This is the fourth and concluding part of the article The Early Days by Kannan (Narasimhan), my brother-in-law which was published in December 2003 Newsletter- Parthasarathy (Editor)

Pollachi, a major town of Coimbatore District, which is also located in close proximity to Coimbatore city, is an enchanting place in Western Tamil Nadu. It is made popular these days by cine folks who throng the town for shooting various films. Its nearness to Kerala State and its flora and fauna have attracted a sizeable population of Malayalis. There are also Kannadigas and people of Saurashtra origin from Madurai and Thanjavur thrown in here and there. Thus, it has a cosmopolitan look.

When my father was transferred to that town in early 1956, we knew very little about that place. I had to be in Madras to join Loyola College for my B.Sc., (Hons.) course in Chemistry and hence my dad moved into Pollachi with my mother and six other children. Hema was born in Pollachi. Tamil Nadu had only 2 varsities at that time in Madras and Chidambaram. The course that I liked the most, B.Sc., (Hons.) Chemistry, was taught only in two colleges in Madras. Both had 12 seats each and thus only 24 of the nearly 2 lakh students could join this course! Loyola gave preference to Christian students. I could get admission with great difficulty. A letter from Fr. Ehrahit, who was my Principal in St. Joseph’s College, Trichy to his counterpart in Loyola, helped me in securing a seat. I had to consider it as a feat!.

I loved the life in Loyola and also the occasional weekends that I spent with our relatives. Peria Mama (the father of the editor of this magazine and now my brother-in-law, Parthasarathy) provided the forum for the get together of all the children from his house, Chinna Mama’s house (Sridhar & his brothers), uncle Gopu’s house (Vasu & his brothers) and Kannan alias Srinivasan (my sister Chooda’s husband). In fact we were three Kannans at that time being called athaiaathu Kannan, Pollachi Kannan and Chinna Kannan (my uncle Seema mama’s son). Without going to Pollachi even once,(for I came from Thanjavur and joined Loyola), I had become Pollachi Kannan (because my family lived there). That name stuck to me even when I became a lecturer and continued until I joined the Indian Postal Service in 1963. But even now quite a few relatives refer to me as Pollachi Kannan.

I first visited Pollachi during my quarterly vacation in the first year in Loyola College. My father had sent his orderly, Sri Arumugam to the Railway Station, as he had to go elsewhere on official work. He introduced himself and took my luggage. When I told him that the train was more than three hours late, he said ‘Saringa’. When I mentioned that I could not have any breakfast and even a cup of good coffee he said ‘Saringa’ again! Such a reply annoyed me much and I did not exchange any conversation with him after that. Only later, could I know that ‘Saringa’ is a way of asking ‘Is sit so?’ for the people of Pollachi. They even address children with a lot respect. For an average Madras person, who is often used to abusive language on the streets outside his house, Pollachi was a refreshing contrast.

A major hydro-electric project conceived jointly by Tamil Nadu and Kerala Governments known as Parambikulam-Aliyar Project, had just commended at that time. Many engineers and workers had to be given houses for carrying on this work. My father who had to plan new post offices in that area had to visit Valparai, Aliyar and Top slip in that connection. The road to Valparai had too many hairpin bends and it was also not properly laid. He had to travel in rickety buses on sub-standard roads and he dreaded the thought of going there even for a day. Added to that there were many leeches in Valparai and every time he used to return after donating considerable quantity of blood to them. He used to call these places “hell on earth”. When the project was completed after constructing a dams in both the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, then then Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru came down to both the states to inaugurate the dams. On his way to Valparai and Aliyar, in Pollachi he rested for a few hours in the Sub Collector’s Bungalow. Jagan , my son, who is the present occupant of the bungalow told me and Rajeevi that the room in which we were staying was a place occupied by Panditji during his trip. We were thus twice blessed in that comfortable room.

