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I managed to convince the secretary, C Velayudhan, who asked me to forget the story, (i.e. not to mention it in the article) that I had mentioned the bygone Tamil-Malayalee clashes in these columns and that there was nothing to fear. Another reason for the formation of the MMC, as Velayudhan cites it, was the Left bias of a Kerala association in Chennai. From its very formation in 1978, MMS worked for the uplift of the ordinary and poor Malayalees in Chennai most of whom are teashop workers and daily wage earners. MMS formed an educational trust in 1980 to educate the children of these Malayalees who could not afford to send their children to unaided or English-medium schools. In the same year, the samaj started a nursery school. The school was upgraded to be a primary school in 1983, a middle school was started in 1986 and a high school, in 1989.
Thus, the school tries to instil a true Malayalam spirit in the minds of the kids who live in a metropolitan culture away from their native state. Velayudhan says the students excel not only in studies but also in sports, arts and other activities. Uniform and books are distributed to deserving students by the MMS. The mid-day meals scheme in the school has won wide acclaim and it bagged the sate government award once. While teachers in aided-Malayalam medium schools in Kerala are in a sick hurry at the beginning of every academic year to find enough students in the classroom to satisfy the official coming for inspection, in Chennai here is a Malayalam-medium school where one can find more than 500 energetic students and a number of happy teachers.
MMS' cannot be a forgotten history. It was a creator of history and continues to sow the Malayalee spirit among marunadan Malayalees. Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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"Forget it. It's an old story," said the secretary of the Madras Malayalee Samaj (MMS) after narrating the origin of the samaj. The MMS was founded in the '70s to organise and give courage to the common Malayalees in Purasawalkam and nearby places who were the worst sufferers of the linguistic clashes of the time.
A unique aspect of the aided Malayala Vidyalayam Primary and High School is that it follows Tamil Nadu State Board syllabus in Malayalam medium. Everything, except English, is taught in Malayalam here. All students are Malayalees and all teachers, except one Anglo-Indian teacher, are Malayalees. Students are allowed to speak only in Malayalam on the school premises.
MMS has been instrumental in the formation of the Confederation of Tamil Nadu Malayalee Associations and the Federation of All India Marunadan Malayalee Associations (FAIMA). MMS president M P Purushothaman holds the same post in FAIMA, too.
