​Girls of Ice House to come alive at Madras Week lecture

CHENNAI: In the 1800s, the Ice House opposite Marina Beach was famous for the fact that the British used it to store ice. Today, it is called Vivekananda Illam, named so because Swami Vivekananda stayed there for nine days in 1897. But very little is known about the ‘Girls of the Ice House’, the child widows who called the place home for more than two decades from around 1914.
More than 80 years later, ‘The girls of the Ice House’ will come under the spotlight at Spaces in Besant Nagar this Thursday in a Madras Week heritage lecture by the aunt and niece duo of Nithya Balaji and Kaveri Bharath.
“R S Subbalakshmi or Subbalakshmi, who founded the home for child widows, called Sarada Illam, was my great grandmother’s sister,” says Bharath, who has over the years studied various aspects of Sister Subbalakshmi’s life. In April 1911, Subbalakshmi became the first brahmin woman to graduate with first class honours from Presidency College, Madras. She went on to become one of the most famous educationists in Chennai. She believed in rehabilitating child widows through education. In 1958, the Indian government awarded her the Padma Shri.
“Sister Subbalakshmi, who was a child widow herself, believed that education was the only path to a better life,” says Bharath, whose talk on Thursday will deal with the lives of the girls at the Illam between 1914 and 1928.
Bharath and Nithya Balaji’s talk will highlight the lives of some of the widows of the Illam and how they went on to lead successful lives, a number of them as teachers at various colleges.
“Sister Subbalakshmi was very forward-thinking,” says Bharath. “The widows were taught to read and write, given swimming lessons, coached in dance and drama, taken on field trips. It was a happy place,” she says.
Apart from delving into the lives of the girls of the Ice House, Bharath says they will also be giving the audience insight into where one can go to get more information on this lesser known aspect of history.