SRIMATHI SEETHALAKSHAMMA AKA THAYAMMA
SRIIMATHI SEETHALAKHSAMMA AKA THAYAMMA.
(BORN 22-11-1915 VAIKUNTAPRAPTHI 7-3-1989)
It is said the Sri Vedantha Desika who composed “PADUKA SAHASRAM” says that if the ocean was made into an ink pot and evn when written and the inpot is exhausted it will not be able to write everything about paduka, Also if the thousand headed aadishesha has to sing in praise with all his mouth even afte ages he will not be able to complete.
This is true in case of our mother.
She married a man who was more than twice her age due to family circumstances. It seems the first question our father asked was whether she is marrying for the sake of money and whether she will take care if him until the very lat. For the firt one our mother replied that she is not marrying for the sake of money and she will definitely take care of him until the very last. This promise she kept up until the demise of our father
(Born 15-10-1872 Vaikunta prapthi 25-8-1949).
My grandfather from our mother’s side was not at all well to do. Inspite of his being poor(It was his own making) his anger and ego never deserted him. Even for small issues he will quarrel with his relatives and others. His next brother was a connossier of drama and was with Late Nagendra Rao for some time and ruch back to him after some interval.. He had one son and two daughters. All the while these children were taken care of by our grandfather. My grandfather had one sister who was married to Rajanna quite a rich village accountant of Sathegal. His another brother was emplyed in the then Mysore Stae Railways in accounts department and was a racegoer and card player. I donot think that he made any money. Whenever he lost heavily or when ever the Pathans who were usurious lenders from whom he had borrowed ;money he will rush up to our grandfather for help. So these unnecessary burdens made him poor.
Better I stop with this as the main theme will get distracted.
So our maternal grandfather had no choice and as our father was rich and on his own had come for the hand of the bride.
So the marriage took place . Our mother moved to Nadipuram alsong with our father.. she could not enter the kitchen as she had not yet got “smashrayanam” and “Bharanyasam” from our accepted Andavan of Srirangam.. Here is a small diversion in the narration. We actually belong to “Swayamacharya sampradayam.” In the long run our forefathers thought that the extre religious follow up of “Srivaishnava Dinacharya” is not possible in the long run. So they thought that attaching to an ancient order will be good in the long run. ( Even in the recent past late Sampathanna of sosale who happens to be a distance cousin of mine perfomed samasrayanam and bharanyasm to his daughter in law smt Mani. Also late lakhminarasimhachar (a cousin of our father) also known as “Pattanada Ayya performed the above rituals for his eldest daughter in law.) So they chose the Andavan Sannidhi and got attached to the Periashramam.. so for the samskarams of samashrayanam and bharanyasm our father not only took our mother but also Kanna son of Vadhyar srirangachar aka kullu vadhyar and younger brother Rangasami (who became known as Sri Ranga Maha Guru. His sisya is the pontiff Rangapriya swamy of Bangalore) of Late Hedathale Srinivasachar. They went on a sort of pilgrimage and returned after the function.
One chechamma (mother of Belluli Raju) was not satisified with the orthodox system as followed by our mother. So she taught the orthodox system as followed in the Nadipuram Households to our mother and her own daughter in law (wife of Belluli Raju) and Rajamma (wife of Harikathe Srinivasan. I do not know as how many weeks or months these three unfortunate ladies spent in learning the orthodox way . They were taught as to how to take bath in the river or pond modestly, how to maintain the kitchen how to wash and bring it to orthodox use of the various metal products how to become clean after answering the natures call etc etc. all these ladies passed with flying colours..
After undergoing all these shall I say ordeals and teaining our mother was brought to Mysore by out father.
