PERIYA MAMA - A MAN OF COMPASSION AND DIGNITY Parthasarathy has taken many initiatives that are commendable. His latest one - to organise a function to commemorate the centenary of his father- is probably the first of its kind in our family and is highly praiseworthy. I first heard of Periya mama, as he was known in our family, when I was a student at Kancheepuram. He was my mother's uncle and my mother used to talk a lot about him and his family. I gathered that he was a popular teacher who used to first write under the pen name “Jenkins” and later notes for LIFCO publications. I also gathered that there were seven contributors who lent one letter each to the name Jenkins and that the last letter S stood for Srinivasan, my mother's uncle. To this day I have not verified whether it is true but we were all fascinated by this revelation. When we were in high school students we used to depend heavily on the notes brought out by reputed publications. LIFCO for English and Konar for Tamil were extremely popular with students those days and they used to swear by them. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Konar was more popular than Tiruvalluvar or Parimelazhagar and LIFCO more popular with students than Shakespeare or Milton. I met Periya mama for the first time when I was probably in the 10th or 11th standard when we visited Madras. He looked very different from the picture we had of him because of his pen name: a very orthodox looking man sporting a tuft Tiruman, et al. But as I got to know him over the years I found him to be quite liberal in his attitude. He was religious but not ritualistic. A couple of years after our family moved to Madras we shifted to Vedachala Gardens. That was sometime in 1964 or 1965. We had the opportunity to interact more with Periya mama's family and got to know mama better. I found that he was very well informed on many subjects. He used to play Bridge regularly and was knowledgeable about other games as well. He had definite views on every matter but did not thrust them on others. Unlike in many households of those times, he was not a father who was feared by his children. His children grew up more like the children of today, independent and not inhibited at all while expressing their views in front of elders. I've never seen Periya mama getting angry with them or admonishing them. But he was nevertheless admired by them and was also widely respected by his relatives and friends. When I was Finance Director in Metrowater, Sampath, Periya mama’s son was Controller of Finance in the same organisation. Sampath was always friendly with everyone and was a very committed and hardworking officer. He was of great help to me when I was there. Periya mama evinced a lot of interest in our work and was keen to know about the functioning of that organisation. We had heard that mama was very much attached to his siblings, Raghavan mama and Rukmani Chithi. My brother-in-law, Shri C. Srinivasan, who had great regard for mama has told me how his family was helped by mama and mami physically and financially when they were going through difficult times. There were other families too who benefited from mama's munificence. The best quality in mama was that he never gave any publicity to these actions. Both mama and mami were very generous and always welcoming. It was mainly because of this that all the relatives were attracted to 25, Vedachala Gardens. In fact we came to know of many relatives like Shri K.Srinivasan (Ramu anna of Delhi) and his brothers and sister, Shri Kittu of Pallakacheri, Periya mami's brothers and sisters etc. only because of their frequent visits to Periya mama's house. My mother's younger sister ( Rukku Chithi ) used to visit Madras once in two years with her children. She used to stay in Periya mama's house as much as she stayed with her brothers and sister mainly because of the warmth and hospitality of mama and mami.. Another quality of mama that comes to mind is his stoicism. He had seen many personal tragedies in his life- the death of his son-in-law at a young age, the death of Sampath's wife and the tragic death of Sampath and his family four weeks later in a building collapse, to mention a few. I had never seen him cry. He bore these losses stoically and carried his grief with utmost dignity. When the news of the building collapse in Calcutta first came, I was working in Secretariat and I tried to get information about the rescue of the persons who had been trapped. It took two or three days to get the news that Sampath and his children (and grandchild) had also perished in the building collapse. It was an agonising wait. Periya mama was hopeful till the end that his son would survive. When the sad news was finally conveyed to him, he was terribly upset but did not show his emotions. The other occasion when I saw him upset and terribly worried was when Radha, his granddaughter, fell sick a couple of years before his death. I was surprised when I saw him one day getting off an autorickshaw in front of our house in Shastri Nagar around seven in the morning accompanied by Vanaja akka, his daughter. The doctor who specialised in the treatment of that illness was known to me and mama wanted me to fix up an appointment immediately with that doctor. He was very fond of Radha and could not bear the sight of her suffering. Although he was 87 or 88 at that time, he took the trouble to come personally all the way for the sake of his beloved granddaughter. I did my little bit and to everyone's relief Radha's problem was diagnosed correctly and she recovered quickly. How I wish Gopalan and Sampath and all the other members of the family were alive today to join the family in paying tributes to mama! I didn't have the privilege of seeing mama as a teacher but I will always remember him as the patriarch who brought and held the extended family together, a generous soul of great compassion and above all a man of dignity. R.Santhanam