If RK Narayan authored Malgudi Days………I attempt………….Manni days in piyer family………
There was no occasion when we did not feel our mannis presence in any of our family functions/gatherings…
It was during Master Abhinavs Poonal on 2.7.2006 at Balaji Hall….near Kasturbanagar.Chennai that manni reminded me with motherly touch and affection that I was just three years old kid when she had joined our family as Periya Manni in 1950 …in Paruvakkat House, Trichur.. Being the first sister in law in the family she is called Manni by all…
I am 59 years old now and entered my 60th year…an old man …but had the rare and the fortunate opportunity of being a contemporary of manni….and it was almost six decades ago that manni came to our house…..
We recall and recollect many events in our life but certain personalities remain dear and memorable always on account the persons close association with us and their likings, attittude, attachments towards us. It was manni who was a person came to our house as sister in law but remain as an embodiment of vidya, Dhanam and all good qualities….providing us motherly affection, and taking care of the welfare of all of us. She was just like Goddess Saraswathi providing us all the necessities on acquiring knowledge in various fields and made us lead happy life as independent individuals…..
Whatever I write here is truly as spontaneous outburst of heartfelt feelings..
It is hard to recollect what took place some 55 years back each day in exactness just as what I was doing on 19.6.1950, at which place,location,etc whether eating, walking, sleeping or thinking,etc. However certain unmemorable events remain green in our memory and a few relating to our being with manni are incorporated here.
Ours is a large joint family of Thondikualam Ananthanarayana Iyer Parameswara Iyer..Piyer was in service and retired as Dewaswom Commissioner. Cochin Dewaswom and was living in a rented house…Paruvakkat House at Vadakke Angadi,Trichur. The house where all of us lived together say after 1950 was the one which we all remember …situated opposite to Palace, Ayurveda Hospital, Land record Office. Other some important places in the vicinity included Kunnath Mana, Namboori Illam, Nalapachagam Hotel, Nilakanatan barber shop, Judge Vaidyanaantha Iyers palaceous ouse, Dr Krishana Iyers house and clinic, Kamala Medicals, Vivekodayam Boys/Girls High Schhols, Kundu School, One Vadyar s house behind our house, Janaki Teacher, Menon, Sanakaran nair shop, Varghese provision store, Compounders house, Mariamman koil, The house was quite large
In size having ground surrounding with flowers such as jasmine, Gandharajan, etc and plants such as Marudhani, Coconut tree, Vegetables such as Ladies finger, brinjal.tamarind tree, avarakkai springs growing in pandal, marathakkali plants, banana trees, yam plants, etc…
The house also didn’t have present day flush out bathroom but had a lavatory at the back of the house in two small rooms where those days tin vessel or patter was the basin to leave our daily night soil and to be removed by the scavengers next day…. the place commonly known as pattai kakkoose those days….
We had a well in the house with one door/window for drawing water through the kitchen and get water from public water from the tap in front of the water where the water used to be supplied from Peechi uncut. Manna used to water the jasmine plants, other vegetables, etc.
On one of the days while manni had gone to water jasmine plants, she saw a chenathandan snake below the plant and rushed to house informing everybody as any snake was found dangerous reptile with poison within it . Immediately neighbor rushed to the spot to see the snake with the ultimate aim of getting it killed by someone as Hindus believed it that killing a snake was a sin. Finally some woodcutter passerby was called who came inside the house went near the snakes pit pulled out and beat it with a stick and the snake was killed. This episode was a talk of the locality/neighborhood for someday.
Now back to the original part of history…..manni used to say how she was proposed for marriage to our brother/ Manni was the daughter of Vaikom Krishna Ayer a music vidwan who has taught veenal to many people including manni.Genrally it is the practice of the bridegroom visiting the brides house before selection or approval with his family members…seeing the girl…her comlexion,other features, talent in music,etc and finally conveying the approval or dissent to the girls parents.Here she says that she came to our house one day and the girl was seen approval conveyed to her father through Anathanu athan….Her marriage with our brother eldest took place at Pazhayanadakkavi Brahmana samooham it is being told as I don’t remember it being too small a boy then…say 3 years old…
I make an attempt to remember and narrate a few occasions in the history of our acquaintance with manni as a contemporary. Mainly manni was the permanent member of most of the family functions…..just to narrate a few:
Mannis marriage
Parvathis marriage
Kutten our annas marriage at Cannanore
Appas Shashtiabda poorthi at Paruvakkat house, Trichur
Ayushhomas of all of us our birthdays
Bagavthi sevai a prayer to Bagavthis for providing all good things to all or just as said a rare pooja…..with colourful kolam flowers in abundance including hibiscus,lotus..chethi,etc……special nei payasam made…….manni is an expert in making payasam as they say the uruli is specially selected and used pouring enormous quantity of ghee, jaggery, cahsewnuts,etc and the final product is concnentrated ney payasam
After praying to Goddess by the priests finally some mantras are chanted as under”
apadho nasaya naasaya,Sambado vardaya vardayay
Satru naasaya.mitrovardhaya vardhaya.
