My Great Ancestors - II

Saraswathy Paati and her beloved grandson Duraju

Saraswathy Paati is my grandmother, Pattu Paati’s mother. As Pattu was the eldest child of Saraswathy Paati, she got married at an early age to my grandfather, Raja Thatha and my father Durairajan was born to them on September 28, 1933. Though Appa was born in Madras (In my family only Appa and I were born in dear Madras, all my sisters and my mother were born in our hometown Kumbakonam), he spent his early years in Kumbakonam with his dear Paati Saraswathy.

I do not remember this Paati alive as I was just about three years when she passed away (1900-1972) . I can only recall seeing her body in their house in Mint Street, Madras.

Paati was an embodiment of love and affection, she showered so much of love on her eldest grandson (my father) when he grew up there. He was given preferential treatment over her own sons, a couple of them being the same age group as my father.

To this day my father talks about his Paati’s cooking and the variety of food she used to feed him. When any dish made by any of us comes out very tasty, he says “Saraswathy Paati, Saraswathy Paati” meaning, it is as good as what Paati used to make! That is a great compliment in our household because even my Raja Thatha who is a connoisseur of food admits that his mother-in-law was one of the best cooks!

One interesting story my father tells us often is that when he was a kid, Paati gave him a few annas and a vessel (சொம்பு) and asked him to buy oil from a shop two streets away. Appa being a kid spread his hands and ran like an aero plane, bought the oil, ran back home in a flying posture, spilling all the oil. Paati, with all her love for her grandson, did not scold him. Today, I am able to understand the difficulty she would have faced with that loss of money and oil as those were very tough days

When she became old, she used to come and stay in our house for short periods. Our household followed the rule of women eating only after the men and my Thatha used to have his bath, pooja and lunch quite late. Saraswathy Paati used to get hungry by then but had always been too scared that son in law will be angry if she eats before him. My mother used to force her to eat when she was hungry and not wait for my Thatha to have his lunch. Of course, this was followed in our house as a general practice and not because the men will get angry. My Thatha never checked who ate before or after him, he used to go about his activities busily.

Recently a few details my Rajamani Chittappa gave me about the tough time Saraswathy Paati had with her husband (TPK Thatha) made me appreciate her value even more. Hats off to her tolerance!

I wish she had lived for some more years, so that I would have had the chance to meet this great person!

My Great Ancestors

Affectionately referred to as ‘Nayana’ my great grandfather was a remarkable man. His children had begun calling him Nayana (Nayana meaning Father in Telugu) when he had been working in Andhra Pradesh and the name just got stuck and even we, his great grand children and others who knew him refer to him as Nayana. His real name was Kandaswamy. I was about 7 years old when he passed away but I do remember him very well.

In fact the first room where he used to have a cot for himself when he used to come and stay with us in Madras was referred by us as Nayana Room. Nayana had nine children who he called his ‘Nine Gems’. He was justified in calling them Gems as each of his children has come up so well in life. All credit, of course, goes to Nayana who single-handedly brought up his children after he lost his wife when his ninth child (Durai Thatha) was less than two years old. He ensured all his sons were at least a Graduate with some of them being double graduates. He got both his daughters married into good families.

I have heard many stories about Nayana from my parents and grand parents.

He had a twin brother named Venkatraman and a sister Valambal. If fact, the story of how the twins were born, is quite interesting. Nayana’s parents (Vaidyanathan and Lakshmi) got Valambal Athai married very young and she became a child widow (virgin widow). As she was also widowed early in life, Valambal Athai prayed to God that her father’s lineage should continue and because of her prayers her parents had twin sons! The twins were born with a gap of about 24 hours, don’t know how Lakshmi Paati bore the pain for 24 hours! They named their sons Venkatraman (after our Kula Deivam – Thirupathi Venkatramana Swami) and Kandaswamy (after our Ishta Deivam – Thirutani Murugan).

At one stage in life, as they had financial difficulties, I heard that one of the brothers used to go for work and help the other study and then the other way round.

When Nayana sought Rajalakshmi Paati’s hand for marriage, her father asked Nayana, “How will you take care of my daughter?” and Nayana raised both is hands up in the air and answered with pride, “With my two hands.” His father-in-law was impressed as his daughter’s would-be was determined to work hard and take care of his wife. And Nayana did just that. This particular story I have heard from the horse’s mouth. Nayana used to gaze at Rajalakshmi Paati’s photo that we have at home and tell us all that the jewels she was wearing were all bought by him.