We visited both Valparai and Top slip. Good roads have now been laid and the journey was not at all arduous. Jagan had arranged a costly accommodation with good food to top it on top of the hill,. As we saw huge clouds floating around the hills. We actually felt as if we were in Ooty or Kodai. Valparai is full of tea estates. It was such a pleasant experience for us to wade through miles and miles of them. It was as though a huge green carpet had been laid out to welcome the visitors. We visited one of the tea estates run on modern technology. Many operations performed therein are being done by computers instead of men. The workforce, by this process, is said to have been brought down to one-tenth of what it was! Still it is sad to hear that the tea industry, which is controlled by the international market, is running on loss. They are just carrying on hoping for a rosy day ahead.

In Top-slip, another hilly place, close to Pollachi, there is a sanatorium for lodging elephants run by the Forest Department. When we visited that place, there were 20 elephants on their rolls. They are treated like Govt. employees with a service book for each elephant recording its name, age, weight, health particulars and job details, but they are expected to work as long as they are in service. They are retired on superannuation and given pension, without giving them any work. Special food is cooked for them, consisting of dhal, jaggery, herbs and vitamins. While the food is steaming hot, it is poured into a block, which moulds it into balls of 1 kg. each. Every elephant is fed these huge sweet dhal balls. We could also see the elephants being bathed in the stream flowing nearby. The mahouts rub their bodies, scratch their skins and pour buckets of water on them. They enjoy this bath immensely lying down in the stream. Whenever the mahout wants them to turn their bodies, they do so willingly, and love to spend more time in water. The mahouts also take care of their bath as if a mother does to her child. The mahouts invited me and Rajeevi to feed the elephant. It was nice to see them open their mouth widely for that ball of dhal. It was really a pleasant experience. On hearing mahout's instruction they raise their trunk and salute us. They have learnt to follow more than 20 instructions given by the mahout. They do hard physical work lifting huge logs of wood, transporting them from place to place and filing them neatly. We really cherish the memory of our visit to the elephant camp.

Pollachi and its surrounding villages now face the music of tackling rogue elephants. Jagan told me that they are intelligent enough to identify the ration shops storing rice, sugar etc., break the doors of the shops and devour the stocks of their liking.

A memorable experience for me was my visit to the house in Ramakrishnapuram which we all had occupied 43 yearsago. I was surprised to see the owner of the house, an old lady of 83 years calling me by my name, and naming each one of my sisters Chooda, Rukku, Pushpa & Amritha and wanting to know as to how they are doing and how my mother's health is after my father's demise. She particularly asked about the child born there, Hema, and what job she is doing now. Santhanam, my brother, had met them a few years back during one of his official tours to Pollachi and all of them including Rajakutty and his cousin recalled his visit very fondly. The landlady had put up one more floor on our house and a Doctor had occupied it. The Ground Floor was vacant on the day of our visit. It had been nicely painted and colour-washed and was in very good condition. It is close to the municipal girls' high school in which my sisters studied and Samathur Rama Iyengar Municipal School in which Santhanam was a student. I also visited the library which I frequented during my vacations in those days and borrowed some books for study.

While at Pollachi my sisters Chooda and Rukku were preparing for Hindi Prachar Sabha's examinations and a teacher used to come to our house and teach them. My father was running his Inspector's office in the house and he used to stack a lot of letter boxes on one side for supply to the villages nearby. On the other side, he had arranged the office files in a rack. The teacher used to sit in between them on a steel chair with 2 wooden planks glued to it as its seat! The teacher had a habit of socking his legs continuously, and often, got punched by the chair at his bottom wherever he gave a cry 'hainnn…. Sirikkappadathu' (don't laugh). That used to bring more giggles from my sisters. There was a type-writing Institute, two houses away from our house, (which was still there during my recent visit) in which Chooda, Rukku and Pushpa learnt typing and passed the higher grade examination.

Both my sisters Chooda and Rukku stood first in the school and won gold medals in their SSLC examination. When Pushpa was due for her SSLC, my father was transferred out of Pollachi. Unfortunately, Pushpa missed that medal. Though she got very good marks in her SSLC in Kancheepuram, that school did not provide any medal.