Anukuoolam prayascha prayascha etcx
These are the prayers at the end of the Bagavathi sevai
And thre after we have circumambulation prostration in front of diety by all…etc all prescribed rituals…very seriously observed….
It was here I remember Mani anna mannis elder brother who used to be a regular visitor to our house and especially for Bagavthi sevai He was a pleasant person having the gift of narrating jokes… by verbal _expression and through behave ..smiling stealthily….Our papa was particular that we children should chant Vishnu Sahasranama every evening after lighting the lamp and before taking food. Manni used to say that I used to sleep when sahasranama s were chanted by others and get up after it was over.May be it was God Aananthapadmanabha who in his sleeping posture was listening to the sahasrnamaas and getting up after the chanting was over…….
We had other periodical visitors for Richer Wormlike Sheri C.P.Rama Iyer from Chelakkara….Shri Krishnamamni. Maanu athan…etc to metion a few.
Now coming back to the entry of manni to our house after marriage, we do remember, at that time we were children. Our parents had 13 children similar to Presidents eleven in any national games we had payers 13….starting from ascending order..
Sobhanaa,Narayanan,self, Sundaram,Lakshmi,Bagavathy, ……Our elder brother kitten was for sometime studying in Kerlavarma college and later migrated to Bombay with Manu atman and got employed in Bombay, and manni was at home during to rememeber….
Manni was a proficient veena player….she had many students…..had her audition at All India Radio Bangalore forgetting selected for Programmers through AIR. We remember some programmers of Manni we used to tune to AIR in one GE Radio... Ban galore at 12oon and hear mainly the announcement stating veena play by Rajalakshmi Ananathananarayanan
If I remember the amount paid to her was Rs. 75/ by Radio Station...AIR……after getting payment in one of the programmers she took all of us to Mavalli Tiffin Rooms… the food in silver plates, cups,etc…Those days it was possible….
In addition she had a few Veena students like Rukku.Saroja,Pathu, etc Rukku was incidentally my Hindi classmate too. but was a part of our family being close to manni and all of us. It was pleasure to be in the house manni was playing veena and teaching students and we remember some songs which reverb rate…..Raghuvamsa sudha…..etc.
There were events which have definitely saddened and grieved manni the most. After her coming to Bangalore in 1957 within a year her younger brother Hariharan who was in our age group had tragic death by drowning in Padinjara chera….in Trichur. I remember Anthanu athan coming home one morning at 8 and calling our appa with the sad news of Hriharan having drowned in the water and his body being searched and our father rushing….etc….not to mention the agony thereafter….More sorrowful events in life were faced by her when her younger sister…always smiling lovely child also passed away at Bombay with a disease which had no medicine those days is curable now a days….One more addition to the agony was her next younger sister Jayam whom I remember vividly having come with me to Sion Station in Bombay having a cruel death at the time of her delivery…..perhaps her life could have been saved….as fate decided otherwise…
In Bangalore during her period for over 3 years since 1957 a major tragedy was encountered by our family it was the untimely death of our brother at Bombay at the age of around 30….sickness being diagnosed as Para typhoid…leading to meningitis….his having his wife and child born 2months back about to join him but fate deciding otherwise….It was in June, 1960 .By his death our family was immersed in utter confusioin/financialcrisis as father being pensioner having to look after all of us at Trichur…while we were staying in another house at Ganapathi agraharam….it was decided by manni and Anna to shift the entire family to Banglaore where manni had just gone and started establishing…Our Lakshmi studying in SSLC had some sickness…related to mind…..joining school after a few months of treatment at Vallppuzha Guineans Menons vaidhyasala…manni was taking care of the family and the ailing Lakshmi I still remember….After making all arrangements for shifting to Bangalore our parents with all of us Sobhana toLakshmi…all studying in Malayalam medium schools in Trichur….proper persons were contacted at Bangalore and got us admission in English .Medium school Seshadripuram High school. It was something good that all of us got good education at Bangalore by starting the English medium schooling at Seshadriouram High school…
I remember in 1959 while Lakshmi was ill and undergoing treatment like having Dhara,kashayams,medicines, ….under vallpuzhas treatment manni had come down from Bangalore as savior….our mother was too innocent and a sadhu…who didn’t know much about the world or anything…but was a mother to all of us…Manni was taking care of Lakshmi..Manni in the family at the time o similar ailments /treatments o f Lakshmi and had taken care of the ailing me members. Here I remember occasions all of us were laid up with typhoid, smallpox in Bangalore….in 1961…and Lakshmi having smallpox ..spots clearly visible on her face on the last 2 days of her exam and still her writing the exam…without showing her illness to any body…but coming our with flying colors and very high marks in the exams which she wrote through seshadripuram highschool..During illness to us it was manni/brother who used to take us tour family Doctor’s one of them Dr Jay Raman although ad retired radiologist…he was our family friend and physician…who used to be visited by brother and manni for stomach ailments,indigestiointc. He ws a Doctor who didn’t prescribe medicine but made some medicine preparations and gave us. he was compounding the medicine powder, liquid mixture etc as it was prevalent those days. Another Doctor to whom Manni used to refer us was Dr Rukmangadhan in Guttahalli having his bungalow near Kumara Park playground.
