'So everything sort of came together, just at the point when I thought that nothing was ever going to work out!'

Rendezvous with A Legendary Art Historian

@ MCC Today

Deborah Thiagarajan, Founder & Director, DakshinaChitra - in Conversation with Preesha and Malar

One little spark was enough for Deborah Thiagarajan to launch her ambitious project!

And what pray, do you think was the spark?

Well, while working in tandem with Tamil Nadu Nutrition Project and CARE, Deborah had the privilege of interacting with a lot of villagers especially in the Karur – Pollachi regions. It was then that she noticed a void – a lacuna of sorts –

She found that, quite a lot of art & crafts skills were slowly perishing because of sheer callousness and neglect! There was no possible drive to support and help thrive the slowly fading community of artisans!

This then became her inspiration to found DakshinaChitra – a great grand abode for the promotion, preservation and propagation of all aspects of the unique art and craft of South India!

Coming back to the event under discussion –

The Centre for Women’s Studies had their inauguration today in the Anderson Hall, with Ms. Deborah Thiagarajan as their chief guest.

Ms. Deborah – just 79 years young - gave a powerful speech to the packed audience on the topic, ‘Following your Dreams’.

I had no idea that I would be setting up a heritage museum. But it all fell in place because of team work. Team work is very important today. It takes discipline, perseverance and a lot of effort. But it’s worth it.

Moreover, those of us who are privileged to be educated, have the onerous duty of giving back to society in some little ways that we can!

My daughter has got a vibrant, indefatigable competitive spirit on her – something that she has acquired during her days as a student in MCC, 

said Ms. Deborah Thiagarajan!

Well, well, it was a momentous occasion you see!

So not wanting to miss out on this lovely opportunity, we had asked the II MA English students if any of them would be interested in doing a candid, spontaneous interview with Ms. Deborah!

Two of our vibrant students – Ms. Preesha and Ms. Malar gladly volunteered!

[Special thanks to Dr. Sheeba Davidson, Coordinator, CWS, and our Vice-Principal Prof. Sridhar, who gladly gave their go-ahead for our students to do an interview with Ms. Deborah]

Ms. Malar and Ms. Preesha in conversation with Ms. Deborah Thiagarajan

The students asked highly thought-provoking and engaging questions to Ms. Deborah, who responded cheerfully - all through their 23 minute-long conversation.

Giving here below, a transcript of the first part of the interview -

Says Ms. Deborah, Art Historian & Founder & Director of DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum, Chennai -  

Well, I had to study folk performing arts, then I had to spend two full years studying architecture, so we would know what are the specifics of particular architectural plans, had to study various languages, to study the architecture in the vernacular of each state, we did a lot of school programmes, programmes especially for teachers, since we found out that most teachers had no idea about the many aspects of Indian music, Indian dance and Indian culture!

Malar: There must have been ups and downs, challenges in your journey. How do you face that? How do you overcome it?

There was one point, in 1991, when nothing was working out. I was thinking of telling my husband, I worked on this now for seven years, we’ve gone into schools and done a lot of programmes but nothing seems to be working! May be I have to go back to the US!

And just then he had a heart attack! He had a massive heart attack! He was 46 years old. While he was in the hospital, the TN government gave us land, and I got a grant from the Ford foundation. So no way could I leave! So everything sort of came together, just at the point when I thought that nothing was ever going to work out!

And then there were times when I thought I can never make this happen! I couldn’t find any contractor to come out and try to build myself with Laurie Baker. He was trying to teach me to be an architect! Back then, my daughter was far away. I needed to get the accounts together.

I think sometimes when you’re desperate, something falls from heaven! I believe in it.

Because as regards the architecture, I went one day to L&T, to meet the President for fund-raising. I couldn’t find anybody to help me. He said, he’s got a wonderful colleague who’s just retired, and that’s how Mr. Sharma came and helped me. He handled everything for me. Again, I reached out to Mr. Ramakrishnan, the President for the managing of the accounts. Suddenly someone told me, that he’s got a CA to help me manage the accounts. He did it so perfectly well, digitised the entire process, and everything fell in place!

There was a man, recommended by Mr. S. Muthiah, - who was a senior executive with a company – who helped us with all the administrative systems! Unfortunately he died when he was 56!

I then came to realise that, when you are desperate, and when you are sincere as well, you just need to reach out to people, because nobody can come to you, if you don’t reach out! And so it happened that, all these people came, and actually the whole set-up of DakshinaChitra came about only through volunteers, who were willing to give back to society.

Then I worked with six women, none of these women had worked before! But they were so smart!

And so I found out what each one of these women were good at.

I called them and met with them every single day, for months and months, and one of them founded my Crafts Shop, she’s now Head of the Crafts Council of India.

One of them helped me with all my exhibitions, and setting up food with a small canteen, food service. She now runs her own foundation – the MRM Foundation. She brought in all the VIP guests, and she and her children were the ones who would lead everyone around, and she became the honorary counsel for France for sixteen years, and then she started teaching French at Stella Maris College. She had never worked before.

One of them, Gita Vasudevan, who had done her PhD with KV Raman, - the same time I had – she visited and liaisoned with all tourist agencies, visited all hotels, and later she started an organisation called the Hayagriva Study Circle in Chennai, where she did all these talks.

One person was our publicity person! She is now secretary for the Seshaiah Home.

So none of these women had worked before. But when they got into an opportunity where they could use their skills, and develop their skills, they were able to achieve! ‘If she can do it, I can do it too!’ was their mantra!

So yes! we started completely with volunteers. And it’s been a wonderful journey so far! Perseverance is part of it! You should believe that it will work! And it will surely happen!

To be continued…