In the course of time they had one daughter and one. Both dies in their infancy. Some one suggested that this is dur to Naga Dosha and if Naga Prathistay is done this will ward off the evil effects and my parents will be blessed by children. So they went to Sathegal and got one Nagar Stone done by Stapathi Siddalingachar at Kollegal. (This sthapathi became a famous carver and also the head of a mutt at Mysore later on and his children and grandchildren are good carvers in stone even today)
Necessry rituals were conducted and this Nagara Kallu was instrlled on the banks of cauvery under a huge banyan tree..I have seen this stone in the year around 1946 or so and our mother performed pooja to it, It was really a very good statue with Lord Krishna standing on the 5 headed snake. This in turn was surrounded by 2 inteevined serpents.. the total height was about 2 1/2 feet exposed above ground
Next time when I went in 1993 I could not find it. May be somebody has stolen it. Even today there are hundreds of Nagar stones. But they are not as artistically created as the one I have described.
Our mother also undertook the vratam of “Subbarayana shashti” where in a Brahmachari in invited and he is fed with all the items cooked in orthodox way. After wards he is gifted with a paid of dhotis and given beterleaves betelnuts and some honoratium as well as a silver Naga ( a silver wire made into a shape of a serpent). This rituals our mother strictly followed and our parents got totally 5 children as follow
1)Sundara Varada Char AKA Ranga 24-1-35. (it seems when I as a child was brought
home from the hospital our youngest maternal uncle said that if the child is not called Ranga it will also die. So my shortened for remained as Ranga. My father insisted that I should be called Muththanna by my younger sisters and brothers but this was ignored as they grew up. But this nick name remained with my close friends)
2)Alamelamma AKA Pushpa 9-1-1938
3)Ananthakrishnamachar AKA KIttanna AKA A.K.Char 13-6-1939
4)Anathalakshmi AKA Paddu 26-3=1941
5)Anatharangachar AKA Raju AKA A R Char 25-2-1943
All the above are happily married and leading a comfortable life.
If you observe the last 3 names “Anantha “is common. It seems that our mother had a dream when she was pregnant for the third time. In that dream a serpent appeared and said that she has entirely forgotten the serpent. She told this to our father and our father said that they will name the children with the name “Anatha “ before the actual name so that the memory of the serpent will always be there. So this name anantha added to the last 3 children.
Our mother not only took care of the children but also her husband. She never stored any old clothes. Whenever any of our sharecropper came she used to enquire as to how many children he has and their ages and approximate height. She will simply hand over our old clothes and not very old clothes to them . the same case with the milk vendor.. usually during our child hood we will have some attachment to some colour clothes or the other ..when some of our share cropper came we used to hide out favourite clothes inside the bed or some corner of the house. but our mother knew the trick and will give it away. For our part we used to get new clothes replacing what has been given. When ever any well to do persons invited our parents for any function she will dress in all finery and attend the function. When some not so rich people used to invite she used to dress in a very simple clothes and use minimum of jewellery. When Brahmopadesham of Dr V S Achar took place long long ago when Dr Achar was simply known as “srinivasa” somebody commented that the boy did not wear even a simple gold chain. Our mother who over heard it just came there and except for the “Thali” chain she ws wearing she removed all the neck chains and put it around the boys neck and asked the lady who commented as whether she is now satisified... Even now “Ramu” the boy now a man remembers this incident and says with gratitude Now of course Ramu is very well off.
Another incident is that one of our known lady who was very junior in age gave birth to a boy. Unfortunately she did not lactate. So the doctor suggested then that they can give the child diluted cow’s milk This they did and somehow this feed did not suit the child and it started having loose motion. When they cosulted the doctor once again he told that the only way for the boy to survive is to gt the boy breast milk and he finds no other solution. Our mother came to know about this and volunteerd to breast feed the child as she had Raju by then. The child’s mother was. thankful and she did not know as how to show her gratitude. Along with Raju our mother fed this boy also. Recently I had the opportunity of meeting this boy/man and with gratitude he said that without our mothers timely help he would have died in his infancy (this boy is the nephew of seenu and son of Kamal a) He also told me that he is a brother to all of us as he has shared the same food source as we did..
When ever thre used to be left overs our mother used to send for the milk supplier lady and even before it became cold she will hand over all the left overs piping hot. Three ws a problem in this as the house of the milk supplier was in a area infested with street dogs . me or kittanna used to run to the house of the milk vendor and call “Mallamma” amma is calling you and run back home.
When Mallamma’s daughter became pregnant our mother prepared special dish of puliogara and kesari bhath to the pregnant girl..