Another event of happiness and memory is the arrival Sridhar in the family in the year 1966…he was delivered by manni in the KMS Hospital near malleswaram circle….It was a pleasant happy occasion for all of us to have Sridhar a cute, playful, child……sleeping beside manni in the hospital bed where we used to go and see the mother and the child after delivery…
Then it was time of our brother shifting to Nellikuppom joining EID Parry at their confectionery unit. Nellikuppom was a God forsaken place those days. As manni used to say If I remember we have all gone there during vacation Manni used to be frightened remaining alone in the Official quarters as there was a burial ground behind the house…and so on..
We had occasion to go to Nellikuppom by catching early morning bus at Kalasipalayam NS bus starting from the Madras café point…While at Nellikuppom we were taken to various neighbors by manni and places like the confectionery factory, Cuddalore and some cinema also …
I don’t have details thereafter but Manni and anna had shifted to Madras thereafter after having a brief stay at Thiruvalla, Samalkot etc ….
While in Madras it was a rented house Lakshmi Nil yam Sarojas mother in laws house near present Mandevalli busstand, and some time later near Padmanabhapuram in Adyar near to TM Soundararajans house or Sarojadevis house. Later shifted to New street in Mylpore and in1967 when they were in Kesavaperumal koil street I used to visit after returning from Bombay.
Prior to it Remember the days they stayed in Bombay Sion West Ekta building….where Sridhar was a small kid…Syamala was studying at Bangalore…Manni had her parents on the opposite side Sion east at Welfare view..coop society…and Jeyam her sister at Adhere…Niggards Road…and her sitter in law always remembered…Leelavathi…There used to be occasional visitors to this house by Main anna.Ghatkopar Babul, Raman,etc….I was a sales representative in Richardson Hindustan Ltd,Haines Rd,Bombay..visiting Bombay every month after tour south India….It is happy to reacall those days in Bombay…we used to travel in a taxi to VT station from sion for my getting night mail train to Madras at 9PM…or10 PM
After completing my BSc degree exam before announcement of results I had got job as as Sales Representative in Ms.RichardsonHindustanLtd,Haines Rd rd,Bombay. While reaching Bombay Dadar Stn mannis anna Appukutti and my brother konthai had come to the station took me to Sion by another train…it was 10 night…Next day I had interview at the company near Mahalakshmi….and was selected…and was about to leave on tour to places like Nagerkoil within a couple of days. Manni and her sister in law Leelavathi took care of my travel needs took me to Sion circle some shops bought for me an umbrella, one box, one holdall,etc…as I was going to be on tour in different place…I used to visit Bombay after every tour say monthly and stay in mannis house at Sion. I think manni and anna left for Madras after 5months.
They had started living in a rented house in new street.1971…. Then there was our Lactic marriage at Madrs..along with Narayanans poonal…I couldnt be present for it as I was In Mariammanahalli,Karnataka and couldntavailllleave Syamala was a stenographer employed in Poppat Jamal…Broadway for some months and later joined Carborundum Universl Ltd..married in 1972…an occasion to rememeber..It was in a kalaynamanatapam Triplicne…Many of our relatives and Mannis had come for the marriage…
I do not exactly remember a few dates/details thereafter….but remember their having shifted to Besnatnagar to the house where they live now. It is a house where many of us had lived for long period…and had very happy functions like marriages,Poonal,satabishekam,Narayaneeyam chanting, Thyagarajutsavam arranged by manni.,,,etc…Our father along with mother usedto say in Madras for sometime for the year and in Bangalore during remainingperiod.I M43….reading newspaper, Sundarakandom or listening to some Tamil/karnatic music. Those days wedidnt have any TV/internet etc..In the M43 house various family functions took place under the graceful presence/guidance /leadership of manni…like..