My sister Chooda got a temporary job in the office was compiling 1961 census figures. Thus she started earning even when I was in the college in my final year. Raghu, as a child was having serious liver problem. When he had fever coupled with it, my father took him to our family Physician Dr.Mummoorthy. He was a stockily built, genial doctor. He joked with Raghu for sometime to divert his attention and gave him an injection. Raghu least liked it and later we found him, sitting on the thresholds, touching the spot in his hand on which he was injected in self-pity, and saying தடியன் என்னமா குத்திப்புட்டான் (Thadian ennamma kuthiputtan).

There was a group of about a dozen children around our house of the age group of Santhanam, Amritha & Raghu. Santhanam was the leader of that group. They all used to stage dramas in the afternoon especially when my mother was having her nap. The dialogues and the play were scripted by Santhanam. They did not like us to witness their dramas, but yet we used to follow their activities. In one drama, Rajakkutty the neighbour's son who was assigned the role of a soldier, had dozed off in the hot sun when Santhanam, as the king, found the soldier in a map, he changed the dialogue as என்ன சேவகா, அதற்குள் தூங்கி விட்டாயா? (Enna Sevaga, atharkul thoongi vittaya?). We used to enjoy such hilarious moments.

I used to go to the famous 'Pollachi Sandhai' whenever I was there. It was a Thursday market where things were very cheap. I remember having bought one 'pattinam padi' (big cylindrical measure equal to about 2 kgs) of potato or onion for two annas (12 paise). It was pitiable to see that 'Sandhai' being reduced to a two- row affair during my recent visit. A major portion of that area is being used to park lorries!

I completed my college education in 1959 when I was 20 years old. I got a job as a lecturer in an Engineering Institution in Perianaickenpalayam near Coimbatore. I took that job because of its closeness to Pollachi. I was visiting my parents during every week-end. My college had a good collection of Tamil fiction and I was able to satisfy the appetite of my mother and sisters for good Tamil books of eminent authors.

In Pollachi we used to visit two temples nearby, the Krishnan temple and the Kari Varadan temple. Amritha in one of her articles, had mentioned about the 'payasam' that they used to get in tumblers as 'prasadam'. Now I see an upswing in the 'bhakti cult' in and around Pollachi. They are two huge Balaji temples, one near Valparai and another near Mettupalayam already referred as 'Then Tirupathi (south Tirupathi)'. Special buses are run to this place from Coimbatore. Just a in Tirumala, devotees are given Laddus, Puliyodarai or Pongal when they come out after darshan. In Coimbatore, a beautiful Mahalakshmi temple on the model of Bombay Mahalakshmi temple has been built. It is being kept scrupulously neat and clean. There is an ashram at Aliyar close to Pollachi in which Yoga, Medidation and Asanas are tought and it is a spiritual refuge for those in mental turmoil. Sri N. Mahalingam, a leading industrialist of Pollachi is its patron.

Mr.Mahalingam, who recently had his 'Sathabishekam' (80th birthday) was a much respected person even in 50's when we were there. An agriculturist by birth, he was an entrepreneur par excellence. A pragmatic planner, a visionary with a mission, an educationist with dedication and an intellectual, he has contributed a lot to the advancement of Pollachi and Coimbatore District. He was in politics for sometime, but he has since retired from active politics. He has now taken up to social reformation and spiritualistic pursuits. The philanthropic and charitable works initiated by him have percolated to many levels. (Editor's note: Shri Mahalingam was also actively involved in the Khadi & Village Industries Movement and is a true Gandhian)

We left Pollachi in 1960 as my father had completed his tenure of four years there. The next destination Kancheepuram was closer to our native place but still we missed Pollachi a great lot. My son's posting as Sub-Collector to that same place really helped me to recall nostalgically the bright days that we spent there.

So long....

R.Narasimhan
December 2003