When ever our sharecropper visitd mysore especially during the Dasara Festival our mother without flinching prepare food and serve them to their hearts content. Some times these people used to have difference with out father regarding the sharing of crops. This did not deter them from having food in our house. so whenever we used to go to the village the villagers specially the share croppers used to treat us lavishly. As we had plenty of land we used to go to the village during the second week of December with the entire family with masala powder, coffee powder, and othr essentials and cooking vessels. and all our books. God only knows whether we did our study or the books were there. We used to stay at our village upto the third week of January. When ever our father used to go for collection of paddy from the shar croppers I normally used to accompany him. If we left in the morning after morning abolution in the river Cauvery and two small covered vessels with “Sambar rice “ and “Curd rice” after visiting various villages we will return by late in the evening. Enroute we will have our lunch. Monday was a holiday for all the farmers so our father also enjoyed holiday then. In addition to the paddy he used to collect either the amount advanced as personal loan or the interest for the money advanced.. all the children used to feel that their independence has been clipped when we returned back to the Mysore City. Again the same routine.
During everyyear our father got sufficient paddy for our consumption fron the village. We had two bins in our house. we will clean up the one where we had stored the previous years paddy clean it up and our father used to perform pooja. Into this the paddy will be stored. The paddy ws enough for the entire year . this included the three mandatory functions our father used to perform. One was during Navarathri whrin he used to read Rmayana and on the last day he will read the “Pattabhishekam” portion. For this he used to invite all the known people and our relatives. Professional orthodox cooks were used for the prepration of food items. For this about 15 to 20 course lunch was served. Invitees used to come from the afternoon upto 8-00 p m. all the guest will be given extra sweets for them to carry home. This was handled by our mother . she was lavish in this regard. All the sweet were prepared in pure Ghee. Another festival ws the celebrating the birth day of “Peria andavan” for this also all the relatives and friends were invited. Another one was the yearly “Shraddha” of our grate grand father. For this only relatives used to be invited (Pangalis). Our mother never missed performing any religious function . our father also used to support her in this venture.
We used to visit Marahalli near Malavalli where lord Lakshminarasimha is the presiding deity every year during car festival. We used to be there for a week. In front of the temple there was a tank which was quite deep. Now this tank is almost filled with slush and mud and not at all deep. Long back when we were young we had gone to the tank for the bath. Somehow kittanna slipped and was going deeper into the water . at that period our mother simply swam and saved kittanna. Another occasion wa when raju had some sort of illness wherein his back skin started having some sort of lesion. The then doctors prescribed some lotion and boric powder. Raju could not sleep properly and a sort of colourless liquid started oozing our of the lesion. No amount of lotion or boric powder helped. Due to the pain raju could not even sleep. Our mother used to have him on her lap and fan him . may be her prayer healed him. May be our mother did not sleep for a week. This she considered as one of her duties in brining up the children.
As far as I remember our father never punished us. If at all he will just tap us . even for this I used to weep as if our father was bent on murdring me . our mother never ever punished our sisters. But she was a strict diciplinarian when it came to controlling the boys.. she will be harsh in her punishments if she finds that we were not studying properly or indulged in any street fight. Her brahmastra was that she will coe to the school to give complaint to the head master. This we know that results in corporqal punishment. After our father’s demise wherein I ws just 14 years old we did not know as to how much of property we had. For this purpose I got the help of late Hedathale Chakravarthi Srinivasachar an went to every village accountant and with great difficulty and paying “Masi Kanikay” or in simple words bribe to the every village accountant we wre able to get details of the land. Further we did not know the share of our crops. For this purpose we went to the village head man and without the knowledge of the actual share cropper we got the details of the our crop share. This was not as simple as I have mentioned as I had to get the dates on which srinivasachar was free and when we went to the village the village accountant would have gone somewhere. So only when srinivsachar, village accountant and me met. . I also could not apply for leave often which used to obstruct my studies.