Nayana lived up to the ripe age of 92 (1885 – 1976) and I do remember that even during his last trip to Madras for one of his grandsons’ wedding, he was quite strong and used to walk regularly up and down our long balcony. That trip, he was very clear it was his last trip to Madras and even when my mother suggested that he stay back for some more time, he insisted that he will go back to Bombay. He was staying with one of his sons (Pattapa Thatha) in Peddar Road, Bombay. After he passed away, we came to know that he had got his time of death predicted by one of his friends long ago and was ready to move on when the time came!

He was very independent and used to have his money, medicines, soaps and powders separately and in fact used to offer others balms for headaches. Of course, he never forgot to take things back from them after use!

He was strong enough to bear the loss of two of his sons and daughters-in-law in their prime.

The main characteristic he inculcated in his children was honesty in their profession, which all his children followed and still follow! In fact this trait of honesty and hard work has carried down to the next generation, our generation and the next one too!

NOSTALGIA

Paati’s house – Pachaiappa Mudali Street

During this pilgrimage trip, I was very keen to check out my Paati’s house in Kumbakonam – of course, it is not Paati’s house anymore as she sold it long ago. I recall staying in this house on a couple of occasions when I was a kid. Once was during my Babu Mama’s wedding and the next was during his child Anu’s birth. I am able to recollect only some incidents from these trips, but my love for the house and hometown Kumbakonam developed mainly because of my mother’s interesting narrations of her happy childhood days there.

When we reached Kumbakonam during my first trip, I remember travelling by bullock cart from the station - I still cannot forget how I kept on hitting my head on the side of the cart as I did not know how to balance and sit. I hated the journey, though it was quite a short one and had an aversion to bullock carts for a long time after that.

Paati’s house had a fairly big thinnai (porch) in the front, a narrow passage to the main hall with its mitham (open courtyard) and an oonjal (swing) in the hall. There were two rooms on either side of the oonjal, one towards the entrance was used as kitchen and Paati had let out the other room to a family. From the other end of the mitham, there was another passage leading to the backyard. Though the first trip was for my Mama’s wedding, I don’t remember the wedding as such as I was too young then. The second trip was more fun as I was about 8-9 years old and I had my cousins from Bombay for company as they were also there for the occasion. There was a big pond right opposite Paati’s house, and it definitely had water and was clean during my earlier trips, but this recent trip I felt sad to see that it was not a pond anymore but just a junkyard with some shrubs and lot of garbage dumped in it.

Mama took us all to Thanjavur Periya koil (Brahadeeswara Temple). I also remember that we had ilaneer (Tender Coconut) to drink near the temple. I think that was the first time I drank ilaneer in my life. We also visited my mother’s cousin Paaru in Swamimalai. During our stay in Kumbakonam, each night after an early dinner, Mama used to take us (all his nieces and nephews) to Venkata Lodge to have cold rose milk. I really looked forward to those walks to Venkata Lodge to have that drink. Also one evening we had snacks in Venkata Lodge, it is quite different from the hotels nowadays we all sat on the floor and were served tiffin in vazhai ilai (banana leaf).

During my latest trip when I enquired about Venkata Lodge, nobody seemed to know about it, maybe I asked the wrong people.

I used to hang out with my immediate elder sister Sabitha and my cousin Rohini as we are of similar age group and one day I quarrelled with them (rather they quarrelled with me) and the next day morning they took off to Mahamaayi Koil (Amman Koil) without me. I was quite upset when I came to know that they had gone to the temple leaving me behind. But they came back running from the temple as they were scared of the Poojari (Priest). I was quite happy that they had had a bad experience there.
During the recent trip, my mother asked me to visit Mahamaayi Temple if possible. When I checked in Kumbakonam, people didn’t seem to know it as Mahamaayi Temple, but only as Padavettu Mariamman Temple. Unfortunately, I could not find the time to visit the temple.

I remember that we used to have bath drawing water from the well there and Paati used to have some cows in the back yard. I also tasted pachai sundaikkai kootu first time in Paati’s tenant’s house and acquired a taste for it.

The oonjal in the hall used to be my Paati’s favourite place and she used to rest on it immediately after lunch. All of us loved the oonjal as we never had one at our house in Madras. All of us went to the MGR movie Neethiku Thalai Vanangu there. It is one of the very few movies of MGR’s that I don’t like as it does not have a happy ending.

With all these memories, I took an auto to Pachaiappa Mudali Street to check out the house, but alas, I could not recognise the structure as there were 2-3 houses in front of the erstwhile pond, but none resembled my Paati’s house! Finally I came to the conclusion that the house which was converted to an office only should have been my Paati’s house because of the location (the beautiful thinnai was gone) and when I came back to Chennai, I crosschecked with my mother and she confirmed that Paati’s house was indeed converted into an office.

