BIRTH OF JANAKPURI TAMIL ASSOCIATION, NEW DELHI
BY
R K RAJAGOPALAN
To be brief, I have been a Delhi resident since 1953. For sometime, I have been living with my sister and after marriage. I lived in a single room sharing accommodation. From 1960, I have been living in Pershing Square Gole Market), Clive Square (Gole Market), Janakpuri, Vinay Nagar, NDSE Part II and RK Puram. Whenever I have changed my accommodation, I had to make changes with regard to ration card, mailing address etc. very frequently. As suggested by my friends, I registered my name with DDA in 1972 for allotment of a flat in one of their upcoming colonies. As and when houses were ready for allotment, I had applied for allotment of a flat. However, in February 1973, I was fortunate in getting an allotment in Janakpuri, ClA Block, No. 24C. Without wasting much time, I shifted to the new flat on the 6th June 1973 (the same day when the Kumbabhisekham of the Malai mandir was performed. I moved in to the new flat without water and electricity. We had to lift water for our use from the hand pumps in the ground through labourers. There was no public transport in this new colony at all to begin with. It was peak of summer and one can imagine the heat on the second floor without fan or light. Of course the situation improved in two months. The entire Janakpuri had a very little population and there was open drainage as also lots of mosquitoes.
Having shifted to Janakpuri, a large number of children studying in the DTEA School in Mandir Marg which was about 18 km away, had to travel daily. The younger children in the age group upto 12 years found it difficult to commute. At this point of time, all the parents who had shifted to Janakpuri and whose children were going to their School 18 km away, met together and wanted to have a small school atleast for the youngsters to save them from the agony of long bus travel.
THUS THE JANAKPURI TAMIL ASSOCIATION [JTA] took birth with all parents of DTEA School in Janakpuri , as initial members. It was decided by the JTA to start a small school for children upto Vth standard and for this purpose rented three 2 Bed Room Flats in C2B Block for the primary class and the school was known as JTA School. There were a number of teachers who had resigned their jobs in schools outside Janakpuri and living in Janakpuri. We requested them to take up teaching in the JTA School on an honorarium basis and they readily agreed.
In the meantime, since our other children above Vth standard were studying in DTEA School, Mandir Marg, we as members of the DTEA impressed upon the Association to start a School in Janakpuri. The management of the DTEA found it difficult to open a seventh school for which they had no finance. In view of the DTEA’s financial difficulties to open a new school in Janakpuri, the JTA offered to give the infrastructure for the Janakpuri School and when it would be ready DTEA would take the School under their management. It was agreed upon.
The JTA initially applied for a land for the School with the DDA to be known as DTEA School. Accordingly, the DDA allotted a plot measuring 3.18 acres in a prime place in Janakpuri and cost was @Re 1 per sq. yd. totaling to around Rs. 18,000/-. To augment financial resources, the JTA have been holding cultural programmes etc. and collected money by sale of tickets and bringing out a Souvenir with advertisement. We have been successful in collecting sufficient fund. Further, we had our friends working in the Embassies through them we could know that development funds would be available for our purpose. We approached the Canadian High Commissioner through their Cultural Attache for assistance. After visiting the school run on rented houses, they agreed to donate us a sum of Rs. 20,000/-. The amount was more than enough for the payment to be made to the DDA for purchase of land. The JTA held a programme of Dance & Music and requested the Canadian High Commission to be our chief guest on that occasion. The programme included Dance by Yamini Krishnamurti, Veena by Chitti Babu and Vocal by Smt. ML Vasanta kumari. The JTA invited the other diplomats from UK, Philippines etc. for this function.
The JTA has been holding cultural functions every during February-March and October-November to collect funds for the School Building.
The JTA had the privilege of having programmes by Shri Nedanuri Krishnamurthi, Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman, DK Jayaraman, Mani Krishnaswami, Sheikh Chinnamoulana, Tiruchur Ramachandran, Mandolin U Srinivas, Ganesh Kumaresh brothers, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, Shri N. Ramani and dramas by RS Manohar, Crazy Mohan, Kathadi Ramamurthi, SV Sekhar and Light Music Programmes by Vani Jayaram, SP Balasubramaniam, Ramanan etc.
A lot of persons, who were strangers to each other, took part in the initial set up of the Janakpuri Tamil Association. S/Shri S. Padmanabhan, G. Doraiswami Iyengar, K. Aravamudhan, OS Sundaram, KHV Subramaniam, KS Krishnamurthi, AH Ganesan, K. Narayanaswami, TK Venkataraman, R. Srinivasan, G. Goplakrishnan, AVSManiam, R Balachandran, S. Sampath, N.H narayanaswami etc. etc. and many others. [Unfortunately, many of these people are no more, but are remembered very much for their contributions over the years]
Initially, it was proposed to construct wooden structures for the class rooms in the school ground and 12 rooms were constructed with Asphalt light roofing. In the meantime, Dr Madan Mehta was appointed as the architect for the construction of the wooden structure as also to draw the building plan for the proposed school building with five blocks of three storeys each. The school land needed a compound wall covering an area of 3.18 acres and the cost would be very high. In this regard the services of Shri Mani Iyer (later known as Veli Mani Iyer of B1A Block) in collecting funds for the purpose is to be remembered very much.
Once the wooden class rooms were ready, the school was shifted from the rented flats to the school ground. The recruitment of further teaching staff was done in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Directorate of Education, so that at a future date when the school would be taken over by the DTEA, there may not be any difficulty.
The foundation stone for the new school building was laid by the Hon. British High Commissioner Sir John May Bee and a programme of dance, music was arranged in his honour.
Many of our members were influential and hence, the material for the construction of the building like Cement, Steel, and Electrical Items were procured at free and/or at concessional prices.
Once the first block of the school building was ready, the JTA handed over the land, building and other assets to the DTEA and the school to be run as the eighth School of DTEA .
The following teachers are to be remembered for their selfless devotion etc. towards the School run byJTA and later by DTEA : Smt. Seethalakshmi Pillai, Smt. Usha Venkateswaran, Smt. Lakshmi Kumari and Shri Srinivasan etc.
