27th September 1927. I was born.In connection with this , would you believe the following
fact which I learnt from my sister Rukmani ? I learnt this when I was searching
for a substitute for birth certificate for me when I applied for immigration to
the U.S. several years ago. My sister Rukmani was carrying with a first
pregnancy of 8 months or so. (Jaya, the first daughter of Rukmani was going to
be born in a month from then). When my mother suddenly developed labour pains
she had to be rushed from Manjakkuppam,
where my father lived, to her brother's place (Mr.N. Srinivasa Iyer of
Puduppalaiyam, Cuddalore) for the delivery. (There was no practice of visiting
a hospital in those days!) And a nurse (Ayaa) was not available. And you know
who acted as a midwife on that morning? It was Rukmani – the sixteen year-old
girl, herself fully pregnant.
SCHOOL DAYS
The earliest memory
of my younger days goes back to that important date in my life, namely, 29th
November 1933. This was in Tirukkoilur. I was in school, probably, in Class 2,
sitting in the front bench. It was
probably midday. A gentleman, whom I recognised to be my brother’s classmate (I
knew his name, even then – Mr. Venkataraman)
walked towards my teacher’s chair in the classroom and whispered
something in his ears. I saw the teacher nodding his head and I was allowed to
leave the class and go with Mr. Venkataraman. When he took me home (which had a
large pial – raised sitting area – called thiNNai
in Tamil) I saw many people sitting and standing there. I was not taken inside the house, but my
grandfather (Sri. B. Narayanaswami Iyer)
who was sitting at the edge of the thinnai
near the entrance to the house, took
hold of me and hugged me within his large shawl which was covering him. That was all I knew. Many things happened that day, I then knew
not what. But now I know. That was the scene in the house because my mother had expired just an hour
earlier. I don’t remember even my
mother’s face now nor have I ever been able to recollect any of the usual
things that one remembers of one’s mother. I am told that a child was born to
my mother a month or so earlier and the
child survived the mother for, probably, another three months.
Later in my
life I heard from my family members the
following incident. In July 1932 father was transferred from Kallakurichi to
Tirukkoilur. Shifting the family as well
as the household baggages to Tirukkoilur was done only by bus since the
distance was not much. A basket of all
the Golu-dolls (usually used for Navaratri every year) were kept at the top of
the bus during this shifting. As the bus
reached Tirukkoilur bus stand and stopped, down fell the basket of dolls from
the top and a beautiful Krishna-vigraha (in the posture of crawling on two legs
and two hands) broke to pieces. Later
when mother expired in 1933, this was taken to have foreboded the unfortunate
event.
Another
incident which my sisters used to refer to very often, in my
later days, is the following. It seems after we returned from the cremation
ground that fateful day, I, as a little boy,
was playing that evening with stones and bricks and mimicking the scenes
that I witnessed earlier in the day without understanding what serious
consequences the morning event held for
me!
Another
thing I do remember very very
vividly from my life at Tirukkoilur.
At that age of six or seven after my mother had passed away once I was chased by a dog to such a terrified
extent that even now (at the age of 86 I remember the scene distinctly.
No damage done physically, but psychologically so much damage was done that
even now I dare not enter a house which hosts a dog, even if it is chained! My
father at that time taught me ten simple shlokas (five on Rama and five on
Hanuman), which I was supposed to keep repeating in order to get out of the
fear-complex. Since then, these ten shlokas have been my constant
companion all these fourscore years, not only for avoiding fear of anything,
but at all times and on all occasions – whether it is to write an examination,
or to attend an interview, or to achieve something on a particular errand or
assignment, or while travelling, in short, on all occasions and for all
purposes, with no exception at all. (Note: If any one wants to know these
shlokas, let him or her write to me offline) This
added to the basis of ‘faith’ which runs as an undercurrent of all my life of
learning. In short it infused an everlasting conviction in me that if God
wills it anything can get done and if you sincerely pray to Him He will listen.
27
July 1934: Daughter Janaki (alias Jana)
born to sister Lakshmi. Actually an earlier child passed away in childhood.
15th
Oct 1934. Father had gone to Kashi (along with my brother ?) to get certain
rites done for my mother just before the first anniversary of her passing away.
Father’s 15-day pravacanam on Bhagavatam at Kashi Manikarnika Ghatt when it
seems the Kanchi Acharyal on his first visit to Kashi, was present on all the
days listening to father’s
pravacanam. Father mentions this with a
sense of great pride in his autobiography.
