Over the course of his life, S.R. Madhu has been many things — journalist, magazine editor, U.N. information officer and consultant. But what he was most celebrated for last weekend, at the launch of his Windows To The World was his innate ability to write fine circulars that introduced the scores of guest speakers who have addressed the Rotary Club of Madras South.
The introductions, written over a span of 18 years that Madhu has been programme committee chairman, would find their way into the inboxes of Rotarians every Monday morning. The extraordinary thing about this circular was the fact that it was not merely a drab litany of the achievements of the speaker — it was a declaration of the “club’s intellectual engagement with its members”. Out of the nearly 900 “persuasive introductions” Madhu has penned since 1998, when Natarjan Nagoji, governor, Rotary International, District 3230, set him the onerous task of finding speakers every week, 170 have found their way into the book. The foreword has been written by N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons.
“I have a list of speakers in every field — politics, economics, fine arts, education, women, development… and am constantly adding to it. Fellow-Rotarians tell me about exciting speakers from their domain; expats and young Indian achievers from abroad have also addressed the club. I choose people reputed to be fine speakers.”
But how do you define a good speech? “It should move you,” says Madhu. “The speaker should be more than just a great achiever; he should be a wordsmith.” This discernment came Madhu’s way from a life spent working and interacting with people from across the world.
A subeditor with the Times of India and a writer for its other publications between 1964 and 1970, Madhu graduated in Economics from the University of Poona, holds a diploma in journalism from the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, and did photojournalism and communication courses from Parsons School and Cornell University, New York. The young legman with a passion for cinema interviewed the leading lights of the day — Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Kishore Kumar…
As English editor for USIS, Bombay, Madhu steered visiting Americans to the Indian media, and wrote articles for SPAN magazine, of which he became assistant managing editor in New Delhi. It was here that he built up a treasury of experiences — covering the India visits of Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger, and meeting iconic investigative journalist Bob Woodward in the U.S. He then moved to his “most challenging job” — Information Officer, FAO/UN Bay of Bengal Programme, promoting small-scale fisheries through demonstration projects in seven countries.
“I was a vegetarian in a fisheries outfit, a journalist in a development organisation, an Indian in a predominantly European set-up,” he says. “I proposed a pictorial newsletter, Bay of Bengal News, which soon became popular.”
He moved on to another UN project in Zimbabwe before moving back to Chennai in 1995, where he worked with Rotary Club of Madras South, Madras Book Club and South India Heritage Programme, and brought out publications on mangroves for the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. He hopes to publish a book on his father-in-law P.V. Rama Aiyangar in November and a biography on industrialist R.T. Chari soon.
At TAG Centre, where the book was released by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal, there were charming and engrossing speeches by R.V. Rajan, S. Muthiah and Sriram V. While Gandhi said the book “helped non-Rotarians understand what the Club does” and “gives a sense of the person”, Sriram said Madhu’s interview with the speaker ahead of the talk made the introduction a “work of art, and the speaker feel honoured to speak.” City chronicler S.Muthiah said, “Here is a style that pays a rare old-fashioned courtesy to invited speakers.”
Asked who he has on his wishlist, Madhu says, “I would like to get Jayalalithaa, Stalin, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan or A.R. Rahman to address the club,” and counts the likes of eco-warrior Arun Krishnamurthy, singer Sanjay Subrahmanyan and martial arts exponent Shihan Hussaini among those who have addressed the legendary Tuesday meetings. “This book celebrates their positive spirit. It celebrates Chennai.”
