|
Apr 10,2006 , ThreadGill's ,Austin TX Rajesh K Jeyapaul..
Year 2002 when I was searching for some historical facts about Tuticorin,South
India ,
I hit upon Rober L Hardgrave's web link...he sent me good old paintings
about Tuticorin (which is posted in this site)
Dear Rajesh,
I am glad that you like the print and hope it works for your web page. And thanks for telling me about yourself. Good luck with your Tuticorin project. It has been many years since I was there, but I liked the city very much.
For more about me, you can click on my home page below. All the best.
Bob
Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
Temple Professor Emeritus of the Humanities in Government and Asian Studies
Office: Dept. of Government, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
Email: rlh@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Home Page: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/cas/rlh.html
Well, that time I knew he is from University of Texas ,Austin and I had
never dreamt of meeting him in person at Austin...
Year 2006 , March , I am at Austin on an official visit....and when I
happened to see the paintings...and Oh, my god...the world is so small...I
realized that Robert is from Austin....I was eager to meet him in person...I
sent a note and he responded...
Robert came and picked me up from my apartment( at gracy farms,stoneleigh)..we
went out to THREADGILL's...famous texas style restaurant in Austin.
the drive to threadgill took about 20 minutes...that helped me to understand
more about him..and that was the time I heard his work about the "Nadar"
community (a caste in southern india) and his interest towards indian classical
music...
when I asked him what prompted him to do this work about Nadar community,
he replied with a single word , "Kamaraj" (Kamaraj was the chief minister for the state of tamilnau,india
from this community..also known as king maker)
I could not believe when he mentioned that he had met C.N.Annadurai , Kamarajar ,MGR ,Kalainar Karunanidhi (all of them were chief minsiters for the state of tamil nadu )and the present CM Madam Jeyalalitha .Also he had met Actor Shivaji Ganeshan(well known south indian stage and cinema actor)...
Well, threadgill is Roberts favourite restaurant...'Chickent Fried steak"
and the vegetables served , Okra , was really good(ladiesfinger with tomato..similar
to Indian side dish..)...
then our discussion went on with the current status of India and its economical
development and comparing India with china..I pointed out to Robert that
the growth in India is skewed towards the city and towns but the village(country
side) is also getting equal importance in most of the state..unlike in
china where the growth is seen mostly in the cities..
he mentioned that he was amazed to see the Cities in China like shangai...
..when I mentioned there is a proposal to construct a wall in tamilnadu
coastal to prevent tsunami...he agreed with me that it will not be a good
idea to have one..which will destroy the beauty of the coastal...
..the lunch time with Robert is one of the greatest moments in my life...
Great work Robert....
Rajesh K Jeyapaul , April 10,2006
|