(I am not sure whether this date is the concluding date of the
pravacanam or the beginning date). Also this was the time when some rich man
from Delhi (I think the name is Hemchandra Bhargava) presented to my father 64 floral-designed
marble tiles, which, along with its collective artistic design decorated our
puja hall in our successive homes thereafter for several years, even long after
my father’s demise in 1956.
In
1935 there was a major incident which could be interpreted as a fork in the
path of my life. Now I have to bring in
a few more relatives in my story. My father’s mother was Rukmani, daughter of
Madurai Ramaswmi Sastri. She had a brother by name Gopalasundaram Iyer
(d.1879). He had a son by name G Ramachandra Iyer (1867- 1936) who later became the well known
Sri Sri Ramananda Swamigal of Kollimalai, for whom there is a Samadhi at
Mahadanapuram in Trichy district. My father and this G.R. Iyer, who was a lawyer in Tirunelveli
(before he took sannyas) are therefore mutually
related as Athan (athai’s son) and Ammanji (mama’s son). G. Ramachandra Iyer
had four sons of whom two are relevant for this story; namely, R. Krishnaswami
Iyer (first son) (1889 – 1975) and R. Visvanatha Iyer (third son) (The second
son R. Gopalasundaram Iyer, has been already mentioned as my sister Lakshmi’s husband). Krishnaswami
Iyer was a lawyer by profession, but more importantly, he was a great
Sanatanist, staunch supporter of Vaidic traditions and very knowledgeable in our shastras. In
fact he took Sannyas in his later life and was known as Jnanananda Bharati
Swamigal. Now comes the punchline of our story.
I had an aunt – actually my
mother’s sister, widowed in a young age – whom we all called ‘sirattiyar’,
meaning ‘siru tayar’ or ‘mother’s younger sister’. Her name was Ambulu. Her children passed away even in their childhood.
She had great respect for my father who was her elder sister’s husband and in
some sense, her ‘guru’ because of the fact he had taught her several mantras
for japa. In fact she and my own aunt
(father’s sister = Athai) Parvati were
the two ladies who took care of me over the years as their own son, after I was left motherless
in 1933. Now this Sirattiyar wanted to
adopt me as her son. The occasion was the marriage of one Ms.Bapuji with Sri R.
Visvanatha Iyer (school teacher) mentioned above. (This Bapuji also was related
to my father, but that is not relevant now; What is relevant is this Bapuji’s
family and our family were living in the same house in Cuddalore – which house
actually housed seven different families).
My
father had a soft corner for his sister-in-law, that is, this Sirathiyar. And so it appears he must have agreed to her
request to formally adopt me. Usually
adoption has to be done of a son who has not yet gone through his Upanayanam. So, I think, the grand arrangement (which
many members of the family were not aware of till the last moment) was that on
the day of Bapuji’s marriage with Visvanatha Iyer, my Upanayanam will also be
performed and just before the Upanayanam
the adoption ceremonies would be performed. But it was R. Krishnaswamy
Iyer (who had come for the marriage of his brother) who suddenly struck a wedge
in the arrangement. It was either the previous evening or the morning of the
day of the function. Shri R.K. pointed out to my father (both were
knowledgeable on the shastras and both had great respect for Shastraic
injunctions and also for each other) that a son could be given in adoption only
if there are ‘bahu putrAH’ (i.e.,
many sons: many means three or more). Obviously
my father was wanting this kind of shastraic help to refuse Sirathiyar’s
proposal to adopt me and he jumped at it gladly and clung to the rule!. My adoption was scrapped. (And my Upanayanam also did not take place on
that day). My father had great plans to train me in the Shastraic traditions
and he must have been glad on that day that he had only two sons and not three!
