Down the Memory Lane
I am sending my memory of some of the people and some of the incidents that are still fresh in my memory although it’s quite some time since I visited the place When Appa was there and before I got married we used to visit the village every year. Let me start from our immediate family.
Venkatasubbayaiyer
Thatha’s father Venkatasubbayaiyer (father to Manankutti Iyer and Sattam Iyer ) was known to all of us in the family as’pokka thatha’ as he was toothless! ‘I think ‘pokkai’ means’sans’ Nobody knew him by his original name.He was a very healthy person and lived almost for a centuary. Ithink he was 98 or so when he died. As a matter of fact, most of the members in that family crossed 75 except Appa ( Sri.Rajangam) who didn’t even touch 45.Pokka thatha was very particular about his food habits—he should have ‘keerai[greens] every day and even when he was in his 90s he would go to the river ‘ Rama nadhi’ for his bath, wash his clothes and walk back home. He never liked girls standing or sitting outside on the veranda or ‘thinnai’ as they call it but he was very partial towards his g-son’s daughters. He would call out’ yeh kutti! yaar athu thinnaile nikkarathu’ [ who is it standing on the veranda]and if it happens to be me and I reply’ Saroja thatha’ at once the tone would change and he would say.’neeya sari sari'[so it’s you is it. it’s OK.
My grandfather Manankutti Iyer
This is the story I have heard . how Thatha got the name ‘manangkutti Iyer. He used to look very fair and handsome as a child and was very ,very active running around here and there. So people used to say he looks like a cute ‘maankutti'[baby deer] and called him manangkutti.
Srinivasa Iyer. was a very handsome man. Actually my father resembled him a lot excepting that he didn’t have the usual’kudumi'[tuft] and wore western clothes when he went to work. G-pa was very short-tempered but very brave. In those days they used to say that the thieves would give prior warning before looting a village and mind you the whole village will look up to grandpa to face the situation and they used to say that he was very good at playing ‘silambam’ , in which one faces the rival with just a long stick. I believe he was very good at it and has faced such situations. The poor man faced lots of tragedies in his life time – most of his daughters became widows and he lost his son , my father, who was the sole bread winner of the family. But Appa had provided enough for his parents to lead a comfortable life.
R. S. Neelakanta Iyer
He was one of the rich men, or should I say the richest man in the village! Although he was a lawyer , he gave up that profession and became very religious and his son Ramakrishnan [ mama to me] also followed his footsteps. Neelakanta Iyer was my mother’s periamma’s husband. I think he should have been a strict disciplinarian .I used to find it really funny when his ds-in-law spoke in a very, very soft tone so that it’ll be difficult to know what was being said. Once he had come to our house in Trichy, on his way to see Ramana Maharishi. Sita and I were kids and were full of life. We, especially I wanted to keep him entertained and also show off our talents singing, dancing and showing off my talent in drawing etc. My mother was really scared and thought that he’ll tell everyone how badly brought up we were! Someone who happened to visit told him that Ramnar did not show any difference between a Brahman and non-brahmin and it will be a lunch or dinner where everyone will be treated alike. When he heard this he cancelled his trip to Thiuvannamalai and went back to Ravanasamudram!
His son Ramakrishnan was very much interested in music and whenever we went to the village he would ask me to come to his house in the evening and sing for him
His sister Shankari also was a good singer. Those days my mother used to make two plaits on either side with a parting in the centre at the back of our head. The people in the villages were not familiar with this. Whenever I went to Sankari periamma’s house her little daughter Rajam would scream and hold on to her mother as though she had seen a ghost and cry out loudly’ rettai pinnalkari vandhutta amma’ ! [the girl with 2 plaits has come amma] Imet this cousin of mine after a long time in B’lore a few years back and was reminded of this incident.
A.R. Rajanga mama
Rajangamama was a popular person He was my mother’s maternal uncle a very close cousin to my father also. There were 3 Rajangams., all the three were sisters’ children and named after their maternal grand father. My father was my maternal g-ma’s first cousin A.R.R. as he was popularly known was the uncrowned king of Ravanasamudram. We used to love going to his house . He used to be very affectionate and would pamper us a lot. His wife Poannami was a very affectionate lady. My mother’s g-ma stayed with them and she used to be all praises for her d-in-law. I remember her telling someone that you have to witness it to know what a wonderful d-in-law I have, ‘Look! she said, she has put the oil on the stove to add the mustard to temper the sambhar. Just watch what she does when I call her’ So saying she called her d-in-law and Ponnami at once took off the oil , put out the fire and was there in front of her m-in-law to know what she wanted! G-g-ma said she is not doing it because she is scared of me. Both of us have genuine love and respect for each other A.R.R.’s son Sangu stayed in My patti’s house and so became very close to our family. He married his athai Thangam’s daughter Raji and so we became very close to that family. Even now after Sangu passed way we keep in touch.
Sattam Iyer
He was my paternal g-father’s brother. I think both looks-wise and temperamentally he was opposite of my Thatha. I remember him to be well built and not as fair as my g-father and had a rather loud voice which needed no mike what-so-ever!.His wife , my father’s aunt, I remember was a very calm, dignified lady. I loved going to their house and talk to a young person, a girl in her teens. I don’t remember whether she was a widow or a person abonded by her husband. She was a very friendly person. I think my brother Bala’s b-in-law Gopal married one of Satta thatha’s g-daughter or g-g-daughter Seetha., Satta thatha’s sons were close to our family. Kalyana chithappa and Mahadeva chithappa were very close to my father. Mahadeva chithappa [who married my father’s sister’s daughter] and Kalyana chithappa were in B’lore and whenever MSK and I went to B’lore we visited them. We have stayed in N.York with thatha’s g-son Srinivasan – now in Bangalore . His wife is daughter of my mother’s cousin and we had a lovely time. I heard that the Deity of Papakkudi, (which was the original place from where our family shifted to RVS) came in his dream and told him that while we were all living in posh houses His abode was dilapidated. So Srinivasan took the responsibility of renovating the temple in Papakkudi. I have heard that my thatha had another brother called Samalam Iyer [all rare names or were they nick-names, I do not know]. This g-uncle moved to Kerala, we were told and they completely lost touch with him . I have not seen my father’s g-mother Kalyani patti but was told she was a very strong’ shrewd woman unlike my own Chuppu [Subbalakshmi] patti who was very naive and anybody could take her for a ride
