Looking at home front
Wish to share that my younger brother Sh.Sai Venkhatramani was born on 31st Oct. 1955 at Batlagundu. It is to be specifically noted that Ramani has got 6 fingers in his right hand. Everyone used to say that it is lucky not only for him but to the entire family.
Along with the child my mother returned to Madras by Feb. 1956. During her physical absence at Madras, my paternal parents- M/S Mookambeeswara Iyer & Lakshmi Ammal stayed with us to run the house. After my mother's arrival with the little baby, they returned to Dharmapuri. Unfortunately within 2/3 months later my mother fell sick with hepatitis and the doctor advised that she should not be close to the baby and should not feed the mother's milk to the child. Seeing the pitiable situation, our neighbor Mr & Mrs D P Prakash Rao, Telugu Christians carried the child to their home for care. Here it is to be noted that they did not have a child at all. It so happened that the day they carried Ramani to their home, that uncle who was in newspaper advertising got 2 X Rs 1000/- ads to be published in Andhra Patrika & Andhra Prabha, Telugu dailies. In those days Rs 1000/- was a very big sum. That made them feel lucky by bringing this child to their home & decided that they shall adopt him. As our family did not look into the caste& community, my parents allowed that to continue but ensured no religious conversion took place. So Ramani has been brought up in their home and he took care of them until their end. Mr Rao died in 1986, just one month after our father's death and that aunt died at Ramani's house in Annanagar in 1994. In their old age Ramani was the guardian care taker. Ramani even inherited their immovable property after their death.
Under the above circumstances, Ramani used to spend most of his childhood days only in their house and used to visit our home once in a while only. Rather under Rao's influence he got admitted in Christ Church school and did his entire schooling there. It so happened that in 1956, my maternal cousin Cheenu ( Mr B Srinivasan), who stood state 2nd rank in SSLC ( ER High School, Trichy)joined the Govt. Polytechnic at Madras for his 3 year diploma course ( L C E ) in Civil Engineering. As his father was a clerk in Southern Railway at Trichy, he felt that he cannot afford to bear the engineering degree course fees for Cheenu and got him admitted in Polytechnic. In those days, Polytechnic institute existed only in Madras and that made Cheenu to move to Madras. So he stayed in our house for these 3 year courses. From his merit scholarship amount of Rs 100 /- per month, he used to give Rs 20/- per month for his stay and food expenses at my home.Though that amount was a token sum, we used to feel that our elder brother has joined us at home. Seeing Cheenu staying at our home, my paternal uncle also wanted his second son Krishnan should study in some school at Madras. That was the year 1957 & Krishnan got admitted for his first form (VI Std.) at Kellet High School Triplicane.
So our house was filled with 3 boys & a girl ( Cheenu, Viji, me & Krishnan) but Ramani's name is not included here, since he used to spend his time only in Sh Prakash Rao's home. Here I would like to specifically describe our reading habits !
As there was no electricity in the house, we had to depend only on kerosene lit lamps. In the main hall my mother used to place a bright power lamp ( an open glass top with a wick having a kerosene container) in the middle. Three of us, Viji, me & Krishnan, used to lie flat at 120 Degree angle to each other with head high to read our text books.. As a discipline we used to draft our reading schedule and have the books placed at our sides daily evening. That was to ensure that nobody disturb the concentration and focus of others. The timing used to be 7PM to 9.30 PM and our dinner will be served immediately after that. As for Cheenu, being in his higher class, used to occupy the Iruttu (dark) room exclusively and read standing; he used only a gada vilakku and read until late nights.
Like that 2 years passed by . Krishnan came to VIII standard & Cheenu has completed his Polytechnic course. Unfortunately Krishnan developed a strange disease- continuous uninterrupted hiccups combined with loose motion for several days. So we called his parents on SOS basis(from Dharmaouri). They arrived, obtained TC from his school and shifted him to the Govt. High school in Dharmapuri. Cheenu joined as demonstrator at Tamilnadu Polytechnic, Madurai ; his intention was to pursue his AMIE studies while working there. There he completed AMIE part A successfully & for part B he wanted to join Sunderarajan institute at Kodambakkam , Madras. With that focus in mind, he changed his career to CPWD in Meenambakkam and joined that institute. Happy to share here that he has scored cent percent in 3 subjects of AMIE and finished it in record time. He stood all over India first. After that he changed his job to function as divisional engineer in M/S Burmah Shell, start with at Mangalore and then at Brunei. Somewhere in 1970 he shifted to IBM & worked at their system engineering department at Madras. In 1977, when the Govt. of India took a policy decision to evict all USA Head quartered undertakings in India, ( IBM, Coco Cola, Burmah Shell etc. ) Cheenu opted the choice of shifting to IBM Canada and settled there. He is now living in Toronto.