My
actual Upanayanam took place next year (1936) on May 8. At the age of nine I
was initiated into the Gayatri by my father by the usual formal Upanayanam
ceremony. To be initiated into Gayatri
by such a great jnAni as my father must be one of my great God-given
Graces! If only I had been given in
adoption as was almost to happen the previous year, I would have missed this
bhAgyaM. Then started the learning of
vedic recitation. Side by side there was the performance of the religious
obligations of a Brahmachari like Sandhyaavandanam and Samid-aadhaanam. In the
December of 1936 I was given a double promotion in my school (St.Joseph’s
Secondary School, Cuddalore), by being allowed to move to the next higher class
(from I Form (i.e. 6th std.) to II Form (i.e. 7th std.) ) in the middle of the
academic year itself. Among the many reasons that were talked about in the
family for this academic achievement of mine was the regular performance of the
obligatory ritual called Samidhaadhaanam regularly every morning and evening by
me ever since my Upanayanam day (8th May 1936). This ritual is a homam
consisting of offering of 13 samits (six-inch-long dry sticks of banyan treeto
the Fire-God to the accompaniment of certain short mantras, the whole
performance having a time-duration of about ten minutes or so, once in the
morning and once in the evening, immediately after
Sandhya-vandana-upaasanaa. (For this purpose I had to collect the sticks
from right under the banyan trees in the neighbourhood, two or three times a
week, usually when I was returning from my football play every evening.)
I developed great faith in this religious ritual and it continued as a regular
feature for the next three years or so. According to shastras every
brahmachari has to do this without fail as long as he is a brahmachari.
9th
July 1936. Second daughter Pattu born to
Sister Lakshmi. 3-May 1939 : Third daughter Sarada (alias Bapu) born to Sister
Lakshmi. These births took place at our home in Cuddalore and usually My
Athimber Gopalasundram Iyer would be visiting us at these times. Note that
these months are his school vacation months.
I used to go on a walk with him for quite a distance and the
conversation usually would be a one-way monologue of his about his boyhood in
Tirunelveli, his Tennis plays, and his Sanatanist habits and customs. The
female help at home at these times would
be Sirathiyar, for right at these times somehow Parvati Athai would go to
Tiruvidaimurudur (where her sisterJanaki was living, supported and financed by
my father – ‘financed’ meaning a monthly remittance of Rs.10 or so!). As an young boy I could not understand the domestic politics of those
times, though I did sense the political angle, without recognising that it was
‘political’!
Well, during 1936 to 1939, (age 9 to 12) one other thing happened
which laid the foundations for my spiritual uplift. My father was
conducting vedanta classes daily for a few of his friends and neighbours, about
probably ten in number at our own home in the mornings from 7 to 8-30. (He was
working as a Sub-Court Sheristadar and he was due at his office only at 11 AM;
probably most of his friends who were attending these classes also worked in
those Govt. offices). For a long time these classes were on the Gita and
later they became Upanishad classes. Shankara Bhashya was being meticulously
followed line by line. The classes were invariably held on all days
except on six days in a month, namely, chaturdashi, Amavasya and Pournamasya, ashhTami and prathama days – these being known as anadhyayana days. It was my good
fortune to sit in most of these classes, as a silent listener, though a few of
the other adult listeners would raise very technical issues and questions,
which would then be discussed. At that time it was all for me only a
shravana for curiosity only; but in my later days in my adult life when I
started reading things for myself, I started realising the great blessing of
solid spiritual education that my father had inbuilt into me in my boyhood!
In addition during those three years my father would make it a
point to teach me the recitation of vedic chants like the Rudram, Camakam,
Purushasuktam, Taittiriya Upanishad, Aruna-prashnam, Kaatakam, Udakashanti,
etc. Except on the anadhyayana days this sitting with the father was a
must. Thinking about those days now, I am surprised now how I found the
time for all this, amidst my school lessons, my never-failing daily football
and all the other above obligations. But more important than this is the
thought that my father could spare the time from his domestic and
professional obligations, and his minimum of one-hour pooja every morning
(no exception on any day!) – he could spare the time for teaching me day in and
day out. Particularly when I was double-promoted in the school, he took
the responsibility (It was on his assurance that the Jesuit Principal of my
school agreed for the double promotion proposed by my class teacher) to teach
me the necessary portions of arithmetic and basic algebra that I missed in
school to the extent of one full academic year! He used to sit with me
after 8 PM and with a hurricane light to light us physically, both of us would
spend two hours or so in the open
terrace of the house in Kavara street house where we lived at that time
with two more families occupying different portions of the house. Later in the
sixties when my sons were in their teens I, as Professor of Mathematics and Deputy Director at BITS, could not
devote any time at all to my children either towards their school lessons in
Mathematics and Science or towards their spiritual education! What a father was
my father, and lo! What a son to him!
