Amazing Adyar , a book compiling select articles written by historian and author K.R.A. Narasiah, was released at an event recently. The articles were written by him between 2013 and 2020, and published in the neighbourhood newspaper Adyar Times .
The 400-page book, published by the Palaniappa Brothers, is divided into three parts — the great institutions of Adyar, the social service organisations and the personalities who lived and live in the locality.
Launching the book, N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Publishing Group (THG), said the origins of the book were very interesting, and they take one back to a very good tradition of local journalism. He said he was struck by the comprehensiveness of the book and that the author had not missed any details. He recalled various institutions and personalities, including S. Balasubramanian, former editor, Ananda Vikatan; agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan; and historian and scholar Iravatham Mahadevan.
Historian V. Sriram, who received the first copy of the book, said historian S. Muthiah had the highest opinion of Mr. Narasiah, and the two of them collaborated on a coffee table book on the 125 years of the Madras Port Trust. On the topic of the book, he recalled that Mr. Muthiah would say that every locality had a history, a story to be told and documented, and that this book covered a huge gap as far as Adyar was concerned. He said so much effort had gone into the documentation of Adyar as a neighbourhood.
Responding, Mr. Narasiah narrated how he was inducted into this project by S.P. Ambrose, a former civil servant and founder of Adyar Times . He said how it was easy to write about some of the great men and women of Adyar since he had met and interacted with some of them closely.
S. Janakan, managing editor, Adyar Times , welcomed the gathering and Swathi, editor, conducted the proceedings.