Paati’s house is history now! Sigh…

My visit to Temples - Part III

Thiruvalanchuzhi



Thiruvalanchuzhi -my earlier and first visit to this temple was with my father in 1989 on a rainy November day. That time when I heard the history of how this temple came about I was quite fascinated by it and my fascination is still the same.
When the Devas and Asuras churned the paarkadal for the celestial nectar, (amirtham), they forgot to pray to Pillayar and that is why alahala visham (poison) came out first. Realising this, Lord Indra, made a Pillayar out of the foam of the ocean (கடல் நுரை) and prayed to this Pillayar. He is said to have taken this Pillayar to different places in different Yugas and brought it to the earth in a chariot. Here the Pillayar sannidhi itself is in the shape of a chariot with the wheels half hidden in the ground. As this Pillayar is made out of kadal nurai, it is white in colour, also called Vellai Vinayakar or Shwetha Vinayakar and abhishekam is not performed on this Pillayar.

Once river cauvery flowed into a dwaram and she was brought out by a Rishi and she takes a circular route around this place from the right side - வலஞ்சுழி . Hence the name Thiruvalanchuzhi.

Pillayar sannidhi is in the front and there is quite a big temple behind. The presiding deity is called Karpaga nadeswarar in Linga form and Goddess is called Periayanayaki
The temple was almost deserted when we reached as it was almost closing time. Ucchikala puja was just completed and we could pray at Karapaga nadeswarar sannidhi, but
Goddess Periayanayaki sannidhi was closed and we could see the Goddess from only from outside.
On the side of the prakaram is Ashtabuja Durgai – looking very regal and beautiful. It is said that before each battle Raja Raja Chola – the greatest king of the Chola dynasty used to come and pray to this Durgai and won all his battles.
The archakas forced us out of the main temple as it was closing time and we came back to Pillayar sannidhi. We spent about 10 minutes admiring the work on the pillars there. There are many pillars all over the temple and the work done on these pillars are so intricate.
This is a very small town and we heard that most of the time this temple has very less crowd.

Though it wasn’t a very hot day, we found it was not easy to walk barefoot in the midday sun. We jogged back to the car wondering if we can cover our next temple –Swamimalai when our driver gave us the good news that Swamimalai temple will not close in the afternoon that day as it was Aadi Friday and Aadi krithigai. So we proceeded to Swamimalai.

My visit to Temples - Part II

Patteeswaram

Our car driver was very happy to take us to visit Patteeswaram during rahu kaalam as rahu kaalam is the best time to visit Durgai. Little he knew that we were scared of crowds! This again is a massive temple, quite ancient. The main deity is Lord Shiva – Thenupureeswarar. I have a special love for this Lord as he has come in my dream once!
Goddess is Gnanambikai. Of course Patteeswaram Durgai is quite famous, what a majestic deity. Luckily I had visited this temple at leisure before because this time, we could just have a glimpse of Durgai. We are quite worried that we will lose each other in the crowd until we reached the main temple behind. There must have been atleast 600-700 people near Durgai sannidhi with the queue reaching upto the main temple. We had to satisfy ourselves with just the glimpse and proceeded to the main temple of Gnanambika sametha Thenupureeswarar.

The divine cow Kamadhenu’s daughter, Patti worshipped Thenupureeswarar and hence the name Patteeswaram for this place. Lord Rama also worshipped to Shiva here for dosha nivarthi after defeating Vaali.

Thenupureeswarar sannidhi was calm with only a few people and we could have a great darshan. History also says that when Thirugnanasambandar visited this temple in high summer, Lord Shiva ordered the Siva ganas to hold a muthu pandal (an umbrella like shelter made of pearls) for Thirugnanasambandar for shade. Also Lord Shiva asked Nandi to move aside for Sambandar to have quick and easy darshan. In this sannidhi Nandi is not right in front of Lord Shiva but moved to one side!

The architecture of this temple is grand. I have to mention about the stone chain (a linked chain made out of stone) that hangs from the ceiling.

Gnanmbika looked very beautiful and grace flowed from her eyes. While entering the temple, I had bought lemon malas for Durgai but we offered these malas to Gnanmbika as we could not go near Durgai sannidhi.

Outside the sannidhi of Gnanambika, on the prakaram walls, we could see illustrations of Patti worshipping Shiva and the Thirugnanasambandar episode.

We also had the opportunity of spending some time at the Durgai urchavamoorthy sannidhi where paal abishekam was being done for the urchava Durgai as it was Aadi Friday.

We came out crossing Durgai sannidhi again and had another glimpse of the beautiful Goddess.

We then proceeded to our next temple - Thiruvalanzhui