My father Some are born great, some have achieved greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. My father belongs to the first category. After my father was born Lord Venkateswara Himself came in my grandmother’s dream and said that her child should be named as Srinivasan (His name). That is why I said ‘Some are born great’. He had three sisters and two brothers. My great grandfather’s name was Srinivasaraghavan and so my father’s name was Srinivasan and my Chithappa’s name was Raghavan. My father was calm, serene, patient, helpful and jovial. He got married at the age of 16 when my mother was just 8 years. They led a happy married life for 74 years from 1924 to 1998. Of course they had their tiffs and differences of opinion. But overall it was a happy married life. But they never called each other anything other than Ennaa and Ennannaa. My grandmother wanted my father to become a munsif but my grandfather’s ambition was to see his son become an engineer. But when my father was in Intermediate, he had fever which was first diagnosed as typhoid and later as brain fever and my father was asked to avoid mathematics. So he joined B.A at Annamalai University,Chidambaram. Since my father wanted to be a teacher, he did his L.T in Saidapet Teachers’ Training College. My mother’s father became a Taluk Officer at Chidambaram and my elder sister Pushpa (who died very young), my brother Rajagopalan and I were born there. I had mentioned that my father and mother had had their share of quarrels. The first one was immediately after Gopalan was born. My mother came to Chennai with the new born baby, leaving me at Chidambaram. My uncle Ranganathan accompanied my mother. My father went to Egmore station to receive them and asked them about me. My mother replied that since she could not manage 2 kids, she had left me at Chidambaram with my grandmother. As my father was very fond of me, he left the place immediately leaving my mother, uncle and baby there. My mother and uncle waited for a long time and then reached home with difficulty. Both my uncle and my mother chided my father for his inconsiderate behaviour. From 1930 when my parents first came to Madras till 1998 when my father died, he had lived only in four houses. The first was Sakthi Vilas in Brodies Road (now R.K.Mutt road) where my parents shared the accommodation with my Athai and Athimber. My Athimber (C.S.Krishnaswami) was a Mathematics teacher in P.S.High School. The second house was in Nageswarapuram. Though the landlady of this house was short-tempered, I was told by my father that they had never quarreled. When we moved to Agrharam (now known as Vedachala Gardens), the landlady wept and said that she had not seen anyone like my parents. Her daughter Jayamani was of my age. My mother was a very good cook and she used to give Jayamani whatever she prepared. She used to learn music and dance and though my father was a teacher with meager income, he arranged for my dance and music classes as I wanted it. The third house was at 25, Vedachala Gardens and the last was at 12, Vedachala Gardens. From my childhood till my retirement, my father helped me, first in my studies and later in my teaching. He would dictate essays and questions-answers for my use in classes. He was very good at English and History and I followed in his footprints and became a teacher in English and History. We shared similar career also. My father couldn’t become even Assistant Headmaster as he joined P.S.High School late. Something similar happened in my case also because of the break of service when I went to New Delhi after marriage. So both of us retired only as teachers. The only area where my father was fussy was in his food habits. He used to have lunch in the morning and tiffin in the afternoon. He was a man of taste and fond of oily things. He was very fond of Thavaladai which would be soaked with oil. If anyone offers morkkali with less oil, he would say ‘Kattikku mavu kilariyadupola irukku – Looks like it is prepared for applying on boils)’. My father was a good cook and he had the training from his Athai (known as Padur athai). But my mother would never accept that he was a good cook and would always refer to the only aberration in my father’s cooking. My mother used to keep all the flours in similar containers and when she had gone out my father wanted to prepare Bajji and my cousin Janaakka gave the container with Seehaikkai powder instead of the gram flour. And naturally, the product turned out very bitter and later my mother scolded my father for wasting oil and vegetables and good seegakkai powder. My father was fond of diplomatic lies. He used to get vegetables from the Mandaveli market. He would have paid 5 rupees, but when asked how much he paid, his answer would be 3 rupees. The vendor told him the next day that she had a tough time in driving away the people who wanted the vegetable for 3 rupees and would request him not to under quote the amount. There was a tradition in P.S.High School that if the bell was rung for more than a minute (long bell as it was called), it indicated the end of classes. When this happened once, the students asked him the reason. He jokingly (but with a serious face) said,”Mara Naai kutti pottirukku - Wooden dog has given birth to a small one”. The students were curious to see the wonder-dog! After we moved to 12. Vedachala Gardens, Sampath stayed in the first storey for a few years. Later we had tenants occupying the first floor. All the tenants of our house were very nice but occasionally they quarreled. One lady was not happy with the house and often fought with her husband