Krishnan, after completing his school at Dharmapuri, studied his BE Civil Engineering at Govt. college of Technology, Coimbatore. Later he joined the Indian Army through Officer Training School. Madras. He served under Corps of Engineers ( Bengal) and retired as Lt.Colonel. He has settled down in Bangalore and is living there.
My sister Viji, after her graduation in Chemistry worked in Tamilnadu Govt. Health department for 8 years.Then she migrated to France for higher studies, undertook research as her life career. She has specialized in Chromatography and is one of the world experts in Pure Protein Research. She is the one who has developed Industry- Institute collaboration efforts in medicine base evolution. The Govt.of India has recognized her specialization and made her initiate the formation of CBST lab ( Center for Bio Separation Technology)at VIT,Vellore. On the date, she is still involved with her research ( at 80 years) & possesses several National & International Patents. She had performed as a professional guide for 66 PhD research scholars both in India & abroad. She has been rated as one of the top 2% of the world's Analytical Chemistry specialists by Stanford University, USA.
Coming to the subject of entertainment, affordability was the main restriction . In my school life I would have seen only 5/6 movies other than what Mr Rishi used to take us for Sunday morning shows at Star theater. But one particular instance is still green in my memory. In the year 1956, Madras A. G's office recreation club conducted their Silver Jubilee celebrations in a grand manner. As my father was that time secretary of that association, he took us there on that occasion. There was one drama performed by Mr K Balachander's team. At that time KB was an employee of the AG's office and he was directly reporting to my father. In that drama, famous cinema actors like Major Sunderarajan took part. Then, one could feel the inbuilt qualities of KB as the Director for cinema/ dramas. Rather KB resigned from the government services and formed Kavitalaya for cinema productions. Everyone knows about K B's competence in cinema directions and production. Most of the Tamil cinema actors- M/S Kamalahasan, Rajnikant , Major Sunderarajan, Jaishankar, Nagesh, Manorama..... have been inducted by KB only.
Whenever my grandfather Mookambeeswara Iyer or Kandu periappa come down to Madras, they used to take me for long walk to Marina beach. The one way walking itself will be about 2 miles. On reaching there, they used to sit on benches to listen to All India News broadcast by AIR ( relayed in a central post) & I used to play around in beach sand. On completion of the news around 6.30 PM, we used to walk back home reaching around 7.30PM.
As said earlier, my mother was the one who wanted to keep close association with all relatives. Courtesy that cause, I have visited Trichy, Bangalore, Kanchipuram, Chinnalapatti Athoor, Vellore, Gobichettipalayam, Kumarasamipatti, Paparapatti etc. where my paternal/ maternal uncles/aunts used to live. Each visit is a story by itself. These are over & above Dharmapuri and Batlagundu trips. I still remember that my uncle Sh Sethupathi Iyer ( Krishnan's father) who was the post master at Kumarasamipatti used to ask one of his office assistant Mr Dorai to teach all children about swimming fundamentals by throwing us into water wells with a dried pumpkin tied at the back. His main objective was to remove the fear of immersing in water.
Sometime in 1959, 17 Vallabha Aghraharam stores was sold to one Chettiar family and the old muslim owner informed all the tenants to look for their new accommodation. The new owner had the intention to completely rebuild the entire complex and bring electric power to homes. At that time, excepting Arunachalam & Mahalinga Iyer family , all others vacated and shifted to new locations. In case of Mr Prakash Rao, he purchased a small apartment in Kuppu Muthu Mudali street ( three streets away) and shifted So Ramani's base camp also got shifted. These two families struck a deal with the new owner. They requested the new owner to construct two new apartments in the vacant area on top priority, so that they can shift there and the new construction can go on even when they are occupying the two newly built homes. That owner was considerate to accept that deal and built the two flats first. Then these two families occupied the new flats. Here it should be noted that the entire new construction of the revised complex was carried out in a flat 1 1/2 years.
The new occupants of the society had different orientations ! They were:
M/S Rama rao /Susheela, Naidu family, Sehgal & his wife, Chidambaram Iyer & his daughters, Arora & his wife. The front portion with upstairs construction was occupied by the new owners' family. Somehow the original cohesion and togetherness was missing ! There were several petty politics and misunderstandings. Rather the original two occupants ( Arunachalam & Mahalinga Iyer families ) started feeling bad and felt like leaving the place.
My induction to non- vegetarianism. When I was in the final year of my school days, my paternal cousins- Balan & his brother Krishnan visited Madras. One day, three of us went to the beach to enjoy some time. After standing in the sea front, we moved to the famous Buhari restaurant in the Marina beach. There , my two cousins teased me that I am my mother's obedient child and shall not even touch the egg. I took that as a challenge and said it is not so at all. Then they boosted my ego to prove it. I accepted and said- get me a chicken plate and I shall eat that. That is how I got initiated into eating non-vegetarian dishes. It is a different matter that I was driven to eat even a beef streak at East Germany on arrival.
