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Vanaja Periamma was a person to whom fate in the conventional sense was not very kind. Her travails began when she lost her first child her son Mukund only when he was less than one year old. It seemed as though destiny continued playing its cruel joke when she lost her husband due to severe attack of jaundice and was left all alone to fend for herself and her two daughters Urmila and Radha who were then just 3 years and 1 year old respectively.
Periamma moved to her father’s home at Vendachala Garden in Chennai. This is where all my interaction with her took place and I cherish all my beautiful memories of her which are as fragrant and new in my thoughts like a bouquet of dew fresh flowers.
The image of Periaama that stays in my mind is that of the lady with the weirdest of dressing sense (the petticoat always seemed longer than the border of the saree which was worsen at ankle length) and her hair was tied into a bun. Despite this dress, a captivating smile and friendly eyes behind spectacles gave her a divine serene look and she could befriend anyone with whom she came in contact. Her daughter’s will agree with me thar she knew, interacted and helped almost half of Chennai.
As I had already written, despite the cruel tricks fate had played on her she had a very calm, serene and happy countenance. You could almost sense a kind of greed in her to meet people, make friends and help as many people possible in her own way. She was very popular and highly thought of teacher at the Sharada Vidyalaya Girls School Mambalam. She would reel off the most interesting anecdotes few of which I recall clearly.
Once on bus, she wanted to ask the conductor to stop and instead of saying “Stopping, Hold-on ’’ went on to say “stop talking’’ (a teachers oft repeated sentence) sending all passengers into peels of laughter.
She would also talk about a girl whom she took tuitions free. On the first day of interaction she asked the girl what her marks in English and History were to which the girl replied -‘zero’. Periamma then proceeded with her hour long lecture to her the Earth, its shape, its latitude, longitude etc… At the end of the class to test the girl’s learning she asked her the shape of the earth to which the girl again replied –'Earth is a geero’. Periamma told us with laughter that she felt as though the entire learning experience had traveled a full circle.
Another story that comes to mind is -Periamma used to evaluate board examination papers for class X. Once one of the students who had fared very badly had written a a suicide note in the paper ,which said – “This is my last attempt for passing this examination. Kindly grant me pass marks or else, I will give up my life by jumping into the Trichy teppakulam. My ghost will haunt you for the rest of your life.” Perimma used to laughingly say, 'I was paranoid to pass the Trichy teppakulam.
Periamma also had a deep love for God and religion. She along with Jaya patti and I would visit the Madhava Perumal and Keshava Perumal Kovil at 4 A.M during the entire Tamil month of Margazhi. She was deeply devoted to Saint Ramakrishna and Sharadha Devi and we used to attend the Aarti at the Mylapore Mutt in the evenings. She had named her younger grandson Naren after Vivekananda. She would also attend Bhagavad-Gita classes with Dr.Leelavati. The classes would end in the typical Periamma style where she would take her companion for a treat of a Masala Dosa and Coffee.
Periamma was my mother’s teacher in Coonoor. Time and again Periamma would tell us the story where their quarrel at home that was carried to the classroom. Irritated with my mother for some petty quarrel, Periamma decided that classroom was the place where she could extract “her pound of flesh’’. She asked my mother to stand up and sing a song in front of her class. To this my mother cheerily replied that she would definitely sing but was used to singing only along with her sister, which was none other than Periamma. To this entire class started laughing. Periamma got irritated and sent my mother out of class. The climax to the story was that the Principal was on her rounds. When she saw my mother outside the class she asked her the reason. My mother blurted out the story, which made the Principal also laugh and she asked her to go back into the class. Periamma told me that she would never forget the triumphant look on my mother’s face when she re-entered the class.
As I pause to recollect my thoughts about periamma to go into her last phases of life where she was confined with her room. But there again even with her failing health she ruled over that space almost in a kingdom-like fashion. The room had a cooler, telephone, medicine chest and television. She had the television speaker directly connected to her headphones, so the Ayah looking after her often complained that she had to watch silent movies only. During my last visit to see her I could sense the toll age and ill health was taking on her. Her swollen legs, diabetes and body pain were plaguing her. But this did not deter her from enquiring about the well being of everybody in my family including my in laws.
Periamma being Periamma, the wicked sense of humorous was still evident when she went on to tell of another anectode in her life which I pen down below Her daughter Radha was expecting her first child and her son-in-law Ravi casually remarked to Periamma that he hoped the child would inherit the looks from his side of family as they were definitely better-looking people. Pat came the reply from Periamma which said- 'looks are not important to us, but yes the child must inherit her brains from our side of the family.'
I could go on and on, as several other thoughts crowed my mind. But then its time for me to conclude. I conclude with the beautiful hymn which I always thought described Periamma:-
Vaishnava Janato theyney
kahiyeh, Jeh peeda paravo janarey
Para duke upkar karey thoyeh,
Mana abhimana na aaneyrey.
Which roughly translates as- “They are the people of God, who realise pain of others and to help people in sorrow and need will be present for all those who need them."
Chithra Mukundan (always ‘Sudha’ for periyamma), paternal cousin's daughter
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