Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 21

 

   Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Twenty One

I went to P. Orr. & Sons from the Madras Central Railway Station carrying all my heavy and bulky luggage and deposited it all in the two bath attached rooms rented by me on the first floor. The Taxi driver and one of the room boys were very helpful. The first thing I did was to tightly close the water taps in one of the rooms. In this room I put down most of my precious cargo of manuscripts, reference books, etc. That tap was never opened in the next several months. In the other room I freshened up, took my bath and put on fresh clothes and sailed forth; I might almost say sallied forth, because I was entering the fiercest fight in my life against time, against sleep, for money and against hatemongers. Crossing the street I entered the unassuming vegetarian hotel in the corner. I ate three idlys and a meduvada and topped it off with a lovely cup of filter coffee. The bill came to only one rupee and a quarter. For most of my stay in Madras till in 1979 I shifted to an Anna Nagar hotel I used to breakfast in this same hotel. When I came out of the hotel there was a leper always sitting on the footpath with his begging metal mug. I dropped a coin into the mug and went back to my room. Thereafter almost every day I was breakfasting in the same hotel and coming out always saw the same beggar sitting in the same place. And as every day I was handed some change by the hotel’s cashier after I paid my rupee and a quarter I used to drop a coin into his tin mug. After many years, may be after thirty or forty years, a beggar came to my house in Ollur. When I looked at him he averted his gaze, but later I recognized him as the beggar I used to meet every day in Madras. It is indeed a small world.   

After breakfast I used to go back to my room, change, and come out to catch the bus to Vadapalani. The trip was around one hour. Often I used to take a Lassi at the bus stop where the No. 26 buses would stop. That big glass of Lassi which tasted divine in the hot Chennai climate was sufficient to keep hunger away till two o’clock or three o’clock until I could come back from the press at Vadapalani to the city and maybe visit my favorite Chinese or Italian hotel. This lunch was the only luxury I used to permit myself. On occasions when my pocket was near empty I visited a vegetarian rice meal hotel near my hotel where the full meal was less than 10 annas and half meal 6 annas or less. Or I used to opt for a ChannaBatura with a cup of filter coffee, but this was more expensive than the rice meal.

When I reached the press I placed all the manuscripts and photos on the table of Mr. Nayak, the manager. He summoned the head compositor of the morning shift – the press was working in three shifts of eight hours each – and handed over all the manuscripts to him with the instruction to hand over these to the Monotype typist. Then he called the Monotype typist over the phone and told him to compose the material in 8 pt. Times Roman font for double column printing on A4 pages. He ordered coffee for us. He told me that next time I came he would take me for a tour of the vast  establishment and that if I could come back in two or three days’ time some galley proofs would be ready for my proofreading. Actually because I was expecting the final drafts of some articles to reach me only in a month’s time I gave the order in which the pages were to be printed only later so that many pages which were made machine-ready at first could be printed only much later. 

Therefore I started with the printing of the art plates in B&W as well as in colour. We used Japanese real art paper 60 pounds for the B&W plates and 80 pounds for the colour plates. There were some 20 odd German Heidelberg double demy machines available at the press but Mr. Naik wanted to experiment with the new HMT machines purchased. I was a little anxious for the result at first because I did not have much faith in Indian manufacturers. But the results obtained with the HMT machines were quite good. All my doubts were gone when the colour printing for the Encyclopaedia won first prize at the national  Excellence in Book Production ceremony. And Mr. Naik was proud of his decision to use the HMT presses. But for the letter press text printing he sticked with the maevellous Heidelberg machines. When I started printing the first Volume in 1976 they  gave me galley proofs for 120 pages at one go. No other press in south India could lay up so much metal for so many weeks.    

 

 

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 20

   Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Twenty

Because we were using the A4 format of the Brittannica for the pages and 8 pt. Times Roman font in single space, each page could accommodate more than a thousand words. Mr. Nayak the manager of the press used to joke saying that a powerful lens also must be provided with the book. There was some truth in the criticism and I used 8 and a half pt. font for the Indian Church History Classics. For future books I think I will go for 9 pt. types.