Samaras marriage
Sundarams marriage at MM Kalyana Mandapom Adyar
Mohans poonal…all in 1974.
My marriage at Natesa Gramini sabha Kodamabakkam Sridhar’s poonal I don’t rememeber the year /date..
My son Rajesh Andunoravu///first birthday was also celebrated there…with mannis blessings….I couldn’t be present for it as was in Bihar then
Another occasional visitor family frined/relation was chainnamannis brother ..Gopu who used to comethere…He was fond of manni…
Then it was our Appas Sathabishekam…
And many more minor but still great…
In a large family like ours it wasn’t impossible for one memeber marrying outside caste ..our youngest sister Sobhana was the one…in 1974..PHILOSOPHICALLY SPEAKING FATE IS CERTAIN,Manni had silent dissent for the alliance with Dinakar..was silent quite some days.
Narayanan had joined as Medical Officer at Cancer Institute at Adyar…after having a small clinic at Siadapet.
It was manni whowas taking care of him as a child getting ready to go to school/office…et
Manni ws the most senior mattuponnu of the family…she being traded as a daughter by our parents and her reciprocating equally by treating them as paretns…taking care of them throughout….Many years passed by…..
There was arrival of new members in the family…..each one a pet for manni…
Sujatha
Srirman
Rajesh
Chithra
Sudha
Karthik
Priya
Dinesh
Bipin
Etc…..
These new entrants had arrival and seen manni as the head of the family…or mother of the house…. And remember having had acquaintance immersed is affection and love throughout…
In 1982 Returned from Bihar….remember settlingdown at Madras…taking a rented house…Mr,Nambiars..at M44 adjacent to Haris House...….Syamala was staying in M 42 then…Thus manni was in our middle.. orperhaps sandwitched between the fighting kids…Rajesh/Sriram…. And simultaneously taking care of aged parents….
I didn’t remember names but manni had a large group of students…veena….some mamas like Poona mama…others like Geriatric, Lakshmi, Sumatra…some wife of a Customs Collector,,,another Dr Girija…etc….Our Chithra also practiced or learnt veena under mannis guidance of over 2 years….
It is required to mention that manni contributed financially also from her earnings in AIR programmes..andVeena tuitions. All for the welfare of all of us…..and brought up all of us and made independent and thereby provided the support to piyer family grow taller/larger and stronger…..
Many years passed away….Some more events….
Rajus marriage at madras
Sridhar’s marriage at madras.
Etc
Etc
Readers please fill up their memories….
Then it was Sridhar who ws was employed in GE, Teynampet madras to leave for USA……he stayed there for a few years later agreed for marriage and married Sarah….year I forget. Sridhar may remember…
I don’t have data of exact dates/year but am aware that konthai and manni possessing passport,multiple visa have been visiting Sridhar and Narayanan say almost every six months and thus continues the story becoming a history….
We are at Birthday celebrations of manni and contain on 29th June 2006 at Balladic. Mahan...
And thereafter poonal of Abhinav…sreedhars eldest son...…
Great grandson of Parameswara Iyer…
This write up or biography or autobiography what ever it is called is made in a hurry. there may be many missing links…incorrect data…but the events remembered and incorporated are ones remembered by manni and all the offspring ofpiyer family.
I REQUEST OTHER MEMEBERS OF PIYER FAMILY TO MAKE SIMIALR CONTRIBUTIONS…
AT THE END I WILLBEFAILING IN MY DUTY IF I DONOT STATE…
BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL MAN THERE IS A WOMAN….AND HERE BEHIND EVERYONE OF US SUCCESSFUL/..THRE WAS ONE WOMAN…MANNI AND SHE CONTINUES TO SHOWER HER BEST WISHES AND BLESSINGS ON ALL OF US…
SO THERE I LEAVE …..MANNI DAYS IN PIYERS FAMILY………..
RAGHAVAN
PS.PLEASE PARDON ME IF I HAVE HURT FEELINGS OF ANY BODY OR EXCLUDED ANYBODYS PRESENCE IN THIS HISTORIC NOTE…
No comments:
Post a Comment