My birth
I A.Ramanathan was born on 5th December 1947 at Vathalakundu (now known as Batlagundu) in Tamil nadu (then Madras State).
That was my maternal grandfather Prof.Krishna Sharma's house, where all his grand children were born. I happened to be the eighth among my siblings and cousins to be born in that same delivery room of that house. My time of birth was 10.16 hours on a Friday morning.
Typical of my grandfather, he had no patience to hear anything from my paternal grand parents and even before my father arrived to see his child(son), the old man went ahead in my namakaranam (child christening) under the name Mahadevan. His reasoning was that I was born on the day, the lord at Vaikkam in Kerala annual festival day. So that became my name for doing all rituals in life. But my paternal grand parents had the wish to name me as Ramanathan, since my father visited Rameswaram when my mother was pregnant carrying me- and that is the Lord's name- Ramanatha Swamy (Lord Shiva). Fortunately, there was no misunderstanding between families and mutually settled as follows:
Ramanathan as official name for all government/ school/ birth certificate etc.
Mahadevan only for all Hindu rituals including pithru tharpanam!
That is strictly abided all time to come.
My mother brought me to Guhalayam when I was 4 months old. I have my elder sister Viji , who is 4 years elder to me. So in a small home in Guhalayam the family of 4 settled down.
