'adaimozhi' illatha rowdi..... Chennai Police names offenders for easier recognition !

In a clear and welcome departure from tradition, President Pranab Mukherjee announced that  he wants none of the colonial honorifics to be associated with his name or post.  In a few days of his assuming Office, the  Rashtrapati Bhawan directed the Lalit Narayan Mishra University, Darbhanga, in Bihar, to do away with the hitherto customary honorifics such as "His Excellency" and "Honourable" used with his name and post in an invitation card printed for a convocation ceremony.   The directive was to replace "His Excellency" with a simpler "Sri" before the President's name on the invites. The university also dropped similar honorifics and prefixes used before the name of Bihar governor Debanand Konwar who was among the dignitaries.

The Rashtrapati Bhawan secretariat had also advised the university officials not to keep any special chair for the President. Instead, it suggested that chairs of equal sizes for all the dignitaries be kept on the dais during the convocation ceremony. The University administration was also asked not to keep any name plate of the President and it should only mention the official position of the dignitaries.

Laudable indeed………….

Away in Tamil Nadu, the very name of ‘Vadivelu’ makes one laugh and enjoy ……….  Some of his characters are named as : Snake babu, Vandu Murugan, Nai Sekar, Theepporri Thirumugam, Telex Pandian……….in one of his films, he would proclaim himself to be a rowdy and would ask the Police to arrest him.. his common dialogue is that ‘every rowdy needs a prefix [adaimozhi] to distinguish himself from others and become famous [notorious to be precise!]’

In this background, read this interesting report that appeared in Times of India of date ~ 3^rd April 2013 – Chennai edition – titled ‘City cops name Ravi to tame Ravi’

How do you deal with 20 people with the same name? Give them different monikers. That’s what police in north Chennai did to deal with a score of gangsters who answer — often violently — to the name Ravi. So, you have ‘Mottai’ Ravi, ‘Muttai’ Ravi and ‘Kattai’ Ravi all operating in the same area. There is more reason than rhyme to the names. ‘Mookku’ Ravi has a long nose, ‘Pallu’ Ravi is bucktoothed, ‘Gundu’ Ravi is stout and ‘Kulla’ Ravi is short. ‘Kaadhukuthu’ Ravi, who surrendered last Sunday in connection with a murder case, has his ears pierced.

Police don’t rely on just the appearance to christen criminals, though it is debatable if ‘Maadu’ Ravi is so called for his strapper looks or for his bullish deeds. It’s not for the looks that ‘Dog’ Ravi got the name — he just sells dogs. ‘Steel’ Ravi, who was killed by a gang in Erode on March 15, sold steel, though some of his gang members may talk about his steely resolve. ‘Powder’ Ravi is involved in narcotic cases; ‘Sketch’ Ravi charts out his attack plans; and ‘Porul’ Ravi supplies weapons (‘porul’ is a Chennai slang for weapon).Some others are named after their place of origin, like ‘Mattankuppam’ Ravi, ‘Pallakku’ Ravi and ‘Thoppu’ Ravi. But no, German Ravi, who was arrested in the city on Tuesday for forgery, is not from the Nazi land.

The nom de guerre helps, says additional deputy commissioner S Jayakumar. “You hear a lot of Ravi names and we need to have this identification tag.” Police say some gangsters too give themselves prefixes as part of their image building exercise. ‘Gate’ Rajendran, who makes gates and has a few criminal cases against him, explains it all: “Our parents gave us simple names. These aliases gave us a stature which our rivals take note of.”

Probably the most dreaded criminal from north Chennai was ‘Vellai’ Ravi, who was killed in an encounter in Hosur in 2007. There is also the news that  Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Tuesday arrested ‘German’ Ravi, a listed offender, and two of his associates for selling a piece of land after forging documents. The headmaster of Our Lady Matriculation School in Erukkancherry bought the plot belonging to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) for 47 lakh.     The arrest was made based on a complaint from the headmaster, S Raveendran. According to the complaint, D Ravichandran alias ‘German’ Ravi approached Raveendran offering to sell the property in Mogappair.

So, it is the adaimozhi which makes people more recognizable……

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

3^rd April 2013.