I gathered together all the manuscripts, printed sources, reference books including different dictionaries and Atlases  that I was using  and also photographs and slides not deposited earlier with the B. N. K. and stowed much of it into a huge trunk my  father had bought for me when originally seeing me off to the boarding house of the Trichinopoly college,  which then carried even my bedding in it. What that enormous trunk could not contain I put into two or three bags. All this I carried to Madras.

In Madras I rented two rooms in a hotel (actually nothing more than a lodge), the rent was only Rs. ten per room per day. This hotel I was acquainted with from 1965 and whenever I used to go to Madras I used to stay there invariably, that is until 1979.

This is how I got acquainted with this hotel. In 1965 my principal Rev. Dr. Thomas Moothedan, D.D. summoned me to his office and showed me a letter from Dr. Dickinson from the U.S. In that letter Dr. Dickinson, Asia Projects Director for the ISS-FERES Project at The Hague, had invited college principals to send to Delhi capable young lecturers for an interview to recruit research officers for the ISS-FERES sponsored  survey of Christian Higher Education Institutions in India. This survey later gave birth to the AIACHE, the All India Association for Christian Higher Education. Fr. Moothedan suggested that I go for the interview and also informed  that first class train fare would be given to the candidates. The principal probably wanted me to get a chance to visit Delhi at no expense to myself. In Delhi the interview took place in the Le Meridian Hotel. In addition to Dr. Dickinson Dr. AdiShashaiah was also present on the interview board. A few days after returning home I got a postal cover postmarked Athens. Wondering who was writing us from Athens father opened the envelope. It contained a letter from Dr. Dickinson announcing my selection as a research officer for the ISS-FERES study of Christian colleges & c. in India. Dr. Dickinson later entrusted the printing of the project questionnaire consisting of more than six hundred questions and innumerable subsidiary questions. Visiting some colleges in various parts of India as part of the project gave me an opportunity to come across a cross section of Christianity in India, this added to my knowledge of Christian history and culture in India, as my visits to Newman Circles around the country had helped me to have a comprehensive and inclusive view of Christianity in India.

Since first class fare would be given I thought I will go to Delhi by plane, especially because there was no time to get there by train on the specified day. And I can return in ordinary sleeper class. That was an adventurous journey, but this is not the place to describe it in detail. One unforgettable event in that trip let me record. In those days there was no Nedumbasseri airport. All flights took off from the Military Airport on the way to the Cochin harbour. The plane would proceed to Bangalore via Trivandrum. I was seated in the plane in time. But the plane was tarrying. Then a person was brought to the plane by two police constables. He came and sat down in the seat next to mine. He asked me where I was going, what I was doing, and so on. When I said that my name was George Menachery he said that it was a well known family. This made me a little proud I might say. Then I told him that I was a lecturer in English at the St. Thomas College, Trichur. He said that it was a most famous college where EMS the first chief minister of Kerala had studied. I was becoming even more proud. I was sure he was a culprit of some sort as he was brought by two policemen. Out of common courtesy I asked what his name was. “A. K. Gopalan,” he said. It was the great communist leader AKG, M.P.,  then in political imprisonment, returning after attending the parliament meeting. He was so humble and considerate in his behavior. All the sense of my “importance” evaporated, and I became his lifelong admirer. AKG got down at Trivandrum, walking in between his “protectors” the policemen. The plane stopped at Bangalore. I had to take a new ticket to Madras. After that there was no plane to Delhi from Madras that night. When I got down at Meenambakkam airport I had to find a hotel for the night. I called a Taxi and asked the driver to take me to a nearby cheap hotel. But he drove me all the way to the city to the Ambassador hotel next to P. Orr & Sons. The Taxi fare was high, but the hotel was cheap at Rs. ten per day. From that time onwards I always used to stay in that hotel whenever I went to Madras. The Central railway station was not far away, and all facilities like hotels, bus stops were nearby. And the offices of the Hindu and the Mail were next door. And above all I discovered that the owner was a Malayalee.