at the top of her voice for getting such a house. Though my father kept quiet for sometime, one day he was sitting in his usual place – the easy-chair in the front verandah near the staircase (the verandah itself was called gate by us). When the usual quarrel between the lady and her husband was over, he said aloud ,”Bharthavukketha padhiviradhai undanal serndhu vazhalam. Sartrenum erumaraga nadappaleyanal kooramal sanyasam kol” – If the wife acts as a true follower of the husband live with her. Otherwise renounce the world without hesitation) Hearing this quotation, the tenant was annoyed. Then my father told her that if she wanted a bigger house she could vacate the house immediately. She never quarreled with her husband again on this issue though the husband got the scolding for other reasons. Another tenant was a nice lady but was very fussy about the surgery that she had undertaken. One day we all had gone for a marriage and my Chittappa came home and rang the doorbell and this lady said she could not come down and open the door because of her surgery. Actually my Chittappa wanted to use the loo but went back as the door was not opened. When he told this to my father he was annoyed and asked the lady whether she was going to the doctor by helicopter? I had mentioned earlier about my athai and athimber (Rajalakshmi & C.S.Krishnaswamy). Their children were very fond of my parents. Ramu Anna (Srinivasan) was the eldest. He joined Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) and helped me a lot during my stay in Delhi after my marriage. Ramu anna was very fond of uppappam prepared by my mother. Whenever he came to Madras, my mother would make it for him. His brother Chinnappa was around my age. He was studying in my father’s class in class X (it used to be called V form). Once he called my father mama in the class. The mischievous students started shouting mama, mama. My father stopped the lesson and started counting his fingers. After a few minutes one boy stood up and asked him the reason for his counting. My father replied,”Marumane - dear nephew), I am chanting Rama which will take me to heaven. You are chanting mama, I don’t know where it will take you”. My eldest athai (Singaravalli) died very young. Her children were also very fond of our parents. Her second son was Mettur Ramu anna. We had all attended the Sudharsana Homam and Navagraha Homam in his house and stayed there for 10 days. He had taken my parents in his car to Srirangam to attend the wedding of Urmila (my cousin’s daughter and Ramu Anna’s sister’s daughter). He had also taken us to Maduranthakam and Guruvayur. He was a frequent visitor of our house. His brother Gopu Anna had married my mother’s sister, Pankajam chithi and they also lived in Vedachala Gardens. My parents used to help them at the time of need and chithi also helped my mother a lot in the household duties. Ramu Anna’s sister, Jayaakka (my brother Parthasarathy’s mother-in-law) and her family lived in the same colony. Appa and Jayaakka had many things in common especially in helping people. In P.S.High School. nick names were very common for teachers. The then Headmaster who was living in our colony at No. 9 never used to smile and so he was named ‘castor-oil’. Father’s friend,V.S.Veeraraghavan , who used to wear kurtha and resembled Md. Ali Jinnah was called ‘jinnah’. My father was called ‘Thel kodukku’ as he had a small tuft (kudumi). In our house in 25,Vedachala Gardens, snakes used to come and once a big one came. With the help of gardener Kandasamy, my chithappa killed it. My father came after the snake was killed, inspected the body and told them that it was a snake. Gopu anna commented ‘Mama is a Columbus. He discovered it to be a snake”. All including my father had a hearty laugh. Father was agreeable to work with V.S.Veeraraghavan in writing The Story Of Our World for Orient Longmans. Since my father’s handwriting was very good the whole book was written by him as Veeraraghavan’s handwriting was illegible. But the remuneration was equally shared. This book was prescribed in almost all schools of T.Nagar. My friend Lalithakumari was the English medium teacher for social studies. One day she said “Evandhan indha book ezhudhinanoh? Pallai udaikkum English – I don’t know who wrote this book in such tough English)” Another friend of mine told her that it was Vanaja’s father. Immediately she said” What wonderful expression , fine language and very well written. Please don’t tell your father”. But being a joke I told my father and he too laughed. My father had been to both Nagpur and Bangalore where my brother Gopalan was posted. When my brother retired from service and came to Chennai and bought a house at Adyar, my father read Ramayanam during the housewarming ceremony. My parents had also been to Nagpur and Calcutta where my brother Sampath was posted. My brother Parthasarathy was posted at Solapur, Vijayawada, Secunderabad, Chittaranjan, Kota, Baroda and Bombay. Though my mother had been to all these places, my father could not visit Vijayawada and Kota. He had gone to all the other places. Whenever I used to visit my daughter Urmila (places like Pune,Batinda and Meerut),my parents would stay in my brother Raghu’s place at Ambattur. My father taught Economics to Kalyani during her M.A. She too is a teacher like me and my father. Due to forgetfulness, I am not able to narrate all incidents about my father. Let us all celebrate his birth centenary in a fitting manner sharing our thoughts with family, relatives and friends. I am sure that he will be blessing all of us from his heavenly abode. J.Vanaja