The next issue was the question of promisary notes and other papers regarding the money transaction. Our father had advanced money to some of our close relatives. Even though their children were in good position these people used to come with family. Tying the top dhothi to their waist and request our mother to stand by the photo our father which was in the hall. Even though the visitor was senior in age by realationship he was junior as per protocol. As soon as our mother emerged the entire family will prostrate and request our mother that as they are unable to repay the loan amount may be written off. I do not know as what made our mother to yield to such request. She used to ask me to give her the concerned paper and hand over the promissory paper to the person who had prostrated. I can remember two prominent persons in this category one is late Annamuthu and another one is Oyanna’s (of Bannur) sons. Now annamuthu’s youngest son is a multimillionire and oyannas grandson is having a very big bungalow with swimming pool at Bangalore. These are only 2 cases and there are more than this. For emergency our father had advanced quiet a good amount of money with out any documents to one Deshikachar and Ramanuja (nephews of our father) They simply forgot to return. Now they are no more.
Another incident was that one person was given gold gold for making of ornaments. He was working with a jeweler as accountant . this chap forged the receipt under the signature of the owner and gave it to our mother. Somehow this came to light after two weeks as our mother went direct to the jeweler and asked as to why he has not yet delivered the finished product. The owner was taken aback and asked our mother to produce the receipt for the giving of gold. He immediately came to knw of the fraud and told our mother so. The only option was to go to the police or drop the issue. Our other did not do this and told the person that if she did not get the gold she would go to the police and the person has to face the music.. this had the desired effect and the gold was returned within two days. This person is still living and has developed good relationship with me???!!! Another case was that one ramaswamy a friend of our maternal uncle kittu( who failed in all undertaking he took) came along with kittu to our house. our mother knew ramaswamy well . after preliminaries ramaswamy suggested to our mother that as we own 3 houses and we are well off kittu may be presented with one house and an amount of rs 5000/- when our mother heard this she became very angry and told ramaswamy that as he has lot of open space at the back of his house he may present it to kittu. Also he is getting good quantity of paddy from his lands . from this he can share a portion with kittu . if he is so friendly with kittu why he should not start helping his so called bosom friend before he tells others. So saying she asked both of them get out of the house and told them in uncertain terms not to enter her house on any account.. as soon s they left she closed the door with a bang and may be that sound was heard throughout the world!!!
By the grace of our mother we all came up in life.
Evseryday upto the middle of January I had no rest. Going to the court and finding out about the cases pending reminding the lawyer about the cases. I was puny then. Our mother used to give me milk in the night but it did not help as I was worrying a lot at all times.
Only after the harvest season that is the middle of January I could forger about other works and start studying.
My joining the Engineering college was another chapter. One krishnahall srinivasaiyengar aka setty owed us quite a good amount of money. As the percentage of marks I earned ws not enough to get me a seat by merit at NIE. So our mother requested setty to to give the donaton to secure seat in the engineering college. Until the very last moment settee dodged the issue and our mother did not know what to do . so she pleged one gold waist band at AR MA LA Nattukottai Bank situated in Srirampet and got the money. This I paid and got the seat undr the donatin quota. In this even headathale srinivasachar did not help. His view was that as so many engineers are not having a job there is no point in studying engineering. If I studied some graduate course I may be able to get a good clerk’s post in the Government department in Mysore. Thanks to our mother and LORD NARAYANA none of us became clerks!!
Some one told our mother if a marriage takes place within the year of death of our father the merit will reach him. Even though pushpa was aged 12 years the bride groom selected was sri ramaswamy iyengar from K R Nagar. The marriage was celebrated lavishly. All the presents and gifts were given to the bride groom. The joke is that even after paying money to settee to get a cycle to the bridegroom setty did not care to give it. The elder brother of ramaswamy iyengar was the son in law of setty. With the intervention of Hedathale at lost he paid the amount to ramaswamy iyengar. Setty did not have any shame or regret for the action he did but still he was still considered as a leading figure of srivaishnava group then.
With the passing away of our mother one great soul was lost for us but it ws an addition to the VAIKUNATAM.
Now I have to close as I am tired and ther is more to write about our grat mother. If there is any equivalent for “Karna” referring to a Lady our mothr deserves it.
To be continued when I feel free. . . . .
..
..