 

 

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 19

  Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Nineteen

In the Atlanta Sheraton where the Bishops were meeting I felt that things were done in a simple open manner as opposed to some of the practices I had noted in the conduct of Bishops’ Conferences and even other conferences in India. The General Secretary Msgr. Rauch received me with gladness and even great respect. When I showed him the letter from the Cardinal he treated me with even greater respect. He promised to distribute my brochures on the Encyclopaedia at the official press conference at the end of the Conference. That he did it with a short laudatory talk I came to know later from the various national media representatives I met later. Though I failed to ask for or get any monetary help from the USCC, my visit to Atlanta helped the Encyclopaedia project to obtain national exposure of the best kind imaginable. This was the high-water mark of my US visit of 1972. 

The Director of New York Archdiocese’s DioMedia was so impressed by our brochure and the USCC General Sectretary’s “pep talk” that she wanted to make the Encyclopaedia the topic of the Mission Sunday national broadcast.  She asked me to send her from India as soon as possible some colour matter as without colour pictures and videos no TV broadcast would be a success. I introduced a Syro-Malabar priest in New York to her as my liaison. I could not send the colour material she had asked for till the end of September and finally she broadcast a Syro-Malabar Mass by the priest  for the Mission Sunday national programme.

There were many other interesting and novel experiences during my two-month  stay there. I will recall only just one or two things here as many of those experiences do not have any great direct bearing on the making of the Encyclopaedia.

I had mentioned earlier how I took with me to the US the letter of invitation I had received from the US PaxRomana as the National Vice-President of the Newman Association of India (PaxRomana) to attendant the Bogota International Eucharistic Congress of 1968. The US Director of the PaxRomana who was in New York kindly arranged residence for me at the Leo House. When the Leo House people had asked the Director whether there would be any problem with the payments for the room he replied that if there were any problem he would settle the bill. I stayed at the Leo House for more than a week and when I left they did not ask for any money and I did not pay any.

At that time the Director told me that he was arranging a meeting of all the PaxRomana Ministers of the New York area to meet me for a talk. The talk would be followed by a banquet dinner at the Dunwoodie St. Joseph’s Seminary.

The talk I gave was a success, to judge by the fact that during the drinks and dinner session that followed three ministers approached me to visit their institutions to attend similar conferences. I accepted the invitation of the Maryknoll HQ and Seminary to give a talk. After my talk at Dunwoodie there was drinks session which was novel for me. All were walking about or sitting in conversation with glasses in their hand. As I was a teetotaler I felt a little out of place. I asked the steward to give me a coco-cola. He said that there was no coco-cola available. But he was kind enough to get one for me from the Seminary refectory and I went about carrying my coco-cola glass among the participants.

It was at that dinner that I first ate a beefsteak the size of the huge plate on which it was served accompanied by all the trimmings. And I was served a similar steak at the hotel where my father’s pen-friend took me with her husband for a dinner. The third time I had a similar steak was at the parish priests’ house at Greenfield, Ann Arbor, Detroit where I was given hospitality by the parish priest  at the recommendation of my Jesuit brother’s friend Fr. Stephen, sj of Cannanore,  who had stayed there as an assistant vicar during the days of his studies. As a result of these dinners I became an admirer of such steaks and I have been pestering Maggie to make such steaks. She now makes Swiss steaks often but is unsuccessful at making the type of steaks I enjoyed in the US. For that matter not many restaurants in India give good steaks even now though I constantly order beef steak at the best hotels out of my greed for the tasty item I had enjoyed in my days of starvation in the States!