From
age 12 to age 17 the tempo of religious and spiritual activity was lighter,
because the emphasis shifted to school lessons and Mathematics and daily
football play. Father retired in 1939 so we shifted to Kumbakonam, in
anticipation of my future college education in Govt. College, Kumbakonam (to
which my father had an affinity because as we have seen earlier he had studied
there for his B.A.). From 1934 onwards, my brother had been away . First for
two or three years he was studying in Madras Christian college for his
Intermediate, living with my uncle Shri N. Gopala Iyer’s family in Mylapore. He
did not pass his Intermediate,,because
in his Chemistry paper he did not see the reverse side of the question paper where
there were more questions! As such he
had to appear in September but did not succeed.
In the meantime Uncle (who was Secretary, Indian Bank Ltd) got him an
apprentice job in Indo Commercial Bank in Mayavaram and Anna worked there
without a salary. Later I think he got a
job right there at a small salary. But in 1939 Uncle got him a regular job in
Indian Bank, Kumbakonam where a branch was being opened. And this was one of
the reasons for father deciding to shift our residence to Kumbakonam. For a few
months we lived in a small house in Big Street, then we shifted to Bhaktapuri Agraharam. and then again to Karnakkollai Agraharam where we lived till
1944. One other good thing in our
shifting to Kumbakonam was that my sister Rukmani’s husband Shri S.S. Srinivasa
Iyer had been, a few months earlier been posted as Manager (then called
‘Agent’) of the Tanjore Permanent Fund Branch in Kumbakonam. And the family (my sister’s) lived there in
the same building of the Branch office in Big Street.
God’s
ways are mysterious !. One Shri K.N. Subramania Iyer employed in the Postal
Dept. as an officer in Nagpur had four daughters. For his first daughter
Jayam’s marriage, he had earlier come to Kumbakonam on a few months vacation in
summer, searched for the proper varan for his daughter and finally found one
suitable and had conducted the marriage in Kumbakonam. Encouraged by this successful
experience, when his second daughter Lakshmi alias Laksham reached marriageable
age, he and his family came to Kumbakonam (this was in 1939, probably April-May) and he
was searching, with the help of astrologers and friends, for a suitable varan
for this daughter of his. Finally I
think his vacation was nearing its end so he decided to give it up for this
year and go back to Nagpur. He had to
deposit a sizable cash in a Bank before he left and he chose to come to Tanjore
Permanent Fund Branch in Big Street. Naturally he met the Manager there (who
was none other than my athimber S.S.S.!) and apprised him of the circumstances
of his leaving for his Nagpur home. And Lo and behold! That was the time when
my athimber told him that he had a brother-in-law, of marriageable age, who was
shortly taking over a job in Indian Bank, Kumbakonam. And then of course
introductions started and conversations between my father and Shri KNS began.
Comparison of horoscopes were made and my father was taken to the astrologer
who had spoken highly of the match to KNS.
Appa and KNS consulted that astrologer and the latter convinced my
father that this is a good match. The girl-seeing ceremony was done at Shri
KNS’s house All this resulted in the happy
marriage of my brother V. Ramachandran
with Laksham on 19th June
1939.
When
we lived in Bhaktapuri Agraharam, Rajalakshmi, alias Raji, was born to my
sister Rukmani, on 4th February 1940.
From
Karnakkollai agraharam, my school, (Town High School, the famous school where
Srinivasa Ramanujan studied four decades earlier) was just across the street.
The Head Master of that school, Sri Shatagopachariar, was our neighbour. I studied
fifth form and sixth form (corresponding to modern standards nine and ten)
there and wrote my SSLC examination in March 1941. When I was in my sixth form, the other
student who shared my two-seater desk was
M.V. Santhanam (who in later life became the famous Carnatic musician
Maharajapuram Santhanam). Actually he
was one year senior to me but in the previous year’s selections for the SSLC
examination, he was ‘detained’. So he had to study sixth form once more and he
was my close friend thereafter, both in class and in the football field where
both of us used to play defence, he as full-back and I as half-back. I used to
visit his house and sometimes his father, Maharajapuram Visvanatha Iyer, used
to talk to me and urge me to teach, this son of his, better ways of learning.
September
3, 1939: World War II starts. Adolf Hitler invades Poland on September 1 and on
September 3 U.K and France declare war on Germany. Round about that time I get
interested in world events and that is how my daily readership of ‘The Hindu’
begins - which stands unabated till
now!.
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