(BORN 22-11-1915 VAIKUNTAPRAPTHI 7-3-1989)
It is said the Sri Vedantha Desika who composed “PADUKA SAHASRAM” says that if the ocean was made into an ink pot and evn when written and the inpot is exhausted it will not be able to write everything about paduka, Also if the thousand headed aadishesha has to sing in praise with all his mouth even afte ages he will not be able to complete.
This is true in case of our mother.
She married a man who was more than twice her age due to family circumstances. It seems the first question our father asked was whether she is marrying for the sake of money and whether she will take care if him until the very lat. For the firt one our mother replied that she is not marrying for the sake of money and she will definitely take care of him until the very last. This promise she kept up until the demise of our father
(Born 15-10-1872 Vaikunta prapthi 25-8-1949).
My grandfather from our mother’s side was not at all well to do. Inspite of his being poor(It was his own making) his anger and ego never deserted him. Even for small issues he will quarrel with his relatives and others. His next brother was a connossier of drama and was with Late Nagendra Rao for some time and ruch back to him after some interval.. He had one son and two daughters. All the while these children were taken care of by our grandfather. My grandfather had one sister who was married to Rajanna quite a rich village accountant of Sathegal. His another brother was emplyed in the then Mysore Stae Railways in accounts department and was a racegoer and card player. I donot think that he made any money. Whenever he lost heavily or when ever the Pathans who were usurious lenders from whom he had borrowed ;money he will rush up to our grandfather for help. So these unnecessary burdens made him poor.
Better I stop with this as the main theme will get distracted.
So our maternal grandfather had no choice and as our father was rich and on his own had come for the hand of the bride.
So the marriage took place . Our mother moved to Nadipuram alsong with our father.. she could not enter the kitchen as she had not yet got “smashrayanam” and “Bharanyasam” from our accepted Andavan of Srirangam.. Here is a small diversion in the narration. We actually belong to “Swayamacharya sampradayam.” In the long run our forefathers thought that the extre religious follow up of “Srivaishnava Dinacharya” is not possible in the long run. So they thought that attaching to an ancient order will be good in the long run. ( Even in the recent past late Sampathanna of sosale who happens to be a distance cousin of mine perfomed samasrayanam and bharanyasm to his daughter in law smt Mani. Also late lakhminarasimhachar (a cousin of our father) also known as “Pattanada Ayya performed the above rituals for his eldest daughter in law.) So they chose the Andavan Sannidhi and got attached to the Periashramam.. so for the samskarams of samashrayanam and bharanyasm our father not only took our mother but also Kanna son of Vadhyar srirangachar aka kullu vadhyar and younger brother Rangasami (who became known as Sri Ranga Maha Guru. His sisya is the pontiff Rangapriya swamy of Bangalore) of Late Hedathale Srinivasachar. They went on a sort of pilgrimage and returned after the function.
One chechamma (mother of Belluli Raju) was not satisified with the orthodox system as followed by our mother. So she taught the orthodox system as followed in the Nadipuram Households to our mother and her own daughter in law (wife of Belluli Raju) and Rajamma (wife of Harikathe Srinivasan. I do not know as how many weeks or months these three unfortunate ladies spent in learning the orthodox way . They were taught as to how to take bath in the river or pond modestly, how to maintain the kitchen how to wash and bring it to orthodox use of the various metal products how to become clean after answering the natures call etc etc. all these ladies passed with flying colours..
After undergoing all these shall I say ordeals and teaining our mother was brought to Mysore by out father.
In the course of time they had one daughter and one. Both dies in their infancy. Some one suggested that this is dur to Naga Dosha and if Naga Prathistay is done this will ward off the evil effects and my parents will be blessed by children. So they went to Sathegal and got one Nagar Stone done by Stapathi Siddalingachar at Kollegal. (This sthapathi became a famous carver and also the head of a mutt at Mysore later on and his children and grandchildren are good carvers in stone even today)
Necessry rituals were conducted and this Nagara Kallu was instrlled on the banks of cauvery under a huge banyan tree..I have seen this stone in the year around 1946 or so and our mother performed pooja to it, It was really a very good statue with Lord Krishna standing on the 5 headed snake. This in turn was surrounded by 2 inteevined serpents.. the total height was about 2 1/2 feet exposed above ground
Next time when I went in 1993 I could not find it. May be somebody has stolen it. Even today there are hundreds of Nagar stones. But they are not as artistically created as the one I have described.
