It's been a decade since my proposal (while holding office as Director of music colleges) to the former/late Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa for an exclusive university in Tamilnadu. The late CM graciously accepted, announced in the 2013 assembly and established Tamilnadu Music and Fine Arts University in 2013, appointing myself as its first Vice Chancellor.
Fine arts (which includes painting, sculpting, all aspects of cinema, ceramics, etc.) was an added bonus from the TN government.
Seated in the car, on my way to Secretariat, I quickly ran through the draft of proposal for university to be presented to Hon'ble CM. I worked tirelessly in gathering information of value in order to support and authenticate my proposal.
Happy at the way the draft turned out I was about to shut the file, but the name of a town in southern Tamilnadu in the concluding paragraph caught my attention. My brows knit in puzzlement. I had never mentioned this town and how on earth has it appeared in my draft?!!
I quickly ran my eyes across the paragraph that mentioned the name of the southern town, famous for its architecture.
The last paragraph ended with an earnest request to establish university in the southern town of Tamilnadu, whereas my original draft appealed for the music university to be established in Chennai, famous for its music season, cultural heritage, veteran musicians and music organisations.
Stunned, I realized that my original draft was removed and inserted in its place was another page containing the name of the southern town of TN, obviously in the last minute. I suddenly understood how it happened. I had no time to speculate or even absorb the shocking knowledge of whodunit. The car entered Secretariat. I quickly took the pen from my handbag and striking out the name of the southern town I wrote CHENNAI in bold letters.
That marked the beginning of my job as VC which apart from effectiveness in administration and education demanded an equal or more special talent in vigilance at all levels.
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