of
communication`.
A Post
Graduate diploma Holder in Journalism with a Gold medal from Rajendra Prasad
College of Mass Communication , Mumbai, Madhu started his career with Times of
India, Mumbai in 1964. After spending 15 years in mainstream journalism with
TOI and American embassy in Mumbai & Delhi as deputy managing editor of the SPAN magazine, he switched over to development
journalism when he joined the `Bay of Bengal` project of FAO- United Nations in
India dealing with fisheries. As the International Information Officer of the
project he wrote, edited and produced
scores of reports, books, brochures and video films , creating a new benchmark
in U.N. field journalism.
It has taken
over 50 years for Madhu to come out with his first book. “ a book that gives an
idea of the abundance and variety of the talents active in Chennai. A book that
is also a tribute to Chennai”. I am glad
to learn that he has a couple of more books in the pipeline.
The above article has appeared in
the Madras Musings issue dt. 16-31,2016
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