Once a priest in New York gave me a check for US $ 15 for the Encyclopaedia. That was a crossed check and no bank in New York cashed it for me. They said that that check should come through the Encyclopaedia’s account in India. But when I presented the check at a bank in Atlanta the officer told the teller to cash it and I got fifteen dollars in cash, which was a heaven-send at the time.

The Maryknoll Father who drove me to their HQ in New York stopped on the way for a car wash. The machine car wash was a new experience for me. The huge brushes which were rolling all around the car even frightened me, as there were no such car washes in India at that time. The Fathers at Maryknoll arranged for a special dinner at a hotel for me. The Editor of their magazine was my companion at that dinner. He had ordered a number of dishes for me. But I could eat only a small part of it. He told the waiter to pack the remainder for his wife. This packing of items which could not be consumed by the customer was a new experience for me though it is a common practice with Maggy now.

Overall my stay in the US was a help in many ways to broaden my horizons but it did not bring me any money – although to get some funds for the printing of the Encyclopaedia was the primary objective of my US visit. 

I think it is high time that I returned to the printing of the Encyclopaedia at the BNK Press, Madras.

 

 

 

Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 18

 

 Saturday Evening Post

Making of the Encyclopaedia

From the Horse’s own Mouth

George Menachery

Eighteen

 

I stayed in that room for four or five days and utilized my time to visit the New York Public Library. The two marble lions in front of it attracted me much; also the beautiful systems in the reference room. There was an half hour film shown every half hour in a cosy little room on the history of the Library which was very enjoyable. Whether I attended all these on my first visit or on a later trip I cannot say. The boat trip to the Statue of Liberty about which I had heard much and the climb up the statue will always remain in my memory. The obelisk like Washington Monument fascinated me for more than one reason. But I must be careful to prevent this narrative from slipping into a travelogue. May be I should write a book on my travels in the US and the other thirty odd countries I have visited. Some articles I have written in various periodicals on my experiences in those countries giving importance to the attractions and explaining how I could travel in Europe, especially, on $5 and $10 a day! But let that go for the moment. It was to Washington DC that I wanted to go as Washington was the HQ of the USCC and as I mentioned earlier I had a very good recommendation letter to its General Secretary Msgr. Rauch from the Cardinal. So I had purchased a ticket from New York to that city though I got down in Philadelphia and Baltimore on the way. At Washington D. C. I directly went to the United States Catholic Council. But I was told that all important persons in the office, including Msgr. (later Bishop) Rauch were in Atlanta, Georgia where the Bishops’ Conference was taking place. But the sole official left at Washington promised me to publish a detailed account of the Encyclopaedia project after discussing with Msgr. Rauch the General Secretary. And next when I visited Washington he gave me a copy of the USCC Bulletin where the Encyclopaedia was featured prominently.

The United States Catholic Council Bishops’ Conference at Atlanta would go on for a week or so. I thought it would be a good opportunity to give an exposure to the Encyclopaedia if I could go there and meet Msgr. Rauch for whom I had a very good letter from Cardinal Parecattil. The price of a flight ticket from New York to Atlanta was rather high, and I did not know how I could reach Atlanta before the Conference closed. Then I saw an advertisement which offered a cheap ticket to Atlanta at just US$ 100. The only disadvantage was that the flight was at midnight. But for an Indian this is no problem at all. I took that flight and landed in Atlanta very early in the morning when nothing was stirring. But as the sun rose I found a taxicab. I asked the driver to take me to the Sheraton Hotel where the Bishops’ Conference was going on. When I reached the hotel the meter read one dollar and fifty cents only.  On the way the driver had asked me why I am going to the Sheraton. Probably he guessed, and rightly so, that my type could not afford that. When he knew that I was a Catholic he was very happy because he was also a Catholic. And in the South I had read Catholics are not generally welcome, I had read stories of Catholics even being lynched there, and something about the proceedings of the Ku Klux Kan. When I gave the driver two dollars (including a tip of fifty cents) he refused to accept the money and said that the trip was free for a fellow Catholic. But I put the money into his pocket and thanked him for his goodwill.