Our mother also undertook the vratam of “Subbarayana shashti” where in a Brahmachari in invited and he is fed with all the items cooked in orthodox way. After wards he is gifted with a paid of dhotis and given beterleaves betelnuts and some honoratium as well as a silver Naga ( a silver wire made into a shape of a serpent). This rituals our mother strictly followed and our parents got totally 5 children as follow
1)Sundara Varada Char AKA Ranga 24-1-35. (it seems when I as a child was brought
home from the hospital our youngest maternal uncle said that if the child is not called Ranga it will also die. So my shortened for remained as Ranga. My father insisted that I should be called Muththanna by my younger sisters and brothers but this was ignored as they grew up. But this nick name remained with my close friends)
2)Alamelamma AKA Pushpa 9-1-1938
3)Ananthakrishnamachar AKA KIttanna AKA A.K.Char 13-6-1939
4)Anathalakshmi AKA Paddu 26-3=1941
5)Anatharangachar AKA Raju AKA A R Char 25-2-1943
All the above are happily married and leading a comfortable life.
If you observe the last 3 names “Anantha “is common. It seems that our mother had a dream when she was pregnant for the third time. In that dream a serpent appeared and said that she has entirely forgotten the serpent. She told this to our father and our father said that they will name the children with the name “Anatha “ before the actual name so that the memory of the serpent will always be there. So this name anantha added to the last 3 children.
Our mother not only took care of the children but also her husband. She never stored any old clothes. Whenever any of our sharecropper came she used to enquire as to how many children he has and their ages and approximate height. She will simply hand over our old clothes and not very old clothes to them . the same case with the milk vendor.. usually during our child hood we will have some attachment to some colour clothes or the other ..when some of our share cropper came we used to hide out favourite clothes inside the bed or some corner of the house. but our mother knew the trick and will give it away. For our part we used to get new clothes replacing what has been given. When ever any well to do persons invited our parents for any function she will dress in all finery and attend the function. When some not so rich people used to invite she used to dress in a very simple clothes and use minimum of jewellery. When Brahmopadesham of Dr V S Achar took place long long ago when Dr Achar was simply known as “srinivasa” somebody commented that the boy did not wear even a simple gold chain. Our mother who over heard it just came there and except for the “Thali” chain she ws wearing she removed all the neck chains and put it around the boys neck and asked the lady who commented as whether she is now satisified... Even now “Ramu” the boy now a man remembers this incident and says with gratitude Now of course Ramu is very well off.
Another incident is that one of our known lady who was very junior in age gave birth to a boy. Unfortunately she did not lactate. So the doctor suggested then that they can give the child diluted cow’s milk This they did and somehow this feed did not suit the child and it started having loose motion. When they cosulted the doctor once again he told that the only way for the boy to survive is to gt the boy breast milk and he finds no other solution. Our mother came to know about this and volunteerd to breast feed the child as she had Raju by then. The child’s mother was. thankful and she did not know as how to show her gratitude. Along with Raju our mother fed this boy also. Recently I had the opportunity of meeting this boy/man and with gratitude he said that without our mothers timely help he would have died in his infancy (this boy is the nephew of seenu and son of Kamal a) He also told me that he is a brother to all of us as he has shared the same food source as we did..
When ever thre used to be left overs our mother used to send for the milk supplier lady and even before it became cold she will hand over all the left overs piping hot. Three ws a problem in this as the house of the milk supplier was in a area infested with street dogs . me or kittanna used to run to the house of the milk vendor and call “Mallamma” amma is calling you and run back home.
When Mallamma’s daughter became pregnant our mother prepared special dish of puliogara and kesari bhath to the pregnant girl..
When ever our sharecropper visitd mysore especially during the Dasara Festival our mother without flinching prepare food and serve them to their hearts content. Some times these people used to have difference with out father regarding the sharing of crops. This did not deter them from having food in our house. so whenever we used to go to the village the villagers specially the share croppers used to treat us lavishly. As we had plenty of land we used to go to the village during the second week of December with the entire family with masala powder, coffee powder, and othr essentials and cooking vessels. and all our books. God only knows whether we did our study or the books were there. We used to stay at our village upto the third week of January. When ever our father used to go for collection of paddy from the shar croppers I normally used to accompany him. If we left in the morning after morning abolution in the river Cauvery and two small covered vessels with “Sambar rice “ and “Curd rice” after visiting various villages we will return by late in the evening. Enroute we will have our lunch. Monday was a holiday for all the farmers so our father also enjoyed holiday then. In addition to the paddy he used to collect either the amount advanced as personal loan or the interest for the money advanced.. all the children used to feel that their independence has been clipped when we returned back to the Mysore City. Again the same routine.
During everyyear our father got sufficient paddy for our consumption fron the village. We had two bins in our house. we will clean up the one where we had stored the previous years paddy clean it up and our father used to perform pooja. Into this the paddy will be stored. The paddy ws enough for the entire year . this included the three mandatory functions our father used to perform. One was during Navarathri whrin he used to read Rmayana and on the last day he will read the “Pattabhishekam” portion. For this he used to invite all the known people and our relatives. Professional orthodox cooks were used for the prepration of food items. For this about 15 to 20 course lunch was served. Invitees used to come from the afternoon upto 8-00 p m. all the guest will be given extra sweets for them to carry home. This was handled by our mother . she was lavish in this regard. All the sweet were prepared in pure Ghee. Another festival ws the celebrating the birth day of “Peria andavan” for this also all the relatives and friends were invited. Another one was the yearly “Shraddha” of our grate grand father. For this only relatives used to be invited (Pangalis). Our mother never missed performing any religious function . our father also used to support her in this venture.
We used to visit Marahalli near Malavalli where lord Lakshminarasimha is the presiding deity every year during car festival. We used to be there for a week. In front of the temple there was a tank which was quite deep. Now this tank is almost filled with slush and mud and not at all deep. Long back when we were young we had gone to the tank for the bath. Somehow kittanna slipped and was going deeper into the water . at that period our mother simply swam and saved kittanna. Another occasion wa when raju had some sort of illness wherein his back skin started having some sort of lesion. The then doctors prescribed some lotion and boric powder. Raju could not sleep properly and a sort of colourless liquid started oozing our of the lesion. No amount of lotion or boric powder helped. Due to the pain raju could not even sleep. Our mother used to have him on her lap and fan him . may be her prayer healed him. May be our mother did not sleep for a week. This she considered as one of her duties in brining up the children.
As far as I remember our father never punished us. If at all he will just tap us . even for this I used to weep as if our father was bent on murdring me . our mother never ever punished our sisters. But she was a strict diciplinarian when it came to controlling the boys.. she will be harsh in her punishments if she finds that we were not studying properly or indulged in any street fight. Her brahmastra was that she will coe to the school to give complaint to the head master. This we know that results in corporqal punishment. After our father’s demise wherein I ws just 14 years old we did not know as to how much of property we had. For this purpose I got the help of late Hedathale Chakravarthi Srinivasachar an went to every village accountant and with great difficulty and paying “Masi Kanikay” or in simple words bribe to the every village accountant we wre able to get details of the land. Further we did not know the share of our crops. For this purpose we went to the village head man and without the knowledge of the actual share cropper we got the details of the our crop share. This was not as simple as I have mentioned as I had to get the dates on which srinivasachar was free and when we went to the village the village accountant would have gone somewhere. So only when srinivsachar, village accountant and me met. . I also could not apply for leave often which used to obstruct my studies.
The next issue was the question of promisary notes and other papers regarding the money transaction. Our father had advanced money to some of our close relatives. Even though their children were in good position these people used to come with family. Tying the top dhothi to their waist and request our mother to stand by the photo our father which was in the hall. Even though the visitor was senior in age by realationship he was junior as per protocol. As soon as our mother emerged the entire family will prostrate and request our mother that as they are unable to repay the loan amount may be written off. I do not know as what made our mother to yield to such request. She used to ask me to give her the concerned paper and hand over the promissory paper to the person who had prostrated. I can remember two prominent persons in this category one is late Annamuthu and another one is Oyanna’s (of Bannur) sons. Now annamuthu’s youngest son is a multimillionire and oyannas grandson is having a very big bungalow with swimming pool at Bangalore. These are only 2 cases and there are more than this. For emergency our father had advanced quiet a good amount of money with out any documents to one Deshikachar and Ramanuja (nephews of our father) They simply forgot to return. Now they are no more.
Another incident was that one person was given gold gold for making of ornaments. He was working with a jeweler as accountant . this chap forged the receipt under the signature of the owner and gave it to our mother. Somehow this came to light after two weeks as our mother went direct to the jeweler and asked as to why he has not yet delivered the finished product. The owner was taken aback and asked our mother to produce the receipt for the giving of gold. He immediately came to knw of the fraud and told our mother so. The only option was to go to the police or drop the issue. Our other did not do this and told the person that if she did not get the gold she would go to the police and the person has to face the music.. this had the desired effect and the gold was returned within two days. This person is still living and has developed good relationship with me???!!! Another case was that one ramaswamy a friend of our maternal uncle kittu( who failed in all undertaking he took) came along with kittu to our house. our mother knew ramaswamy well . after preliminaries ramaswamy suggested to our mother that as we own 3 houses and we are well off kittu may be presented with one house and an amount of rs 5000/- when our mother heard this she became very angry and told ramaswamy that as he has lot of open space at the back of his house he may present it to kittu. Also he is getting good quantity of paddy from his lands . from this he can share a portion with kittu . if he is so friendly with kittu why he should not start helping his so called bosom friend before he tells others. So saying she asked both of them get out of the house and told them in uncertain terms not to enter her house on any account.. as soon s they left she closed the door with a bang and may be that sound was heard throughout the world!!!
By the grace of our mother we all came up in life.
Evseryday upto the middle of January I had no rest. Going to the court and finding out about the cases pending reminding the lawyer about the cases. I was puny then. Our mother used to give me milk in the night but it did not help as I was worrying a lot at all times.
Only after the harvest season that is the middle of January I could forger about other works and start studying.
My joining the Engineering college was another chapter. One krishnahall srinivasaiyengar aka setty owed us quite a good amount of money. As the percentage of marks I earned ws not enough to get me a seat by merit at NIE. So our mother requested setty to to give the donaton to secure seat in the engineering college. Until the very last moment settee dodged the issue and our mother did not know what to do . so she pleged one gold waist band at AR MA LA Nattukottai Bank situated in Srirampet and got the money. This I paid and got the seat undr the donatin quota. In this even headathale srinivasachar did not help. His view was that as so many engineers are not having a job there is no point in studying engineering. If I studied some graduate course I may be able to get a good clerk’s post in the Government department in Mysore. Thanks to our mother and LORD NARAYANA none of us became clerks!!
Some one told our mother if a marriage takes place within the year of death of our father the merit will reach him. Even though pushpa was aged 12 years the bride groom selected was sri ramaswamy iyengar from K R Nagar. The marriage was celebrated lavishly. All the presents and gifts were given to the bride groom. The joke is that even after paying money to settee to get a cycle to the bridegroom setty did not care to give it. The elder brother of ramaswamy iyengar was the son in law of setty. With the intervention of Hedathale at lost he paid the amount to ramaswamy iyengar. Setty did not have any shame or regret for the action he did but still he was still considered as a leading figure of srivaishnava group then.
With the passing away of our mother one great soul was lost for us but it ws an addition to the VAIKUNATAM.
Now I have to close as I am tired and ther is more to write about our grat mother. If there is any equivalent for “Karna” referring to a Lady our mothr deserves it.
To be continued when I feel free. . . . .
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posted by N.S.Char at 8:58 AM
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For an authentic biography of Sriranga Mahaguru mentioned here visit http://ayvm.in/aboutus.php.
For Rangapriya swami's article on Sriranga Mahaguru see http://ayvm.in/aboutus_page2.php
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